Kurdish people

Those who think the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will withdraw from armed struggle before the Kurdish people live in a “free and democratic” society are “dreamers,” a founding member of the organization has said, amid a fresh push from the government to revive the stalled peace process.

The Iraqi Kurdish regional authoritiy warns oil companies against buying Iraqi oil, calling the move complicit as the Baghdad government has not been paying its share of revenue from sales Iraqi Kurdistan has threatened to take legal action against buyers of the country’s oil unless the autonomous region is paid its share of revenue from any sales.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is set to amend a controversial article of its latest Kurdish reform bill, which has been widely criticized as it could be exploited for illegitimate or illegal activities operated or coordinated by public servants.

Not more than five years ago, Selahattin Demirtaş was only a name familiar among human rights circles in Turkey. As a young lawyer, he assumed leadership of Turkey’s Human Rights Association’s (İHD) Diyarbakır branch in 2006. Then, after joining the Kurdish problem-focused Peace and Democracy Party (PKK), Demirtaş was elected as its co-chairman in 2010.

On June 30, after taking control of various cities in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now known as the Islamic State (IS), declared an Islamic state and proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the Caliph of this new state. This is a new phase in the Iraqi conundrum.

The government has defended the bill it has initiated with the intention of advancing the stalled peace process with the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), claiming it is a “framework law,” amid debate among the opposition parties over its matter.

Selahattin Demirtaş, the presidential candidate of the Kurdish and leftist bloc, the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP), has dismissed claims that he will negotiate with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to back Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the second round of the polls.

Prosecutors have opened a lawsuit against former Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir on charges of insulting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, demanding two years in jail.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani says Turkey is unlikely to oppose the declaration of an independent Kurdish state, while praising the bilateral ties that Arbil and Ankara have forged over the past decade

A giant petroleum refining tower that was dispatched from Dubai to Turkey’s İskenderun port is now being transferred to northern Iraq using “millipede trucks.”