Kurdistan

When compared to the enormous oil and gas Reich that is Iraq, $8 million is almost nothing, but it has historical meaning for the Kurds in Iraq.

It is the amount of the share of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) out of some $95 million that was sold over Turkey without the consent of the central Nouri al-Maliki government in Baghdad.

As threats mount to the security of both sides, the leaders of Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan region gathered in Ankara on July 14, with the agenda dominated by the search for a solution to the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) financial crisis due to escalating political and security threats.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader and presidential hopeful Selahattin Demirtaş has dismissed armed struggle as an option, vowing to continue exerting efforts to reach permanent peace in the country.

The remaining two arrested people in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trial were released July 11 by a Diyarbakır court, as the hearings will continue.

The same court in the southeastern province had released 30 of the 32 arrested suspects in the main case against the KCK, the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

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.

Northern Iraq, one of the most oil-rich regions in the world, faces a fuel shortage after militants from the Islamic State (IS), formally known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), overran large parts of the country, including a key refinery.

A Diyarbakır court has released 30 of the 32 arrested suspects in the main case against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Greek counterterrorism officers believe a rights committee for Kurds based in Exarchia, central Athens, has been a cover for the outlawed leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C), Kathimerini has learned.

Three Turks believed to be DHKP-C members were arrested in Exarchia on Friday and are to face a court on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos this Friday.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled the rights of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were violated when his books were seized and their publishing prohibited.