The Independent is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition.
Human rights in post-invasion Iraq have been the subject of concerns and controversies since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Concerns have been expressed about conduct by insurgents, the U.S.-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government. The U.S. is investigating several allegations of violations of international and internal standards of conduct in isolated incidents by its own forces and contractors. The UK is also conducting investigations of alleged human rights abuses by its forces. War crime tribunals and criminal prosecution of the numerous crimes by insurgents are likely years away. In late February 2009, the U.S. State Department released a report on the human rights situation in Iraq, looking back on the prior year (2008).
Sulaymaniyah, also called Slemani, is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, Goizha and Qaiwan Mountains in the northeast, Baranan Mountain in the south and the Tasluja Hills in the west. The city has a semi-arid climate with very hot dry summers and cold wet winters.
The Anfal campaign, also known as the Anfal genocide or the Kurdish genocide, was a genocidal counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq and killed between 50,000 and 182,000 Kurds in the late 1980s. The Iraqi forces were led by Ali Hassan al-Majid, on the orders of President Saddam Hussein, against Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq during the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign's purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups as well as to Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate.
Dr. Rebwar Fatah is a contemporary Kurdish writer and journalist. He runs the Kurdish news and commentary web site KurdishMedia.com. He is one of the influential Kurdish advocates in the Diaspora. His ideas and proposals have been influential in the understanding of the Middle East, in particular Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey and equally important in influencing the West’s foreign policy on the Middle East.
Kajal Ahmad is a contemporary Kurdish poet and journalist, known for the show Dijebaw on Kurdsat. She started writing poetry in 1987.
Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Duhok, Erbil, Halabja, and Sulaymaniyah and bordering Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The Kurdistan Region encompasses most of Iraqi Kurdistan but excludes the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad since 1992 when autonomy was realized. The Kurdistan Region Parliament is situated in Erbil, but the constitution of the Kurdistan Region declares the disputed city of Kirkuk to be the capital of the Kurdistan Region. When the Iraqi Army withdrew from most of the disputed areas in mid-2014 because of the ISIL offensive in Northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga entered the areas and held control there until Iraq retook the areas in October 2017.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK, is a Kurdish leftist anti-Islamic Republic of Iran armed militant group. It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian regime, seeking self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran (also known as "Eastern Kurdistan" or "Rojhelat".
Ahmad Hardi was a prominent Kurdish poet.
The mass media in Iraq includes print, radio, television, and online services. Iraq became the first Arab country to broadcast from a TV station, in 1954. As of 2020, more than 100 radio stations and 150 television stations were broadcasting to Iraq in Arabic, English, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Neo-Aramaic.
Aswat al-Iraq is an independent national news agency in Iraq, established in 2004. Funded by the United Nations Development Program, and with assistance from the Reuters Foundation and Internews, it produces over 60 stories a day in Arabic, some 20 to 25 in English and 15 to 20 in the Sorani dialect of Kurdish. All stories are published on the agency's website. Aswat al-Iraq means 'Voices of Iraq' in English.
Fatma Kurtulan is a Turkish Kurd politician of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey.
Awena is a weekly independent Kurdish newspaper, published every Tuesday in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan.
Özgür Gündem was an Istanbul-based daily Turkish language newspaper, mainly read by Kurds. Launched in May 1992, the newspaper was known for its extensive reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, and was regularly accused of making propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Its editors and staff have frequently been arrested and prosecuted, which resulted in multiple publication bans. Since April 1994, the publication continued under different names until Özgür Gündem was relaunched in 2011.
The 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran erupted in mid-March 1979, some two months after the completion of the Iranian Revolution. It subsequently became the largest among the nationwide uprisings in Iran against the new state and one of the most intense Kurdish rebellions in modern Iran. Initially, Kurdish movements were trying to align with the new government of Iran, seeking to emphasize their Muslim identity and seek common ground with other Iranians. The KDPI even briefly branded itself as a non-separatist organization, allegedly criticizing those calling for independence, but nevertheless calling for political autonomy. However, following a number of attacks on Iranian army barracks in Kurdistan province by militant groups, relations between some Kurdish organizations and the Iranian government quickly deteriorated, and although Shi'a Kurds and some Sunni tribal leaders turned towards the new Shi'a Islamic State, Sunni Kurdish leftists and communists continued the nationalist project in their enclave in Kurdistan Province.
Hiwa Osman is an Iraqi Kurdish journalist and commentator. He served as media advisor to President Jalal Talabani between 2005 & 2008. He is a leading commentator and analyst on the politics and media of Kurdistan and Iraq. He is often quoted by the media about Iraq and Kurdistan. He runs the blog Thoughts from Iraq. His writings are also published in Arabic in the respected Baghdad-based newspaper Alaalem.
Human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan refer to the human rights issue in the autonomous area of Kurdistan Region.
Kurdistan 24 (K24) is a Kurdish broadcast news station based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, with foreign bureaus in Washington, DC The service was launched on October 31, 2015, with television programs being broadcast in the Sorani and Kurmanji dialects of Kurdish, as well as in English and Turkish. The station is owned by the Kurdistan24 for Media and Research. Noreldin Waisy is the founder and former General Manager of Kurdistan 24.
Noreldin Waisy,, is an Kurdish political analyst and journalist. He helped found the Kurdish media broadcasting outlets Rudaw and Kurdistan 24. He served as the general manager of Kurdistan 24, based in the Kurdistan's capital Erbil, from 2015 to 2019. Waisy currently serves as the press secretary to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
