Salahddin, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRP.org) – Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani today met with members of the Iraqi parliament from Kurdistan in Salahaddin.

In today’s meeting, the latest political developments in Iraq, KRG’s oil policy, and relations between Erbil and Baghdad were discussed, particularly the points of dispute between the two sides which have led to the current crisis between the two.

The participants of the meeting considered Iraqi government’s decision to withhold KRG’s share of the budget, including the salaries of KRG employees, as illegal and as mixing the welfare of people with political disputes. 
Heads of the parliamentary lists from Kurdistan also briefed the President about the latest on the draft 2014 budget for Iraq. The participants unanimously agreed that the draft law was passed in the Iraqi council of ministers disregarding the principle of power-sharing. In addition, this draft contains many violations of the Iraqi Constitution and is full of threats against the Kurdistan Region. 

The participants of today’s meeting unanimously expressed their opposition to this draft bill to be put to a vote in the Iraqi parliament, until all necessary amendments proposed by Kurdistan lists have been made.
The meeting requested that Article One of the draft law be amended and that all sections of the draft containing threats against the Region be removed. 

Salahddin, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRP.org) – On the anniversary of the chemical bombardment of the town of Halabja, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani today, the 16th March 2014, signed a regional directive to promote Halabja from district status to a province.

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq – (KRG.org) – The South Korean Ambassador to Iraq, Mr. Heyon Meyong Kim, arrived in the Kurdistan Region to pay farewell visits to KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and a number of senior KRG officials as his tenure in Iraq comes to an end. In addition to his meetings he also attended the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani Forum and the ceremony at Erbil Airport where the remains of 93 Barzanis who died during the Anfal campaign were returned to Kurdistan.

Prime Minister Barzani welcomed the Ambassador and expressed his appreciation on behalf of the government and people of Kurdistan towards the Republic of Korea for its assistance to the region throughout the past decade. The Zaytun Division, a contingent from the Korean Army, was deployed to Kurdistan from September 2004 until December 2008, contributing to reconstruction projects for the people of the Region. Prime Minister Barzani also pointed to the actions of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Kurdistan. Both Korean entities played a crucial role in establishing a strong foundation for mutual relations which continue to progress. The Prime Minister said, "We want to benefit from the successful experience of Korea, particularly in the fields of science and technology, education and human capacity development."

For his part, the Korean Ambassador praised the role of the KRG and political leadership in maintaining stability and security, a key factor in Kurdistan’s progress and prosperity. The Ambassador pointed out that during his two-year tenure as Ambassador to Iraq he has had the opportunity to learn about the history of the Kurdish people and the tragedies that they have experienced. Prior to his departure the Korean Ambassador attended a ceremony where the remains of 93 Barzanis who lost their lives during the Anfal campaign were returned to Kurdistan to be reburied in Barzan. The Ambassador stated how moved he had been at seeing the victims of the former regime’s genocidal crimes firsthand.

Later during the same day, the Korean Ambassador met with Minister Falah Mustafa at the Department of Foreign Relations along with the Assistant Head of the Department, Ms Siham Jabali. The two parties discussed the many similarities that the people of Kurdistan and Korea share. In discussing the tragic past, Minister Mustafa said, “We have come a long way but we are still facing many challenges and we can learn lessons from your experience and your history.” He went on to say that “the character of Kurdistan is based upon a culture of hope and optimism."

South Korea and Kurdistan have established robust channels for collaboration through cultural and educational exchange programs and the continuity of capacity building programs managed by KOICA in Kurdistan. Ambassador Meyong Kim informed Minister Mustafa of future programs initiated by the Korean Institute for Development Strategy (KDS), a Korean think-tank and consultancy specializing in international economic development, who plan to work with the KRG Ministry of Planning. 

Ambassador Kim will be returning to Seoul to resume work at the Korean Foreign Ministry in order to prepare for his next posting as the Consul General in Los Angeles in the near future.

Stephen Bleach - Published: 9 March 2014

The Sunday Times

As tourism slogans go, "Come to sunny Iraq!" is problematic, but Britain's biggest adventure travel company is inviting you to do just that. Well, to come to part of Iraq, anyway. New group tours from Explore avoid the violence-torn south and stick to Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous northern region that's been relatively peaceful for 10 years now. Even the cautious Foreign and Commonwealth Office has given it the all-clear.

So, does Iraqi Kurdistan have much to offer, beyond the undeniable frisson of a destination where the first road sign from the airport points to Baghdad?

First impressions aren't great. The flash new airport at Erbil is served by direct flights from several European cities, so no nerve-jangling touchdowns in Iraq proper -- but, cashed up by an oil boom, the Kurds are busily covering their capital with buildings of outstanding hideousness. The citadel has a claim to be the oldest inhabited town on earth (8,000 years, give or take), but endless restoration work means it's mostly closed.

Fortunately, they've repaired the roads too, so it's easy to move on to the countryside, where things improve immeasurably. The Iraq we know from news footage is a dusty, barren place, but as we head east in a minivan, a very different landscape opens up. Go before June, and the lowlands are painted an intense green by spring grass; further on, snow-capped mountains rear up and wildflowers dot the meadows of the valley floor.

The place is relaxed and safe, so you can stop, stroll and picnic where you like. Be ready to drink a lot of tea, though. Perhaps because western travellers are so rare -- outside Erbil, I didn't see a single one -- the hospitality is overwhelming.

Local students invite me to join their picnic -- a few yards from the minefield We pull up in a remote village in the Zhilwan mountains and are instantly invited into a home for chai and nibbles. Zuhri Rachid has an infectious laugh, seven daughters, one son, two cows, an unknown number of chickens and one hell of a view over the peaks from her parlour. The children show us round the house: animals below, people on the first floor, mud roof above.

We sit cross-legged and chat over chai and bowls of nuts. She is happy, she says -- apart from one thing. The neighbours look down on traditional stone houses like hers, but her husband won't build a more prestigious concrete one.

"We are poor, and it's too expensive," says Sadiq Ibrahim. "Stop nagging, or I'll get another wife."

"You couldn't get another wife," says Zuhri, "because nobody will marry you unless you build a concrete house!"

Their bantering good humour is all the more striking given their past. During Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s, their village was repeatedly bombed and gassed. "We fled to Iran," says Zuhri, suddenly sombre. "It took three days, walking over the mountains. It was winter, so cold, and I had my baby on my back." And then, in a flash, the smile is back, the teapot is proffered and we're talking about the price of sheep.

Everyone you meet has a story like this -- and you meet a lot of people. Staying in three different towns, and visiting buckets of sights in eight days, the tour is just short of whistle-stop. It takes in Sulaymaniyah, the laid-back, arty second city, where intellectuals sip tea in chaikhanas, discuss literature and folklore -- and tell tales of the Amna Suraka, or red building, the torture centre on the outskirts of town used by Saddam's secret police. You can look round the ugly, nondescript compound if you want to. Inside, things happened that are by some measure worse than I'd ever imagined.

The tour zips up to beauty spots in the north, and the shrines of religious minorities: the ancient Christian monastery at Alqosh, on crags overlooking the Biblical plains of Nineveh -- once shelled by Saddam's forces, who believed it was a hideout for Kurdish guerillas; and fascinating Lalish, world centre of the Yazidi religion, where local students invited me to join their picnic, a few yards from the minefield laid by Saddam's troops.

By the bye, one of the boons of historic sites here is that you won't have to endure a bored guide running through a list of facts. That's because there aren't any trained guides and there aren't any established facts. What guides exist cut their teeth working as translators for the American military, who were less interested in the date a monument was built than in how many insurgents might be hiding behind it. And in any case, Kurdistan's wealth of archeology is woefully poorly researched. You have to soak up the air of antiquity and fill in the blanks yourself. It's sightseeing as a creative process.

The most poignant stop is Halabja, a little country town sitting in a beautiful, mountain-fringed valley. It's a thriving place: in the market, butchers' shops are festooned with obscure animal parts, greengrocers' stalls burst with fruit and throngs of maty locals, clad in the billowing Kurdish sharwal trousers, chat in the sunshine. Everyone offers tea. Many want to practise their English, which elsewhere is code for "rope you into an elaborate con", but here means just what it says. There is no hassle. Nobody even tried to sell me anything. They're just too polite.

Friendly, scenic, lively... you'd like the place. It's hard not to. But if the name seems familiar, it's because Halabja was the site of the most notorious war crime of recent history. An estimated 5,000 people, mostly women and children, died when Saddam's air force dropped chemical weapons here in March 1988.

Mohammed Saeed was six at the time, and he tells us his story as he shows us round the memorial museum outside town. The gas smelled sweet -- like apples, he says. He survived, a bewildered boy holding his one-year-old sister as the rest of his family died. When you look at the photos of victims, taken hours after the attack, you'll cry. Everyone does.

And then, like the Kurds themselves, you'll move on. Confident, go-ahead, tragic Halabja is a microcosm of the contradictions of Kurdistan. It certainly doesn't make for an easy holiday: few outstanding sights, no beaches to laze on. But the human story here is compelling, and finally we can witness it at first hand. This is where the history of our times has been made, and the Kurds are trying to give it a happy ending. It's a messy process, and it isn't finished yet, but watching it happen is a joy.