Two days ago, I received a call from an individual in Sulaimani I never met before asking me questions about Dana Gas and what I thought of the case. He said that he has been reading my articles and decided to search, and found, my contact information to ask me two questions. He asked me the following...
Home / Kurdistan / Corruption / For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan, a Nation and Its ValuesFor Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan, a Nation and Its ValuesPosted on January 28, 2016 by Sheri Laizer in Corruption, ExclusiveIraqi Kurdistan oil flagPhoto: AFP/Ekurd.netSheri Laizer in France – | Special to Ekurd.netIraqi Kurdistan...
I am often confronted with the question of: Why are the Kurds leaving Kurdistan in such large numbers? My answer to them is simple and to the point and that is: For most people life in Kurdistan in not a life and it is merely an existence in its worse form. There are no jobs, poor health care system,...
The Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) has reported today that the decline in the price of oil has effectively bankrupted the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq which has placed a call for “direct financial assistance” to prevent “imminent financial collapse.” MEES correctly notes “While this...
decade ago, I wrote an article for Lebanon’s Daily Star arguing that corruption was far more corrosive to the region than terrorism. The article struck a nerve in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was one of the examples I had addressed; it became the first time I was directly threatened for an article I had written.The...
According to many news outlets today, the US government has declined KRG’s $2 Billion request. The Kurdistan Regional Government ( KRG) has sent a low-level delegation to Washington trying to convince the American government to help them financially in an amount of $2 Billion. Today, I read that the...
I honestly do not know how many creative ways people can scam when dealing with/in Kurdistan! There are so many stories about scams in Kurdistan and what has been going on in the past 12 years is absolutely mind boggling and beyond belief. I will need 100’s of hours of continuous writing just to cover...
In the past couple of years or so, I have been tracking/reading all of the news pertaining Dana Gas oil company, based in the UAE, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) lawsuit in London courts. Once I learned of this lawsuit, I began to research and investigate some oil contracts the KRG has signed...
Kurdistan is in a crisis, largely of its own making. Salaries of its civil service are in deep arrears. Declining oil prices and the fight against the Islamic State are excuses but not the reason: After all, the Iraqi government faces the same challenges but still pays its salaries. Baghdad has delivered...
Corruption is Kurdistan’s biggest economic problem. The two ruling parties’ dominant control lets corruption flourish. Corruption relies on family-clan and/or peshmerga ties. Kurdish corruption starts at the top with a few political “godfathers” who quietly distribute contracts among themselves. Some...
Today, October 7, 2015 and that means it is day after the “final” meeting that all Kurdistan parties ( KDP, PUK, Gorran, Komal and Islamic party) have met. All news agencies in Kurdistan are discussing the upcoming meeting (October 6, 2015) between the five parties and this meeting is supposed to...
ERBIL—Last April, a few days before Iraqi Kurds voted in elections for the Iraqi parliament—and two months before militants with the Islamic State (ISIS) would threaten their borders, changing everything—a group of Kurdish veterans gathered at the Monument of Halabja Martyrs, a squat rotunda in the spring-green...
The disastrous miscalculation made by the United States in signing a military agreement with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds becomes daily more apparent. In return for the use of Incirlik Air Base just north of the Syrian border, the US betrayed the Syrian Kurds who have so far been its most effective...
Superficially, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s representation and influence in America has never been greater. After years of renting space in various office buildings, the KRG now has its own building less than two kilometers from the White House. Whereas once Kurds were largely forgotten...
Since Iraq regained its sovereignty in 2004, it has had four prime ministers : Ayad Allawi, Ibrahim Jaafari, Nouri al-Maliki, and current premier Haider al-Abadi. Over the same period, Iraqi Kurdistan has had one ruler: Massoud Barzani. In 2005, the Iraqi Kurdish parliament, dominated by Barzani’s Kurdistan...