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ERBIL, Kurdistan Hours in, travel ban already taking financial toll, travelers stranded

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Empty Erbil airport

Empty Erbil airport after the flight ban came into effect Friday at 6pm. Photo: A.C. Robinson/Rudaw

By A.C. Robinson

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The travel ban imposed on Kurdistan’s international airports in Erbil and Sulaimani is already taking a financial toll on revenue coming into the Kurdistan Region as well as causing problems for passengers, just hours after the ban came into effect, Friday at 6 pm.

“Today all scheduled flights went normally until 6 pm. We were hoping the situation would change but we didn’t get any information from Baghdad so all international flights have been suspended,” said Talar Faeq, general director of Erbil’s airport.

Faeq said the airport reserves the right to review their capability for the operation of the airport.

“As you can see, everything has stopped except the domestic flights,” she said. “Now we must accept this fact.”

Faeq said the airport will stop receiving revenue from airlines, which will have an immediate impact on the Kurdistan Region.

“At the same time, we’re not receiving any money from Iraqi Airways for landing or passenger tax, which has now accumulated and reached $33 million,” she explained.

Erbil’s airport serves between 50 and 60 flights and between 5,000 to 5,500 passengers per day, bringing in an estimated daily revenue of $350,000, Faeq said.

She stressed that the travel ban would not affect the jobs of any employees, however.

“This is not a reasonable decision for anyone. Not just for the airport, not for the normal citizens, not for our employees, and it’s not serving humanitarian issues.” she said. “I think it needs to be reviewed again.”

Earlier in the day, just an hour before the ban was to go into effect, Nishtiman Youth Network (NYN) organized a peaceful protest at both Erbil and Sulaimani airports.

Hundreds of protesters attended the event. holding messages such as ‘beauty’, ‘dreams’, ‘happy’, ‘energy’, ‘patience’, ‘positive’, and ‘independence’ – attaching the motivational words in both Kurdish and English to hundreds of balloons.

The organizers from NYN read a statement addressed to the international community in Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, and English just before the balloons were released into the air.

Source: http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/290920179

Iraqi Kurdistan government account at Turkey’s Halkbank empty: official

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450x360xTurkish-Halkbank-photo-cyprus-mail-com.jpg.pagespeed.ic.xbn8ToFJdJERBIL-Hewler, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s finance minister has not transferred money from Turkish Halk Bank to Erbil after finding the government’s accounts empty, a Kurdish official said on Sunday.

Head of Parliament’s Finance Committee Izat Sabir told NRT that Minister Rebaz Mohammed Abdullah was in Turkey last week to conduct the transfer of funds earned from independent oil sales and meet with officials, including Halk Bank Director-General Ali Fuat.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers gave authority to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in June to transfer oil money from international banks back to the region.

Speaking on NRT’s Tawtwe program, Finance and Economic Affairs Committee Deputy Ali Hama Salih said the KRG account at Halk Bank has been empty for over four months.

“The finance minister just renewed the KRG account at Halk Bank in Turkey, and no oil money was in the account,” Salih said.

The region’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) released its August report on Thursday, stating exports reached an average of 472,832 barrels per day (bpd) during the month.

Total exports for the month were listed at 14,657,798 barrels, of which 10,958,817 barrels came from fields operated by the KRG. Fields operated by the North Oil Company (NOC) supplied the remaining 3,698,981 barrels.

Independent oil sales continued in August, “to compensate the Region for the budget shortfalls from the federal government in Baghdad and to continue to pay down debts accumulated in 2014 from pre-payments for direct oil sales,” the MNR statement said.

MNR Minister Ashti Hawrami told NRT on August 24 the KRG began independently selling oil in June and that is had lost $500 million due to attacks inside Turkey on the Kurdistan-Ceyhan pipeline.

In 2013 and according to sources the KRG has backed down from using Turkey’s Halkbank as a mediator for transfers in a deal made for oil exports with Turkey.

Source: eKurd