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BREAKING NEWS: Kurdistan Regional Government agree to return airports and border crossings to Iraqi Government

January 15, 2018 By administrator

Erbil, Baghdad reach preliminary accord on Kurdish airports

Kurdish and Iraqi delegates have agreed for the Kurdistan Region airports to come under Iraqi civil aviation authority, one of a list of recommendations to be presented to the Iraqi government for approval.

Hours-long meetings between high-level representatives of the KRG and Iraqi government in Erbil on Monday developed the recommendations to resolve issues between the two administrations, such as the international flight ban.

The international airports of Erbil and Sulaimani will come under “Iraqi Civil Aviation Law” and will follow all instructions and regulations released by the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA), read the minutes of the meetings obtained by Rudaw.

Under the agreement, the two airports will follow the directions of the ICAA with regard to inbound and outbound flights and will not allow “any airplane to land or take off without the approval of the Civil Aviation.”

The delegates proposed that the ICAA will assign permanent representatives from the air transport and air safety department to the airports. Erbil and Sulaimani airports will also follow the fee system introduced by Iraq in 2008 and will provide their monthly revenue data to the ICAA.

There will also be monthly meetings between the ICAA and the airport directors in order to ensure communication and resolve problems.

“A coordinator will be assigned from the Erbil and Sulaimani airports to facilitate communication with the Civil Aviation Authority,” the minutes explained, adding that the coordinator will have a permanent presence in the ICAA.

The two sides will present these recommendations to the Iraqi government for approval, the minutes read, adding that some of the teams present on Monday have yet to finish their work, and will file their reports with Baghdad when ready.

Earlier in the day, Rudaw sources had stated that the two sides reached an initial agreement to lift the ban on international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region, pending approval from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The Secretary General of the Iraqi Council of Ministers, Mahdi al-Alaq, who headed the Iraqi delegation,  told the Kurdish side that PM Abadi wants to “study the outstanding problems in a constructive way and based on the principles of the Iraqi constitution and the federal laws,” according to the minutes.

KRG’s Interior Minister Karim Sinjari, head of the Kurdish team, expressed his hope they could find solutions to all the problems that were discussed during the meetings that included five focused discussions on the issues of “security, borders, airports, customs, border entries, dams, and oil.”

Some of the solutions recommended need the approval of the Iraqi Council of Ministers, according to a statement from the Kurdish delegation released following their visit to Baghdad over the weekend.

The airports were already under ICAA regulation prior to the international flight ban. Director general of Erbil airport, Talar Faiq, told diplomats in the Kurdistan Region last October, “We have always been regulated by the ICAA, we have always been responsive to their requests – only three weeks ago a team from Baghdad came to look at the cargo operation.”

The new proposals agreed on Monday appear to increase ICAA direct oversight.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: airport, erbil, Iraq

Baghdad Erbil confrontation escalates military buildup from both sides continue.

October 13, 2017 By administrator

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has deployed tens of thousands of Peshmerga forces to the Kirkuk region amid tensions with the central government over a controversial secession referendum it held last month.

Kurdish TV channel Rudaw cited the region’s Vice President Kosrat Rasul on Friday as saying that the deployment was meant “to confront possible threats from Iraqi forces.”

“Tens of thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga and security forces are already stationed in and around Kirkuk,” he said. “At least 6,000 additional Peshmerga have been deployed since Thursday night to face the Iraqi forces’ threat.”

The deployment came amid claims that the Iraqi government had sent troops to retake Kurdish-held positions in the disputed oil province but Baghdad denied those allegations.

Baghdad has adopted a range of punitive measures against the Kurdistan region, which defied international calls and held a referendum on separation from the mainland on September 25.

Those measures include banning international flights from the northern region and calling for a halt to its crude oil sales.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi denied an attack plan against the positions of Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

“We are not going to use our army to fight our people or to make war on our Kurdish citizens or others,” Abadi said in televised comments broadcast on state-run al-Iraqiya television network.

Those words of assurance came after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) claimed a significant Iraqi military build-up south of Kirkuk “including tanks, artillery, Humvees and mortars.”

Earlier on Friday, French news agency AFP quoted an unnamed military general as saying that Iraqi troops had launched offensives to retake Kurdish-held positions in Kirkuk, but the Iraqi military was quick to reject the claim.

Baghdad says its troops deployed to the area are involved in operations against Daesh and have nothing to do with the Kurds.

Kirkuk is not part of the Kurdistan region. It is divided along the ethnic lines, where Kurds comprise roughly one-third of its population, where Arabs and Turkmens account for the other two-thirds.

In the lead-up to the controversial vote, Kurdistan’s President Massoud Barzani paid a visit to Kirkuk in mid-September, drawing harsh criticism from officials of the Iraqi central government.

The international community and Iraq’s neighbors have also sternly warned that a potential separation from Iraq would throw the Arab country, which is already busy with battles against Daesh terrorists, into more chaos.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Baghdad, confrontation, erbil, escalates

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

September 30, 2017 By administrator

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: airport, empty, erbil

Inauguration of the Yerevan-Baghdad-Erbil Airline

February 28, 2015 By administrator

arton108556-305x228Since February 26, a new line serves Yerevan. This is the airline Erbil-Baghdad-Yerevan (the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan), which is provided by the Iraqi company “Irakian Airlines”. According Roupen Grtzelian the press responsible for the direction of the Armenian Civil Aviation, weekly two-Baghdad-Erbil Yerevan flights will be operated on aircraft CRJ900 and Boeing 737. On the first flight, fifty Iraqi government officials and tourist agencies came to Yerevan. The representative in Armenia of the Iraqi National Company “Irakian Airlines” is the Armenian society “Avia Service”.

Krikor Amirzayan

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: airline, Baghdad, erbil, Yerevan

Kurdistan and Armenia to Strengthen Ties

February 4, 2015 By administrator

kurdistan-armeniaArmenia’s Ambassador to Iraq Karin Gregorian (left) meets with Kurdistan Region’s Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region, Iraq—The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa on Tuesday received Armenia’s Ambassador to Iraq Karin Gregorian to discuss bilateral ties.

In his first visit to the Kurdistan Region, Ambassador Gregorian commended Southern Kurdistan for its political and economic developments as well as its culture of peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance.

He briefed Minister Mustafa on the opening of Armenia’s consulate general in Erbil and stated that “the approval to open Armenia’s consulate general in Erbil has been granted. The President and the government of Armenia are committed to establishing and strengthening ties with the Kurdistan Region.”

The Ambassador announced that starting from next week; Armenia will conduct direct flights from Yerevan to Erbil twice per week. He hoped that this will lead to more economic and cultural exchanges between Kurdistan and Armenia.

Minister Mustafa welcomed the Ambassador to Kurdistan and thanked him for his efforts to establish institutional ties between Kurdistan and Armenia. He commended the commitment of the government of Armenia to strengthening ties with Kurdistan and welcomed the commencement of flights between Erbil and Yerevan.

The Minister stressed that the opening of the consulate general will bring about more economic, political, and cultural cooperation between both sides. He expressed the readiness of the Department of Foreign Relations to fully support the Armenian mission in Kurdistan.

Mustafa and Ambassador Gregorian also discussed the security and humanitarian challenges facing the Kurdistan Region. The Ambassador expressed the support and solidarity of the government and people of Armenia with the government and people of Kurdistan and pledged that soon Armenia will provide Kurdistan with assistance.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Armenia, erbil, Iraq, Kurdistan, Strengthen-Ties

Erbil: $1 Million a day smuggling trade between Kurdistan officials and ISIS A committee investigating

January 21, 2015 By administrator

98542Image1A masked gunman guards an ISIS checkpoint in Iraq. AP file photo.

by Saeed Sahen Mufti

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A committee investigating Kurdish officials smuggling cars, food and fuel across territories held by the Islamic State (ISIS) said that the illegal trade amounted to $1 million a day. Report Rudaw.

According to a final report by the committee on the smuggling, a number of officials from the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Peshmerga have been involved in the illegal trade.

Firsat Sofi, a KDP member of the Kurdish parliament said the identities of people arrested for involvement in the smuggling had not been disclosed by the committee.

“We asked about the identity of those detainees. Some of them were tanker drivers, senior political members and merchants. Even if we knew the names we would not reveal them since that would be illegal, since the judiciary must deal with this issue and we will see the verdicts soon.”

Fakhraddin Qadir, another Kurdish MP who is from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) said:  “We believe that any kind of relationship with ISIS is treachery, and we will hold a meeting in the parliament concerning the smuggling cases if we are asked.”

The investigative committee includes the KRG’s interior minister and natural resources minister.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has warned that anyone caught smuggling with ISIS would be punished.

“Anyone caught smuggling with ISIS should be considered a traitor and the government must punish them,” he has said.

The autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq sits on a border with ISIS that is more than 1,000 kilometers long. The insurgent group blazed across Iraq’s mainly Sunni territories in June, capturing a third of the country.

According to US-based Foreign Policy magazine, ISIS has become the world’s richest terrorist group through oil smuggling, theft, human trafficking and hostage-taking.

Intelligence officials and private experts say the group has become a self sustaining financial force and is said to be earning more than $3 million from these activities.

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: erbil, ISIS, Kurdistan, smuggling, trade

Erbil Christians torn between arming themselves or leaving

September 3, 2014 By administrator

The second and final visit of the Lebanese delegation to Iraq, headed by Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, was in Erbil. The delegation discussed how Lebanon can help A Christian woman carries a cross during a demonstration against militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL, in Arbil, north of BaghdadIraqi authorities with the displaced who fled the land occupied by the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul, the eastern and western parts of Iraq and some parts of the Ninevah Plains.

A member of the Lebanese delegation told Al-Monitor that the senior Kurdish officials, whom the delegation met with, seemed more interested in the issue of IS and its movements on the ground, as if they were militarily responsible for the current battle. The capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was threatened before the US Air Force intervened. At the beginning of the discussions, a senior official in Erbil did not hide his surprise at the IS attack on the Kurdistan Region.

At the political level, the authorities in Erbil were never on good terms with the authorities in Baghdad that IS declared war on. At the sectarian level, the senior Kurdish official noted his surprise at the IS war on the Kurds, as the overwhelming majority of Kurds are Sunnis, just as the IS fighters are. So why did they attack Erbil? There is no easy answer to this question.

Furthermore, the same official told the Lebanese delegation that IS had scored a victory involving morale in its war against its enemies, before any military achievements on the ground. He said, “We were defeated in terms of morale before the battle had even started. We have been scared and panicked, just as the people have been terrified watching the news on the mass crimes committed [by IS]. In Qaraqosh [also known as Baghdeda], which is the largest Christian town in the Ninevah Plains, the residents left even before IS gunmen headed toward the city. As soon as they heard unofficial and unconfirmed news about the IS advancement, the residents of Qaraqosh packed their belongings and fled toward the north to Ankawa, the Christian neighborhood in Erbil.”

The same Kurdish official acknowledged that IS has become a de facto state. He told the Lebanese delegation that the area controlled by IS is almost 200,000 square kilometers (77,000 square miles) — contrary to what the media estimated, which is 130,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles) — with a population of nearly 10 million people. He even estimated that IS acquired in a few days about 1,500 armored vehicles of various types, and armored troop carriers and tanks they seized from the Iraqi army that collapsed in the northwestern parts of Iraq.

Yet, according to the same Kurdish official, the most dangerous part is that IS gunmen are coming from all over the world. He told his Lebanese guests that a few days ago, the Kurdish peshmerga forces ambushed and hit an armored vehicle carrying IS gunmen, and found out that one of the gunmen was a non-Iraqi Arab, while the remaining four were European nationals.

The opinion of the Kurdish official intersects with that of the officials in Baghdad on one issue, namely, who will actually fight to eradicate IS? The official does not have an answer to this question. Yet, he revealed to the Lebanese delegation that the Kurdish forces are determined to restore areas occupied by IS in the Ninevah Plains. These are originally the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil, and this issue has been unresolved for 10 years now.

Nevertheless, the Kurds are connected to these areas for economic and strategic reasons. Therefore, the senior official in Erbil said that his forces will expel IS gunmen from the plains within weeks. He added, “With the support of the US Air Force, of course. We will enter the areas where [the US Air Force] conducts [air] raids, while the situation will remain the same in the areas where it does not [conduct air raids].”

What about the Christians in Erbil? The Kurdish official confirmed to the Lebanese that he is open to arming them and providing them with everything necessary that helps reassure them until an armed unit that consists of the Christians of Iraqi Kurdistan is established, as part of the peshmerga forces. They can have a special status within the peshmerga — such as a Christian fighters unit — but only under the peshmerga’s military command because any particular armed unit could raise problems, just as happened several times in the Iraqi-Kurdish history.

The same official did not seem convinced that Christians are determined to fight. He feels that they are completely defeated, and defeated in terms of morale. They are now waiting for the opportunity to emigrate to the West, and that what is stopping them today is that most of the displaced do not have an identity card or passport, as IS gunmen took these during the tragic displacement. Thus, Christians are waiting for the arrangements, either by the Erbil authorities or international organizations, that would give them temporary IDs. Traveling to the West would then be their first choice, thus turning the page of a long history on this land after the tragedy they suffered.

The Kurdish official came across as being certain in his evaluation of the situation of the Christians in Erbil — he seemed aware that the Iraq he knew no longer exists, and will never return.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Christians, erbil

Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan): 8,000 visa applications for refugee France (Bishop)

August 15, 2014 By administrator

The Consulate General of France in Erbil, where tens of thousands of Christians have fled the jihadists in Iraq, has already recorded 8,000 visa applications, said Thursday the Bishop of Saint-Etienne, back from a five-day movement Area.

“Some of these Iraqi refugees will be welcomed into Christian communities” in France, said Archbishop Dominique Lebrun during a press conference. He said the staff of the consulate are being strengthened with the influx of visa applications.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had raised “hundreds of applications”, adding that there was “no limit” set by the government for hosting these refugees. “Our consulate in Erbil is doing so to make this possible reception when it becomes inevitable,” he added, stressing that the will of France is first to allow minorities to continue live in Iraq.

Bishop Lebrun called again Thursday, as the spokesperson of the Conference of Bishops of France Bishop Bernard Podvin Wednesday and the Vatican Monday to use force against the jihadists.

“We saw there a despair and poignant stories of refugees. (…) It is legitimate to use force to stop the killers and rapists of a so-called state based on terror (…). The so-called army of so-called Islamic state, these are only a few thousand criminals who engage in barbarism, to the systematic slaughter, “insisted Bishop. He referred videos and testimonies “by which whole groups of over a hundred people were arrested, killed and thrown into the Tigris.”

Friday, August 15, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Christians, erbil, refugee

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