Archive for the ‘Arbil’ Category
Turkey’s Vakıfbank to open a branch in Iraq’s Arbil
Turkish lender Vakıfbank is set to open a branch in the Iraqi city of Arbil by the end of the year.
Süleyman Kalkan, director-general of Vakıfbank, told reporters during a press conference Friday, “We applied to the central government of Iraq to open a Vakıfbank branch in Arbil. As we have already received prior approval, we are planning to open the Arbil branch by the end of the year.” Read the rest of this entry »
Iraq’s Allawi rejects partial vote recount only in Baghdad
Ayad Allawi, whose joint Shiite-Sunni bloc won the largest number of parliamentary seats in Iraq’s general election in late March, said Monday he would not accept a partial vote recount only in Baghdad because this process could be open to fraud.
“A recount only in Baghdad is unacceptable,” Allawi told Hürriyet Daily News & Review in an interview during a brief visit to Ankara for talks with top Turkish officials. “We need to know where (vote) boxes are… We won’t accept fraud.”
He said election results were also disputed in many other Iraqi provinces, including Basra, Najaf, Mosul and Kirkuk and a recount, if one can be done, should cover all such areas. Read the rest of this entry »
Common point of US-Iran-Turkey is united Iraq after elections
’The outcome of March 7 elections will be a compass to designate Iraq’s political direction. Turkey, however, will be more active by opening two more consulates regardless whoever wins,’ a diplomat close to President Abdullah Gül told Hürriyet Daily News
War-torn Iraq is voting Sunday to elect new parliament under the shadow of bloody attacks at polling stations and checkpoints. All key players such as the U.S., Iran, Turkey and other neighboring states keep their eyes on the events as Iraqis try to heal their wounds and form a new democratic government.
Although the U.S. and Iran have long been rival powers in the region, unity and stability of Iraq do serve for their common interests in the post-war era, according to Joost Hilterman of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, or ICG. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkish energy giant to establish refinery in northern Iraq
A Turkish oil exploration and production company active in northern Iraq plans to establish a refinery with a capacity of 60,000 barrels this year in the city of Koya, near the Taq Taq oilfield.
Genel Enerji, owned by Çukurova Holding, one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates with investments in the automotive, telecommunications, media, textile, energy and information-technology services sectors, is seeking loans for the refinery’s cost of $510 million.
The firm, which has the authority to establish a refinery and conduct oil exploration in the Taq Taq field as a part of its deal with the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, has prepared a report titled “Midstream Opportunity in Kurdistan” for the refinery investment.
According to the report, which was acquired by daily Milliyet, the refinery is expected to be built in three phases and will cost $510 million. The Regional Kurdish Administration supports investments in order to cover northern Iraq’s oil demand and export oil. Read the rest of this entry »
Minorities in Iraq’s North Seen as Threatened
The policies and tactics of Kurdish authorities could expose minority groups in northern Iraq to “another full-blown human rights catastrophe” unless the minorities receive better protection, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.
Members of the minority groups are being singled out by extremist insurgent groups and also are caught in the middle of a struggle for land and resources between Arabs and the central government on one hand and leaders of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region on the other, said the report, which was released in the Kurdish region’s capital, Erbil, and focused on Christians, Shabaks and Yazidis in Nineveh Province.
Turkey enters northern Iraq
Wait, wait! Don’t panic after looking at the headline. True, Turkey has entered northern Iraq, but unlike its past entries, it did it this time with diplomacy, peace and brotherhood.
Two years after a terrorist attack on the Dağlıca military outpost, which had brought the two countries to the brink of war, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu orchestrated a huge initiative of friendship and peace toward northern Iraq with his visit on Friday and Saturday. Being the lead figure of a Turkish foreign policy that has dispensed with its rigid habits and has undertaken a radical paradigm shift in parallel to the country’s painful process of evolution from a national security state to a democratic one, Davutoğlu visited Arbil, the most critical step of his unusual visit to Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
Mahmur camp’s future unclear
The 12,000 Turkish citizens who live in the U.N.-supervised Mahmur camps in northern Iraq will only return back to Turkey if the Kurdish problem is resolved, one local official said.
The refugees crossed over to Iraq in 1994 from the southeastern provinces of Şırnak and Hakkari during the heaviest clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the military.
Turkey’s efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue had local repercussions, said one local official who wanted to remain anonymous, adding that the only viable way for the refugees to return to their homes was the resolution of the Kurdish problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Anti-PKK unit starts functionning in Arbil
A subcommittee established by Turkey, Iraq and the United States to crack down on the terrorist PKK organization, in northern Iraq has started to function in the Kurdish city of Arbil, the Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday.
“Several arrangements were made to allow a branch of the subcommittee to operate in Arbil in order to effectively work toward the elimination of the PKK,” Burak Özügergin, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry told reporters in his weekly press conference. Read the rest of this entry »
Arbil to be center of joint committee between Turkey, Iraq and U.S.
Hurriyet
The northern Iraqi city of Arbil will be the center of a trilateral committee formed to struggle against terrorism in a step that could be seen as an important policy shift for Turkey.
“There is a trilateral mechanism established by us, Turkey and the United States. We want to form a joint command center in Arbil,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan in Ankara.
Turkey, Iraq and the U.S. in November formed a joint committee to combat the PKK after holding three-way talks in Baghdad as part of efforts to boost cooperation against the terrorists. Read the rest of this entry »
Blast kills scores in northern Iraq
Hurriyet
A suicide bomber struck yesterday inside a popular restaurant in northern Iraq where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders, killing at least 55 people and wounding about 120, police said.
Women and children were among the victims of the attack on the “Abdullah” restaurant, which is located on the main road to Irbil and is popular with Kurdish officials traveling to and from the Kurdish self-ruled region.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, who gave the casualty figures, told The Associated Press that the blast occurred in the Abdullah Restaurant just north of the contested oil city of Kirkuk. A Kurdish official said Arab tribal leaders were having lunch with members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani. Read the rest of this entry »