mardi 21 août 2012

22 killed, 120 hurt in wave of attacks in Iraq

22 killed, 120 hurt in wave of attacks in Iraq
BAGHDAD A wave of attacks across Iraq on Thursday killed at least 22 people, officials said, amid warnings of a potential escalation in violence at the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Officials reported more than a dozen explosions and shootings in 12 cities and towns nationwide that also left more than 120 people wounded, and which came a day after attacks killed 13 people.

The latest unrest takes the overall death toll from violence this month to 167, according to a tally based on security and medical sources.

In the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Husseiniyah, a car bomb killed at least six people and wounded 26, according to an interior ministry official and a medical source.

Meanwhile, in the town of Daquq, north of Baghdad in Kirkuk province, a suicide attacker blew himself up at an anti-terrorism department’s compound, according to provincial police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader.

In the province’s eponymous capital, meanwhile, at least four car bombs were set off across the city, including two at the offices of the state-owned North Oil Company.

“I came to investigate one of the attacks near the company compound,” said police Colonel Abdullah Kadhim, head of Kirkuk city’s sniffer dog unit.  “Suddenly, another bomb went off near me, and it damaged lots of cars and company property inside the parking lot.”

Kadhim suffered wounds to his leg.

Provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul put the toll from the attacks in Daquq and Kirkuk city at eight dead and 56 wounded. Qader said the victims included six police killed in the Daquq attack.

The violence in ethnically-mixed Kirkuk city was concentrated in its Kurdish-majority areas, and came on the anniversary of the founding of Iraq’s most powerful Kurdish party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The KDP’s current leader Massud Barzani was also born on the same day his father founded the party. In the same province, two roadside bombs near the home of a police captain in the town of Dibis killed his brother and wounded four others, including the captain himself, police and a doctor at nearby Kirkuk hospital said.

Attacks also struck Al Garma, Al Baaj, Badush, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul, Taji, Khales and Baquba, leaving seven dead and dozens wounded.

In Al Garma, near the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, four policemen were killed and three others wounded in a shooting at a checkpoint, according to police Major Enes Mahmud and Omar Dalli at Fallujah hospital.

Gunmen shot dead two people driving in Al Baaj, west of Mosul, while two children were wounded by bombs that targeted the under-construction house of a police officer in Badush, also west of the restive north Iraq city, police Second Lieutenant Abed Ghayib and Mohammed Tawfik said.

Three roadside bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmatu near the home of a district chief, or mukhtar, killing his wife and leaving him and his three sons wounded, according to police and a local medic.

Agencies

The violations against the Yezidis human rights continues in Iraq by KRG's terrorist organization



04-06-2012

The violations against the Yezidis human rights are continuing and if the USA, UK, UN, EU, Russia, Canada and all other International Communities do not act now, the non-Muslim minorities sooner or later will be totally annihilated from our historical homelands (Mesopotamia).
Bellow is more incidents happened in the Yezidis regions in Sinjar; your assistance urgently needed!
On Tuesday, May 29, 2012 the KRG’s security forces (Asayish) arrested Mr. Saleh Hussein Hanji in the al-Qahataniya village, district of Sinjar; he was transferred to the KRG’s security forces’ detention centre in Sinjar city at the same day (May 29, 2012), his family members and friends have not been able to visit him or talk to him and since then according to the information received by the Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International in Iraq section.
Mr. Hanji is one of the Yezidis independent clan leaders in the Sinjar region. The arrest of Mr. Saleh Hanji came against the background of political issues, not security, because he attending an Iraqi Tribal Leaders Conference, which was held in Baghdad by more than two weeks under the sponsorship of the federal government, which was not accepted by the KRG and its illegal authority in the Yezidis’ areas and especially in Sinjar regions.
There were also two more incidents happened in the Yezidis’ area North side of the Sinjar mountain; (1)- A student boy was kidnapped unknown group from Borek village (Yarmouk) few days ago; (2)- A Yezidi girl whose is family is a care taker of one of the Yezidis temple also was kidnapped by unknown group. We will inform you if we receive any more information regarding these last two incidents.
These are clear signs that the Yezidis in Sinjar regions extremely suffer from the ill-treatments and pressures by the KRG and its dictatorial political regime. Sinjar is a part of the Mosul Governorate and it is not a part of the KRG and junior mullah Barzani should be able to pull his terrorist militias and his bloody dirty hands from our lives, so we can live in peace and freedom.
There are evidences that the KRG’s authority and its terrorist militias are behind all terrorist attacks against the non-Muslim minorities in Iraq.  Today, we urgently demand the International Community to act immediately and put pressures on the KRG to stop its “Terrorist Activities against the non-Muslim Iraqi minorities; so we can survive and die peacefully!”
If you have any questions about this or any other issues regarding the Yezidis please do not hesitate to contact: Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International  ezidis@gmail.com

Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International

vendredi 17 août 2012

Iraq officials: Over 90 dead in Thursday's attacks


By By ADAM SCHRECK | Associated Press 



·        


·          
Associated Press/Emad Matti - People and security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Aug 16, 2012. Five separate bombings in …more 
·          
People and security forces inspect …
BAGHDAD (AP) — Police and hospital officials say the death toll from a blistering string of all-day attacks across Iraq on Thursday has risen to more than 90.
Included among the casualties disclosed Friday were 21 people killed when a car bomb detonated shortly before midnight near an ice cream shop in Baghdad's southeastern Zafaraniyah neighborhood.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters.
Funerals got under way Friday for those killed in the attacks. In the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, dozens of people carried the coffins of relatives through the streets. Some mourners wept, while others sought solace by chanting "God is great." A bomb there Thursday evening left 14 dead.


http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-officials-over-90-dead-thursdays-attacks-085235660.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

mercredi 15 août 2012

Baghdad denies visa to NHP leader Devlet Bahçeli


Iraq denies visa to Turkish nationalist leader

ISTANBUL

AA photo
AA photo

















The Iraqi government in Baghdad has refused to issue a visa to Nationalist Movement Party (NHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli for a planned visit to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to celebrate the Ramadan bayram holiday with local Turkmens, daily Hürriyet reported today.

 
The nationalist leader refused to go to Kirkuk via Arbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), because the MHP does not recognize the semi-autonomous government there. 
 
Turkey had issued a diplomatic note to Baghdad and Arbil, requesting that their administrations ensure the leader’s safety during his jaunt.

mardi 14 août 2012

NEWWEAPONS COMMITTEE - UNDERSTANDING EFFECTS OF NEW WAR TECHNOLOGIES




Newweapons Committee is group of academics, researchers and media professionals focused on promoting risk assessment surveys on the effects upon individuals and population of the most recent kinds of weapons used in the course of wars. The group was born in the third quarter of 2006 after Israel-Lebanon conflict.

The group is based on a consulting network of:

- Doctors and Health Associations from Lebanon and Palestine who have produced the information and released it.
- Biologists of the University of Genoa, Dibio and Dimes
- Biologist of the University of Rome, Dept Biology
- Chemists of the University of Ferrara, Dept Chemistry
- Physicists of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the University of Turin
- Medical Doctors in Genoa and Rome
- Journalists and Free Lance Information
- NGOs
- With help from Epidemiologist, Anatomic pathologist


please see: 

Arshad al-Salihi appreciates Talabani’s support for Turkmen issues


Salihi appreciates Talabani’s support for Turkmen issues

Added by admin on August 7, 2012.
Saved under Baghdad Politics

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) -The head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, Arshad al-Salihi, expressed his “gratitude for the President, Jalal Talabani, for his support for the law of the Turkmen rights and demands.” 
In a message to Talabani, he said “I am pleased to express my gratitude for your support for the law that ensures the rights and the demands of the Turkmen in Iraq during the parliament session of 28th of last July,” noting that “your support will preserve the brotherly relations among the Iraqi communities.”
Earlier, the parliament voted during its session of July, 28th on the report concerning the situation and the demands of the Turkmen community in Iraq.

dimanche 12 août 2012

السفارة العراقية في بروكسل تقيم مأدبة إفطار رمضانية للجالية العراقية المقيمة في بلجيكا



السفارة العراقية في بروكسل تقيم مأدبة إفطار رمضانية  للجالية العراقية المقيمة في بلجيكا

بمناسبة شهر رمضان  المبارك أقامت السفارة العراقية  في  بروكسل مأدبة إفطار كبرى وأحيت أمسية رمضانية شيقة تكريما للجالية العراقية  المقيمة في بلجيكا و لممثليها ودعت إليها ممثلي الأحزاب السياسية العراقية و المنظمات الإنسانية المعتمدة في بروكسل والناشطة على المستويين الأوربي و البلجيكي كون بروكسل عاصمة الاتحاد الأوربي إضافة إلى كونها عاصمة بلجيكا  وذلك مساء يوم الجمعة المصادف 10 آب 2012 .

أقيمت المأدبة  في إحدى الفنادق الكبيرة في بروكسل و حضرها ممثلي الأحزاب السياسية العراقية وممثلي المنظمات المعتمدة في بروكسل مع  عدد كبير من العوائل العراقية المقيمة في بلجيكا حيث كان سعادة سفير العراق في بلجيكا  السيد محمد الحميميدي والسيدة عقيلته في استقبال المدعوين .

بعد وصول  المدعوين إلى الفندق و قبل ساعة الإفطار ألقى سعادة السفير السيد محمد الحميميدي كلمة في المناسبة   شكر فيها الحضور و الضيوف المدعوين باسمه و نيابة عن فخامة رئيس الجمهورية ودولة رئيس الوزراء و معالي وزير الخارجية  لجمهورية العراق معبرا عن سروره وسعادته  البالغتين بالتواصل و اللقاء مع  ممثلي الجالية العراقية في بلجيكا على مأدبة إفطار في أمسية رمضانية  بعيدا عن الأهل و الأقارب في العراق  و حث الحضور على الاستمرار في التواصل معه و مع السفارة العراقية في بروكسل كونه أخا و صديقا لكل العراقيين و لكون السفارة في بروكسل بيتا لهم جميعا دون تمييز أو تفريق.

وفي ختام كلمته ناشد سعادته العراقيين وممثليهم وحثهم أن يكونوا متعاونين بينهم ومتسامحين مع بعضهم وأن يبقوا بعيدين عن التعصب  و التطرف  كي يرفعوا سمعة العراق عاليا و لكي يعطوا صورة جميلة وحقيقية عن قيم الشعب العراقي الأصيل صاحب الحضارات العريقة و القيم الإنسانية المثلى.

كانت ألامسيه ناجحة وجرت في جو هادئ وجميل  وكانت فرصه لتبادل وجهات النظر و مناقشة آخر التطورات السياسية في العراق وبالأخص أسباب ونتائج زيارة السيد احمد داوود أغلو وزير الخارجية لجمهورية تركيا الصديقة  إلى كركوك حيث أجاب الدكتور حسن آيدنلي ممثل الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لدى الاتحاد الأوربي  إلى العديد من الأسئلة حول هذه الزيارة وقدم شرحا مفصلا عن الوضع السياسي و الأمني للتركمان في كركوك  خاصة وفي العراق عامة وذلك منذ تأسيس الدولة العراقية في 1921 إلى يومنا هذا وطمئن بعض القلقين من أسباب و نتائج هذه الزيارة إلى كركوك مؤكدا بأنها كانت زيارة ودية لأهالي كركوك للتعرف على أوضاعهم المعاشية ميدانيا ومد يد العون من اجل تطوير المحافظة و المدينة وتحسين نوعية وكمية الخدمات لساكنيها الذين عانوا الكثير من فقدان الأمن وقلة الخدمات منذ احتلال كركوك في 10 نيسان 2003.

وفي الختام قدم الدكتور حسن آيدنلي ممثل الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لدى الاتحاد الأوربي الشكر  إلى السفير العراقي السيد محمد الحميميدي لدعوته له شخصيا و الجالية التركمانية إلى المأدبة في بروكسل.

المكتب الإعلامي
ممثلية الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لدى الاتحاد الأوربي.
بروكسل    
             

Iraqi Turkmen push for stronger legal protection of their identity


Iraqi Turkmen push for stronger legal protection of their identity


Ahmet Davutoğlu, who paid a historic visit to Kirkuk on Thursday as the first Turkish foreign minister to visit in 75 years, is pictured with Iraqi Turkmen children. (PHOTO AA, HAKAN GöKTEPE)
5 August 2012 / AYDIN ALBAYRAK , ANKARA 

1


The adoption by the Iraqi parliament on July 28 of a report that bestows on 
Turkmen in Iraq  the status of the third largest ethnic group in the country is
 an important gain for the Turkmen, analysts believe, but they also note that 
the demands of Turkmen in the report need to be  transformed into a legal 
framework for a lasting and positive result to be obtained.


“It’s maybe not as powerful as a law, but it opens a door,” Mahir Nakip, 
an Iraqi Turkmen from  Kirkuk who has been living in Turkey for a long 
time and spokesperson of the İstanbul-based  Kirkuk Foundation, 
commented to Sunday’s Zaman. Despite admitting that this represents
 a very positive step for the Turkmen he also added, “But the real 
success would be to put the  content of the report into law.”

Hicran Kazancı, the Iraqi Turkmen Front’s representative in Turkey, is a
 little more cautious.  “The adoption of the report is of historic importance,
 but we need to see what the practice will be,” he told Sunday’s Zaman.
 Noting that the Iraqi constitution already bestows on Turkmen
many of the demands brought together in the report, he added, “But 
Turkmen have not been  allowed to enjoy those rights until today.”

After the American occupation began in 2003, Turkmen were victimized,
 facing discrimination  in Iraq, as the Turkish Parliament rejected a motion
 allowing US land forces to enter Iraqi territory by way of Turkey in the
 days leading up to the occupation. The Turkmen people in Iraq are
 estimated to make up nearly 10 percent of the population, but they were
 not  considered to be one of the constituent elements of the Iraqi state
 together with the Arabs  and the Kurds, and thus have been 
underrepresented in politics and government office.
 And in provinces such as Kirkuk, Arabs, in accordance with an 
Arabization policy that was  in effect before the occupation, and
 Kurds, after the occupation, were allowed to seize  pieces of land
 that officially belonged to Turkmen.

The adoption of the report by the Iraqi parliament is actually just an 
elementary step because,  as Kazancı noted, a high committee on 
Turkmen affairs needs to be established first, and  then the committee 
will set about studying the demands of Turkmen enumerated in the
report.
Kazancı prefers to be a little cautious because in recent years the 
Turkmen people were also  entitled to a share of the national budget,
 but that money has never materialized.

Still, Turkmen are hopeful. “This is a festival day for us,” Necat 
Hüseyin, a Turkmen member of the Kirkuk City Council, said at a 
press conference in Kirkuk last Sunday. Noting that Turkmens in
 Iraq have been waiting for this day for eight years, he added: 
“We used to be a second-class people in Iraq, but now have become
 a first-class people. And that’s made us very happy.”


It is noted in the report that the Turkmen, previously usurped rights 
are to be reinstated and that Turkmens are to be allowed to have 
representation in public institutions in accordance with their population.
 That means quite a lot for the Turkmen. In Kirkuk, which was
 historically a Turkmen city, there are today 32 directorates for public
 institutions, of which only one, the directorate of national education, 
is headed by a Turkmen, while Turkmen in Kirkuk, in spite of a 
large-scale Kurdish migration to Kirkuk in the years following
the occupation, make up at least one-third of the total population.

Similarly, in the provincial governing board in Kirkuk, Turkmen have 
only nine chairs out of a total of 41. Not only in Kirkuk, but also in cities
 such as Tuzhurmatu, Tal Afar, Altunkopru, to some extent in Musul 
city, Arbil and Hanekin, Turkmens now have the expectation that
they will, in public institutions, be entitled to occupy a considerable 
number of posts of which resently deprived to a great extent.


A designated amount of money from the state budget will also be 
allocated to the Turkmens, which would allow them to promote their
 culture, should the Iraqi government act in accordance with the report.
 “Getting a share of about 6 percent would be a success for the
 Turkmen,” said Mehmet Tütüncü, a Turkmen who came to Turkey in
 1991 after the First Gulf War and who is now chairman of the Iraqi 
Turks Culture and Mutual Aid Association based in İstanbul.


With the new step, underrepresentation in politics is also expected 
be eliminated. In the Iraqi parliament, there are today only nine Turkmen
 deputies, and with Turkmens benefitting from a national quota in the
 election system, the number of seats to be occupied by Turkmen
deputies would be considerably higher. Another significant benefit of
 the report for Turkmens will be in the area of education. “Schools 
Turkmen children go to are in a very bad shape,” Tütüncü told 
Sunday’s Zaman. But from now on, Turkmen schools will get 
financial support from the state as other state schools do. Last but
 not least, in the area of education, Turkmen schools will be able offer
 courses for Turkmens in an alphabet which is suitable
 to the nature of their language, which will be the Latin alphabet
 and not Arabic script, thanks to which education in Turkmen schools
 will be able to utilize curricula from Turkey.

Tütüncü is optimistic about the step the parliament has taken.
 “It’s promising being described as the third constituent people,” he stated. 
He is hopeful that this new step will allow many expectations of the Turks
 in Iraq to be met. “We’ve been getting signals in this direction,”
he remarked.


The adoption of the report by the Iraqi parliament may be a move by 
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is on bad terms with the Kurdistan
 Regional Government (KRG) in the north of the country, to have Turkmen
 on his side in the Iraqi equation. “This is certainly an effort by Maliki to get 
Turkmen on his side,” said Kaan Dilek, general coordinator of the
International Middle East Peace Research Center (IMPR). The same move 
may also be interpreted as an olive branch held out by Maliki to the Turkish 
government. “Maliki may be giving a message by way of the Turkmens to 
improve [deteriorating] relations with Turkey,” he commented to Sunday’s
 Zaman. It’s noteworthy that Maliki, appearing on a Kurdish television station
 in Iraq, said about a week ago that the problems Iraq and Turkey have
are only at the level of discourse and that problems between Turkey and
 Iraq are not insurmountable.


Turkmen in Syria may face similar fate

It’s feared that Turkmens in Syria, whose population is estimated to be
 around 1.5-2 million, with another 1.5 million Turkmens having already
 been assimilated into the Arab ethnic identity, may face similar problems 
to the Iraqi Turkmen in the days after the regime of President
 Bashar al-Assad falls, given that Syrian Turkmen are even more
 widely scattered throughout Syria than the Turkmen are in Iraq.

vendredi 10 août 2012

Beautiful Rumi quote


"At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing."

jeudi 9 août 2012

Chairman of Turkmen Community in Syria, Yusuf Molla:"Collapse of Al-Assad's regime is a matter of time"




HATAY (AA) – August 8, 2012 – Chairman of Turkmen Community in Syria, Yusuf Molla, has said, "Al-Assad is losing its powers one by one, the collapse of his regime is a matter of time now."
Riad Hijab's attendance to anti-Assad opposition was celebrated by Syrians in the camp erected for them in southern town of Yayladagi. Syrians follow all the developments in their country via televisions at the camps and they said that after Hijab's incident, Al-Assad lost big part of his power. 
Chairman of Turkmen Community in Syria, Yusuf Molla talked to AA saying that the regime in Syria is not so strong, once the regime struggles, it will crack.
Molla stated that Al-Assad's regime made an offer to Syrian Turkmens and said, "Al-Assad's government and intelligence officers want to talk and negotiate with Turkmens who fight in Latakia. They said to us "Call here autonomous Turk region and you take the control, but you state that you leave the opposition". We share this for the first time. This shows us that the end of Al-Assad is coming."
Molla continued saying that most of the commissioned officers and several civil servants left their positions and noted, "The resignation of Prime Minister Riad Hijab and two other ministers shows us that this is the end of their regime. Is there anybody left to resign? Al-Assad is losing one by one. Collapse of the regime is a matter of time. If he wants to save his life, then he should leave the country as soon as possible."
Molla added that Syrians are happy because they know that Al-Assad will be gone soon and he highlighted that Syrian community was amazed with the resignation of Hijab and his admission to opponents. 
Molla underlined that 60 percent of the Syria is under control of Free Syrian Army and pointed that the only worrying dispute is the Kurdish formation in the north of Syria.
Reporting by Erdal Turkoglu