What Does the Barzani–Waltz Call Reveal About US Strategy on KRG Oil?
Masrour Barzani with Mike Waltz and three other members of the U.S. Congress, March 2024.
Peace with PKK, Crackdown on CHP: The AKP-MHP Strategy to Rule Past 2028
Yesterday’s arrest of the popular opposition Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu appears contradictory when viewed through the lens of recent peace…
KRG-Iraq Budget Dispute: A Battle of Interpretations
One of the most interesting issues in the ongoing Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-Iraqi central government budget conflict is not merely…
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Arivan
How Baghdad’s Customs Checkpoints Have Diminished KRG’s Trade Power
Six months into Baghdad’s customs centralization policy with the Kurdistan Region, traders are increasingly relocating their operations to Iraqi-controlled territories—a deliberate outcome aimed at reshaping regional trade dynamics. From the…
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Arivan
Kurdistan’s Widening Income Gap: Expenditures Outstrip Earnings
The Iraqi national census and socio-economic surveys published by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Planning, have been released separately and…
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Arivan
How KRG PM Masrour Barzani’s Privatisation Drive is Transforming Relations with the PUK and Baghdad
Since assuming office in 2019, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has aggressively pursued privatisation across numerous sectors in the Kurdistan Region, including healthcare, electricity, customs, postal services,…
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Arivan
Damascus-SDF Agreement Signals Turkey’s Strategic Compromise: PKK Dissolution in Turkey, SDF Survival in Syria
The newly announced agreement signed today between Ahmad Al-Shara’a, president of the HTS-led administration in Damascus, and Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), appears to have been…
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Arivan
Four Insights on How Assad’s Remnants Set a Strategic Trap by Exploiting Syria’s Factional Chaos
A few days ago, remnants of the Assad regime ambushed and killed several police officers in Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of the Alawite community. In response, armed factions affiliated with…
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Arivan
From Fighting Turkey to Shaping It: How Ocalan and Ankara Are Rewriting the Kurdish-Turkish Relationship
The current PKK-Turkish talks must be viewed within their regional and global context, as the PKK issue has long been regionalized and even globalized alongside internal Turkish and Kurdish politics.…
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Written by
Arivan
Rethinking Poverty Rates in Kurdistan: Why Standardized Measures Misrepresent True Poverty Levels
The Kurdistan Region has released a specialized survey on social conditions, conducted alongside a broader socioeconomic assessment spanning Iraq. This regional effort sheds light on a critical flaw in how…
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