Under the hashtag of #MyKurdishStory hundreds of Kurdish twitter users tweeted heart-aching stories of pain.
The ability to love your country but face the facts and be truthful about its shortcomings is what distinguishes patriotism from chauvinism, which essentially says 'my country right or wrong.'
Hewlêr, the capital of Kurdistan, and London of United Kingdom are my favourite two cities in the world. I have lived in London for 13 years, and Hewlêr for considerably less. My memories of these two cities are somewhat scattered because I hold a romanticised view of them
It is easy to connect to journalists and editors online, but it takes dedication to consistently do that.
I decided to leave my footprint by arranging for Healthy Planet, a British Charity, to provide me with 20,000 British Books, so that I could transfer it to a deserted public library in the Kurdistan Region.
Leon Trotsky, not someone I usually quote, once said that people may not be interested in politics but politics is often interested in them. British people may be wary of foreign interventions but foreign crises can profoundly affect domestic politics. The suffering that we see every day in Syria won't go away and will have to be addressed, sooner rather than later.
What is happening in Syria now shows the futility of the words we use to conduct international diplomacy...We in Labour must not hide behind a naïve belief that any western intervention is an imperialist plot.
In some basic outline, the paper gives the readers an idea where Kurdistan Region foreign policy is at and where it is heading. It also points out the...
It has been almost a year since super-major oil company ExxonMobil ventured into Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Despite Baghdad's harsh words against the company, it has suffered little punishment other than exclusion from the 4th bid round, in which it showed little interest anyway.
Civil society is crucial to a vibrant democracy and the unions can bring people together whatever their religion or politics. Mr Maliki said all the right things and it was all reported and amplified in a packed press conference. But things haven't really changed.
A generation ago the plight of the Kurds was dire in all four countries where they mainly live - Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria following the failure to allow them an independent state in the aftermath of the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It is, as I have often been told, a tough neighbourhood.
Association of Returnee Professionals in Kurdistan (ARPK) has been launched by a small group of activists from Kurdistan. The non-profit organisation is independent and helps professional who are either planning or have already returned to Kurdistan find jobs, as well as accommodation.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's views of Tony Blair and the Iraq war are not new. Very little is in the debate between those who supported intervention in Iraq and those who opposed it.
Three months ago I decided to leave United Kingdom for Kurdistan. The trip opened my eyes to the socioeconomic problems facing Kurdish people, and the renowned efforts by young activists to ameliorate the situation.
The Iraqi Kurds are trying to encourage the world to understand that a decades-long process of genocide killed hundreds of thousands of people and that it remains a living legacy that affected almost all people in a region just twice the size of Wales, or about the same size as Holland.
The possibility, as rightly red-lined by President Obama, that the beleaguered Assad regime in Syria could use chemical weapons in its desperate efforts to remain in power is a horrific reminder of the use of toxic bombs by another Ba'athist regime in neighbouring Iraq.
It is no secret that the majority of Kurds, if not in fact, all of them, would love to see an independent Kurdistan. And the easiest way for a Kurdish politician to become popular is to call for an independent state.
The twelve women waltzed on stage with dazzling smiles and posture, not in Bikinis or mini-skirts but traditional Kurdish dresses. 18-year-old Shene Ako Aziz was crowned as Miss Kurdistan from Slemani, she was selected by a panel of judges that included Professor Shukria Rasoul, Dr. Farhad Pirbal, Dina Hayek, Dr. adder Sa'ab.
We realise that genocide is understood by most to be the gravest crime against humanity it is possible to commit, and that it is no small thing to ask the British government to recognise our treatment under Saddam as genocide.
In 2011 Iraqi authorities uncovered a mass grave in the central city of Diwaniyah which are believed to be corpses of Kurds who were killed under Saddam Hussein's rule.
Some years back a young Iraqi Kurdish woman had to pass through Turkey but knew that talking Kurdish or mentioning Kurdistan could be awkward. The problem was that her first name was Kurdistan. When asked her name at passport control she tried to evade the query but finally blurted out "Northern Iraq" - the Turkish alternative to the dreaded K word.
Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician and member of Peace and Democracy party in Turkey. She has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Diyarbakir's High Court for nine speeches she has made between 2007 and 2008.
We keep saying that UK Plc should help its economic prospects by exporting our goods and services and investing in places with a pent-up demand for quality. One such place, which has been impossible to access for many years but is now increasingly open to us, is the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
My Nest In Kurdistan is a reflection of the current state of Kurdish youth, their thoughts as the semi-autonomous region progresses and their aspirations.
Muslim youth in Southern Kurdistan staged a protest against what they perceived to be a blasphemous article published in a local magazine about Islam. Hundreds of youth took to the streets in the city of Hewlêr, some of them burnt down shops that sold alcohol, while others tried to storm governmental institutions.
