Fréderike Geerdink - independent journalist

Political calculations to predict the end of the Sulaymaniyah airport closure

14/01/2019/in Other /by Fanack

Will the airport of Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, re-open later this January? The rumours have started. A re-opening would end a fifteen-month air siege imposed on the city by Turkey, and revive the Sulaymaniyah area’s damaged economy.

The damage to the airport alone has already been calculated at 20,000 dollars per day, Haval Abubaker, the governor of Sulaymaniyah, has said. He added: ‘And that is of course not the only economic damage that the city and the region face due to the airport closure. Prices for consumers go up, tourism is down.’

Continue reading at Fanack.

Iraqi Kurds hope Erdoğan will lift ban Sulaymaniyah flights after meeting Iraq president

01/01/2019/in Other /by Ahval

Iraqi Kurdish authorities hope a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iraqi President Barham Salih this month will lead to Turkey lifting a more than one-year ban on international flights crossing its airspace to land at Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

Turkey imposed the ban on flights to Sulaymaniyah in the southeast of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Erbil, in the northwest, in September 2017 after the region voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence in a non-binding referendum. Turkey vehemently opposed the vote fearing it could boost calls for self-rule among its own restive Kurdish population.

Continue reading at Ahval.

7 years later, Roboski families cling to fading hope

27/12/2018/in Other /by Ahval

Veli Encü remembers clearly what he vowed to himself, what all the devastated villagers vowed to themselves on that tragic night seven years ago: they would fight for truth and justice for as long as it took, and never give up.

Encü maintains that vow today, after a year that has been especially difficult for the families who lost their sons and husbands to Turkish army bombs on Dec. 28, 2011.

After years of failed court cases in Turkey, they took their case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) – and were rejected. “Still, we will not give up until those responsible for the massacre are punished,” says Encü, the spokesperson for the families seeking justice for their lost loved ones since that tragic night.

Continue reading at Ahval.