Kurds – Breakthrough Research on the “Greater Israel” Project – Cracking the Code

Kurds – Breakthrough Research on the “Greater Israel” Project – Cracking the Code the Intro

Intro by Jim Condit Jr. – We believe that this information may be so “hot” that we’ve published it in “rough” form just to get the information out there.

This research indicates that, dating back to 1590, at least the leaders of the Kurds were crypto-Jews, meaning Jews who hide their identity under another identity, in this case generally presenting themselves to the world as “Muslims.”

Incredibly, the current leaders of the Kurds, the Barzani aka Barazani family, were also the leaders in the Kurdish community in Iraq stretching back to 1590, constituting a kind of dynasty of this “people without a country” like the Romanovs in Russia or the Hapsburgs in Europe. In addition, Israel gets 3/4’s of its oil from the Kurds!

One example: “Asenath Barzani, also Asenath Barazani (1590–1670) the daughter of the eminent Rabbi Samuel HaLevi Barzani, was a renowned Kurdish Jewish woman who lived in Mosul, Iraq. Her writings showed her mastery of Hebrew, Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah. She is considered the first female rabbi of Jewish history by some scholars; additionally, she is the oldest recorded female Kurdish leader in history.”

Additionally: Infamous terrorist and founder of the Likud Party of Israel, Menachem Begin, requested in his will that he be buried on Mount Olive in Israel next to terrorist Moshe Barazani, an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew with the Stern Gang (June 14, 1926 – April 21, 1947).

The Kurds are presented to the world by the Jewish Shadow-Government-controlled major TV Networks in the United States as downtrodden nomads who wander through the desert in search of food while being heavily and unjustly persecuted by the governments of the region, especially the government of Saddam Hussein until it was toppled by the Israeli-orchestrated US invasion of Iraq which launched in 2003.

The truth is far different. The reader will be shocked at how well the Kurds are funded by the hi-jacked US government. This research indicates that the Kurds are now a leading element in the “Greater Israel” project, i.e., the effort to expand modern day Israel’s borders to the Biblical borders described in the Old Testament and mentioned in the Prophecy of Assyria.

In our opinion, the 9-11 False Flag terror attacks in 2001 were designed primarily, as regards foreign policy, to trick the United States into the Mideast to “fight Muslim terrorists” when the primary purpose was to enable the worldwide, organized Jewish Shadow government to direct the US military in toppling one Arab and/or Muslim government after another to eventually make way for the expanded borders of “Greater Israel.”

Please take a look at this blockbuster research by Nicky Nelson and spread this post far and wide, even though the article is in unfinished form.
will-president-trump-find-the-kurd-in-the-punch-bowl-copyKurdistan appears to be an oil-rich, strategically located expansionist project of Greater Israel. A separate region in Iraq has been in the making for decades, even centuries and the chaos, invasions, occupations and illegal wars based on lies and false flag attacks, including 9/11, has helped this “people without a home” carve out valuable land and resources for themselves using parts of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey.

Although the Kurds represent a small percentage of the population in their host countries, they have been wreaking havoc in these countries for decades; demanding more and more land and resources and their own governments inside these sovereign countries using subversion, terrorism, wars and just recently their own fully-funded propaganda machine.

Currently, the Kurds are engaged in terrorism and land theft in all of their host countries simultaneously. Google the Kurds and Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey and it’s hard to imagine where in the world they are getting all of the funding to support so many multifaceted operations.

kurdistan-borders-copy

Text from the Fast Facts image above:

• According to the media and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, the Kurds are a people without a home
• Israel and the Kurds continue to be the direct benefactors of false flags, ongoing terrorism and wars in the Middle East
• In spite of the media’s propaganda Kurdistan is not a country or state. It is an expansionist project for Greater Israel
• In 2013, the Kurds declared an autonomous (independent) government in Syria and previously in Iraq (let that sink in)
• The Kurds were on the US Terrorist List for attacking their host countries as Hillary Clinton treasonously funded and armed the Peshmerga under the pretext of saving trapped Christians from ISIS beheadings in Iraq in August of 2014
• WikiLeak’s “most significant” Podesta email #3774 substantiates this fact; this is the same email that stated the Saudis and Qatar were funding ISIS (purportedly the U.S. funneling money through these countries to ISIS)
• The Kurdish Peshmerga are brutal gorilla-type fighters, trained and armed by Israel and the CIA since the 1960’s
• According to a recent study at Hebrew University, the Jews are most likely the closest genetic relatives to the Kurds
• Israel, the US, Britain and France helped the Kurds carve out land for themselves in parts of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey; expanding Kurd territory with the NO-FLY ZONE strategy in Iraq in 1991 (as they are attempting to do in Syria right now)
• Kurdistan is part of the Greater Israel Project: The ONLY reason for the invasions of Iraq, Syria, 9/11 & the War on Terror

Podesta email #3774, dated August 17, 2014

[Form id=”12″]

Please see my previous article, originally published on August 18, 2014, on Falastinews “U.S. Securing Iraq for Israel & Collecting 9 Billion in Oil Revenues for Terrorists?”

 

U.S. Securing Iraq for Israel & Collecting 9 Billion in Oil Revenues for Terrorists?



 


“Greater Israel”: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East

The Infamous “Oded Yinon Plan”

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) advisory board includes such notable figures as Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, and R. James Woolsey, while Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Representative to the United Nations John Bolton, and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith were all on JINSA’s Board of Advisors BEFORE they entered the Bush administration!
Jason Vest, writing in The Nation, alleges that JINSA, along with Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy, are “underwritten by far-right American Zionists” and both believe strongly that “‘regime change’ by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent imperative.”


kurdistan-president-massoud-barzani-expanding-territory-copy

In the struggle to keep Iraq sovereign, Sadam Hussein fought the Kurds for decades, but after much blood shed and fierce fighting, he eventually granted the Kurds a semi-autonomous Kurdish region in 1970.  By 1991, the Kurds were a clear and present danger to Iraq’s sovereignty, with continued land grabs, bringing in foreign spies from America, Israel, and other foreign governments via NGO’s, the UN and other “humanitarian” organizations. The No-Fly Zone in 1991 enabled the Kurds to expand their territory exponentially.

By 2003 President Saddam Hussein was pushing back against the Kurds terrorism and land grabs, enter the U.S. Military’s invasion and war machine in March of 2013 based on the lie about President Saddam Hussein possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction and the ability to attack the U.S. in 45-minutes (need the person who gave this bogus Intel as he is key).

No weapons of mass destruction of any kind were found in Iraq and no Iraqis were involved in 911, so why were we attacking Iraq? Millions of innocent Iraqis were murdered, tortured and displaced and approximately 5,000 U.S. soldiers’ lives lost. President Bush would later laugh and joke about this mass murder in public at a media dinner in Washington, DC in 2005.

Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Reacts to George W. Bush Joking About the Missing WMDs

See more here: Amy Goodman with Democracy Now: https://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/26/family_of_slain_soldier_calls_bush

operation-red-dawn
In December of 2013, the U.S. Military launched Operation Red Dawn with the help of the Kurdish Peshmerga, which ultimately led to the capture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. President Hussein would later be held accountable for purported genocide and war crimes against the Kurdish terrorists, in spite of testimony contradicting this accusation.

* Operation Red Dawn was an American military operation conducted on 13 December 2003 in the town of ad-Dawr, Iraq, near Tikrit, that led to the capture of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

 

 


THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE DEATH AND  DESTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST !!!

israel-oil-copyThe Kurds have done well for themselves and their partners in these besieged countries. In fact, the Kurds were shipping oil to Israel in spite of boycotts in the region due to the continued genocide of the Palestinian people and rampant expansion projects like the building of illegal Jewish settlements under International Law.

In May of 2016, Christopher Bollyn wrote “The Rothschilds own the largest oil company in Iraqi Kurdistan and, along with Rupert Murdoch and others, an oil company in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The legal challenges they face to exploiting the mineral resources of the Golan Heights would vanish if Syria ceased to exist as a nation.
The United States is certainly not waging war in Syria for any noble cause or U.S. national interest. The evidence and results indicate that the U.S. is waging war in Syria in order to advance the Zionist strategy of breaking up the Arab states into weak ethnic statelets, but this is a policy that will only increase terrorism, not defeat it.” Source: Christopher Bollyn – Why is the U.S. Waging War in Syria? – May 4, 2016


 


The Zionist Strategy to Balkanize Iraq

[Form id=”10″]

 


kurdistan-the-other-iraq

Kurdistan and Dubai exchange ideas at conference March 15, 2007 | KRG Cabinet The conference was sponsored by the Kurdistan Regional Government, the US Department of Commerce, as well as several private companies.

The fact that KURDISTAN is not a state or country at all seems of little consequence to Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani whose family ties go back decades to Israel. They have an embassy, a race car, and are building the new Dubai. After all this time, we can finally see some light at the end of the Greater Israel tunnel, now we know that all of the death and destruction is paying off for the Kurds and Israel. Approximately 2 million Iraqis have been murdered, along with their neighbor Syrians killed and displaced and approximately 40,000 dead in Turkey due to the Kurd’s struggle for their own state.

They’re not there yet, but with a fully-funded propaganda campaign in place, and an estimated 70,000 million mutant Christian Zionists and their rich churches behind them, they just might be on the cusp of success!

 


 kurdistan-president-massoud-barzani-expanding-territory-copy

Masoud Barzani,President of Kurdistan Region

 [Form id=”14″]


 


Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Published online: February 1, 2004
Abstract

In this article I offer two versions of the Kurdistani folk-tale ‘Khajo and Syabando’ in Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic, one of the rarest and most highly endangered modern Aramaic languages, spoken in Israel by no more than twenty elderly Jews from the regions of Barzan and ʕAqra in Iraqi Kurdistan. Three dialects of this language were discovered during the years 1996–2000: Barzan, Shahe and B[ecy ]jil. The latter dialect is already extinct. The narratives that served for the texts were furnished by two speakers of the Barzan dialect. The texts are accompanied by observations related to etymology, comparative dialectology, vocabulary and various aspects of grammar.

In this article I offer two versions of the Kurdistani folk-tale ‘Khajo and Syabando’ in Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic, one of the rarest and most highly endangered modern Aramaic languages, spoken in Israel by no more than twenty elderly Jews from the regions of Barzan and ʕAqra in Iraqi Kurdistan. Three dialects of this language were discovered during the years 1996–2000: Barzan, Shahe and B[ecy ]jil. The latter dialect is already extinct. The narratives that served for the texts were furnished by two speakers of the Barzan dialect. The texts are accompanied by observations related to etymology, comparative dialectology, vocabulary and various aspects of grammar.

Also see: Speakers of Jewish Neo-Aramaic migrated to Israel in the 1950s, and most of them started speaking Hebrew instead of the native language.

Barzani family photos with President of Israel: Zalman Shazar

presidentzalmarzalman-and-barzani

zalman-and-barzani-2

zalman-shazar-and-masoud-barzari

 

Witness: Betrayal of the Kurds: BBC

 

nechirvan-barzani


Tombs of Moshe Barazani & Meir Feinstein on Mount of Olives beside infamous terrorist and founder of the Likud Party, Menachem Begin

menachem-begin-and-tomb


Moshe Barazani, also Barzani (Hebrew: משה ברזני; June 14, 1926 – April 21, 1947),[1] was an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew and a member of Lehi “Stern Gang” underground movement in pre-state Mandate Palestine during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine. He is most notable for having committed suicide with a hand grenade together with Meir Feinstein, another Jewish underground fighter under sentence of death, shortly before their scheduled executions, and is memorialized in Israel today as one of the Olei Hagardom.

 

moshe-barazani

Moshe Barazani, also Barzani (Hebrew: משה ברזני; June 14, 1926 – April 21, 1947),[1] was an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew with the Stern Gang

On April 21, 1947, a few hours before their scheduled execution by hanging in the Jerusalem Central Prison in the Russian Compound, now the Museum of the Underground Prisoners, could be carried out, he and his friend and fellow prisoner Moshe Barazani blew themselves up with a grenade that had been smuggled to them in a hollowed-out orange.The story of Feinstein and Barazani became one of the most famous tales in the history of Zionism.[3]

Menachem Begin was so moved by the deeds of the two terrorists, he requested to be buried next to them on the Mount of Olives, in his will and he was.[4]

 

 


kurdistan-is-feasible-with-chaos

 

 

 


History of the Jews in Kurdistan

Ottoman era

Tanna’it Asenath Barzani, who lived in Mosul from 1590 to 1670, was the daughter of Rabbi Samuel Barzani of Kurdistan. She later married Jacob Mizrahi Rabbi of Amadiyah (in Iraqi Kurdistan) who lectured at a yeshiva.[12] She was famous for her knowledge of the Torah, Talmud, Kabbalah and Jewish law. After the early death of her husband, she became the head of the yeshiva at Amadiyah, and eventually was recognized as the chief instructor of Torah in Kurdistan. She was called tanna’it (female Talmudic scholar), practiced mysticism, and was reputed to have known the secret names of God.[13] Asenath is also well known for her poetry and excellent command of the Hebrew language. She wrote a long poem of lament and petition in the traditional rhymed metrical form. Her poems are among the few examples of the early modern Hebrew texts written by women.[14]

Immigration of Kurdish Jews to the Land of Israel initiated during the late 16th century, with a community of rabbinic scholars arriving to Safed, Galilee, and a Kurdish Jewish quarter had been established there as a result. The thriving period of Safed however ended in 1660, with Druze power struggles in the region and an economic decline. Read more below.

[Form id=”13″]


Saddam Hussein and Masoud Barzani meeting on 10 March 1970, before the signing of the Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement of 1970 on 11 March.

iraqi-kurdish_autonomy_agreement_1970

Saddam Hussein and Masoud Barzani meeting on 10 March 1970, before the signing of the Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement of 1970 on 11 March.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Iraqi_Kurdistan


 

 


Israel’s Netanyahu calls for supporting Kurdish independence

Israel’s Netanyahu publicly called for Kurdish independence at the end of June 2014. Less than 2 months later, on August 18, 2014, Karwan Zabari of the Kurdistan Regional Government out of Washington, DC declared on cSpan that the US was going into Iraq to collect 9 Billion dollars in oil revenues for the Kurds that belonged to Baghdad, Iraq.

It is my understanding that there were provisions in the Iraqi Constitution at some point that entitled the Kurds to about 17% of the oil revenues (for the area of Iraq they took for themselves).

Operation Red Dawn, an American military operation conducted on the 13th of December 2003 in the town of ad-Dawr, Iraq, near Tikrit, that led to the capture of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, helped the Kurds expand their power exponesially.

Sadam Hussein now gone and ISIS fully funded and wreaking havoc in the countries the U.S. was willing to go to war with (for no real reason) the Kurds and Israel have been the real winners of this ongoing terrorism and wars in the Middle East. Sounds like the kind of good fortune Israel and Lucky Larry Silverstein experienced after 9/11.

 

Installed their own Kurdish President ousting previously installed CIA operative Al Maliki—————–


 

 


Kongra-Gel (KGK) / Kurdistan People’s Congress / PKK

The Kurdistan People’s Congress (KGK, formerly the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK) is a Kurdish separatist group primarily active in part of northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. Composed mostly of Turkish Kurds, the group in 1984 began a campaign of armed violence, including terrorism, which has resulted in over 45,000 deaths. In late 2003, PKK sought to engineer another political face-lift, renaming the group Kongra-Gel (KGK) and brandishing its “peaceful” intentions, while continuing to commit attacks and refuse disarmament. The organization was said to be involved in drug trafficking and acts of terrorism in Turkey, and it frequently changes its name. Turkey’s struggle against the Kongra-Gel/PKK was marked by increased violence across Turkey in 2005. In the Southeast, Turkish security forces were active in the struggle against the Kongra-Gel/PKK. There were a number of bombings and attempted bombings in resort areas in western Turkey and Istanbul. A Kurdish separatist…

Kongra-Gel (KGK) / Kurdistan People’s Congress / PKK, also known as KADEK, KHK, Kongra-Gel (KGK), Kongreya Azadi u Demokrasiya Kurdistan, Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, Kurdistan People’s Conference, The People’s Congress of Kurdistan, Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan or Parti Karkerani Kurdistan (PKK), Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is an active group formed c. 1978.

Source: http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/kongra-gel-kgk-kurdistan-people%E2%80%99s-congress-pkk


Current Kurdish Terrorism in Host Countries

Turkish security forces have continued extending a concrete security barrier on the country’s border with Syria to to enhance security and prevent cross-border incursions by Kurdish terrorists. The Kurds continue to blur the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria using terrorism in order to facilitate the balkanization of the middle east for Israel and the profitable U.S. War Machine’s profiteers.

salih-muslim-arrest-warrant-by-turkeyThe Kurds, like the Zionists, have a long history of subversion, land theft, terrorism and attacking their host countries. Reuters and the New York Times reported on February 18, 2016 that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey blamed Kurdish militia groups Y.P.G. (also known as P.Y.D.) and P.K.K., for a car bombing that killed 28 people in the country’s capital.

In November of 2016, Turkey issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim Muhammad and other Kurdish terrorists for the attacks.


Jun. 29, 2014 | 0:55

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voices support for Kurdish statehood, as Iraq reels from a radical Sunni insurgency

Video Source: New York Times

 


What fate awaits Kurds fighting for the Islamic State?

Kurds joining ISIS:

The link to the Rudaw website says 800 Kurds from Iran and 500 Kurds from the KRG have joined in 2013 and 2014. The article also says a significant number of Kurds from Turkey have joined. We’re talking 2000 plus, which is not insignificant.


 

Attempts to go to war with Syria (need to reference the previous attempt by the US to go into Syria, but due to public opinion and threats from Russia, their plan was temporarily thwarted) Ray McGovern gave an interview about this…

 

Published on Mar 28, 2014

Abby Martin Breaks the Set on Two Professional Trolls, Turkey’s False Flag Threat, West Bank Violence, and the Future of the Mind.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN: On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin gives a shout out to David Frum, Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ Speech writer for watching the show and sharing it. Abby then talks about a leaked conversation between Turkish officials discussing a planned false flag operation to justify starting a war with Syria.

 

Interview with Martine Dennis with Al Jazeer June of 2014 – A hard-hitting interview where Martine asks all the right questions about Kurdistan taking advantage of a bad situation in order to expand their territory and take Iraqi’s resources.

 


isis-destroying-artifacts

“ISIS destroying artifacts – ancient idols that God instructed the Israelite leaders to destroy” – Source: Pat Robertson’s show 700 Club

 


 

rothschild_and_murdochCheck this out from Bollyn Jim…


Pat Robertson Pretty Jazzed About How ISIS Terrorists Are Pulling End Times Prophecy Together
By Doktor Zoom –
August 28, 2014 – 3:35pm

Pat Robertson Pretty Jazzed About How ISIS Terrorists Are Pulling End Times Prophecy Together

“ISIS is a bunch of unstoppable murderous thugs trying to drag the Middle East into a New Medieval Order, and Pat Robertson couldn’t be more tickled by the prospect. You see, children, Brother Pat is excited by their goal of unifying Iraq, Syria, and chunks of Egypt into a radical Islamist caliphate, because he’s pretty sure that would fulfill a prophecy from Isaiah 19:

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

And by golly, doesn’t that just sound a heck of a lot like what’s happening right now? No? Well you just don’t know prophecy the way Pat Robertson does. Here, let Pat Biblesplain it for you: While Assyria no longer exists, and its peoples were scattered to the winds (Yossarian was the last know Assyrian), Pat Robertson sees no reason why it can’t be stitched back together to help God bring about the End Times. And if it has to be brought back into existence by a weird bunch of Islamist rednecks who’ve spent the last five years in the desert eating bark, bugs, lizards and leaves and imbibing pure Salaafist interpretations of the Koran, then that’s fine. After all, the prophecy says that they’ll turn to the LORD, and once ISIS reunifies all those territories, the international community could swoop in with some helicopters and bring them together, since they’d “play nice” with everyone (this should be all you need to see to know that Pat Robertson knows nothing about the Kurds, who are kind of into the fierce self-determination thing). But that’s Pat’s plan:

pick up the Kurds in Iran, pick up the Kurds in Turkey, pick up the Kurds in Syria, and pick up the Kurds in Iraq, and call it “Assyria” … and let them encompass current Syria and current Iraq and we would be fulfilling Bible prophecy, and it might well happen … Was that prophetic or I’m just playing games?

 



A New History is beginning in Erbil, don’t you know?

 

Search the Site:


The forced conversion of the Jewish community of Persia and the beginnings of the Kurds 

The Assyrian & Babylonian Exiles

A significant majority of the Ten Tribes of Israel who constituted the northern Kingdom of Israel during the Biblical Period were taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 721-715 BCE.  They were deported to areas adjacent to the place of exile: Media, Assyira and Mesopotamia.  This area is roughly what is today called Kurdistan.The Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II 604-561 BCE inherited the Assyrian Empire.  After his war and conquest of Judah, he also exiled many Jews to Babylon.  These new exiles, together with the members of the Ten Tribes exiled previously, constituted a large Jewish population.  Even when Cyrus permitted their return to Israel, many – especially the wealthy – remained in Babylon.  Certain towns, e.g. Nehardea, Nisibis, Mahoza, had an entirely Jewish population, and their position remained favorable during successive regimes. 

In the 1st century BCE a Jewish State was set up around Nehardea by two brothers, ANILAI (Anilaos) and ASINAI (Asinaios), and this lasted for many years.  The Jews of Babylon (Babylon was an empire which contained Kurdistan) remained in constant touch with the Jews of Israel and even supplied some of their leaders (e.g. Hillel) with arms and supplies.  During the Roman occupation, the Babylonian Jews rose against the emperor Trajan, the revolt being bloodily suppressed by his commander, Lucius Quietus (116 CE). 

Under Persian and Parthian rule, the Jews of Babylon (Kurdistan) enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy, being headed by an Exilarch (Exile Ruler).  This ruler was of Davidic descent and was the king’s representative. The community was governed by a council of elders.

Source: The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: Tribes, Lost Ten & Babylon
Chart: A History of the Jewish People, by H.H. Ben-Sasson, p140

The Jewish Roots of Kurdistan

The history of Judaism in Kurdistan is ancient. The Talmud holds that Jewish deportees were settled in Kurdistan 2800 years ago by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. As indicated in the Talmud, the Jews were given permission by the rabbinic authorities to allow conversion from the local population. They were exceptionally successful in their endeavor. The illustrious Kurdish royal house of Adiabene, with Arbil as its capital, was converted to Judaism in the course of the 1st century BCE, along with, it appears, a large number of Kurdish citizens in the kingdom (see Irbil/Arbil in Encyclopaedia Judaica). The name of the Kurdish king Monobazes (related etymologically to the name of the ancient Mannaeans), his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates (derived from yazata, “angel”), are preserved as the first proselytes of this royal house (Ginzberg 1968, VI.412). [But this is chronologically untenable as Monobazes’ effective rule began only in CE 18. In fact during the Roman conquest of Judea and Samaria (68-67 BCE), Kurdish Adiabene was the only country outside Israel that sent provisions and troops to the rescue of the besieged Galilee (Grayzel 1968, 163) – an inexplicable act if Adiabene was not already Jewish].

Many modern Jewish historians like Kahle (1959), who believes Adiabene was Jewish by the middle of the 1st century BCE, and Neusner (1986), who goes for the middle of the 1st century CE, have tried unsuccessfully to reconcile this chronological discrepancy. 

All agree that by the beginning of the 2nd century CE, at any rate, Judaism was firmly established in central Kurdistan.

Like many other Jewish communities, Christianity found Adiabene a fertile ground for conversion in the course of 4th and 5th centuries. Despite this, Jews remained a populous group in Kurdistan until the middle of the present century and the creation of the state of Israel. At home and in the synagogues, Kurdish Jews speak a form of ancient Aramaic called Suriyani (i.e., “Assyrian”), and in commerce and the larger society they speak Kurdish. Many aspects of Kurdish and Jewish life and culture have become so intertwined that some of the most popular folk stories accounting for Kurdish ethnic origins connect them with the Jews. 

The tombs of Biblical prophets like Nahum in Alikush, Jonah in Nabi Yunis (ancient Nineveh), Daniel in Kirkuk, Habakkuk in Tuisirkan, and Queen Esther and Mordechai in Hamadân, and several caves reportedly visited by Elijah are among the most important Jewish shrines in Kurdistan and are venerated by all Jews today.

Further Readings and Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica, entries on Kurds and Irbil/Arbil; Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 5th cd. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968); Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, vol. I (London, 1932); Yona Sabar, The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); Paul Magnaretta, “A Note on Aspects of Social Life among the Jewish Kurds of Sanandaj, Iran,” Jewish Journal of Sociology Xl.l (1969); Walter Fischel, “The Jews of Kurdistan,” Commentary VIII.6 (1949); Andre Cuenca, “L’oeuvre de I’Aflance Israelite Universelle en Iran,” in Les droits de I’education (Paris: UNESCO, 1960); Dina Feitelson, “Aspects of the Social Life of Kurdish Jews,” Jewish Journal of Sociology 1.2 (1910); Walter Fischel, “The Jews of Kurdistan, a Hundred Years Ago,” Jewish Social Studies (1944); Solomon Grayzel, A History of the Jews (New York: Mentor, 1968); Paul Kahle, The Cairo Geniza (Oxford, 1959); Jacob Neusner, ludaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism in Talmudic Babylonia (New York; University Press of America, 1986).

Source:  http://www.kurdish.com/kurdistan/religion/judaism.htm

Kurdistan the Birthplace of the Babylonian Talmud

Under the rule of the Jewish Queen Shlomis Alexandra (also known as Shlomtzion,  the widow of King Yannai, grandson of Judah the Maccabee) 76-66 BCE, and under the advice of her brother Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, the Pharisees (Rabbinical Jews) split with the Sadducees and other militant Jewish groups. Although the Pharisees opposed Roman rule, they preferred academic study to military revolt. In the years prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, this rift in approach to Rome increased to the point of open conflict with Rome and between the militants themselves.  The Hellenists sought to assimilate or appease Rome through adopting its culture.  The Pharisees sought to preserve the spiritual heritage of Judaism through academies and study.  The Herodians, Sadducees and their Jordanian converts plotted revolt.   Even though the first revolt resulted in the destruction of the Temple, there was some recovery.  The second revolt under Bar Kochba in 135 CE, however, was utterly crushed by Rome.  There was a Jewish majority in Israel for hundreds of years after this, but Israel as a autonomous political entity ceased to exist. 

After these events, the split became geographical.  The militant Jews headed south to Jordan and Southern Arabia, eventually founding the Jewish State of Himyar (the Biblical Sheba) in what is now Saudi Arabia and Yemen, still retaining the name “Iudean” or what has come down to us as “Jews”. They practiced a modified form of nationalistic Judaism that was eventually transformed into Islam by the Prophet Mohammed.  The Rabbinic Jews moved first east, then north and eventually to Babylon. 

Even after crushing the various Judean revolts, the Romans allowed the Pharisees to establish centers of learning in Yavneh (near modern Tel Aviv) and later in the Galilee and Golan heights.  The Roman conversion to Christianity under Constantine and its associated intolerance, combined with the military aggressions of the Jews of Southern Arabia led to a series of decrees essentially making Judaism an illegal religion. 

Babylon, specifically the area near what is now called Kurdistan, provided a safe haven for Rabbinic – but not militant – scholars.    The Babylonian Talmud reflects a society preponderantly based agriculture and crafts.  They were learned in Jewish Studies and had produced in the past the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Tobit.  At the beginning of the 3rd century CE, Babylon became the main center of Rabbinic studies. Academies were founded by R. Samuel at Nehardea and by Rav at Sura. In the later 3rd century, the academy of Pumpedita was founded to replace that at Nehardea (destroyed in 261 CE).  The importance of these communities was further enhanced with the abolition of the Israeli Patriarch (Local Ruler) in 425 CE, when Babylon became the spiritual center for all Jewry.

Chart: A History of the Jewish People, by H.H. Ben-Sasson, p381

Islamic Conquest and the Babylonian Jewish Community

Persecutions in the 5th century CE led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II.  This leader held out for 7 years, but was finally captured and killed.  The development of the Talmud was discontinued about this time.  The position of Jews continued to be difficult until the Arab conquest (7th century).  When the Arab conquest began in 637 CE, the large and ancient Jewish and convert community of Kurdistan favored and even assisted the Arab advance in the hope that it would afford them deliverance from Sassanid persecution.  Shortly after the Arab occupation some Jews expelled from the remains of the Jewish State in Himyar (what is now Saudi Arabia) settled in Kufa. The Jews were forced to convert by a series of discriminatory laws applied over the course of two centuries.  They suffered from the restrictions laid down by OMAR, and were excluded from public office.  Having no representation in government, unable to build any new schools or synagogues, subject to special taxes and occasional outbursts of religious violence — the peasant community largely converted by the end of the 9th century.  Because of heavy taxation on cultivated land, a unique change occurred in the Jewish community.  For the first time a small minority of Jews left agriculture and concentrated in the larger towns, especially Baghdad, Basra and Mosul where they became traders and craftsmen.  The peasants, however, intermarried and became the core of what we call today “The Kurds”.

Saladin al Ayyubi

When slah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was born in 1138 to a family of Kurdish adventurers in the ( now Iraqi ) town of Takrit, Islam was a confusion of squabbling warlords living under a Christian shadow. A generation before, European Crusaders had conquered Jerusalem, massacring its Muslim and Jewish habitants. The Franks, as they were called, then occupied four militarily aggressive states in the Holy Land. The great Syrian leader Nur al-Din predicted that expelling the invaders would require a holy war of sort that had propelled Islam’s first great wave half a millennium earlier, but given the treacherous regional crosscurrents, such a united front seemed unlikely.Saladin got his chance with the death, in 1169, of his uncle Shirkuh, a one-eyed, overweight brawler in Nur al-Din’s service who had become the facto leader of Egypt. A seasoned warrior despite his small stature and frailty, Saladin still had a tough hand to play. He was a Kurd (even then a drawback in Middle Eastern politics), and he was from Syria, a Sunni state, trying to rule Egypt, a Shiite country. But a masterly 17-year campaign employing diplomacy, the sword and great good fortune made him lord of Egypt, Syria and much of Mesopotamia. The lands bracketed the Crusader states, and their combined might made plausible Nur al-Din’s dream of a Muslim-Christian showdown.

Ed Note: Many oriental Jews fought alongside the Moslems to repulse the crusaders.

He conquered Jerusalem, and it became even more central to the faithful. Saladin’s family ruled less than 60 years longer, but his style of administration and his humane application of justice to both war and governance influenced Arab rulers for centuries. His tolerance was exemplary. He allowed Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem after its fall. The great Jewish sage Maimonides was his physician. 

Ed Note: He allowed Jews to flourish in Jerusalem and is credited for discovering the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple after being buried by garbage under years of Roman-Byzantine rule.

Source: http://www.krds.net/saladin.htm

“The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews”

by Kevin Alan Brook

Kurds are the Closest Relatives of Jews

In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people — more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested. The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6 populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations (including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese, Spaniards, Arabs, Armenians, and Anatolian Turks). Most of the 95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq. Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other. Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their diaspora. The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7 percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes — which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern European Christians — descend paternally from eastern Europeans (such as Slavs) or Khazars. But the majority of Ashkenazic Jews, who possess Eu 9 and other chromosomes, descend paternally from Judeans who lived in Israel two thousand years ago. In the article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins).

Source: http://www.barzan.com/kevin_brook.htm

Postscript

In spite of their conversion to Islam, the Kurds were never accepted as equals to other Islamic groups.  Islamic groups constantly feared a revival of the Jewish faith, and several Jewish pseudo-messiahs, such as Abu Issa Al-Isfahani c. 700 and Shabbetai Tzvi 16th CE looked to this community to “raise a Jewish Army to liberate Eretz Yisrael”.  Islamic end-times theologians saw the former as the model of the “antichrist” Dajjal coming from Isfahan accompanied by 70,000 “Jews”.  Thus Kurdistan’s role as heirs to the Ten Tribes of Israel and a community of immigrants and converts who grew up around the academies of the Babylonian Talmud – the source of non-militant, Rabbinic Judaism of today – was effectively and completely suppressed.This page was produced by Joseph E. Katz
Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst 
Brooklyn, New York 
E-mail to a friend

Offer: “From Time Immemorial” by Joan Peters, 1984
SPECIAL OFFER Purchase this national bestseller available at WorldNetDaily 
http://www.shopnetdaily.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=36

 

SPECIAL OFFER
Stark truth about Mideast history
Get Joan Peters’ milestone book on origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict
–WND

 

Portions Copyright © 1984 Joan Peters, Portions Copyright © 2001 Joseph Katz
All Rights Reserved

 


adamo 10-08-13, 22:31
The history of Judaism in Kurdistan is ancient. The Talmud holds that Jewish deportees were settled in Kurdistan 2800 years ago by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. As indicated in the Talmud, the Jews were given permission by the rabbinic authorities to allow conversion from the local population. They were exceptionally successful in their endeavor. The illustrious Kurdish royal house of Adiabene, with Arbil as its capital, was converted to Judaism in the course of the 1st century BCE, along with, it appears, a large number of Kurdish citizens in the kingdom (see Irbil/Arbil in Encyclopaedia Judaica).
The name of the Kurdish king Monobazes (related etymologically to the name of the ancient Mannaeans), his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates (derived from yazata, “angel”), are preserved as the first proselytes of this royal house (Ginzberg 1968, VI.412). [But this is chronologically untenable as Monobazes’ effective rule began only in CE 18. In fact during the Roman conquest of Judea and Samaria (68-67 BCE), Kurdish Adiabene was the only country outside Israel that sent provisions and troops to the rescue of the besieged Galilee (Grayzel 1968, 163) – an inexplicable act if Adiabene was not already Jewish].Many modern Jewish historians like Kahle (1959), who believes Adiabene was Jewish by the middle of the 1st century BCE, and Neusner (1986), who goes for the middle of the 1st century CE, have tried unsuccessfully to reconcile this chronological discrepancy.All agree that by the beginning of the 2nd century CE, at any rate, Judaism was firmly established in central Kurdistan.Like many other Jewish communities, Christianity found Adiabene a fertile ground for conversion in the course of 4th and 5th centuries. Despite this, Jews remained a populous group in Kurdistan until the middle of the present century and the creation of the state of Israel. At home and in the synagogues, Kurdish Jews speak a form of ancient Aramaic called Suriyani (i.e., “Assyrian”), and in commerce and the larger society they speak Kurdish. Many aspects of Kurdish and Jewish life and culture have become so intertwined that some of the most popular folk stories accounting for Kurdish ethnic origins connect them with the Jews.The tombs of Biblical prophets like Nahum in Alikush, Jonah in Nabi Yunis (ancient Nineveh), Daniel in Kirkuk, Habakkuk in Tuisirkan, and Queen Esther and Mordechai in Hamadân, and several caves reportedly visited by Elijah are among the most important Jewish shrines in Kurdistan and are venerated by all Jews today.Kurds are the Closest Relatives of JewsIn 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people — more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested. The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6 populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations (including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese, Spaniards, Arabs, Armenians, and Anatolian Turks). Most of the 95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq. Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other. Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their diaspora. The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7 percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes — which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern European Christians — descend paternally from eastern Europeans (such as Slavs) or Khazars. But the majority of Ashkenazic Jews, who possess Eu 9 and other chromosomes, descend paternally from Judeans who lived in Israel two thousand years ago. In the article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins).
adamo10-08-13, 22:41
According to this, it would appear that Jews are connected heavily to Kurds. In fact, the northern Iraqi province of adiabene (centred around modern day Nineveh) was Jewish (Kurdish to be more precise) and helped the judaeans/Canaanites. This district was situated between the Lycus and Caprus rivers.
sparkey 12-08-13, 19:07

Please give an original citation instead of copy+pasting. Are you getting these from here (http://www.kurdistanica.com/?q=book/export/html/105) and here (http://www.2001translation.com/Kurds_and_Jews.htm)?

The proposal these two articles seem to suggest is that Kurds are closely related to Jews, largely because of the conversion of the rulers of Adiabene.

To begin with, the 2001 conclusion that Jews and Kurds are incredibly closely related is not supported by later, more detailed autosomal studies, like this one from Dodecad (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ish7688voT0/TR8ox_MI6qI/AAAAAAAADIE/zEcyBpR0U8s/s1600/MDS1600.png). That study showed that different Jewish groups often did not cluster particularly closely, often tending more toward their host populations. Iraqi Jews in that study clustered closest to Syrian Arabs and Lebanese Arabs, with a slight tilt toward Assyrians. Kurds clustered closest to Iranians, and were closer to Georgians and Turks than to any Jewish population (although Uzbek Jews are not that much farther away).

But beyond that, the idea that the conversion of the rulers of Adiabene could affect modern Kurdish populations is a bit farfetched. The rulers of Adiabene were likely Iranic, but not likely Kurdish in particular; more likely, they were Median or Mannaean in origin (i.e. cousins of Kurds only). The common people were probably largely Assyrian; the ancestors of the Kurds at that time were much more likely to have lived to the north, probably in Corduene. The rulers of Adiabene are thought to have fled to modern Iranian Azerbaijan before the Kurds settled near Nineveh in large numbers. So regardless of whether Jewish input is being proposed for the rulers of Adiabene only, or if that input is being proposed to have extended to the common people, we wouldn’t expect the conversion of the rulers of Adiabene to have influenced any modern Kurdish/Jewish kinship.

Source: http://www.eupedia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-28952.html

 


 

Info from the Kurd Research Info file:

 


Kurdish President Barzani interviewed on Kurdish, Iraqi issues

BBC Monitoring

Text of report by Al-Jazirah Satellite Channel Television 1432 gmt 6 Jan 06

Al-Jazeera Television at 1432 gmt on 6 January carries within its “Today’s Encounter” programme a recorded 30-minute interview with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Mas’ud Barzani by moderator Yusuf al-Sharif. The date and place of the interview are not given.

Al-Sharif begins the interview with Barzani by noting that at a sensitive time, when everybody in Iraq was preparing for the legislative elections and amid differences among Iraqi political entities, parties and electoral lists, “you made a tour of a number of important Western capitals, including Washington, London, Berlin, Vienna, Rome and the Vatican, in your capacity as the Iraqi Kurdistan Region president”.

(Barzani also met with a Vatican official in 2015)

Asked if the purpose of the tour at that particular time was “to secure international recognition of the Kurdish entity”, Barzani says that he visited these countries and met with their leaders or senior officials, particularly President Bush and Tony Blair. He also says that the aim of the tour was “to explain the viewpoint of Kurdistan’s Kurds to US and European leaders and to stress the key role of the Kurds in building a new federal, democratic, pluralist Iraq, as well as our commitment to the Iraqi constitution, which was approved by the majority of the Iraqi people”.

Asked why he did not visit neighbouring countries in his capacity as the Iraqi Kurdistan Region president, Barzani says: “A year ago, I visited the capitals of regional countries such as Tehran, Ankara and Damascus, and I remember that I saw you in Ankara.”

Al-Sharif notes, however: “You visited the said capitals [but] not as the Iraqi Kurdistan Region president.”

Responding, Barzani says: “I have not received any invitation from the neighbouring countries in my capacity as the Iraqi Kurdistan Region president.”

Asked whether these countries have any reservations about the gains that the Kurds made following the war, Barzani says: “We have not been officially informed of any reservations, apart from what we heard on the Turkish media.”

Al-Sharif says many people believe that “the Kurds in Iraq have realized many of their demands thanks to the presence of foreign forces, including the US forces, in the country,” adding that Kurds are also said to be seeking “to win as much as possible before the US withdrawal”.

Responding, Barzani says: “Western support falls within the framework of the Iraqi constitution.”

Asked if the Kurds are holding negotiations with the West over regional issues, Barzani says: “This is what I have done with President Bush, Tony Blair and other European officials who expressed support for the rights of the Kurdistan people in accordance with the Iraqi constitution.”

Al-Sharif says: “I ask you this question because media organs have recently quoted Kurdish officials on the Kurdish people’s right to have an independent state. I pose this question to discover if this issue was discussed with major powers.”

Responding, Barzani says: “Frankly, we did not tackle this issue during our meetings with US and European officials. As officials in Kurdistan say, this is a natural right, and the Kurds should not be deprived of their right to self-determination. This psychological barrier should be broken.”

Asked if the Kurds have reversed their demand for a referendum on the right to self-determination, Barzani says: “Self-determination for the Kurdish people is a legitimate right and we will never go back on it.”

Asked if the Kurds prefer to achieve that goal in agreement with the rest of Iraq, Barzani says: “At this stage, the Kurdistan parliament has decided that the Kurdistan people have the right to self-determination within the framework of a federal, democratic and pluralist Iraq and in accordance with the constitution.”

Asked about his priorities as Kurdistan Region president, Barzani says: “Regarding Iraq, our priority is to improve the security situation, to bring about accord between the main components of the Iraqi people, and to see a national government enjoying a broad popular base in the aftermath of the elections. Regarding Kurdistan, our priority is to build a strong infrastructure in the Kurdistan Region.”

On whether he expects an amendment to the constitution following the formation of the new National Assembly, Barzani says: “Some provisions can be discussed without this, on condition that they do not encroach on our constant and basic principles.”

Al-Sharif notes that the Kurds ran for the elections in a unified list and won large-scale support in the Kurdistan Region, and he asks if the Kurdistan Islamic Union withdrew from the list as a result of the Duhok disturbances.

Responding, Barzani says: “We wish the brothers in the Islamic Union had not left the Kurdistan Alliance List and decided to run for the elections on an independent list. However, this is normal and we have no objection to that.”

Asked if this will affect the Kurds’ power in the National Assembly, Barzani says: “Although the brothers in the Islamic Union formed an independent list, they will join the Kurdistan Alliance following the elections.”

Asked if the Duhok attack has anything to do with the Islamic Union’s withdrawal from the alliance, Barzani says: “We condemned what happened” and “an investigation committee has been formed to look into the issue”.

Asked if he expects a Lebanese-like sectarian system to prevail in Iraq, Barzani says “this is the state of affairs in Iraq”, adding that Iraq “has been divided on sectarian and ethnic lines”.

Asked if he expects major problems in forming a national unity government, Barzani says: “This will not be an easy process, but I believe that a broad-based national government will be formed.”

Asked if the Kurds will remain in the opposition if they fail to reach an agreement with the other parties over the components of the forthcoming government, Barzani says: “The government will succeed if the Kurds remain in the opposition,” adding that “the Kurds will enter into an alliance with other parties following the elections”.

Al-Sharif notes that Kurds and Arabs live in harmony in Iraq, that they have a joint history and culture, and that people say the Iraqi Kurds are not interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and US attempts to spread its hegemony across the region.

Responding, Barzani says: “This is not true. Regrettably, the real image of the Kurds is not known well in the Arab region. First, Iraq is made up of two principal ethnicities called the Kurdistan Region and the Arab Region. Second, throughout the history of the Kurdish liberation movement, we never raised a single slogan against Arab interests or the Arab nation. Even in the great national September Revolution in Kurdistan, the central slogan was democracy for Iraq and self-rule for Kurdistan. At all stages we have defended the Arab causes. But regrettably, when the Al-Anfal chemical attack targeted our villages, we did not hear any Arab voice defending the Kurdish people. We did not hear any official Arab condemnation of those unjust, inhuman measures against the Kurdistan people.” He adds that after the fall of the former regime, the Kurds put all their capabilities at the disposal of the other brothers “to build a new federal, democratic and pluralist Iraq”.

Asked if the Kurds stick to the Iraqi Arab position on pan-Arab issues, Barzani says: “We are not against Iraq’s commitment to the Arab homeland and the Arab countries, but the question is: are the Arab countries committed to their causes and to the Palestinian people’s cause?”

Asked about Turkish, Arab and even US press reports on the presence of Israeli intelligence agents in the Kurdistan Region, Barzani says: “The Kurds are in a special situation and have the freedom to establish relations with others, although we are part of the Iraqi state. We will not establish diplomatic relations with any country that would conflict with Iraq’s diplomatic relations.” He says that the reported presence of Israelis in Kurdistan “has become a trite subject and is viewed as a blackmail, which we reject”, adding: “We do not consider relations with Israel a crime because most of the Arab countries have relations with Israel. If such relations are a crime, let the Arab countries sever their relations with Israel and then call on non-Arabs to sever their relations with Israel. There are no Israeli forces, trainers or companies in Kurdistan.”

Asked in whose interest these rumours are reported, Barzani says: “We have nothing to do with them.”

Al-Sharif notes that the Turkish Staff Command and the Turkish Foreign Ministry have called for adapting to the new situation in the Kurdistan Region and asks if the Turkish position towards the Iraqi Kurds has begun to change. Barzani replies: “We are aware of these positive trends; we will deal with them positively and we hope that relations and cooperation will develop in the interest of the two sides.”

Al-Sharif notes that Turkish nationalist circles reject such a change, still view the Kurds in Iraq as parties, and accuse them of financing some Kurdish parties in Turkey.

Responding, Barzani dismisses the accusations as “baseless” and says: “We will not interfere in the domestic affairs of any country”, adding: “We sympathize with our brothers in all parts of Kurdistan and support their rights but we do not interfere in their affairs or in the way in which they demand their rights, because we renounce violence everywhere. We have not extended any assistance to any political party.”

Asked if he is prepared to mediate between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party to put an end to the current problem, Barzani says: “If we see readiness for a peaceful, democratic solution, then we are prepared to exert our utmost efforts to help both sides.”

Asked about the Iraqi Kurds’ position on Kurds in other neighbouring countries, Barzani says: “Our territories have been divided among a number of countries without anybody considering our positions on this issue”, adding: “The Kurds’ demand for the self-determination and unity of the Kurdish nation is a legitimate right.” “We demand a democratic, peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue in each country in accordance with the situation in that country,” he says, adding: “We do not support any unjust, chauvinistic measures against Kurds and we ask the Kurds not to resort to violence.”

Asked about the conditions for the establishment of a Kurdish state, Barzani says: “This is a legitimate right, and I believe it should take place through understanding, dialogue and acceptance of each other.”

Al-Sharif says that even in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdish administration is not united.

Responding, Barzani says that the failure to unite the administration has not been an obstacle to progress on the Kurdish issue. The parliament has been united, he says, adding: “After the elections, we will focus on this issue and will unite the two administrations.”

Asked whether Arab politicians ignore the significance of the Kurdish issue and if he has a message to the Arabs, Barzani says: “We did not and will not stand against the Arab nation’s interests. We have a joint history and joint interests. I also call for an Arab-Kurdish dialogue so that matters can be clarified and we can help each other.”

Asked whether the Arabs ignore such a dialogue, Barzani replies: “Yes.”

Source: Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel Television, Doha, in Arabic 1432 gmt 6 Jan 06

 


U.S. Military Contractors Return In Droves to Iraq

March 2, 2016

us-contractors-in-iraq


Iraqi Kurds in limbo over president’s fate

Barzani’s term is set to end this week, but a controversial government decision could extend it for another two years.

Mohammed A Salih | |

Barzani, a towering figure in contemporary Kurdish politics, has been serving as president of Iraq’s Kurdish region since 2005. [Reuters]

Erbil, Iraq – Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region is in political and legal limbo over the fate of the autonomous region’s incumbent president, Masoud Barzani, whose tenure is set to end on Wednesday.

If unresolved, the crisis could have destabilising effects for Iraqi Kurds at a critical time, when they are facing an unprecedented threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The Kurdistan Consultative Council – which, as part of the Kurdish government’s Ministry of Justice, is authorised to provide decisions on legal disputes between government agencies – determined on Monday that Barzani could remain in office for two more years, and the decision has been met with controversy.

The decision was in response to requests from Barzani’s office and the deputy parliament speaker, a senior official of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

It’s the politics that decide what happens to the law, rather than the law deciding what happens to the politics. Everything here is politicised, and this issue is a political one.

Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, president of the Middle East Research Institute

However, parliament speaker Yusef Sadiq, an official with the Gorran, or Change, Movement- which, after the KDP, is the second largest bloc in parliament, and is leading opposition to Barzani on this matter – has said that the solicitation of an opinion from the consultative council was illegal, as it did not follow standard procedure. According to parliamentary rules, Sadiq said, any such official request must be signed by him.


VIDEO: Barzani: Referendum to be held after ISIL defeat


Barzani, a towering figure in contemporary Kurdish politics, has been serving as president of Iraq’s Kurdish region since 2005. He was last elected in 2009 with nearly 70 percent of the vote. His term ended in August 2013, but the Kurdish parliament extended his tenure for two years.

Barzani’s opponents contend that the letter of the law is clear about the limits to his time in office and have called on him to step down.

“The term of the president that expires on August 20, 2013, will be extended until August 19, 2015, and cannot be extended for a second time,” according to Article 1 of Law number 19 of the Kurdish parliament, passed on June 30, 2013.

But the KDP insists that in the absence of presidential elections, Barzani should be allowed to serve two more years.

“When the country is going through war and elections can’t be held on time, based on the [legal] principle of continuity, the president will continue running his office with the full powers he currently possesses,” Vala Farid, a KDP lawmaker and chairwoman of the legal affairs committee in the Kurdish parliament, told Al Jazeera.

Although Barzani asked the Kurdish electoral commission in June to organise elections on August 20, the body said would need up to six months to do that. So far, no election has been scheduled.

Meanwhile, Sadiq has called for an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss a bill to amend the presidential law and reduce the powers of the president.

“We will take part in that session and hope all blocs who presented bills to amend the law of presidency take part as well,” Rabun Maruf, a Gorran parliamentarian, told Al Jazeera. “The parliament should settle this matter. This is the only legal solution.”

At least 56 out of 111 parliamentarians will have to attend the August 19 session, or legal quorum will not be achieved. The group with the power to tilt the balance either way is the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), but many of its lawmakers may not attend the session due to the potential ramifications of the polarising debate on their survival as a united party. The issue caused tensions among party members in June, amid debate over whether to attend a parliament meeting concerning amendments to the presidential law.

Given the heightened state of tensions surrounding the question of Iraqi Kurdistan’s presidency, many wonder if there can be any legal breakthrough.

“It’s the politics that decide what happens to the law, rather than the law deciding what happens to the politics. Everything here is politicised, and this issue is a political one,” said Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, president of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI), a think tank based in Erbil.

Masoud Barzani: Kurdish independence

“Kurdistan does not have a constitution and it does not have a high court that is dedicated to its interpretation or looking into such sovereign issues. If this battle became a legal one, there is no mechanism in place to make a final decision on this.”


RELATED: Iraqis mark a grim anniversary


Amid this backdrop, opposing parties in the Kurdish parliament have been striving to outmanoeuvre each other, raising concerns about the potential impacts on Kurdish Peshmerga troops’ performance in the fight against ISIL. Many Peshmerga fighters are directly or indirectly controlled by political parties.

“Such division and polarisation will have direct knock-on effect on the organisation of Peshmerga, on their morale and ability to fight ISIL,” Ala’Aldeen told Al Jazeera. “Importantly, it will affect the KRG’s image and perception within the international community, which considers the Kurds as partners in the fight against ISIL. If this polarised debate and the deadlock continues, it will undermine our collective efforts against ISIL.”

A range of developments could emerge in the coming days, including Barzani calling for snap elections, or parties reaching a deal that would allow Barzani to remain in office with reduced powers.

If the political factions fail to reach a consensus, the Kurdish region will remain in a period of legal limbo, where the current president could continue to serve, while opponents challenge his legitimacy.

And while the battle is largely a power struggle, some also point to its potential repercussions for democratic development in the region.

“One dimension of this whole affair is the fight for democracy in Kurdistan,” senior KIU official, Abubakir Ali, told Al Jazeera. “The law should be the ultimate reference. If that reference is destroyed or laws are changed because of individuals, then power equations will determine the [outcome], and whoever has more power can impose their interpretations and opinions.”

Nicky’s notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBGsr9v6dDc

Barzani stated the interviewer, Martine Dennis of Al Jazeer’s accusations of wanting to expand territory under the concealment of ISIS terrorism and taking advantage of the horrific situation in Iraq to take more land and resources was baseless.

She came back and asked him about the 400,000 sq km the Kurds had acquired in just 2 weeks!

This interview was released July 19, 2014, about a month BEFORE the Kurds took over Mosul and Mosul dam, the largest infastructure in Iraq and which feeds hydroelectricity to 1.7 million Iraqis (according to the U.S. Government in 2007)

400000 Square Kilometers (km²) = 154,441 Square Miles (ml²)

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/iraqi-kurds-limbo-president-fate-150818080100886.html

 

===========================

Saddam co-defendants deny Anfal genocide (of Kurds)

· Survivor describes horror of chemical attack
· Army commander says civilians were not targeted
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein listens to evidence during the Anfal trial in Baghdad
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein listens to evidence during the Anfal trial in Baghdad

Two co-defendants in Saddam Hussein’s latest trial today insisted that the Iraqi military did not target Kurdish civilians in a bloody campaign in the 1980s.Saddam and six others – mostly military figures – are accused over the Iraq army’s Anfal campaign in northern Iraq in which it is estimated between 50,000 and 180,000 Kurds were killed.

The prosecution said yesterday that many civilians were among those killed, some of them victims of gas attacks by the Iraqi military.

The Anfal campaign, in which troops swept across parts of northern Iraq destroying villages, ran between 1987 and 1988 and coincided with the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Today, the second day of the trial, two defendants told the court in Baghdad’s Green Zone that the Iraqi army had only targeted Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels who were fighting together.

Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who was the commander of the Anfal task force and head of the Iraqi army 1st Corps, told the court: “The goal was to fight an organised, armed army … the goal was not civilians.”

A second defendant, Sabir al-Douri, the director of military intelligence, said the aim was to clear northern Iraq of Iranian troops. Giving evidence as Saddam sat nearby in the court, he insisted the Iraqi government faced a “tough situation” and had to act because the area where the Iranian-allied guerrillas were located had dams that, if destroyed, would flood Baghdad.

He said civilians in the Anfal region had been removed to safety. “You will see that we are not guilty and that we defended our country honourably and sincerely,” Mr Douri said.

During his evidence, Mr Tai said civilians in the areas where Anfal took place were taken to safe havens, including the northern city of Kirkuk. The orders in the campaign were “to prevent the Iranian army from occupying Iraq at whatever price,” said Mr Tai, who later served as Saddam’s last defence minister up until the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime.

He said he implemented his orders “precisely and sincerely without adding anything or exceeding my powers” and he said he “never turned a blind eye to any violation”.

The court also heard the first evidence from a survivor of the campaign. Ali Mostafa Hama described how his village of Balisan was bombed by chemical weapons on April 16 1987.

Mr Hama said: “I saw eight to 12 jets …. There was greenish smoke from the bombs. It was [as] if there was a rotten apple or garlic smell minutes later. People were vomiting … we were blind and screaming. There was no one to rescue us. Just God.”

The attack is believed to be the first instance of the Iraqi government using chemical weapons against its own population, according to a Human Rights Watch report on Anfal. The report said warplanes bombed the villages, then troops moved in and razed the communities to the ground, moving out survivors. Between 225 and 400 people were killed in the assault, including 24 who were buried in a mass grave in Balisan, according the report.

Mr Hama said he saw a newborn infant die during the bombardment. “The infant was trying to smell life, but he breathed in the chemicals and died,” he said, speaking in Kurdish with an Arabic translator.

He said he was blinded by the gas and recalled being taken out of the village along with other residents in tractors.

During cross-examination, defence lawyers asked Mr Hama how he knew the warplanes that bombed the village were Iraqi and not Iranian. “There was no problems with Iran, why would they bomb us?” he said, then added, “I am certain they were Iraqi airplanes because two days after the bombardment the Iraqi army came and burned down the villages.”

One defence lawyer accused Mr Hama of being coached in his evidence, a charge repeated by Saddam, who stood and questioned Hama. “Who told you to say these things?” Saddam asked him.

Through most of today’s session, Saddam, who faces charges of genocide and war crimes, sat silently in the pen enclosing the defendants.

Saddam and the six co-defendants face possible execution by hanging if convicted in the Anfal case.

One of the defendants is Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who led the Anfal campaign, and gained the sobriquet “Chemical Ali” for his alleged use of gas attacks. He faces genocide charges, while the others are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. Today Mr Majid, sitting behind Saddam, quietly took notes as the court session progressed.

This is the second trial Saddam has faced; an earlier trial in which he was accused of ordering a crackdown against Shia Iraqis in the town of Dujail is expected to return its verdict on October 16.

The current trial continues.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/22/iraq.markoliver

 

============================

 


Important websites:

http://www.gov.krd/a/d.aspx?s=040000&l=12&a=55114

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/22/iraq.markoliver

Tracking terrorism – paid subscription website

http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/kongra-gel-kgk-kurdistan-people%E2%80%99s-congress-pkk

http://aranews.net/

 

Interesting note with potential inside info for further research: jhoover said…

But I am asking here for those “traitors” encouraged and paid by US & CIA and other agencies from tax payer money to invade Iraq.

So now you should know who are those traitor, let me help you with some names:
1. Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi, receiving $335,000 monthly allowance.
2. Ibrahim al-Eshaiker al-Javari
3. Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki
4. Kanan Makiya
5. Jalal Talabani
6. Salem Chalabi
7. Ayad Allawi
8. Khidir Hamza
I leave the other more to use to fill the list…..

So if Snowden in eyes of US &CIA and most the American humiliating US and his nation them what about those B* funded by US &CIA to lunch a war that causes more than 180,000 Iraqi dead, 8 million refugees all around the world, 4.700 Americans dead, 35,000 disabled US citizens. And more…

So it’s very simple question here, do Iraqi have the right to shoot all those traitor in head and finish them for what they done and doing to Iraq and Iraqis?