Latest Kurdistan News and Articles
Its origins are an archaeological riddle worthy of Indiana Jones, but it's also a beacon of an oil-rich future. Welcome to the at least 7,000-year-old Arbil citadel in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, a stunning walled fortress on a roughly 10-hectare site that some experts say is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on earth (it's still occupied today, by a single family of 12). After years of stop-start negotiations, the citadel is finally set for a face-lift and likely World Heritage status.
"Sandi [Toksvig] talks to journalist Michael Howard about Kurdistan in Northern Iraq and what the area has to offer tourists and hears from Dr Janet Hamilton about her trip there to follow the road her father built in the 1920s."
Next week, Ihab Zaki will take a group of six American tourists to Kurdish Iraq.
They'll see mosques and churches, mountains and Zoroastrians, remnants of the Ottoman Empire and fantastic bazaars.
While most people still think of Iraq as a place of extremist violence, some say Iraqi Kurdistan is a vision of how the country could be. Erbil, the region's capital, gives off a sense of prosperity, while the whole area has a reputation for liberal tolerance.
Once the breadbasket of Iraq, Kurdistan is emerging as a vibrant business force in the Middle East recovery process as it seeks investment to rebuild its economy.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) today lauded the US Department of State’s updated guidelines for travel to Iraq , affirming the relative safety and security of the Kurdistan Region.
Anne Bourne, 83, arrived in Kurdistan on a prearranged tour to embark on a new chapter of her adventures inspired by her love of Alexander the Great. "I will go all the places in the world where Alexander the Great had been." Bourne explained.
Utopia: an imaginary place where everything is perfect. Living in Kurdistan the past three months has been as close to utopia as possible. I am here training local Kurds how to teach English for an elementary school to be opened in September. I had no expectations coming to Iraq and the Middle East because I had no idea what to expect. I have been pleasantly surprised with life here.
Oliver Stone couldn't have staged a more surreal scene: Balancing wine glasses in their hands, a group of Hollywood executives boogied to the Beach Boys in the foothills of northern Iraq as bursts of fireworks lit up the night sky.
The Fourth of July garden party, at a slick new hotel on the outskirts of the northern city of Irbil, was just one stop on an elaborate government-hosted tour aimed at luring Hollywood money and talent to this largely autonomous and relatively peaceful Kurdish enclave. Among the revelers were potential investors, diplomats, Kurdish officials and representatives of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, in addition to the coterie of Hollywood types.
Imagine a country where Americans are beloved, mini-mansions are springing up, and oil bubbles forth unaided. Denis Johnson reports from the new wheeler-dealer capital of the Middle East and asks, Is this the future of Iraq or just a desert mirage?
