Latest Kurdistan News and Articles
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?
The airport was barely a paved strip five years ago. Now it goes by the name Erbil International Airport. And international it is, since a Kurdish-German entrepreneur launched a joint venture airline with regular flights to Frankfurt and Munich. Royal Jordanian and others operate a daily flight schedule into northern Iraq. And, yes, just after landing, the pilots wish passengers a pleasant stay in Iraq.
The ministry of tourism has 417 employees and big plans: "We need three or four times as many hotels as we have now," says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, "and we need to get more airlines to fly here."