Kurdish Institute of Paris

December 16, 2007 | By PETER SCARLET

BAHMAN GHOBADI first came to the movie world’s attention in 2000, when his “Time for Drunken Horses” won the prize for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival. Perhaps because the film — a harrowing depiction of five orphans struggling to eke out a hardscrabble existence as smugglers in the mountainous border region between Iran and Iraq — was billed as Iranian, few took notice that the movie was not in Persian but in Kurdish. “Drunken Horses” became the first feature film in that language, a tongue banned in Iranian schools since the 1940s, to achieve an international release.

December 18, 2007

TURKEY did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons Sunday when it sent more than 50 of its air force jets to bomb sites in northern Iraq. The goal was to kill fighters of the PKK, Kurdish rebels who have been mounting guerrilla attacks in southeastern Turkey. Sunday's bombing and shelling killed at least two civilians and five PKK members, while setting Iraqi Kurdish farms and villages afire. But as a strategic move, Turkey's raid was worse than useless.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 | By Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright | Washington Post Staff Writers

Intelligence Role Could Complicate Diplomacy

The United States is providing Turkey with real-time intelligence that has helped the Turkish military target a series of attacks this month against Kurdish separatists holed up in northern Iraq, including a large airstrike on Sunday, according to Pentagon officials.

 Tuesday December 18, 2007

The president of Iraq's Kurdish region is refusing to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in Iraq Tuesday, because of the US position over Turkey sending soldiers into northern Iraq, a top Kurdish official said.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 | By Sudarsan Raghavan and Ellen Knickmeyer

Operation Overshadows Rice Visit to Baghdad

BAGHDAD - Several hundred Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on Tuesday and engaged in clashes with Kurdish guerrillas, Turkish military officials said, as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Iraq to tout security gains.

December 19, 2007 | By Alexandra Zavis - Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Condoleezza Rice, in Iraq for reconciliation work, urges caution after Turkey pursues rebels across the border.

BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cautioned Tuesday against any action that could destabilize Iraq after Turkey sent about 300 troops across the border in pursuit of Kurdish separatist guerrillas.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

GENEVA - The U.N. refugee agency expressed concern Tuesday over the increasing number of people being driven from their homes by Turkey's shelling of northern Iraq.

18 December 2007 

The leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), who allegedly evaded military service by forging a medical document, was detained at Esenboğa Airport in Ankara upon his return to Turkey from Düsseldorf on Monday. 

Monday, 17 December 2007

The US has denied it gave permission for Turkish aircraft to carry out air strikes against Kurdish PKK separatist rebels in northern Iraq on Sunday.

December 13th 2007 | BAGHDAD, BASRA AND FALLUJA

The surge of American troops has dramatically reduced violence. But Iraq's politicians may still squander an obvious chance for reconciliation