KRG Cabinet

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (cabinet.gov.krd) - Since the start of military operations in October 2016 to liberate the City of Mosul, the number of internally displaced persons, IDPs, who have taken refuge in the Kurdistan Region has risen to 164,000 people. They are mainly located in camps in Erbil and Duhok Governorates.

Nytimes.com | By PATRICK KINGSLEY

ISTANBUL — A village leader shoves four voting slips into a ballot box. An unknown arm marks three slips with a “yes” vote. An unknown hand adds five more. An election official validates a pile of voting slips — hours after they were meant to be validated.

Publisher Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

The views, opinions, conclusions and other information expressed in this document are not given nor necessarily endorsed by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) unless the OSCE is explicitly defined as the Author of this document.

Rudaw.net

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Holding referendum on independence is “not risk-free” and will test the water regarding reactions from other countries before the Kurdish leadership decides on declaring an independent Kurdistan, a senior Kurdish politician and former Iraqi Foreign Minister told Rudaw Sunday night, as he revealed that the issue has been discussed with all permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Nytimes.com | The Opinion Pages | By By ANTONY J. BLINKENJAN

Washingtonpost.com | Twitter: @LallyWeymouth

Massoud Barzani talks with the Post about beating the Islamic State and forging a separate path for his people.

Nytimes.com | By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT

Nytimes.com | By ROD NORDLANDDEC. 24, 2016

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — It was the end of the day in an underground tavern with no name. Beneath a domed Ottoman ceiling, with the lights down low and the music muted, patrons could just hear a distant rumbling through the basalt block walls, five centuries old.

Euronews.com

ISIL survivors-turned-activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar will receive the 2016 Sakharov Prize in a ceremony in a ceremony in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Nytimes.com | By ROD NORDLANDDEC

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — When Kurdish officials here in Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in the world, say they’ve been “unavoidably detained,” it is not just an excuse for lateness.