'In 100 years, all these antiquities will be gone': as Cop27 opens in Egypt, climate crisis is still taboo subject at art and heritage institutions

As the latest UN Climate Change Conference opens in Egypt, art institutions have yet to take the climate lessons to heart

Joe Ware

4 November 2022

Gone tomorrow? Egypt’s former antiquities minister says climate change could obliterate key sites in a centuryPhoto: Daniel Fleck

On 6 November, the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Cop27, opens in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The location is telling: never before has a Cop summit taken place in a country so intimately connected to ancient antiquities, from the pyramids to the Sphinx and the tomb of Tutankhamun, all of which face growing threats from harsher weather, hotter temperatures and rising seas.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of state for antiquities affairs, warns that virtually all open-air archaeological sites in Egypt are at serious risk. “In my view, in 100 years, all these antiquities will be gone because of climate change,” he says.

At Cop27, delegates will consider whether museums should move away from their historic position of “climate neutrality” and towards climate action. But is the debate still necessary?

In 2021 the American Alliance of Museums commissioned a study that found museums ranked second only to friends and family as a trusted source, and significantly ahead of scientists, NGOs, the media, the government and businesses. Should this store of trust be deployed for the common good?

Robert Janes is a researcher at the School of Museum Studies in Leicester and was editor-in-chief of the Museum Management and Curatorship journal from 2003 to 2014. In the online publication The Beam, he writes: “Why is the global museum community not confronting climate change with its collective will and intelligence? One explanation is that climate change is a taboo subject—not to be talked about with family, friends and colleagues.”

This taboo must be demolished. “Radical changes are needed across society to ensure global heating remains below 1.5°C,” says Rodney Harrison, the professor of heritage studies at University College London. “Museums could play a leading role in these transformations, but they can only do so if they make significant changes to the way they operate and communicate.”

“The frustrating thing is—this is all already agreed,” says Henry McGhie, founder of climate consultancy Curating Tomorrow. “The governments of all the countries that are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] and Paris Agreement already recognise this. They have adopted a new programme, but this doesn’t seem to have bled down to the workings of many museums. We have a golden opportunity to act on climate change as a sector, but we’re not making use of it.”

Beyond the Cop summits, the UN also played host to Mondiacult (the Unesco World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development) in Mexico City this September. Held 40 years after the first Mondiacult conference, it focused purely on Unesco’s cultural policy, and how that relates to globally agreed sustainable development and climate change policies.

Powerful signal

Speaking at Mondiacult, Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of Unesco, recognised that “despite progress, culture still does not have the place it deserves in public policies and international cooperation,” even though it plays a “fundamental role” in our lives. She welcomed the Mondiacult decision that culture should be included “as a specific objective in its own right” among the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. It was, she said, “a powerful signal” and “a commitment to action.”

Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, Unesco’s assistant director-general for culture and a former culture minister for Chile, told The Art Newspaper: “All ministers agreed we should leverage culture as part of sustainable development and environmental issues.”

However, some commentators believe Mondia­cult could have done much more. “It asked for culture to be operationalised in the UNFCCC, but that already exists,” says McGhie. “Rather than expecting other policy areas to change to incorporate culture, cultural policy should be much more overt about its role in existing agreements. This is a typical situation where policy development is not backed up with clear action.”

A new definition for museums was agreed at the annual meeting of the International Council of Museums in Prague in August 2022. Climate action was not included in the definition. The debate, then, continues, even as the pyramids crumble.

British 'Lizard People' Conspiracy Theorist Banned From Entering Most Of Europe

David Icke was banned amid fears his planned presence at a weekend demonstration in Amsterdam would spark unrest.

AP
Nov 5, 2022, 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The government of the Netherlands has banned British conspiracy theorist David Icke from entering most of Europe for two years amid fears his planned presence at a weekend demonstration in Amsterdam would spark unrest.

Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yeṣilgöz-Zegerius told reporters Friday that freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate were fundamental rights, “but they are not limitless.”

Icke is a prominent advocate of the belief that a race of lizard people have taken over the Earth by posing as human leaders. He was kicked off Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, including claims that Jewish people and 5G cell towers were behind the pandemic.

Dutch immigration authorities said in a letter Icke published on his website that “there are concrete indications that your arrival in the Netherlands poses a threat to public order.”

On his website, Icke called the ban an “extraordinary, over-the-top response.”

The Dutch order bans Icke from 26 countries in Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel zone.

He had been expected to address a demonstration Sunday by an anti-authority group called Together for the Netherlands. Law enforcement authorities have said the gathering was expected to draw counter-demonstrators, including far-left groups.

It is not the first time Icke has been refused entry to a country. In 2019, Australia canceled his visa ahead of a speaking tour.

When the Elite Fights the Elite

November 5, 2022  By Taegan Goddard  - POLITICAL WIRE

Janan Ganesh: “Over the past decade, in both America and Britain, the most interesting class war has been within the elite, not against it from below. The typical belligerent is a prosperous urbanite who relishes the outrage of more liberal peers. But they are peers. Having conservative politics in a left-leaning over-class doesn’t mark you out as a stout yeoman of the heartland. It is not ‘punching up’ if you are as rich or richer than the people you are punching. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have the reality-bending gumption to pull off this dangerous game. That isn’t true of most people who play it.”

“Some friendly advice, then, to the rightwing hedgies, the Palm Beach courtiers, the tabloid scribblers, the weekend golfers who vote Trump or Johnson to upset the more liberal kind of rich person: hope that your efforts to stir up anger at the elite aren’t successful. Because if the mob comes, it won’t know or care to distinguish between different groupuscules of the one percent.”

'No choice' but cholera water for Lebanon's poor

AFP , Saturday 5 Nov 2022

Marwa Khaled's teenage son was hospitalised with cholera after drinking polluted water in Lebanon's impoverished north -- yet she still buys the same contaminated water, the only kind she can afford.

File Photo: Patients infected in an outbreak of Vibrio cholera receive treatment in a mosque hall converted into a field hospital in the town of Bebnine in the Akkar district in north Lebanon, on October 26, 2022. AFP

"People know (the water is contaminated), but they don't have any other choice," said 35-year-old Khaled, standing near her son, who is bedridden at a cholera field hospital.

"Everyone will end up with cholera."

Last month Lebanon recorded its first cholera case since 1993, in the nearby Syrian refugee camp of Rihaniye -- weeks after an outbreak in Syria, which lies about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

Now the World Health Organization warns the waterborne disease is spreading "rapidly" as Lebanon struggles with crumbling infrastructure, poor sanitation and limited access to clean water following three years of economic meltdown.

Over a quarter of the country's, more than 400 recorded cases are from Khaled's hometown of Bebnine, where people resort to unsafe water sources as the state fails to provide clean water.

The actual number of cases could be much higher, with the health ministry recording more than 2,400 suspected and confirmed infections.

The mother-of-six and her family drink contaminated water and trucked to their home from nearby wells and water sources because they lack access to running water and cannot afford bottled water.

Like much of Lebanon's marginalised north, Bebnine suffers from dilapidated infrastructure and government neglect.

A quarter of the town's residents are Syrian refugees living in squalid conditions.

"Sewage water"

Only 500 of Bebnine's households are registered with the state water network, in an overcrowded town of 80,000 people, according to engineer Tareq Hammoud of the North Lebanon Water Establishment.

But even these do not receive a round-the-clock water supply.

A branch of the sewage-polluted Nahr al-Bared river flows through the town and has been contaminated with cholera, infecting nearby wells and water sources, field hospital director Nahed Saadeddine said.

Around 450 patients attend the hospital for treatments every day, she said.

The contaminated stream "provides water for all the crops in the area... There are wells, tanks, and springs pulling water from it, even water filtration sites," Saadeddine told AFP.

Cholera is generally contracted from contaminated food or water and causes diarrhoea and vomiting.

It can also spread in residential areas lacking proper sewerage and drinking water systems.

"The infrastructure must be changed, the wells and water sources improved" to eradicate the disease, Saadeddine said.

"We want a long-term solution. Otherwise, we will see a lot more disasters."

The disease can kill within hours if left untreated, according to the WHO, but many of those infected will have no or mild symptoms.

It can be easily treated with an oral rehydration solution, but more severe cases may require intravenous fluids and antibiotics.

'Diapers'

Some patients at the hospital have contracted the disease more than once, among them Rana Ajaj's nine-year-old daughter.

"Five of us are sick at home. Even after the treatment, we will be sick again from drinking the same water," the 43-year-old said, passing a cup of water to her 17-year-old daughter who lay in bed, while her younger daughter sat close by.

In the next bed, 10-year-old Malek Hamad was struggling to drink his medicine, exhausted from losing 15 kilograms (33 pounds) after two weeks of illness.

His mother is terrified that her 10 other children may also be infected.

Outside the hospital, school supervisor Sabira Ali walked along the banks of the polluted stream, gazing at the water.

"Coronavirus didn't scare me as much as cholera," said the 44-year-old who lost two members of her family to cholera last month.

Bebnine resident Jamal al-Sabsabi, 25, blamed local authorities for failing to act as disease struck the town.

"What is the municipality doing?" he asked.

"Sewage water, diapers, waste... everything gets dumped into the stream," al-Sabsabi said, pointing to the murky brook running a few metres (yards) from his home.

"No wonder the disease is spreading."

Twitter employees see ‘laptops wiped and accounts locked’ amid Musk layoffs

Josh Milton
METRO UK
Saturday 5 Nov 2022

The world’s richest man is gutting Twitter’s workforce as he tightens the company’s belt (Picture: Getty)

Twitter staff claim their laptops were ‘remotely wiped’ as Elon Musk takes a sharpened axe to jobs.

In a day Twitter workers feared since Elon Musk bought Twitter, an avalanche of layoffs began yesterday for some of the company’s 7,500 staff.

The haphazard cuts saw some claim they received no official word about their termination. Others had their email shut off even as their Slack logins still worked.

One staffer said they were locked out of the company’s systems mid-meeting.

Adding to the confusion, British Twitter worker Simon Balmain told Sky News he was shut out of his accounts yesterday morning.

‘We started hearing strong rumours of layoffs a few days ago,’ he told the broadcaster.

Elon Musk aims to cut half of Twitter’s workforce (Picture: AP)

‘Then, late last night, we all received an email saying there is going to be a large reduction in headcount and the email stated that if we were laid off, we’d have an email sent to our personal email and if not we’d hear on our work email.

‘Then in the early hours of the morning, around 2am, I noticed that my laptop was remotely wiped and my email access and Slack access were both revoked.

‘I then got in touch with a few colleagues, and it seemed like a lot of people had the same thing.’

Mr Balmain said since Mr Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter in April, morale has tumbled and focus has slipped.

‘I really enjoyed working at Twitter, it’s been incredible, but this acquisition has been unprecedented in about a million different ways,’ he said.

But for Mr Balmain, the layoffs seemed almost ‘inevitable’ regardless of whether the world’s richest man bought the social media giant.

In the first what the first official word from Twitter’s new leadership to its staff, employees were told they’d know whether they were out based on an email titled ‘Your Role At Twitter’.

If it was sent to their work email, they’re still employed; if it went to their personal email, their employment is being ‘impacted’.

Metro.co.uk contacted Twitter’s communication team, which was almost entirely laid off, for comment.


Twitter has fired a large chunk of its 200 employees in India.

As part of mass layoffs across the globe ordered by its new owner Elon Musk, following the sacking of CEO Parag Agrawal along with two other top officials including legal head Vijaya Gadde from key Twitter posts.

The sources said, the entire marketing and communications department in India has been sacked.

Elon Musk begins mass layoffs at Twitter

Kevin Reed

WSWS.ORG

San Francisco-based Twitter began the first round of mass layoffs of its workforce on Friday under orders from billionaire owner Elon Musk, who took over the company one week ago.

Elon Musk in May 2020. [Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls]

Some Twitter workers received an email from the company late Thursday that they were being terminated and others found out about it when they lost access to online systems or were barred from entering company facilities on Friday.

While the new leadership of Twitter did not disclose details of the job cuts, internal documents reviewed by Reuters earlier in the week said that Musk was planning to cut 3,700 of the 7,500 global workforce.

The New York Times reported on Friday that “four people with knowledge of the matter,” confirmed that half of the Twitter workforce had been eliminated, adding, “Rarely have layoffs this deep been made by a single individual at a tech company.”

Tweets from former employees on Friday showed that the layoffs on Friday hit staff members in engineering, marketing, communications, product development, content curation and machine learning ethics.

Shannon Raj Singh, a lawyer who was running Twitter’s human rights department, tweeted, “Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company.”

Senior Community Manager, Simon Balmain, tweeted, “Looks like I’m unemployed y’all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack.” In Balmain’s case, he lost access to email and other systems eight hours before being informed that he was officially laid off and he told CNN that the message he received “still didn’t provide any details really” about why he had been fired.

Multiple news outlets reported that the email to Twitter staff was terse and said different things depending on geographic location. Reuters quoted a section of one of the message which read, “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.”

Musk’s claims that his motivation to privately own Twitter was, “to try to help humanity” have been rapidly overtaken by a financial crisis resulting from a sudden drop in advertising revenue. Major advertisers, including General Motors, paused spending with Twitter last week because of content moderation concerns.

Interpublic Group (IPG)—which is responsible for $40 billion in marketing internationally for brands such as American Express, Walmart, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Mattel—followed up GM’s announcement with a pause in ad spending until they had confidence and clarity on the direction of the platform. Other major brands that have stopped advertising include Ford, Audi, General Mills, Pfizer and Volkswagen.

The reality is that the layoffs at Twitter, accelerated by the Musk takeover, are part of the jobs massacre taking place at tech firms across Silicon Valley. As part of the intensification of the attacks on the jobs and wages of the entire working class—and with financial performance declining and share values falling on Wall Street—companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Lyft, Microsoft and others have announced either a hiring freeze of layoffs of their employees.

Responding to the exodus of advertisers, Musk tweeted on Friday morning, “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.”

He continued, “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.” Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk reiterated his claim that activist pressure was “an attack on the First Amendment.”

The reality is that the private takeover of the micro blogging platform—which has become a critical tool used by millions of people for instantaneous global announcements, news and information—by a billionaire oligarch is the greatest threat to democracy.

An example of the social and political outlook of Musk and the billionaire elite was demonstrated in his exchange with Democratic Representative from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Commenting on a plan announced by Musk to charge users $8 per month to continue using the “verified” account feature, the congresswoman tweeted, “Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan.”

Responding to the comment with a combination of conceit and bullying, Musk tweeted, “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.” This reply speaks volumes about Musk’s commitment to democratic rights and his proclaimed desire to make Twitter into a “common digital town square.” In response to a legitimate question about the future of speech on Twitter, Musk essentially told Ocasio-Cortez—an elected member of the US House of Representatives who has repeatedly faced death threats from far-right and fascist individuals—to “shut up and pay me.”

The first week of Musk’s ownership of the social media platform with nearly 400 million monthly active users has, by any measure, been one of widespread and deepening crisis. He has used his pretense of “free speech absolutism” as a front for welcoming far-right and fascist individuals—such as offering to restore Donald Trump’s account—onto Twitter to spread racism, xenophobia, white-supremacy and antisemitism on the platform.

The mass character of Twitter, as well as social media generally as a technological phenomenon in the 21st century, is incompatible with the ownership of a single billionaire oligarch. The crisis unfolding at Twitter is part of the deepening economic, social and political crisis of the world capitalist system.

U.S. Should Stop Funding Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga militias

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Editorial Staff in 1 Top News, Contributions, Military, Politics

Massoud Barzani (R) with his son Mansour Barzani and KDP party Zerevani. Peshmerga militias, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2016. Photo: Peshmerga/KRG/FB

Michael Rubin | 19fortyfive.com

Almost a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that included $260 million for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. Two months ago, the White House signaled its intention to continue its financial support for the Kurdish militia. This is par for the course.

While the revival of the Islamic State is a real threat, throwing money at the Peshmerga now does more harm than good. In the history of funding the Iraqi Kurdish militias, investment has seldom met the promise. The Islamic State seized Jebel Sinjar and enslaved the Yazidis living there because the Peshmerga abandoned their posts and fled. As the Islamic State marched on Erbil, many Peshmerga and top lieutenants to Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani rushed to Erbil airport to escape on the last flights out of the Kurdish capital. To date, the Kurdish government refuses to release the manifests of passengers because of the political embarrassment such cowardice would expose. In juxtaposition to Barzani’s actions, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and, subsequently, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stood and fought; they represented a good investment for security.

Barzani’s Kurdish KDP Peshmerga fighters flee from the Yazidi Sinjar area in northwest Iraq just before ISIS attacks on the Yazidis, on Aug 3, 2014. Photo: Screenshot/Ronahi TV

Unfortunately, the initial retreat of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga in the face of the fight was not the only time when the Peshmerga refused to live up to their reputation borne from the fight against late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. At the height of the fight against the Islamic State, for example, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani warehoused the equipment the Pentagon provided and used it only as a show of force against his political opponents. This was a major reason why Iraqi Shi’ite militias took the lead against the Islamic State and liberated nearly every Iraqi city that had fallen. At the same time, the Kurdish Peshmerga guarded the lines around Kirkuk and Mosul.

Following the transfer of power from Massoud to his eldest son Masrour, the situation worsens. It is ironic that Masrour arrests and charges journalists with treason for meeting with the American consul-general in Erbil even as he demands the United States subsidize the Peshmerga. Over the past year, as the Kurds have locked in American funding, the politicization of the Peshmerga has increased.

Gone is the two-decade-long but never-concluding discussion of unifying the Peshmerga to end their current division between the leaders of the two largest political parties. Masrour and his younger brother Waysi treat the Peshmerga as personal enforcers. They have become a new generation’s Uday and Qusay and are implementing a reign of terror.

PUK party Peshmerga commander Sheikh Jaafar 2018. Photo: FB

It is doubtful that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) will now even form a joint administration for the Kurdistan Regional Government. Kurdish journalist Renwar Najm has highlighted some astounding developments. Regional Vice President Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa, for example, had declared the relationship between the two parties to be at its “worst since the civil war” of 1994-1997 when intra-Kurdish fighting killed more than 3,000. In recent days, an armed group answering to Azhi Amin, a former member of an Al Qaeda affiliate who now works for Masrour and Waysi, surrounded the house of deputy prime minister and PUK member Qubad Talabani. Qubad has long done Masrour’s bidding, but Massoud’s eldest son no longer wants to share power outside his immediate family let alone tolerate the illusion of plurality.

Iraqi Kurdistan PM Masrour Barzani (R) shakes hands with his Deputy Qubad Talabani, 2021. Photo: AFP

What occurs now in Iraqi Kurdistan with regard to American funding of the Peshmerga has a parallel to what occurred in Somalia between 2018 and 2021. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto lavishly coordinated the funding of Somalia’s armed forces in the name of fighting the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab. Then-Somali President Mohamed Farmajo, however, diverted the funding and used the armed forces as a personal militia to attack his rivals rather than fight terrorists.

Lobbyists may have assured Congress and the State Department that money meant security. Still, the opposite was true: The more money given to corrupt leadership, the worse the security situation became. Only with Farmajo’s ouster did the Somali armed forces direct themselves to their core purpose and fight al-Shabab.

It is now time for some tough love on the Peshmerga. Congress if not the White House should remind Masrour and Waysi that American assistance to the tune of more than a quarter-billion dollars is no entitlement. Rather than advance the fight against the Islamic State, such funding today greases instability and is a death blow to Kurds’ hope for democracy. It is time to stop funding the Peshmerga.

Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. He is author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter, 2014). He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Kurdish society. Read more by Michael Rubin.

The article first published at 19fortyfive.com

Copyright © 2022, respective author or news agency, 19fortyfive.com

Clan-based KDP party reelects Massoud Barzani as president at the 14th KDP congress

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Editorial Staff in Politics

Massoud Barzani (C) with his nephew Nechirvan Barzani (L) and son Masrour Barzani (R) at the 14th KDP party congress, Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan, November 3, 2022. Photo: K24

DUHOK, Iraqi Kurdistan region,— Massoud Barzani was re-elected president of the clan-based Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Thursday as the winner is already known to public, with Iraqi Kurdistan region president Nechirvan Barzani re-appointed as his first deputy and prime minister Masrour Barzani elected as his second deputy.

The 14th KDP congress began on Thursday in Duhok city and is scheduled to last two days. The KDP has not held a congress since December 2010, the longest period the party has ever gone without holding one.

“KDP’s congress is mainly for appointing Masrour vice-president along with Nechirvan. Masrour has further consolidated power within the party and the KRI. The KDP had a non-Barzani Vice President till last 2014, and then Nechirvan took the position and now Masrour was added.” senior political analyst Kamal Chomani said in a tweet.

“KDP also elects 51 Leadership Council members and later the political bureau. Masrour Barzani will have the majority of the Leadership Council members. Nechirvan will have less than 15 out of 51. Nechirvan has been squeezed by Masrour, but he can’t do much as Massoud is still alive.” Chomani added.

The KDP is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan, with 45 seats in parliament and top government roles such as president, prime minister, and deputy parliament speaker.

In August 2022, 600,000 KDP members selected 800 members to participate in the 14th KDP Congress.

The KDP was founded in Iranian Kurdistan on August 16, 1946, by the late Mustafa Barzani, the father Massoud Barzani.

“It is a joke to meet and reelect the same person without challengers. Mustafa Barzani used the same technique during Kurdish war with Iraq. No one dear to challenge him for the leadership, so what is the congress for anyway?”, “KDP congresses are not different from Saddam Hussein Ba’ath congress” senior political analyst Hamma Mirwaisi said in 2010.

“The Barzani clan established political party to serve the family. They are calling it Kurdistan Democratic Party without understanding the word democrat. The Talabanis have similar political party of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK to serve their own family. It is a joke to meet and reelect the same person without challengers. Mustafa Barzani used the same technique during Kurdish war with Iraq. No one dear to challenge him for the leadership, so what is the congress for anyway?”, “KDP congress is not different from Saddam Hussein Ba’ath congress” senior political analyst Hamma Mirwaisi said in 2010.

“The leadership in Barzani family is goes from father to son not to nephew. Nechirvan Barzani knows that more than others.” Mirwaisi added.

For decades, the KDP and PUK have lorded over the region. The clan is routinely accused of corruption.

The Barzani clan, known as the Kurdish oligarchs, have been routinely accused by critics and observers of neptunism and amassing huge wealth from oil business for the family instead of serving the population.

Massoud Barzani, remains the most powerful leader in the shadow according to analysts. Massoud’s son Masrour is the Kurdistan region’s prime minister and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is the president of Kurdistan.

Iraqi Kurdistan is not a unified region, it is divided politically and geographically, known as the Yellow and Green zone, between the KDP led by Massoud Barzani and PUK led by the Talabani’s family. Erbil and Duhok governorates are controlled by the Barzanis and Sulaimani by the Talabanis.

Read more about The Monarchy of Iraqi Kurdistan

Copyright © 2022 Ekurd.net. All rights reserved