For the moment it looks as if Russian three-dimensional geopolitical chess moves in the turbulent Middle East have thrown a giant monkey wrench into Washington plans to create an independent Kurdistan. Russia, placing herself in the midst of the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria has managed a brilliant political coup against the Anglo-American and Israeli designs for a Greater Kurdistan and a NATO-controlled Greater Middle East.
Venezuela Today A Failed Criminal Narco State by Cristal Montanez published i...Cristal Montañéz
Cristal’s publication in IF (International Focus) Magazine “Venezuela Today A Failed Criminal Narco State” strongly condemns the narco-terrorist state that has befallen her country under Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chávez. Both men, following orders from Castro controlled Cuba, have pushed the country from democracy to dictatorship.
Venezuela Today A Failed Criminal Narco State by Cristal Montanez published i...Cristal Montañéz
Cristal’s publication in IF (International Focus) Magazine “Venezuela Today A Failed Criminal Narco State” strongly condemns the narco-terrorist state that has befallen her country under Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chávez. Both men, following orders from Castro controlled Cuba, have pushed the country from democracy to dictatorship.
CTP's Threat Update series is a weekly update and assessment of Iran and the al Qaeda network and its affiliates in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and the Maghreb and Sahel
The PKKs withdrawalAn historic stepApr 30th 2013, 1654 b.docxoreo10
The PKK's withdrawal
An historic step
Apr 30th 2013, 16:54 by A.Z. | ISTANBUL
REBELS of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will begin withdrawing from Turkey to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on May 8th. The announcement made last week by Murat Karayilan, a top PKK commander in the field, heralded a strategic shift in the Kurds’ long-running struggle for greater rights.
If all goes according to plan the PKK’s 29-year armed campaign for Kurdish independence (an aim that was later scaled down to autonomy) will have come to a close. It remains a big if but the potential rewards are huge. Peace with the Kurds would remove one of the biggest obstacles to democratic reform and, in theory, ease Turkey’s membership of the European Union. An end to the war that has cost over $300 billion and 40,000 lives would bolster Turkey’s regional ambitions. It would boost the political fortunes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, who is hoping to become the country’s first popularly elected president next year.
The decision to pull out by October crowns months of secret talks held between Hakan Fidan Turkey’s spy chief, and Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s leader who has been held in solitary confinement on a prison island near Istanbul following his capture in 1999. The precise terms of the bargain remain unclear prompting opposition parties to trot out tired conspiracy theories about American plans to carve out an independent Kurdish state from Turkey. The claims have wide currency in Turkey where anti-Americanism remains widespread. Members of a government appointed “council of the wise” who have been touring the country to assure citizens that, on the contrary, peace with the Kurds will cement unity have been heckled by outraged nationalists, and, in some instances, forced to flee.
Yet the concessions have come mainly from the Kurdish side. In March the PKK released eight Turkish hostages. Soon after Mr Ocalan announced that the Kurds would pursue their rights through purely peaceful means and that any thoughts of a separate homeland had been abandoned. The PKK promptly declared a ceasefire and is instead gathering force in Syria where it has begun fighting forces loyal to Bashar Assad, the president. In the immediate term this is a strategic coup for Mr Erdogan who has been openly supporting armed opposition against the Syrian dictator.
Until recently the PKK had been quietly siding with Mr Assad who last summer gave the rebels control over a string of Kurdish towns along the Turkish border. The move set off alarm bells in Turkey amid fears that under PKK tutelage Syria’s Kurds would establish an autonomous zone along the lines of the semi-independent Kurdish statelet in northern Iraq. In a counter-move Turkey egged on its Syrian rebel allies to start fighting pro-PKK forces in the town of Ras-el Ain opposite the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar.
Getting the PKK to switch sides in Syria appears to be part of the deal struck with Mr ...
Transformation of Kurdish Identity and Cultural Rights Since the Regime Chang...ijtsrd
This paper is an attempt to understand that how Kurdish identity and cultural rights transformed from one regime to another in Iraq. Since 2003 new regime taken place in Iraq known as K.R.G. therefore paper highlighted the existing conditions of Kurds by analyzing various dimensions of Kurdish life such as socio economic condition, educational and cultural status of Kurds. Kurds are considered as a largest ethnic group in West Asia with the ethnic background comprising many regions viz. Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. According to the World Bank data 2012 , the Kurd constitutes about 5.1 million of the total Iraqi population and is considered as one of the oppressed community in West Asia. The paper argued that how Kurdish people demanded for constructing of national identity and wished for protecting their cultural rights. The study will assist in outlining the existing social and cultural nature of this society through a sociological and critical study of Kurdish people. The study based on qualitative, descriptive and exploratory in nature, data collected by secondary sources and available literature on the topic. Faizan Haque "Transformation of Kurdish Identity and Cultural Rights Since the Regime Change: A Study of Kurds in Iraq" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30838.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/30838/transformation-of-kurdish-identity-and-cultural-rights-since-the-regime-change-a-study-of-kurds-in-iraq/faizan-haque
CTP's Threat Update series is a weekly update and assessment of Iran and the al Qaeda network and its affiliates in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and the Maghreb and Sahel
The PKKs withdrawalAn historic stepApr 30th 2013, 1654 b.docxoreo10
The PKK's withdrawal
An historic step
Apr 30th 2013, 16:54 by A.Z. | ISTANBUL
REBELS of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will begin withdrawing from Turkey to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on May 8th. The announcement made last week by Murat Karayilan, a top PKK commander in the field, heralded a strategic shift in the Kurds’ long-running struggle for greater rights.
If all goes according to plan the PKK’s 29-year armed campaign for Kurdish independence (an aim that was later scaled down to autonomy) will have come to a close. It remains a big if but the potential rewards are huge. Peace with the Kurds would remove one of the biggest obstacles to democratic reform and, in theory, ease Turkey’s membership of the European Union. An end to the war that has cost over $300 billion and 40,000 lives would bolster Turkey’s regional ambitions. It would boost the political fortunes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, who is hoping to become the country’s first popularly elected president next year.
The decision to pull out by October crowns months of secret talks held between Hakan Fidan Turkey’s spy chief, and Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s leader who has been held in solitary confinement on a prison island near Istanbul following his capture in 1999. The precise terms of the bargain remain unclear prompting opposition parties to trot out tired conspiracy theories about American plans to carve out an independent Kurdish state from Turkey. The claims have wide currency in Turkey where anti-Americanism remains widespread. Members of a government appointed “council of the wise” who have been touring the country to assure citizens that, on the contrary, peace with the Kurds will cement unity have been heckled by outraged nationalists, and, in some instances, forced to flee.
Yet the concessions have come mainly from the Kurdish side. In March the PKK released eight Turkish hostages. Soon after Mr Ocalan announced that the Kurds would pursue their rights through purely peaceful means and that any thoughts of a separate homeland had been abandoned. The PKK promptly declared a ceasefire and is instead gathering force in Syria where it has begun fighting forces loyal to Bashar Assad, the president. In the immediate term this is a strategic coup for Mr Erdogan who has been openly supporting armed opposition against the Syrian dictator.
Until recently the PKK had been quietly siding with Mr Assad who last summer gave the rebels control over a string of Kurdish towns along the Turkish border. The move set off alarm bells in Turkey amid fears that under PKK tutelage Syria’s Kurds would establish an autonomous zone along the lines of the semi-independent Kurdish statelet in northern Iraq. In a counter-move Turkey egged on its Syrian rebel allies to start fighting pro-PKK forces in the town of Ras-el Ain opposite the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar.
Getting the PKK to switch sides in Syria appears to be part of the deal struck with Mr ...
Transformation of Kurdish Identity and Cultural Rights Since the Regime Chang...ijtsrd
This paper is an attempt to understand that how Kurdish identity and cultural rights transformed from one regime to another in Iraq. Since 2003 new regime taken place in Iraq known as K.R.G. therefore paper highlighted the existing conditions of Kurds by analyzing various dimensions of Kurdish life such as socio economic condition, educational and cultural status of Kurds. Kurds are considered as a largest ethnic group in West Asia with the ethnic background comprising many regions viz. Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. According to the World Bank data 2012 , the Kurd constitutes about 5.1 million of the total Iraqi population and is considered as one of the oppressed community in West Asia. The paper argued that how Kurdish people demanded for constructing of national identity and wished for protecting their cultural rights. The study will assist in outlining the existing social and cultural nature of this society through a sociological and critical study of Kurdish people. The study based on qualitative, descriptive and exploratory in nature, data collected by secondary sources and available literature on the topic. Faizan Haque "Transformation of Kurdish Identity and Cultural Rights Since the Regime Change: A Study of Kurds in Iraq" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30838.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/30838/transformation-of-kurdish-identity-and-cultural-rights-since-the-regime-change-a-study-of-kurds-in-iraq/faizan-haque
Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented constitutes "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including but not
limited, to those with respect to the price of silver, lead and zinc, the possibility, timing and amount of estimated future production, costs
of production, and reserve determination and reserve conversion rates, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Silvercorp Metals Inc. (“Silvercorp” or the “Company”) to be
materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such
factors include, among others, risks related to international operations, risks related to Chinese government issuance of mining and
related development permits, risks related to joint venture operations, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of
economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, commodity price fluctuations especially in prices
of silver, lead and zinc, as well as other factors. Readers should review the Company’s most recent Form 40-F for a more complete
discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading “Risk Factors”.
This Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) is intended to help the reader understand the significant
factors that have affected Silvercorp Metals Inc. and its subsidiaries’ (“Silvercorp” or the “Company”) performance
and such factors that may affect its future performance. This MD&A should be read in conjunction with the
Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2019 and the related notes
contained therein. The Company reports its financial position, results of operations and cash flow in accordance
with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board
(“IASB”
Chris Helweg
Chris Helweg
World Silver Survey 2019
This is the twenty-ninth annual edition of the World Silver Survey produced for The Silver Institute. The World
Silver Survey 2019 was produced by the GFMS team of metals market analysts at Definitive. The information
contained herein is based in part on the analysis of publicly available data such as hallmarking series, trade
statistics, company reports and other public-domain information. More importantly, it is also based on a large
series of interviews with the industry’s main players, carried out over the year by the team. This work generates
the essential data to allow the compilation of reliable estimates for world supply and demand and inform the
analysis of market structures, and the degree of significance of any changes and developments.
Chris Helweg, Vlagtwedde, De groeiende rol van mineralen voor een koolstofarm...Chris Helweg
Chris Helweg, Vlagtwedde, Groningen.
De groeiende rol van mineralen voor een koolstofarme toekomst
World Bank
grondstoffen vragen prognoses tot 2050 de wereldbevolking zal tegen 2050 naar verwachting meer dan 9 miljard bereiken, duurzame ontwikkeling, met inbegrip van koolstofarme ontwikkelingsstrategieën, hernieuwbare energie en veerkrachtige steden en landschappen
commodities demand projections up to 2050
global human population expected to reach over 9 billion by 2050,
sustainable development, including low carbon development strategies, renewable energy, and resilient cities and landscape
Silver in medicine – past, present and future Chris Helweg
Silver in medicine – past, present and future
Silver potentially has a role to play in tackling both antimicrobial resistance and improving common antibacterials, but for these efforts to positively impact communities around the world applications must be cost‐effective. Small quantities of silver help to enable this requirement.
Een inzicht in de Amerikaanse streven naar wereldheerschappij, Chris Helweg
By Chris Helweg,
Een inzicht in de Amerikaanse streven naar wereldheerschapij, wat zijn de doelen, wie zijn de spelers, wanneer is dit begonnen, wat is bereikt, hoe gevaarlijk is Een korte blik voor geïnteresseerde mensen, wat een echt beleid is dat de VS de afgelopen 25 jaar heeft geregeerd. Ik ben niet echt een goede schrijver of vertaler, maar dit is vrij eenvoudig te controleren, oprechte feedback is welkom. Op mijn LinkedIn-pagina kun je de afgelopen jaren over mijn doel lezen. Waakzaamheid blijft noodzakelijk, ik hoop dit beleid transparant te maken door middel van deze publicaties. Want kijk eens naar het nieuwe budget van Donald's Trump met deze kennis in gedachten? Wat dan?
An insight in the us strategy for global dominationChris Helweg
An insight in the US strategy for global domination. The Project for the New American Century
PNAC goals of the neocons
Eliot Abrams
John Bolton
The Project for the New American Century
Essential social, medical, educational and retirement services have to be gutted so that those funds can be directed towards a military buildup
the WTO and the IMF will dictate financial terms to the entire planet.
Trumps new Budget.
Een inzicht in de US wereldwijde strijd voor dominantieChris Helweg
Een inzicht in de Amerikaanse streven naar wereldheerschapij, wat zijn de doelen, wie zijn de spelers, wanneer is dit begonnen, wat is bereikt, hoe gevaarlijk is dit, en werkt Donald Trump hier ook aan mee?
An insight in the us strategy for global dominationChris Helweg
An insight in the US NEOCON strategy for global domination.
These are the PNAC goals
Who are behind PNAC?
The bankrollers from the WTO and the IMF
Essential social, medical, educational and retirement services have to be gutted so that those funds can be directed towards a military buildup.
An empire cannot function with the slow, cumbersome machine of constitutional democracy on its back. Empires must be ruled with speed and ruthlessness.
Chris Helweg:
Last year, for the fifth year in a row, the silver market
recorded another deficit; this time of 26.0 Moz (810 t).
Mine supply fell for the second consecutive year by 4%
in 2017, following 13 consecutive annual increases prior
to 2016. This was a result of years of Capex reductions
in combination with supply disruptions, particularly in
the Americas. With scrap supply contracting by 1% in
combination with net-hedging of 1.4 Moz (44 t), total silver
supply fell by 2% to just under one billion ounces.
World Gold Council
Gold Outlook 2018: Watch the Fed, Debt and Geopolitics
Analysts share their thoughts on the gold outlook for 2018. Most agree that it will take a sharp shock to the market to move the price significantly higher.
Fight over arctic region ( images & bad dutch translation) Chris HelwegChris Helweg
Chris Helweg
The proportions of the Arctic mineral reserves are by all means impressive. The region estimatedly contains 25% of the world’s hydrocarbons, mostly in the form of natural gas. Russia’s portion of the Arctic is known to hold at least 560 billion barrels of crude which is 2.5 the total in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the lures of the Arctic region include deposits of diamonds, gold, platinum, manganese, nickel, titanium, coal, etc. which are mostly found on the territory of Russia. Importantly, the Northern maritime route is the avenue opening access to all of the above.
De verhoudingen van de Arctic minerale reserves zijn oké indrukwekkend. Het gebied bevat estimatedly 25% van's werelds koolwaterstoffen, meestal in de vorm van aardgas. Ruslands gedeelte van het Noordpoolgebied is bekend dat het houden van minstens 560 miljard vaten ruwe olie die 2.5 is het totaal in Saoedi-Arabië. Bovendien omvatten de kunstaas van het Noordpoolgebied afzettingen van diamanten, goud, platina, mangaan, nikkel, titaan, kolen, enz., die meestal te op het grondgebied van Rusland vinden zijn. Nog belangrijker is, is de noordelijke maritieme route de laan die toegang tot al het bovenstaande te openen.
VANCOUVER, Feb. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp" or the "Company") (SVM.TO) (NYSE American: SVM) reported its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2017. All amounts are expressed in US Dollars.
03062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
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01062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
31052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
हम आग्रह करते हैं कि जो भी सत्ता में आए, वह संविधान का पालन करे, उसकी रक्षा करे और उसे बनाए रखे।" प्रस्ताव में कुल तीन प्रमुख हस्तक्षेप और उनके तंत्र भी प्रस्तुत किए गए। पहला हस्तक्षेप स्वतंत्र मीडिया को प्रोत्साहित करके, वास्तविकता पर आधारित काउंटर नैरेटिव का निर्माण करके और सत्तारूढ़ सरकार द्वारा नियोजित मनोवैज्ञानिक हेरफेर की रणनीति का मुकाबला करके लोगों द्वारा निर्धारित कथा को बनाए रखना और उस पर कार्यकरना था।
In a May 9, 2024 paper, Juri Opitz from the University of Zurich, along with Shira Wein and Nathan Schneider form Georgetown University, discussed the importance of linguistic expertise in natural language processing (NLP) in an era dominated by large language models (LLMs).
The authors explained that while machine translation (MT) previously relied heavily on linguists, the landscape has shifted. “Linguistics is no longer front and center in the way we build NLP systems,” they said. With the emergence of LLMs, which can generate fluent text without the need for specialized modules to handle grammar or semantic coherence, the need for linguistic expertise in NLP is being questioned.
role of women and girls in various terror groupssadiakorobi2
Women have three distinct types of involvement: direct involvement in terrorist acts; enabling of others to commit such acts; and facilitating the disengagement of others from violent or extremist groups.
1. Moscow Outmaneuvers Washington’s Kurdistan
Project
04.11.2017 Author: F. William Engdahl “New Eastern Outlook”
For the moment it looks as if Russian three-dimensional geopolitical chess moves in the
turbulent Middle East have thrown a giant monkey wrench into Washington plans to create an
independent Kurdistan. In September the Kurdish population in Iraq voted appa rently
overwhelmingly for creation of an independent Kurdistan that would control some of the
richest oil fields of Iraq in and around Kirkuk as well. Today, a month later, Massoud Barzani,
the US and Israel-backed Kurd leader, is facing a major loss of powers from the Iraq Kurd
Parliament. In the middle of the fast-changing developments—whose outcome is decisive to
far more than the Middle East—is Russia and the Russian state-owned oil giant, Rosneft.
Contrary to the slick US and EU propaganda that has portrayed former President Massoud Barzani
and his Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) as champions of western-style democracy, Barzani is a clan
warlord who has ruthlessly pursued ethnic cleansing against a Yazidi and Christian Assyrian minority
in order to gain control of oil lands those peoples had historically occupied until 2014. The Barzani
clan and his Peshmerga military arm were trained beginning the late 1960s by Israeli Mossad Lt
Colonel Tzuri Sagi, initially to go against Saddam Hussein’s rule. Israeli ties to the Barzani clan have
remained since.
2. Since that time the Massoud Barzani clan has built a dictatorial power in the Kurdish region of Iraq
using assassination, corruption and since 2014, control of sales of Iraqi oil via Turkey. Such is
Barzani’s mafia-power, despite the fact that his term as President of the Iraqi Kurdistan ended in 2015
and the Kurd regional parliament refused to renew it, he has ruled since without any legal basis by
preventing the parliament from convening and formally ousting him. Massoud’s son controls the
region’s security council and all all military and civilian intelligence.
Barzani, with open backing of Israel’s Netanyahu, despite major opposition from most of the world,
went ahead with a referendum for an independent Kurdish state. It was to have been the beginning of
a domino-style reshaping of the geopolitical map of the entire Middle East along the lines of US Army
Col. Ralph Peters’ 2006 Armed Forces Journal, “Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East Would
Look.”
Since the British and French carved up the oil-rich lands of the collapsing Ottoman Empire in the
secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 during the First World War, the ethnic peoples known as Kurds
were divided, deliberately, between the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and of Turkey. To now create a
single Kurdish state would destabilize the entire region and beyond. The issues among the various
ethnic Kurds themselves are as well vast with differences in Kurd dialects sometimes being as vast as
that between English and modern German. The political differences as well are significant.
Had the US and Israel succeeded in forming an independent Kurdish state in Iraq as a precursor to a
Greater Kurdistan of some 23 million people, it would have thrown the entire region from Iran to Iraq
to Syria and Turkey into war, the kind of really big war the Pentagon neoconservatives have salivated
over since they concocted the fake proof in 2003 that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction.
Interesting to note, the same California PR firm, Russo Marsh & Rogers, that created Move America
Forward (MAF), as a pro-war lobby for the 2003 war against Saddam Hussein, using fabrications to
whip up popular support in the US for war in Iraq, is the PR firm used since 2005 by the Barzani clan
to promote the idea in the US that Kirkuk oil should be part of an independent Kurdistan.
One month later…
One month later and how the Iraqi Kurd landscape has changed. In a blitz military action that was
clearly supported by a strong anti-Barzani faction of the Kurds, the Baghdad army retook Kirkuk and
the key oilfields occupied since 2014 illegally by Barzani’s forces.
This meant that the financial key to Barzani and Tel Aviv’s “independent” Iraqi Kurdistan, the oil
revenues from Kirkuk and Bai Hasaan fields of around 1.2 million barrels per day are no longer in the
hands of the Barzani mafia.
After Barzani’s gang took control of the Kirkuk oil-rich region in 2014, driving hundreds of thousands
of ethnic Yazidis and Assyrian Christians from their homes, US oil interests helped to build Barzani’s
power. Rex Tillerson as CEO of ExxonMobil defied the Baghdad government and invested in the Kurd
region of Iraq along with Chevron after 2014 as a clear part of the US preparation for an independent
oil-rich Kurdistan.
Amidst the chaos of the conquests of ISIS across Iraq and Syria after 2014, a conquest that was
initially facilitated by Barzani in his bid to grab Kirkuk oil, Barzani’s clan made an illegal deal with the
family of Turkish President Erdogan to sell the oil via Turkish pipelines where it was sold on to Israel
earning Barzani’s clan billions of dollars. By August 2015 the Jerusalem Post reported that as much
as 77% of Israel oil imports were coming from Kurd-occupied Kirkuk region, via pipeline from Turkish
Ceyhan to the Israel oil port at Ashkelon.
Following Barzani’s bombastic declaration of a 93% independence referendum yes vote, the Iraq
government, as did others including that of Turkey and Iran, declared the vote illegal. Baghdad swiftly
moved to impose sanctions on the Iraqi Kurdish region. Erdogan’s Turkey, fearing a spread of Kurdish
3. independence to Turkish Kurds, a significant minority bordering Syria and Iraq, cut off Kurd pipeline
flows.
Then Baghdad held secret talks with the opposition Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of the recently
deceased Jalal Talabani. PUK had opposed the idea of referendum, and it was their soldiers who
largely controlled Kirkuk.
According to Bafel Talabani, the son of recently-deceased Jalal Talabani, just before the Iraqi forces,
in a joint operation of the Iraqi army and the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militias were moving to retake
Kirkuk, a deal was reached with Baghdad to peacefully withdraw PUK-controlled Peshmerga forces
from the city, opening the way for dialogue and saving thousands of lives. Talabani called the decision
of Barzani to go ahead with a referendum, despite clear warnings of the consequences, a “colossal
mistake.”
On October 29, Massoud Barzani announced he would step down as (illegitimate) President of the
Iraqi Kurdish region, acknowledging the utter failure of the Israel-backed referendum ploy.
Russian Oil Geopolitics
A crucial if little-noted factor in making the strategic shift in the geopolitical energy field of the Iraqi and
Syrian Kurdish regions in the last months has been Russia, specifically Russia’s giant state-owned
Rosneft.
Surprising many, just after the September 25 Iraqi Kurd referendum vote, Rosneft CEO, Igor Sechin
announced that Rosneft had agreed to buy control of Iraqi Kurdistan’s main oil pipeline, boosting its
investment in the autonomous region to $4 billion according to remarks by Sechin on October 18 at a
conference this author attended in Italy two days before the signing of the deal.
Rosneft plans to increase pipeline capacity to 950,000 bpd. Under the agreement Rosneft will control
the majority 60% with the rest held by the current operator, the Kurdish KAR Group in Erbil. In
addition to investing $3.5 billion into the Kurdish pipeline, Rosneft earlier this year lent the regional
Kurdish government $1.2 billion to ease a budget crisis, making Russia far and away the largest
foreign investor in the Iraqi Kurdish region.
The same day, October 19, the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), strongly
backed by US weapons and training, in the ongoing war in Syria’s oil and gas-rich Deir Ezzor
province, made a surprise deal to turn over the rich gas field to troops of the Russian Ground Forces,
according to a report in the Beirut Almasdar News.
The report that the Kurdish SDF agreed to turn over Al-Tabiya gas field it had just taken from ISIS
control on September 23 suggests more than a minor role of Russia in both Syrian and in Iraqi oil and
gas developments as well, of course, in Kurdish developments. The Al-Tabiya gas field, formerly
operated by Conoco of the US had the largest capacity of any field in Syria, capable of producing 13
million cubic meters of natural gas per day. The Almasdar News report states that the Russians will
turn control back to the Syrian Damascus government. The deal followed secret talks between
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East in
the self-declared Kurdish autonomous zone of Rojava to meet with Kurdish and Syrian leaders in the
northern city of Qamishli.
On October 25 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan
in Ankara, a significant thaw in their relations. The US-Israeli-backed Kurdistan independence ploy of
Barzani has completely backfired. Again, Washington geopolitical stupidity and neoconservative war
mania has driven hitherto geopolitical foes to cooperate in ways unimaginable just three years ago.
Russia has shrewdly played a game of geopolitical chess. Moscow knows that if Rosneft holds the
trump card in the Iraqi Kurdish energy economy, the Kurds have no option to get their oil out but via
Turkey. Two years ago, before Erdogan offered a rapprochement to Russia over the shooting of a
Russian jet over Syria, Turkey was financing ISIS against the regime of Bashar al Assad and at the
4. same time reportedly facilitating export sales of oil from Syria via a Turkish state company. Qatar was
spending billions of dollars to finance Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and other Salafist terror groups in
Syria. Now Turkey has to deal with Rosneft for Iraqi gas and with Damascus where Bashar al Assad
remains firmly entrenched with Russian support. And Turkey seems to be doing just that, one reason
for the growing hostility between Ankara and Washington.
Further setback for Washington is the development around Qatar. Since Washington and Israel
goaded the incalculable Saudis last summer into the laughable idea of creating an “Arab NATO” of
Sunni oil states (plus Israel), aimed at Iran, that “Arab NATO” as its first act imposed an economic
embargo against former Gulf Cooperation Council ally and Muslim Brotherhood-backed Qatar. Qatar
was targeted by the Saudis because they had openly sought the cooperation of former arch foe Iran
in building a common gas route to the EU. Now Qatar is working with Iran, Turkey, Russia and China
in a new geopolitical alignment opposed by Saudi Arabia.
Russia, placing herself in the midst of the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria has managed a brilliant
political coup against the Anglo-American and Israeli designs for a Greater Kurdistan and a NATO-
controlled Greater Middle East.
Checkmate! Washington. You have just lost the Middle East. The unfolding of further events with
Russia and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, are just a matter of time, as the unprecedented recent visit of the
Saudi King to Moscow to ask for Russian weaponry suggests.
The neocons around D.J. Trump and his neophyte son-in-law, 36-year-old “Senior Advisor” Jared
Kushner, and the increasingly pathetic ExxonMobil Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are a sad bunch.
The world has tired of their wars of destruction. It’s time to build up new.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from
Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for this
online magazine
https://journal-neo.org/2017/11/04/moscow-outmaneuvers-washington-s-kurdistan-project/