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Rayan Al-Kildani
Rayan Salem Sadiq Al-Kildani (), better known as Rayan al-Kildani (, ), is an Iraqi Assyrian politician who serves as the general secretary of the Babylon Movement, as well as its military component, the Babylon Brigade. He rose to power after founding the party in 2014, which had initially been involved in defending the Nineveh Plains from ISIS when they were at their most active. Al-Kildani has received a multitude of scrutiny for the Babylon Brigade and its role in human rights violations. Videos of Rayan cutting off a prisoner's ear have surfaced, and his movement has been known to loot homes in Assyrian villages such as Bartella. On July 18, 2019, United States Vice President Mike Pence announced the imposition of sanctions on al-Kildani on the basis of the Magnitsky Act, acknowledging his ties to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Biography Rayan was born to a family of Chaldean Catholics in 1989 in the town of Alqosh, in the Nine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alqosh
Alqosh ( syr, ܐܲܠܩܘܿܫ, Judeo-Aramaic: אלקוש, ar, ألقوش, alternatively spelled Alkosh or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District and is situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul. The locals of Alqosh are Assyrians who mostly adhere to the Chaldean Catholic Church. Etymology Several theories have been put forward for the origin of the town's name. The name Alqosh ( Syriac: ܐܲܠܩܘܿܫ) may possibly trace back to the compound Assyrian-Akkadian name ''Eil-Kushtu'', where ''Eil'' means “God”, and ''Kushtu'' means “righteousness” or “power”. Therefore, the village’s name would translate to "The God of Righteousness" or "The God of Power”. Some have put forward that the name originates from Assyrian Aramaic ''Eil Qushti'', which means “The God of the Bow” or “Arched God”, possibly in reference to the village’s Assyrian history and the ancient Assyrian deity Ashur holdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
US Invasion Of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland invaded Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurdistan Democratic Party
The Kurdistan Democratic Party ( ku, Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê; پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. The party states that it combines "democratic values and social justice to form a system whereby everyone in Kurdistan can live on an equal basis with great emphasis given to rights of individuals and freedom of expression." The KDP is dominated by the Barzani tribe and described as a Kurdish nationalist big tent party. History Foundation In 1946, the leader of the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad, Qazi Muhammad, announced the formation of a "Kurdish Democratic Party" based in Iran, or Eastern Kurdistan. The Soviet Union, then supporting the Kurdish national struggle against the monarchies of Iran and Iraq, instructed Mustafa Barzani to place himself under t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoshyar Zebari
Hoshyar Mahmud Mohammed Zebari, also simply known as Hoshyar Zebari (also spelled ''Hoshyar Zebari/Zibari'', Kurdish: ''Hişyar Zêbarî''; born 23 September 1953) is an Iraqi politician who formerly served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq in 2014 and also as the Minister of Finance until 2016. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2003 until 2014. Biography Zebari was born to a Kurdish family in Aqrah, a city of Duhok Governorate, Iraq and grew up in Mosul. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from The University of Jordan in 1976. He also earned a Master of Arts in Sociology of Development from the University of Essex, United Kingdom in 1980. While studying in United Kingdom, he led the Kurdish Students Society in Europe and also served as the chairman of the Overseas Student Committee from 1978 to 1980. He joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1979. In the 1980s, he fought as a member of the Peshmerga against the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein. He went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to Iraq–Jordan border, the southwest and Syria to Iraq–Syria border, the west. The Capital city, capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Turkmens, Assyrian people, Assyrians, Armenians in Iraq, Armenians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Iranians in Iraq, Persians and Shabaks, Shabakis with similarly diverse Geography of Iraq, geography and Wildlife of Iraq, wildlife. The vast majority of the country's 44 million residents are Muslims – the notable other faiths are Christianity in Iraq, Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European part of Turkey), Egypt, Iran, the Levant (including Ash-Shām and Cyprus), Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and the Socotra Archipelago (a part of Yemen). The term came into widespread usage as a replacement of the term Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century. The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions, and has been viewed by some to be discriminatory or too Eurocentric. The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of Western Asia (including Iran), but without the South Caucasus, and additionally includes all of Egypt (not just the Sinai Region) and all of Turkey (not just the part barring East Thrace). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Aoun
Michel Naim Aoun ( ar, ميشال نعيم عون ; born 30 September 1933) is a Lebanese politician and former military general who served as the President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 until 30 October 2022. Born in Haret Hreik to a Maronite Christian family, Aoun joined the Military Academy in 1955 and graduated as an artillery officer in the Lebanese Army. In 1984, he became the youngest Commander of the Army, at the age of 49 years. On 22 September 1988 during the fourth phase of the Lebanese Civil War, the departing President Amine Gemayel appointed him as the interim Prime Minister of a Military Government, after the parliament failed to elect a new president, and dismissed the current government headed by the Acting Prime Minister Selim Hoss. This controversial decision saw the rise of two rival governments contending for power at that time, with Aoun being supported mainly by Christians and Iraq, while the other being supported by Muslims and Syria. He decl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2023 Iraqi Governorate Elections
Governorate or provincial elections were scheduled to be held in Iraq on 20 April 2020, to replace the provincial councils in the governorates of Iraq that were elected in the 2013 Iraqi governorate elections and, in Kurdistan Region, in the 2014 elections. The elections were delayed indefinitely in November 2019, amidst demonstrations demanding the end of the existing political system. In the summer of 2020, after protests around the country specifically demanded the dissolution of provincial administrations, the ruling parties decided to postpone any decision on when to hold new provincial elections until after the early parliamentary election planned for October 2021. In March 2023, Iraq's parliament passed a resolution setting the provincial elections on 18 December 2023. Campaigning started on 1 November. Vote Participation Voting took place on December 18, 2023, in all of Iraq's governorates except the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a turnout of 39%. Preliminary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021 Iraqi Parliamentary Election
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 10 October 2021. The elections decide the 329 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and confirm the prime minister. 25 million voters are eligible to take part in Iraq's fifth parliamentary election since the 2003 US-led invasion and the first since the 2019 Iraqi October Revolution. The election result led to the 2021 Baghdad clashes. Background The elections were originally due to be held in 2022 but were brought forward to June 2021 due to the 2019–2021 Iraqi protests. They were delayed until October as the Independent High Electoral Commission asked for more time to organize "free and fair elections", which the cabinet of Iraq approved on 19 January 2021. Electoral system The electoral system was changed following the last parliamentary elections amid the 2019–2021 Iraqi protests. Previously conducted under proportional representation calculated using the Webster/Sainte-Laguë ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iraqi Central Bank
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) ( ar, البنك المركزي العراقي) is the central bank of Iraq. It was established in 1947, the same year in which the British occupation of Iraq was ended. CBI's primary objectives are to ensure domestic price stability and foster a stable competitive market based financial system. History After World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq's monetary system was administered by the British Mandate of Mesopotamia until 1931, when the Iraq Currency Board was established in London to issue the new Iraqi dinar and maintain its reserves. The Iraq Currency Board pursued a "conservative monetary policy, maintaining very high reserves behind the dinar", which was "further strengthened by its link to the British pound". In 1949, the currency board was replaced by the National Bank of Iraq, which had been founded two years before on 16 November 1947. The National Bank of Iraq became the Central Bank of Iraq in 1956. Since switchi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shabak Brigade
The Shabak Brigade, also known as the Shabak Militia or Liwa al-Shabak (), is an Iraqi armed group that was formed in 2014. The group was initially formed with around 1,500 militiamen in order to regain control of the Nineveh Plains from the Islamic State (ISIS). History Headquartered in the historically Assyrian, Shabak majority town of Bartella, the Shabak Brigade is politically affiliated with the Shabak Democratic Assembly, and militarily operates under the leadership of the Badr Organization. The Shabak community had insisted on the formation of a Shabak militia after claims that the Kurdish Regional Government and Assyrian groups had expanded into Shabak lands, while also advocating for the formation of greater autonomy, protection of Shabaki cultural and religious sites, and a distinct Shabak-Shia identity. The Brigade was initially formed as the Nineveh Plains Forces (قوات سهل نينوی), not to be confused with the Nineveh Plain Forces. The Shabak Brigade is o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qaraqosh
Qaraqosh, also known as Al-Hamdaniya or Bakhdida, is an Assyrian city in Iraq within the Nineveh Governorate, located about 32 km (20 mi) southeast of the city of Mosul and 60 km (37 mi) west of Erbil amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Nimrud and Nineveh. It is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the towns of Bartella and Karamlesh, which connects to the city of Erbil as well. The second, which was gravel until being paved in the 1990s, is direct to Mosul. All of its citizens fled to Kurdistan Region after the ISIS invasion on August 6, 2014. The town was under control of ISIS until October 19, 2016 when it was liberated as part of the Battle of Mosul after which residents have begun to return. Local Assyrians speak the Qaraqosh dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic. Etymology The present name of the town, Qaraqosh, is first attested in a source from the sixteenth century. It is of T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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