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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    An American report tracks the influence of Iranian soft power in the Kurdistan region

    Rocky
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    An American report tracks the influence of Iranian soft power in the Kurdistan region Empty An American report tracks the influence of Iranian soft power in the Kurdistan region

    Post by Rocky Wed 16 Aug 2023, 5:26 am

    [size=30]An American report tracks the influence of Iranian soft power in the Kurdistan region
    [ltr]2023.08.16 - 11:49[/ltr]
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    Baghdad - Nas  
    An American report stated that the "Islamic Republic of Iran" has gained, over the course of several years, an important foothold in Iraq, where it spreads its influence and agenda in the daily lives of Iraqis. However, this foothold has taken on a special character in the Kurdistan region.  
      
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    According to the report published by the "Washington Institute" and followed by "NAS" (August 16, 2023), Iran has developed various mechanisms to be able to expand this influence inside and outside the territory of the region. Tehran uses many soft power tactics to this end, including coercion within domestic politics, conversion, cultural expansion, and the formation of educational opportunities.  
      
    The following is the text of the report:  
      
    Iranian influence in the internal politics of the Kurdistan region of Iraq  
      
    As is the case in most parts of Iraq, the Islamic Republic is known for its financial, military, and logistical support for Iraqi Kurdish political parties, particularly the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which over the years has given Iran a major foothold in the political scene in Iraq.  
      
    Starting from the beginning of the hard-line and revolutionary political movements of the parties in southern Kurdistan in the sixties of the twentieth century until today, Iran has played a major role in Kurdish internal politics by securing the financial, military and logistical necessities of these parties. Diplomatic visits represent one aspect of the formality of this dynamic. An Iranian delegation visited Kurdish officials in April 2022 to discuss strengthening bilateral relations, during which they met with the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani, and the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani.  
      
    Similarly, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Intelligence, Agha Lutfi, and another Iranian delegation met with a number of regional politicians in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil in April 2023, including Muhammad Haji Mahmoud, an Iraqi Kurdish politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party in the Kurdistan region. Iraq. During this visit, the Kurdish Institute in Washington's April 18 report cited allegations that the Iranian delegation pressured the KRG to "expel Iranian Kurdish parties from Iraqi Kurdistan and disarm them in an effort to activate the recent security agreement between Baghdad and Tehran." An agreement focused on containing Iranian Kurdish dissidents in the region with the aim of protecting Iran's security.  
      
    In an April 2023 television interview, a dissident KDP party secretary named Haji Mahmoud apparently confirmed the deep entrenchment of Iranian forces in Kurdish politics, claiming that “in the 2014 elections, Qassem Soleimani, the commander of The former Iranian "Quds Force", one million dollars to the four Kurdish opposition parties.  
      
    Soleimani was also meeting regularly before his death with Iraqi Kurdish officials, and in particular he met with figures from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 2017, advising them, and their Peshmerga forces, to avoid launching battles in the city of Kirkuk against the forces of Haider al-Abadi, then prime minister, which was supported by Western and regional powers, including Iran. In exchange for the Peshmerga's withdrawal from Kirkuk, Soleimani promised that Iran would "protect their interests," and Kurdish lawmakers hailed his visit and advice as "wise" and useful to prevent a "fatal mistake."  
      
    Religion as a tool of influence  
      
    The Kurdistan Region of Iraq includes primarily Sunni Muslims, mainly followers of the Shafi'i school of thought. For several years, Iran organized the "Imam al-Shafi'i Conference" of the region's mullahs and other religious figures as a means of influencing the region's religious leaders. As a result, some religious figures embraced Shiism, such as Sheikh Isa Al-Barzanji, who pledged allegiance to Imam Hussein bin Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and told Rudaw Media Network during the Eid Ghadir period: “I am a follower of Imam Ali and Muhammad the Prophet, everyone should be a follower of the imam on me". Then he came back to claim that if the Iraqis were Shiites, the events of Saddam Hussein's regime would not have occurred.  
      
    Iran has tried to win the sympathy of many religious minorities, who belong to multiple ethnic groups in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, including those that were targeted during the years of ISIS activity, such as the Shabak, the Kakai, and the Bektashi, in particular. In each case, Iran has tried to push these minorities towards the Iranian version of Shiite Islam. As one source put it, "Iran tried to change the views and beliefs of Shabak and Kakai... [and tried] to convince Kakai that Sunni extremists would attack them if they did not convert to Shiism." The presence of Shabak and Kakai Shiite militias in Mosul province and the surrounding areas indicates the success of Iran's efforts, at least in part. Today, Bartella, a once predominantly Christian town in the heart of Christian Iraq, hosts many Iraqi Shiites.  
      
    religious ways  
      
    Almost all religious orders in the Kurdistan region belong to the Sunni Islamic movements, but Iran has a clear influence on the followers of one of the largest of these religious groups, the Qadiriyya Kisnazaniya order in Sulaymaniyah, which receives thousands of visitors every month. In addition to the Sunni visitors, Shiites from southern and central Iraq and Iran come to participate in its celebrations and religious activities.  
      
    This method does not have a long history, as it emerged from the burial place of Sheikh Muhammad al-Kisanzani after his death in July 2020. Since then, the shrine has become a shrine for his followers, including an estimated thousands of people from Iran, as well as local and foreign visitors. There is no doubt that the scenes of the devotion of these visitors are reminiscent of other Shiite holy places belonging to this group, and important Shiite figures such as Ammar al-Hakim, the leader of the Hikma Order, who is one of the well-known Shiite leaders in Iraq and enjoys great support from Iran.  
      
    Similarly, Iran devoted concerted efforts to attempting to build a hussainiya in the city of Arbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Shiites primarily celebrate the rituals of Muharram in the Husayniyyah in memory of the martyrdom of Hussein bin Ali. But the authorities of the Kurdistan region of Iraq rejected the construction plan in the end, and yet the Shiites continue to perform their rituals and annual religious activities in the Altun Mosque in the city.  
      
    Moreover, the Iranian visitors had a clear and indirect impact on the region, which may be reflected in the Kurds’ acceptance of these efforts, as the Kurdistan region, which is located along the path of Iranian pilgrims heading to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in southern Iraq, left its mark on the knowledge of the Iraqi Kurds. Iranian Shiite Islam. Starting in 2021, the Iraqi authorities began allowing Iranian nationals, along with Afghan nationals, to enter Iraq without a visa, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Iraq and the Afghan Taliban government. This decision includes the Bashmakh border crossing. In September 2022, for example, specifically during the Ashura commemoration, more than a hundred thousand Shiite pilgrims from Iran crossed the region through the Haji Omran border crossing, where these pilgrims stay, back and forth, for a few nights in Sami Abdul Rahman Park in Erbil.  
      
    influence in the field of education  
      
    Away from religion, students in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are increasingly traveling to Iran to study at universities in the Islamic Republic. This option is considered for students of all degrees, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, a low-cost option compared to Iraqi universities. An Iraqi student can expect to pay five thousand dollars a year in tuition fees at Iraqi private universities, while a master's and doctoral degree will cost a student only one thousand dollars or one thousand and five hundred dollars, respectively, at the Iranian University of Tabriz. What makes education in Iran more attractive is that Iranian universities have greatly expanded the scope of admission, to include students with “average grades” percentages, in addition to the recognition of these certificates by the State of Iraq.  
      
    The Islamic Republic exploits the presence of Iraqi Kurdish students in its universities to its advantage, introducing them to Shiite culture and sect and the Iranian Shiite agenda. This was left behind by a generation of Iraqi Kurds who converted to Shiism, such as Omid Nancli, the chief of staff of the famous Shia cleric Ammar al-Hakim, who was exiled to Iran as a dissident from Saddam Hussein's regime.  
      
    More recently, Iran has brought its universities and educational opportunities into its neighbor's borders. The Islamic Azad University, a very popular Iranian university with many branches in both the Islamic Republic and Syria, has reached the stage of approving the construction of five new campuses for it in the Middle East. Iraqis have noted these Iranian moves to expand the field of education in their country, and see it as another attempt by the Islamic Republic to spread its influence throughout the region, including in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.  
      
    Given these effective Iranian campaigns to influence the region on the political and cultural levels, there are signs that Iranian soft power will continue to grow in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Although the effects of soft power efforts are usually slow to emerge, signs of Iranian influence in the political, religious, and educational life of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq indicate that these efforts will continue into the future.  
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