Iraqi Kurdistan: The Emperors’ New Clothes

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The Kurdish nouveau riche set wealth and image above all else

The former Kurdish rebel leaders of the KDP and PUK and their offspring [1] have played up to the United States for years for political sympathy and military backing. Both main parties positioned their top representatives in Virginia and Washington in the 1980s, as well as in London, Paris and other capitals already home to thousands of Kurdish refugees during the Ba’ath era. The Shi’a religious leaders did the same, playing down their fundamentalist pro-Iran agenda in order to secure Western backing. [2]

The consequences are plain for all to see. The rebels now posture as ‘monarchs’ [3] or sultans, rivals only in fortune to the pseudo royalty of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. The nouveau riche leaders defer to one another as ‘His or Her Excellency’ and have come to believe it. They are however, naked in their vanity for all to see.

The KDP clique

KDP leader, Massoud Barzani (16.08.1946) sired eight children with a wife whose name is neither public nor is her face ever shown alongside his. There is no wifely hand holding at official ceremonies as with American presidents. But according to some insider sources her name is Jowaira and she is his cousin. Massoud Barzani’s five sons are:

• Masrour
• Mansour
• Mustafa
• Muksi
• & Waysi

His three daughters are:

Nabila Barzani, who is married to her cousin, Nechirvan Barzani, the President of Kurdistan, a son of the late Idris Barzani, Massoud’s brother. (Her aunt is Jahida Barzani, Massoud Barzani’s sister.)

Two sisters of Nabila

Massoud Barzani’s other two daughters are Monira and Urfa, (like Massoud Barzani’s wife, their activities are not easily discoverable in the public sphere. Unmarried females of the Barzani family are subject to extreme vigilance in the name of ‘honour’ and the patrilineal traditions of the tribe.)

Experienced and critical commentator on Kurdish affairs, Michael Rubin, observed recently of the younger members of the Barzani family and their late grandfather (1903-1979) who had led the September 1961 Kurdish rebellion in Iraq and earlier revolts: “…The newest generation, however, has no real memory of their grandfather, and so has a very limited sense of the responsibility they inherit. They were born to power and see it as an entitlement. If Massoud Barzani’s grandsons enter the Erbil airport or any other government complex, scores of servants will bow and genuflect toward them. Grow up with endless servants and grown men singing your praises, little discipline and a sense that rules and the law are beneath you, and the same sort of perverse morality and mindset that afflicted Saddam Hussein’s sons and Muammar Gaddafi’s children can take root…” [4]

Masrour Barzani – From Intelligence Chief to Prime Minister of Kurdistan

For his part, Masrour Barzani, in his ongoing role as Prime Minister of the Kurdistan region, has held fresh meetings with the Emirates princes including afresh with Qatar’s Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in Doha. [5]

The visit coincided with that of his hawkish Turkish ally, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Both men cited the reason for their visit as being ‘for mutual interests in trade and security’. The same words were used on al-Thani’s twitter account. Masrour enjoys close contacts with the lords of the Emirates where he has property.

His younger brother, Mansour also owns multi million dollar properties and palaces in south beach Miami, California and Virginia.

Younger brother, Muksi Barzani graduated from Virginia University before regime change in 2002 [6]. His fortunes have increased since then.

Masrour Barzani’s son, Yasser Mansour, is already employed in security in the EAHK Peshmerga Counter-Terrorism Unit, following in his father’s footprints. Such roles are in keeping with the family business, and help protect its assets and interests.

Other real estate bought by the Barzanis in various American cities totaling over $71 million has been detailed widely in the international media – and subsequently denied by the various Barzani family members that have been named there. [7]

Their blank faced rebuttals arise in much the same manner as do their alleged connections with political murders. Masrour Barzani was the head of KDP intelligence at the time the killing of critical young journalist, Sardasht Osman, was carried out in May 2010. Sardasht Osman was kidnapped from his campus at Erbil University and his body soon after found dumped in Mosul. [8]

Such assassinations cannot have been committed without Masrour Barzani’s knowledge and authorization but the murders remain ‘unknown perpetrator’ killings. Families of journalists killed in Kurdistan to date have received no justice despite local and international calls for exposure.

The Asayish has become a criminal state institution that goes after the KDP’s political enemies whoever they are. Top cadres of the Asayish and Peshmerga are allowed to dispossess poor locals of their land and sell it on for personal gain and to be sold at vastly higher sums for development projects. They have also been running illegal oil refineries on other people’s land.

PM Masrour Barzani and President Nechirvan Barzani, all enjoy extremely lucrative longstanding political and personal contacts with Turkey’s Erdogan and his clique.

At the time of writing, Nechirvan Barzani sends his “thoughts and prayers” to Erdogan and his wife for contracting COVID-19. [9]

Millions of Kurds in Turkey, and across Syria’s Kurdish areas including Afrin [10], Kobane, al-Bab, Manbij and into the Yazidi’s Sinjar heartland in Iraq, would prefer to wish Erdogan dead for the suffering, misery and harm his pro-Jihadist campaign has wrought and causes still. [11]

So far as rural Kurds in Iraq are concerned, the near constant Turkish bombing of their homes by their Turkish partner harms them far more than the PKK. Iraq’s Kurdish villagers regularly lose their lives and their lands when burned by Turkish bomber jets. A 2020 Turkish strike also killed three Kurdish fishermen. [13] The victims appear to be being written off as collateral damage in service of the KDP’s ties with the Islamist extremist Erdogan regime.

Let us also not overlook that such illegal cross-border Turkish bombardment has been going on repeatedly since the 1991 uprising. Turkish armed land forces also collaborated variously with the KDP and PUK against their Kurdish fellows in the PKK in various ‘sandwich’ operations. (The PUK has since allied itself with the PKK).

The No Fly Zone hosts also allowed the Turkish intelligence apparatus (MIT) to set up bases and headquarters inside Kurdistan to assist the Turks in going after the PKK. Both Erdogan and Barzani intensely dislike the PKK and prefer money and the luxury lifestyle they lead through their trade and security co-operation.

Sodabeh (“Soodi”) Shokri Neamat Khoshdaman, said to be the mistress of Masrour Barzani, also enjoys property there. She has been linked with the ownership of the Barzani mutli-million dollar mansions in the US. She has personal property bought in Kensington and is the SKHD Ventures director, with offices registered at 30 Orange St WC2H, 1 km from the City of London.

Her purchases in the UAE are reported to have been sponsored by top UAE official, Tahnoun bin Zayed. She owns property near that of her reported lover, Mansour Barzani, in Burj Khalifa and also on Palm Jumeirah island.

Multi-millionaire tycoon, General Sirwan Barzani [14] (another of Massoud Barzani’s nephews), is the managing director of Korek Telecom, worth over $2 billion, with some 3,500 towers across Iraq. He enjoys good relations with turkey. [15]

His surviving brother, Saywan Sabir Mustafa Barzani, is a well-educated Kurdish diplomat who has held posts as Iraqi Ambassador to Italy and the Netherlands.

A daughter of another Barzani family member, Sarwan Barzani, Lina Barzani, born in Virginia in 1994, reportedly “owns” US-based Lina Holdings. The 27 year- old reportedly owns US-based Lina Holding which includes 26 different companies, 14 hotels, six factories, 286 cafes, 540 apartments, 48 restaurants, 8 diverse centers, two tourism projects, one hospital, and one bank.” [16]

Hamael Mahmoud Agha Zebari, (Hamayil Xan) is the late mother of Massoud Barzani and the elder sister of Hoshyar Zebari who passed away in her latter years on 27 July 2011.

Hoshyar Zebari, Massoud Barzani’s uncle, although mush the younger in age, was once the KDP spokesman in London until after regime change secured him powerful posts in the new Iraqi government has recently been blocked from running for the post of Iraqi President as former allegations of corruption have re-surfaced and are being pursued in the Supreme Court. A capable and very intelligence politician that lived in semi poverty for many years before regime change, Hoshyar Zebari has made good. He divorced his Kurdish wife and married his Arab mistress to avoid domestic scandal.

The Supreme Court of Iraq sitting in Baghdad may likely be pursuing Zebari in collusion with the pro-Iran blocs still challenging Moqtada al-Sadr’s victory. The KDP has aligned itself with al-Sadr and al-Maliki variously. But al-Sadr opposes al-Maliki being in his next cabinet. Al-Maliki had pursued Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army (Jaysh Al-Mahdi) militia in a concerted 2008 campaign. Their views on Iran’s role in Iraq also diverge. The pro-Iran militia are seeking to undermine the KDP generally, including through recent attacks on the Kurdish banks in Karada, east Baghdad, near the offices of the two main parties and on Erbil airport. The PUK – Iran and al-Ameri’s ally – is spared such attack.

IRGC Quds Force leader, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani (Ghaani) has made three trips to Baghdad since the endorsement of the election results to try to cement unity in the Shi’a house – something unthinkable before the new regime presented Iran with such a direct involvement in Iraq’s affairs. Qaani finally managed to visit Moqtada al-Sadr with a message from Khamenei virtually ordering al-Sadr to give the pro-Iran parties (Coordination Framework) sway in the composition of the future cabinet that he is expected to determine. Al-Monitor observed: “Ghaani, who fears division within the Shiite house, advised that Sadr allies with the Coordination Framework to create a Shiite parliamentary force, the source noted.”. [17] Qaani’s weaknesses are noted. He also visited Massoud Barzani in Erbil in January seeking his support. [18]

Banking sector

Barzani family influence and ownership in the banking sector is much the same as in the telecom, construction, and oil and gas sectors.

Key Erbil banks are owned by Barzani family members. and show losses where money has been diverted into personal accounts and usually invested outside Iraq. The banks also have substantial interests in insurance and other ventures.

Massoud Barzani’s nephew, married to his daughter, Nabila, Nechirvan Idris Barzani owns Kurdistan International Islamic Bank and has family links to Region Trade Bank (RTB) [19] via his late aunt who was married to Salar Mustafa Hakim. The latter also reputedly owns property in Burj Khalifa near Masrour’s brother Mansour, and his mistress worth hundreds of millions of dollars. [20] KIB has achieved positive current ratings whereas the Region Trade Bank has not. Salar Hakim is associated with both. Fitch Ratings of Dubai observed of the RTB:

RTB is a privately-owned bank, headquartered in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq and falls under the regulation of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI). The bank has minimal market shares in Iraq, no competitive advantages and limited distribution capabilities, given the small network of five branches. The Iraqi banking sector is dominated by three state-owned banks and private banks have small market shares.

The bank’s business model is volatile and sensitive to the size of sovereign deposits. RTB is mainly involved in trade finance transactions, international transfers and discounting of bills of exchange. Cash lending is minimal, given the limited lending opportunities. RTB does not have financial investments. The bank has high liquid assets in the form of cash and placements at the CBI, which mitigate the instable deposit base…

Salar Mustafa Hakim is also the principal of Kurdistan International Islamic Bank. The bank is based on Golan Street in Erbil. It sales are listed as $16.12 million and it has been in operation since after regime change in 2005. [21]

Fitch Ratings also downgraded their Turkish ally in December 2021 to Negative ahead of the 2023 presidential election. [22]

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) grants licenses to private and Islamic banks, is being exploited by the pro-Iran leaders within the Badr Organisation. Its leader, Hadi al-Ameri’s cousin sits on the board of CBI. A spokesperson for the ISCI is also on the board. Money has been diverted from Iraq to Iran and also to fund Hezbollah just as happens with the Central Bank of Iran.

The CBI and its licensees operate a “gain through loss” methodology. The Islamic Banks are being used for economy draining by state agents, including through embezzlement, money laundering, bad facilities, ghost worker payments and so on. Money that is moved through these banks is very hard to trace.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has been another such vehicle. (ADIB) Its Erbil branch office was accused of corruption and all the financial irregularities specified above. No action was taken despite the CBI having been notified in detail.

The Islamic Cooperation Bank, linked with senior figures in the PUK, also manipulates cash accounts and sums can readily be diverted to line the pockets of the PUK elite with control over accounts.

The PUK

The PUK elite is made up of Talabani family members and old time PUK Peshmerga commanders. All profit from the relationship network at the top of the party hierarchy. They are accused of securing the most lucrative contracts in all sectors of business for themselves, pushing out competitors and running rackets with Iran.

Qubad Talabani is one of the richest of the nouveau riche PUK politicians in Kurdistan. His former family home in the UK – like that of the family of Sami Abdul Rahman – was modest. Former Deputy Prime Minister in the Kurdistan Parliament helped secure $415 million from Washington pleading the KRG’s poverty in its war against ISIS back in May 2016, accompanied by KDP former Intelligence chief, Karim Sinjari. Bayan Sami-Abdul Rahman and Falah Mustafa were also present. They also asked for weapons and direct military support, successfully bypassing Baghdad. [23] Lobbying firm, Dentons, pushes for the Kurdish advantage. It is led by a former State Department official, David M. Tafuri. Other politicians and a Clinton era military under-secretary also lobby for the KRG elite. Many enjoy profits from the relationship. Pro-Israel political consultants are also active in this pursuit. [24]

Qubad Talabani vows to fight corruption. The Council of Ministers approved an anti-corruption plan presented by the Commission of Integrity and chaired by Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani and attended by Deputy PM, Qubad Talabani in September last year. It announced briefly: “…Commission of integrity presented an anti -corruption strategy plan for 2021- 2025, to boost transparency and slash corruption. It was approved by the council and the Commission will implement it under official scrutiny…” [25]

The Talabani brothers have attempted to dislodge Sheikh Lahur Jangi by accusing him and his brothers of corruption and sacking them from the politburo of the party. [26] Despite, this coup, Bafel has been unable to dodge similar such claims. The Leadership Council of the PUK’s old timers have almost all ben accused of complicity in crime, including murders and money rackets. They have also used public funding for party activities, party-backed and shadow media outlets. Cars were bought and houses allocated or refurbished. [27]

Following in the footsteps of his late father, Jalal Talabani, Qubad’s elder brother, Bafel Talabani, enjoys direct co-operation with Iran-backed Badr Organisation militia leader, Hadi al-Ameri. He demonstrates outright support for the Iranian-loyal militia groups in the PMF (Hashd al-Sh’abi).

Bafel Talabani prefers to showcase his close relations with Iran over and above the old pact reached with rival KDP in the Ankara Agreement during their bitter civil war between 1994-1998. The PUK has been dishing the dirt on the KDP and vice versa recently. The KDP has published documents they obtained during their brief alliance with Saddam Hussein against the PUK in 1996 when thy gained control over the PUK’s headquarters and bases in Sulaimani. These document the close relations between the PUK and the IRGC.

In terms of the day-to-day benefits from the PUK’s good relationship with Iran, the PUK’s Asayish run cross border smuggling operations with the IRGC. This includes a high level of traffic in narcotic substances. The KDP has openly badmouthed the PUK in this arena. They also accuse the PUK of failing to share its revenues from routine customs operations as well as smuggling. [28]

Bafel and his brother Qubad Talabani replaced the intelligence officials close to their rival, cousin, Lahur Sheikh Jangi Talabani, trying to shift the blame in July last year (2021). The PUK’s Counter Terrorism directorate denied the claims. [29] Scapegoats involved in small scale smuggling activities were sacrificed in a show for public consumption while the large players remain free. “Ali Hama Salih, a parliament member from Gorran who is outspoken about corruption at the borders, said on Friday that “No one has been arrested for involvement in the continued and systematic smuggling process at Bashmakh…Those arrested are some people with no support or those who have smuggled a few kilos of chicken meat, rather than those who have taken hundreds of millions at crossings and airports and have not been arrested,” he asserted.” [30]

Both parties are accused of the illegal smuggling of oil into Iran, breaking the sanctions, as well as widely falsified oil industry transactions [31]. In December 2018, both MP Sarkawt Shamsadin of the New Generation Party and MP Sherko Jawdat Mustafa of the Kurdistan Islamic Union criticized the main parties for diverting the profits of the oil sector into their own pockets. The latter claimed that the KRG was bringing in over $1 billion per month at that date from which some $300 million was going missing each month. [32]

Scores of impoverished Iranian Kurdish ‘Kolbar’ porters risk being gunned down for carrying enormous weights on their backs into Iraq whilst the PUK profits from the customs posts with Iran posts as do the PMF militias.

Drugs including opium and opium derivatives are secured by the Asayish in convoys coming from Iran by bypassing or overriding formal customs posts and the officers assigned to them. What happens thereafter can readily be surmised.

The same is said of the PMF groups that also exact illegal taxes and demand bribes at the borders and internal checkpoints on threat of force.

Billionaires and Millionaires Abound

Top officials, Kosrat Rasul and his sons, Darbaz and Shalaw, are also accused of amassing great wealth from the oil industry. Kosrat has his own protection unit, Hezekani Kosrat Rasul – which he certainly needs as he made so many enemies. [33]

So too, Jalal Talabani’s widow, party boss, Hero, the eldest daughter of the PUK’s founder the late writer and thinker, Ibrahim Ahmad and mother of now millionaire sons, Bafel and Qubad. A Foundation has been set up in Ibrahim Ahmad’s name to honour and reward the chosen.

His other daughter, Shanaz, married to unpopular former minister of water resources, Latif Rashid, was last year appointed executor of the PUK politburo and of its electoral campaign. [34] Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmad and her husband once lived simply as refugees in the UK where she worked voluntarily on human rights and women’s issues. Latif Rashid was reputedly close to Nouri al-Maliki and enjoyed business ties with him during his premiership. [35]

The list goes on…

By 2012, there were said to be more than nineteen billionaires [36] and by 2020 15,000 millionaires in Kurdistan. Fifty percent were said to be in the KDP-controlled region of Erbil.

Alas, for the greater good of Kurdish society, the average Kurdish Joe cannot land a job without close links to the ruling families and their parties.[37]

Many thousands flee each year over the lack of opportunities, ‘honour’ related risks and threats from party strongmen. The scenes at Belarus were a case in point. The flooding of poorer areas of Erbil at the end of last year, another. The rich were safe and dry. Women, an infant baby, and small children were among the missing and the dead. [38]

Outsiders – and critics – are not welcome at any time, but more and more Kurds are fleeing from their masters.

The solution is more than revolution

“Until regime change after March 2003, the KDP and PUK  commanders and Peshmergas were poor; there was no development in Kurdistan.  The fighters had largely returned from exile in Iran with little more than their rifles and hand tailored uniforms. Baghdad was  punishing the Kurdish Autonomous Area (KAA, as it was then called by the Coalition) for the 1991 uprising. Internal sanctions were destroying family life above and beyond the international sanctions constraining Iraq since the dirty Gulf War. The most prosperous Kurds were still the Mustashar and jash paid by the Ba’ath for their loyal services.”

The errors of the US-led invasion are too well-known to repeat here aside from noting that the focus was military and based on personal revenge against Saddam Hussein largely over his repudiation of American domination.

The Tishreen movement in Baghdad, and the protest movement in Kurdistan, (a bubbling Kurdish Spring) signal the urgent need for change. But few of those faces that the invasion empowered, almost two decades ago, were trained or qualified to lead the country: they were opposition militia fighters, rebels from a feudal society long closed to the outside world and in some instances, proven assassins. For the most part, thee players chosen by Bush and Blair lacked the necessary intellectual focus and social conscience. Rare exceptions include Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Haidar al-Abadi and indeed, Hoshyar Zebari. All are educated and politically experienced. They have been capable of moderation and tolerance.

The solution to change in Iraq does not rely solely upon a new generation coming to power but of graduates with the appropriate skills – and determination – to responsibly handle budgets, control finances, deliver accountability and services to the population. Even ISIS did a better job of running the territory it seized, but mistakenly through having terror predominate.

George W. Bush brought in players that put enriching their families and taking revenge on their foes above running the country. This is organised crime stamped on gilded letterhead.

The Barzanis and Talabanis are not the only tribes and families in Kurdistan. The US and UK should have provided training – not just military training – to those to whom they handed power so swiftly. They were experienced in guerrilla warfare, not civil administration. As it is, these days the PUK and KDP train policemen and fighters to do their dirty work. Policemen are trained and then told to kill the parties’ enemies. The targets include men who wish to marry the leaders’ females or who elope with them for love not money.

The old faces in power are not capable of reform nor is there a will among them to bring about change for in so doing they will sow the seeds of their own demise. They have become used to the red carpet and entertaining in Saddam’s palaces.

Sindbad Palace in Inner Karada, has been renamed al-Salam Palace, and is one of several sites taken over by the usurpers of power that were not destroyed by the Americans or the mob. The fine building that was the original al-Salam Palace in the Green Zone, crafted by some of Iraq’s best architects and engineers, took bombs through the roof and has been left to decay. The same fate has begun to overtake the costly structures in Babylon and Tikrit, part of the people’s heritage.

The protesters must now educate themselves as to how to bring about reform before taking over. Reform can only be based on the most skilled person for each position, not whose family they belong to.

Iraq is crying out for – and bleeding its youth – for skilled politicians, scientists, agriculturalists, economists, lawyers, and above all, social reformers. The country demands deliverance from nineteen years of muhasasa and sect-based monopoly. Look at Lebanon if you care to see the fate of Iraq without change.