Masoud Barzani sets conditions for backing next Iraqi PM

The full extent of Monday’s massive earthquakes that ripped through southern Turkey and neighboring provinces in Syria won’t be known anytime soon.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has come under fire over a massive earthquake that killed more than a thousand people in the country due to its failure to take action despite experts’ earlier warnings.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing hundreds of people as they slept, levelling buildings and sending tremors that were felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, Egypt and Iraq.

Turkey test-fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), newly developed by Roketsan and named Tayfun (typhoon), over the Black Sea on Oct. 18, 2022.

A representative of the State of Law Coalition in the Iraqi parliament considered it unlikely that the Kurds would cut ties with Baghdad due to the Kurdistan Region's share in the 2023 budget.

A French political analyst Fabrice Balanche believes that the recent attack of a French citizen on Ahmed Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center in Paris is more related to the hatred of immigrants.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has rebuffed Russia's efforts to arrange a meeting with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing Turkey's upcoming elections and the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil.

In his first interview with international media following Tuesday's drone strike on his main headquarters in northeast Syria, Mazlum Kobane (also known as Mazloum Abdi), the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said that the most likely target of a potential Turkish ground offensive against the Kurdish-controlled areas would be his native city of Kobani.

The Joint Chairman of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of the Euphrates Region condemned the drone attack of the Turkish army on the building of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration and considered these attacks to be aimed at destroying the autonomous administration and the democratic experience of northern and eastern Syria.

Prof Birgit Ammann believes it has to be made clear that there is also a lot of serious critique against both the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Defense Units (YPG) and their political environment- within and outside the Kurdish communities and that that the ban of both groups is totally outdated in Germany. A professor from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, she also said it is virtually impossible and unnecessary to figure the number of the Kurds in the world because Kurds do not need a number to justify their claims.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced on Monday it was prepared to provide support to all Syrian areas affected by the earthquake which struck Syria and Turkey last night.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Monday said Baghdad will discuss with Washington this week how to pay dues owed to Russian oil companies despite sanctions.

The major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday has killed more than 3,800 people and flattened thousands of buildings as rescuers dug with bare hands for survivors, Agence France-Presse reported.

Prisoners mutinied in a northwestern Syria prison Monday following a deadly earthquake, with at least 20 escaping the jail holding mostly Islamic State group members, a source at the facility told AFP.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday declared seven days of national mourning for the victims of an earthquake that killed at least 3,000 people in his country and neighboring Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.