Noreldin Waisy

Noreldin Waisy
Born Girtik, Choman district, Kurdistan Region
Residence Erbil, Kurdistan Region
Nationality Iraqi-Canadian
Education Master’s in Media communications
Alma mater Hertfordshire University
Occupation General Manager, political analyst, journalist
Years active 1992-present
Website kurdistan24.net

Noreldin Waisy, (born 5 April 1974), is an Iraqi Kurdish political analyst and journalist. He is most known for having helped found major Kurdish media broadcasting outlets Rudaw and Kurdistan 24. He has been serving as the General Manager of Kurdistan 24 since 2015 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s capital of Erbil.

Early life

Waisy was born in the small village of Girtik in the Kurdistan Region’s Choman district, near the border with Iran. Along with his parents and relatives, a well-known Kurdish family, Waisy was forced to flee his hometown after the 1975 Kurdish revolution was crushed by Iraqi forces. He and his family stayed in Iran for a few months as refugees, along with thousands of other Kurds from northern Iraq, before returning to the Kurdistan Region.

The village of Girtik was one of many that were destroyed by Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, burned to the ground, a scorched earth practice that was implemented in parallel with the Arabization policy of the Ba’athist regime. Waisy and his family were forcibly displaced to the southern provinces of Iraq, where he lived, both in Al-Diwaniyah and Baqubah, for five years.

In the 1980s, he graduated high school in Soran before going to complete and earn a degree in Administration and Economy at the University of Salahuddin in Erbil.

Time as refugee

In 2002, Waisy fled to Syria before the fall of Saddam’s regime in Iraq as the Kurdish status in northern Iraq was still vulnerable to military incursions, notably from Turkey[1] as it combatted the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an insurgent group that based itself in the mountain ranges straddling the Kurdistan Region’s border with Turkey and Iran.

In 2004, Waisy went to Canada as a refugee after the fall of Saddam and during the start of the Iraq War – Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Canada, he settled in Toronto with many other Kurdish refugees and helped found the Greater Toronto Area Kurdish House[2] and eventually received Canadian citizenship.

In 2008, Waisy returned to the Kurdistan Region where he helped establish Rudaw Media, which at the time was limited to a newspaper and website. Eventually, the outlet launched its own television channel.

In 2012, Waisy was selected as a recipient of the British Chevening Scholarship for International Students. He completed a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Communications at the University of Hertfordshire in Great London.

Prior to the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq, Waisy returned to Erbil in 2013 to work on a new media project. In 2015, at the height of the Islamic State’s control of territories in northern and central Iraq, right outside of Erbil’s borders, Waisy launched major news network, Kurdistan 24, as founder and general manager.

Professional life

Waisy is a published author in Arabic, Kurdish, and English.

He began publishing in the early 1990s. He has contributed to multiple international and Middle Eastern news outlets,[3] such as the Washington Times,[4] the Jerusalem Post,[5] the Telegraph,[6] and others in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Waisy has appeared as a political analyst on Al-Jazeera Arabic and English,[7] France 24,[8] Fox News, BBC Arabic,[9] and other local broadcasting channels. He continues to appear frequently on major television networks and in the press where he discusses Iraqi and Kurdistan issues.

As Kurdistan 24 General Manager, Waisy was also the organizer of a major symposium held in the United States of America’s Congress in 2017 ahead of the Kurdistan Region’s referendum on independence. The Capitol Hill symposium[10] from July 28, 2017, sponsored jointly by Kurdistan 24 and The Washington Times, was entitled “The Kurdistan Region: A Strategic US Ally in a Tough Neighborhood."[11] Waisy coordinated with the Washington Times to run a special edition[12] dedicated to the referendum.

He organized a similar event in London with the Centre for Kurdish Progress and concurrently ran a special edition[6] with British news outlet, the Telegraph.

References

  1. ↑ "Kurdish People Fast Facts". Cnn.com.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "'Kurdistan24 part of democratic transformation of Kurdish society'". Kurdistan24.net.
  4. ↑ "Why America should support independent Kurdistan". The Washington Times. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  5. ↑ "Baghdad increases repression of the Kurds while the US looks on". Jpost.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Time for Britain to fix its mistake". Telegraph.co.uk. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  7. ↑ "What will it take to defeat ISIL?". Aljazeera.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Kurdistan 24: Breaking New Ground". Kurdistan24.net. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "BBC Arabic interview with Noreldin Waisy". Kurdistan24.net. 20 August 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2018 – via YouTube.
  10. ↑ "Independent Kurdistan would be strategic US ally, retired Generals say". Kurdistan24.net. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Kurdistan24. "Kurdistan+Symposium". kurdistan24.net.
  12. ↑ "Special Section: The Kurdistan Region: Strategic U.S. Ally in a Tough Neighborhood". The Washington Times. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.