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Turkey, Iran influence Iraqi Kurdistan politics

The post-election politics of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is subject to relationships among Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Iraq's Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani votes at a polling station in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad September 21, 2013. Kurds went to the polls on Saturday to elect a new parliament in an election that is being dubbed as the most crucial in the history of Iraqi Kurdish political powers, with potential to change the political structure of the next parliament and government cabinet.About 1,129 candidates representing 32 political entities are co

The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) new cabinet will not solely be determined by the political victors of the Sept. 21 regional elections; Turkey and Iran —the two rival regional powers — continue to exert pressure on this process to protect their interests and allies in the next government.

On Nov. 10, Lvin Press — the leading political independent magazine in Iraqi Kurdistan — reported on a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan by Mohammad Jafari Sahraroudi, an operative of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Kurds in Iran believe Sahraroudi assassinated their historical leader, Abdulrahman Qasimlou — then-president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran — in 1989 in Vienna. The magazine also reported a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan by Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Forces.

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