The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) has met with Turkish officials for the third time this year, marking the second such meeting since June. The party’s leader, Salahhaddin Bahhadin, held discussions with Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister in Ankara.
The KIU is the largest Islamic party in Kurdistan, rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood tradition. It currently holds seven seats in the Kurdistan Parliament and four in the Iraqi Parliament.
Despite its relatively modest representation, the KIU’s seven seats in the Kurdistan Parliament carry strategic weight, as no single party has secured a majority. This positions the KIU as a potential kingmaker or a divisive force in shaping the dynamics between the KDP and PUK within the Kurdistan Region's parliament.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) has met with Turkish officials for the third time this year, marking the second such meeting since June. The party’s leader, Salahhaddin Bahhadin, held discussions with Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister in Ankara.
The KIU is the largest Islamic party in Kurdistan, rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood tradition. It currently holds seven seats in the Kurdistan Parliament and four in the Iraqi Parliament.
Despite its relatively modest representation, the KIU’s seven seats in the Kurdistan Parliament carry strategic weight, as no single party has secured a majority. This positions the KIU as a potential kingmaker or a divisive force in shaping the dynamics between the KDP and PUK within the Kurdistan Region's parliament.
But because group chats and the channel features are not end-to-end encrypted, Galperin said user privacy is potentially under threat. Telegram, which does little policing of its content, has also became a hub for Russian propaganda and misinformation. Many pro-Kremlin channels have become popular, alongside accounts of journalists and other independent observers. If you initiate a Secret Chat, however, then these communications are end-to-end encrypted and are tied to the device you are using. That means it’s less convenient to access them across multiple platforms, but you are at far less risk of snooping. Back in the day, Secret Chats received some praise from the EFF, but the fact that its standard system isn’t as secure earned it some criticism. If you’re looking for something that is considered more reliable by privacy advocates, then Signal is the EFF’s preferred platform, although that too is not without some caveats. Telegram has become more interventionist over time, and has steadily increased its efforts to shut down these accounts. But this has also meant that the company has also engaged with lawmakers more generally, although it maintains that it doesn’t do so willingly. For instance, in September 2021, Telegram reportedly blocked a chat bot in support of (Putin critic) Alexei Navalny during Russia’s most recent parliamentary elections. Pavel Durov was quoted at the time saying that the company was obliged to follow a “legitimate” law of the land. He added that as Apple and Google both follow the law, to violate it would give both platforms a reason to boot the messenger from its stores. But Kliuchnikov, the Ukranian now in France, said he will use Signal or WhatsApp for sensitive conversations, but questions around privacy on Telegram do not give him pause when it comes to sharing information about the war.
from tr
