Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani (center) speaking at the 5th PUK Congress in Sulaimani, Sept. 27, 2023. (Photo: Kurdistan Region presidency)
Lahur Sheikh Jangi, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), speaking in a video message, Sept. 26, 2023. (Photo: Lahur Sheikh Jangi/ Facebook)
An Iraqi artist paints a mural based on the US Statue of Liberty and a widely published photograph of an abused detainee at the Abu Ghraib prison on 23 May 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo: AFP)
Mullah Bakhtiar, a member of the High Political and Interests Council of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), speaking in a video message. (Photo: Mullah Bakhtiar/ Facebook)
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (left) shaking hands with the outgoing UK Consul General in Erbil Rosy Cave, Sept. 25, 2023. (Photo: KRG)
Former Kurdistan Region president and current Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) President Masoud Barzani delivering remarks at a rally for the independence referendum in 2017. (Photo: Barzani Headquarters)
An engineer walks in the grounds of the Khurmala oilfield, 10Km south of Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan Region, July 18, 2009. (Photo: Safin Hamed/AFP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Feb. 5, 2021. (Photo: Petros Karadjias/ AP)
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (right) during his meeting with Abdul Hakim Bashar, a member of the KNC delegation, in Erbil, Sept. 23, 2023. (Photo: KRG)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani arrives address the 78th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City, Sept. 22, 2023. (Photo: Bryan R. Smith/AFP)