Below is an article by Rudaw:

In a speech before the European Parliament on Tuesday [21 January 2014], Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani called for support in building democratic institutions, and complained of scant international aid to help Erbil support tens of thousands of Syrian and other refugees.

“We are at the beginning of the road to build democratic institutions in Kurdistan, and we need your help in order to build these institutions,” Barzani said in the speech in Brussels.

He called on European Union countries to open representative offices in Kurdistan, and “to make every effort in order to recognize the genocide against the people of Kurdistan.”

Barzani said that Kurdistan’s policy of openness and understanding had meant that 250,000 Syrian refugees – mostly Kurds but also Arabs, Christians and others – had settled in Kurdistan.

“We also host 200,000 displaced people of our fellow Arabs from central and southern Iraq who came to the Kurdistan Region to escape the terror and to seek security and safety.  Nearly 10,000 Christian families have been living in the Kurdistan Region. In addition to these families, 26,000 more Christian families from various parts of Iraq came to Kurdistan because of terrorism and because of their exposure to murder and intimidation. And now 15,000 people from Anbar province have come to Kurdistan due to harsh conditions,” Barzani said.

“We are proud for the Kurdistan Region to be the shelter for anyone who takes refuge there. But at the same time, the international attention to help these refugees has not been at the required level,” he complained.

Barzani added that, “The Kurdistan Region and the Kurds are the factor of stability and not of provocation or creating problems” in Iraq and the region. “We will continue this policy and make every effort with the rest of the forces in Iraq to solve problems and to build the institutions of the state and we are committed to the constitution,” he added.

In Europe, Barzani is taking part for a second year in the World Economic Forum that opened in Davos on Wednesday [15 January 2014].