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Iran
- Despite massive enforcement by Iranian regime forces in the Kurdish cities, tens of thousands of Kurds celebrated Newroz (Kurdish New Year). Massive rallies and celebrations took place in Rabat district-Sardasht city and in Kamyaran county-Kurdistan province. In addition, separate Newroz ceremonies took place in Ilham, Bokan, and Sanandaj. The Iranian Revolutionary guards attacked the Kurds in Naey village in Mariwan city and prevented the celebrations. During the gathering, many Kurds called for regime chanted and chanted Kurdish slogans with the Kurdish national anthem. After the celebrations, the Iranian regime intelligence services arrested tens of Kurdish organizers of the events.
Iraq
- On March 25, thousands of public employees, mainly teachers, protested the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) continuation of the austerity plan of the salaries. The protesters chanted slogans against the ruling parties and the KRG. The protests took place in all provinces in the Kurdistan region including districts and sub-districts. On March 26 and 27 the protests continued on a smaller scale amid anger of the people over attacks by some security forces against the protests. A number of protesters were jailed by Erbil police. After criticism by international organization for KRG’s reaction of the protests, the Head of the Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports Dindar Zebari said: ”demonstrations are a legal and constitutional right for people therefore a permit is required for any demonstration.” In a reaction to the protests, the KRG’s prime ministership released a statement thanking the employees for their “self-restraint.” In the statement, the KRG vowed to restore the salaries’ system if the Iraqi government would continue to send 317 billion dinars every month plus Kurdistan’s internal revenue and oil sales. Since late of 2015 the KRG followed a new austerity plan for distributing employees’ salaries after the Iraqi Government cut the KRG’s allocated budget in February 2014 over disputes with the Kurdistan region.
- On Tuesday, March 22, four Kurdish civilians were killed as a result of a Turkish airstrike on a village near Choman district in the Kurdistan region near the Turkish-Iranian border. The four young Kurds were identified as Shira Mohmood, Mohamed Warti, Darbaz Mohamed, and Kaka Warti from Koya town. The victims were picnicking earlier on Wednesday and celebrating Newroz and decided to stay overnight in the village. The incident raised public anger over the Turkish strikes that occur on a weekly basis. Since Turkey ended the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in July 2015, the Turkish military started airstrikes on Qandil mountains, but on several occasions, it resulted in civilians deaths. Currently, the Turkish military is occupying 28 Kurdish villages inside the Kurdistan region after their incursion two weeks ago by 10 miles inside Iraq’s border. Last week the PKK decided to withdraw from Sinjar-Mosul after protecting the Yazidi population from ISIS attacks since August of 2014. Erdogan has threatened to attack Sinjar town, however, soon after PKK’s withdrawal the Iraqi forces replaced them.
- Two explosions occurred inside Kirkuk city: one targeting a vehicle and one in front of a cafe. In a separate security breach, ISIS terrorists executed eight members of Iraq’s federal police after kidnaping them. In the east of Daquq, due to terrorist activities of ISIS, the Kurdish villages have evacuated their homes. Also this week, ISIS terrorists shot a bus in Kirkuk, killing six civilians after setting up a fake checkpoint. Since October 16, 2017, Kirkuk security’s has been notably weakened when the Iranian-backed militias attacked the province and expelled the Peshmerga forces who were based there.
Syria
- After ten days of Turkish and Jihadi groups invading the Kurdish city Afrin, two main Turkish-backed JIhadi groups started infightings in Afrin. Tens of members of both groups Ahrar al Sharqia and Al Hamza brigade attacked each other resulting in tens of casualties on both sides. After both groups involvement of looting Kurdish homes, reporters inside Afrin suggested the infighting started when the groups disagreed on sharing what is left by the people of Afrin. On March 26 the infighting spilled over to the Turkish controlled city of Al-Bab which resulted in the displacement of civilian as many fled to Manbij for refuge. The co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Elham Ahmed blamed the Turkish policies for the chaos in Syria. She said: ”the Turkish state has a very negative role in Syria and it was the main supporter of the terrorist groups in Syria.” Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Kurds who have been displaced in Afrin are prevented from returning to their homes by the Jihadi groups amid calls of the Kurdish Red Cross (Heve Sor) to aid the displaced families. After the United States, the French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns over the situation in Afrin. He told Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan via phone on Saturday.
Turkey
- The Turkish government has sentenced a prominent Kurdish lawmaker of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Osman Baydemir to prison for 16 months. Baydemir was charged with “insulting the police” while he was a mayor of the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed). The Turkish government also sentenced another HDP lawmaker of Van Lezgin Botan for 18 years in prison for several charges including “harming the unity of the state.” Botan is banned from traveling as he awaits an appeal.
- On March 26, the European Union-Turkey summit took place in Varna, Bulgaria. After the summit, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk said he raised all the concerns of Europe to the Turkish delegation but without answers. Before the summit, 75 members of European Parliamentarians signed a letter to Tusk to bring human rights issues to the top of the talks with Turkey. “We urge you to ensure human rights are discussed as a matter of priority, and call upon you to press President Erdogan to put an end to repression in the country and release individuals detained without evidence of wrongdoing,” read part of the letter. On Turkey’s membership bid to the EU, the Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz said the EU should end negotiations with Turkey due to human rights violation by the Turkish government.