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Iran
- Kurdish businessmen and store owners continued their strikes and demonstrations against the Iranian government for closing the border crossing between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran. In response, on April 24, the Iranian government arrested a number of Kurdish demonstrators. The border closure has negatively impacted tens of thousands of Kurdish workers in Iran. Strikers have been demonstrating for 10 days, in areas including Jwanro, Saqez, Bokan, Mehabad, Sardasht, and Baneh. The demonstrators chanted various slogans, criticizing the Iranian regime for its continual killing of Kurdish border workers, known as kolbars. As recently as April 23, a kolbar was recently shot and killed by Iranian revolutionary guards in Shino City in Warmia Province. In a symbolic protest gesture, protesters laid out empty dining placements to represent the number of Kurdish families unable to afford food because of Iranian government policies. Although the Iranian government promised to reopen the border, even before the protests began, it still remains closed, with no sign it will be reopened anytime soon.
- Human Rights experts from the United Nations (U.N.) called on Iran to cancel the death sentence against Ramin Hossein Panahi, a Kurdish member of the Komala political party. Panahi was arrested by the Iranian regime last June and accused of being part of an armed opposition to the government (despite Panahi being arrested while he was unarmed). The U.N. group said that “executing Mr. Panahi, following his torture, and unfair trial and on the basis of charges that do not meet international standards for the use of death penalty, would be unconscionable.” The expert group included the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health Dainius Puras, and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Nils Melzer.
Iraq
- On April 23, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman announced the start of construction of the largest U.S. consulate building in the world in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. During the announcement, Silliman praised the strong ties between the United States and the Iraqi Kurdistan region, saying “the ties between the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the United States of America have endured for decades,” and adding that “the new consulate building demonstrates that the United States will stand with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.” Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Nechirvan Barzani was also present at the event and welcomed the opening, saying: “The U.S Consulate General in Erbil is considered to be the first consulate to build its own compound in Erbil. This shows the United States’ trust in the promising future of the Kurdistan Region and it is a sign of the United States’ will for strengthening its relations with the Kurdistan Region on the basis of the diplomatic relations that it has with federal Iraq.” Prior to this announcement, a senior delegation from the U.S. visited Erbil on April 18th. The delegation included Brett McGurk, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition against ISIS and Andrew Peek, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Following this visit, the KRG released a statement saying: “The U.S. delegation welcomed the negotiations between the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi federal government which led to end the restrictions, imposed by Baghdad, on international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region’s airports, and partial payment of KRG civil servants’ salaries.”
- On April 22, bodyguards from the Ministry of Interior went on strike, demanding a restoration of their previous salaries after the KRG imposed austerity measures on government employees in the region. After the strike, the KRG minister of finance announced that the regional government will be adding funds to the Ministry of Interior to address the issue. Now that the Iraqi central government in Baghdad has begun sending funds to the Kurdistan region, the KRG has decreased the cuts to government employee salaries, bumping pay since austerity by 30% for higher income employees and 10% for low income employees.
- As tensions continue between the local Kurdish population and Iraqi military/militia forces in Kirkuk, the U.S. Department of State recently reported on the “abuses and atrocities” committed by both the Iraqi military forces and the Iranian-backed militias in Kirkuk and Selahaddin against the local Kurdish population. The Kurdistani political parties have also made numerous complaints, amidst this ongoing election season, about the abuses by security forces against local Kurds in these areas.
Syria
- The Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) recently captured Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a suspected recruiter for Al Qaeda with likely ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Soon after the YPG announced his capture, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that Zammar, a Syrian with German citizenship, was indeed captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the umbrella anti-ISIS force of which the YPG is a member.
- The historically Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria is facing threats of forced drastic demographic change after its invasion by Turkey and jihadi militias. On April 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released a report saying that, five weeks after Turkey’s invasion, occupying forces “continue to rob and loot the citizens and their properties as well as arresting and releasing them for sums of money.” The SOHR report also stated that “the forces of the ‘Olive Branch’ Operation have expelled a number of families from their houses in Sharra Township, where about 10 families were expelled from the village.” In addition, according to the report, the local Kurdish population is now extremely vulnerable to arrest and torture — those detained are also often later ransomed for large sums of money by the Turkish-backed Syrian jihadi groups. Meanwhile, in the past few weeks, several hundred Arab families from Ghouta were transferred to Afrin and given homes owned by Kurdish families who fled the city during Turkey’s invasion.
Turkey
- In response to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling early, snap parliamentary elections for June 23, 2018 instead of November 3, 2019, the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) released a statement criticizing Turkey’s government. The statement said that “the government has been preparing for an unfair election by using majority power.” The HDP released the statement after two more senior HDP lawmakers were stripped of their parliamentarian status. HDP Vice Co-Chair Ayşe Acar Başaran said “the AKP’s unlawful and fraudulent election preparations continue unabated with the support of the judiciary. Just one day after snap elections were announced as 24 June 2018, Ms Selma Irmak, deputy for Hakkari, and Mr Osman Baydemir, deputy for Urfa, were stripped of their parliamentary seats.” The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) also released a statement criticizing Turkey’s snap elections. The PACE statement said “the extremely short period between the adoption of these new rules and the upcoming elections leaves too little time for political parties to adjust and complete their preparations for the elections. Changing the election rules three months before Election Day is contrary to the recommendations of the Venice Commission.”