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Iran
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court in Urmia sentenced Kurdish activist Aqbal Ahmadpour to five years in prison for “attempt to disrupt the national security.” In June 2018 the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) detainted Ahmadpour in his home after accusing him of membership in a Kurdish political party. According to human rights organizations, Ahmadpour suffered severe torture while in jail and was not allowed to be represented by lawyers. In a similar charge, another Kurdish activist, Kiwan Aliaam, from Mehabad was sentenced to ten years and two month in prison.
- The Iranian government continues its crackdown on Kurdish border porters (Kolbars), as one Kolbar was killed and two other were injured last week. On Friday, October 5, The Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK) reported the injury of two Kolbars (Omed Salah, 23, and Kamal Qadrian, 28) by direct fire near Dinaran village, between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran. Separately, near Tawella district in Iraqi Kurdistan, a Kolbar was shot dead on Wednesday, October 3, 2018. Since September 1, nine Kolbars have been killed by the Iranian regime.
- The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported that in the last six months more than a hundred Kurds committed suicide in the Kurdish region of Iran, mostly driven by poverty and unemployment.
- Since September 11, when the Kurdish cities held a general strike over the execution of Kurdish activists and the bombardment of the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, the IRGC has deployed large divisions into the Kurdish cities, a move they described as a “military exercise.” The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDP-I) accused the regime of using the “military exercise” term as a pretext to launch attacks on the Kurdish political parties. On Monday, a nationwide general strike took place, which included the Kurdish region, over the country’s economic crisis and the rising price of goods.
Iraq
- The Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission (IHERC) announced the preliminary results of the Kurdistan region’s Parliamentary elections. These announcements included 85 percent of all areas reporting. Turnout was at 57 percent. The IHERC vowed to investigate the hundreds of complaints over electoral law violations by the Kurdish political parties during this most recent vote. Rudaw’s election monitor team released the results of 95% of the vote:
1- Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP): 44 seats with 43.92% votes.
2- Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK): 21 seats with 21.21% votes.
3- Change Movement (Gorran): 12 seats with 12.12% votes.
4- The New Generation: 8 seats with 8.36% votes.
5- Islamic Group (Komal): 7 seats with 7.1% votes.
6- Islamic Union (Yagarto): 5 seats with 5.12% votes.
7- Socialist Party: 1 seat with 1.1% votes.
- “For their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict” the Nobel Prize for peace was given jointly to both the Kurdish U.N Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad from Iraqi Kurdistan and Denis Mukwege from the Republic of the Congo. “I share this award with Yazidis, Iraqis, Kurds, other persecuted minorities and all of the countless victims of sexual violence around the world.” Nadia said in an official statement. Nadia is a Yazidi activist who survived the recent genocide and was enslaved by ISIS terrorists in 2014. She now dedicates her life to making the world aware of ISIS’ atrocities and the continued plight of its victims.
- In a press conference the acting head of Kirkuk provincial council, Rebwar Talabani called the new elected President of Iraq, Prime minister and the lawmakers to normalize the situation in Kirkuk and end the military rulings. Talabani called the new government to compensate the victims of October 16, 2017 military offensive against the province. Talabani also called to cancel all the decisions by the appointed administration of Kirkuk which he accused of restarting the demographic changes against the Kurds. On October 16, 2017 Iraqi forces with Iranian-backed militias attacked Kirkuk and removed the Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the Province.
- After disputes over the Presidency between the KDP and the PUK, Hadi Ameri, the Head of al-Fatih Coalition (a Pro-Iran Shiite block), visited Arbil and held separate meetings with KDP President Massoud Barzani, KDP Deputy President Nechirvan Barzani, and Masrour Barzani, the Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC). According to a statement from President Barzani’s office, Ameri praised the role of the Kurdish political parties in the formation of the new government. Meanwhile, Brett McGurk, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, the held several meetings with both KDP and PUK officials after the election results were announced.
Syria
- As the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continues its final stages of removing ISIS forces from east of the Euphrates near the border, last week ISIS launched various counter attacks against SDF forces in an attempt to derail the SDF’s advances near Sousah village and the area north of Bagouz town. ISIS carried out these attacks using car bombs and heavy weapons. As a result of one week of clashes, the SDF announced the elimination of 61 ISIS members and the seizures of numerous weapons, including an ISIS armory. Meanwhile, U.S. air support continues to hit ISIS targets north of Bagouz and Hijan city. In Hijan city, the terrorists have blown up the homes of families who fled toward the SDF.
- In an interview with the U.K.-based publication “The Times,” Abdul Karim Omar, the head of foreign affairs for the Northern Syrian Administration, warned the international community that they might stop holding hundreds of ISIS terrorists in Syria as their countries of origins refuse to take them back. Omar said that the ISIS prisoners impose a threat to everyone, a threat to “humanity.” Omar appealed to the U.K. and other countries to take their citizens back and try them for their terrorist crimes.
- Clashes erupted between two different Turkish-backed Jihadi groups in Afrin over the harvest of olive trees that they seized from Kurdish farmers. Both terror groups of Ahrar al- Sharqiya and Adel Gathering clashed in Janders district. Last week the Jihadi groups imposed a tax of 15% on Kurdish farmers. Yet the infighting between these two Jihadi groups have prevented Kurdish farmers from leaving their homes and work on the harvest. Since March 18, the Turkish military and their Jihadi proxies have occupied the Afrin region of northwest Syria.
- In a statement, the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the Kurdish-dominant forces in Northern Syria, announced the downing of a Turkish drone in Kobani. The statement blamed the Turkish government for targeting civilians and YPG fighters in Kobani.
Turkey
- After the declaration of curfews, the Turkish military launched a military operation in the Kurdish-dominant Lice district in Diyarbakir province against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to the government. The curfews included tens of Kurdish villages where thousands of civilians live.
- New waves of arrests were launched by the Turkish government against members of various Kurdish political parties and other civil rights activists. In Batman, eight Kurds were arrested, including the Co-chair of the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Batman. Meanwhile, 25 people were arrested in Agri and 8 people were arrested in Ankara, Mush, and Urfa.
- The Ankara Court postponed the hearing of the jailed Kurdish leader and former HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas to December 12. The court also decided to continue the de facto indefinite imprisonment of Demirtas. In related news, on Oct. 4, after the current HDP Co-chair Pervin Buldan refused to appear in court and sent her lawyer in her place, the Ankara Court ruled that she must physically appear in court. Therefore, the court issued an order of force against her, allowing for state forces to detain her and force her to come to court. Buldan is currently charged with allegations of “membership in a terrorist organization.”