510
Iran
- On Friday, Iranian border guards ambushed and severely injured a Kurdish border porter (Kolbar) near Piranshahr. On Saturday, another Kolbar was shot by Iranian authorities near Sardasht and eventually transferred to a hospital in the city. The Iranian regime has killed 50 Kolbars and wounded over 100 since the beginning of 2019.
- The Iranian regime intensified its crackdown on Kurdish political activism last week. Iranian security forces raided the home of Kurdish labor activist Kamaran Sakhtumangar in Saqqez City, arrested him, and confiscated his personal belongings. Iranian authorities arrested another Kurdish activist named Saed Ali Hussianes but released him after a brief investigation. In Kamyaran, Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) arrested a 28-year-old Kurd named Aram Zafar without disclosing any charge.
- Iranian Revolutionary Courts sentenced four jailed Kurdish activists to prison during the past week. In Oshnavieh (Shinno), an Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Gafour Barham to 11 years in prison on three charges, which included “disruption of national security.” In Sanandaj, another Kurd, Wali Nasri, was sentenced to six years in prison for “cooperation with a Kurdish party against the Islamic Republic.” Likewise, in Urmia, an Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurdish resident of Mako to one year in prison for “aiding Kurdish parties.” Meanwhile, a prominent female activist named Eran Rahibikar was sentenced to three years in prison for “efforts against national security.”
Iraq
- Representatives from Kurdish parties in Kirkuk Province held a meeting on Monday to address upcoming local elections, the first since 2005, to be held on April 1, 2020. After the meeting, the parties released a six-point statement outlining a list of Kurdish parties slated to participate in the local elections. The statement also called for the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk and continued meetings with other political entities in Kirkuk through the United Nations. Prior to the Kurdish parties’ meeting, Kurdish representatives met with the Turkish-backed Iraqi Turkmen Front but failed to reach an agreement concerning Kurds and Turkmen in the province. Meanwhile, Kirkuk Province remains occupied by Iraqi security forces and Iranian-backed militias since the Iraqi government’s takeover of the province and removal of Kurdish Peshmerga forces on October 16, 2017.
- A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) visited Iraqi Kurdistan and met with senior Kurdish officials. The delegation was headed by HDP Co-chair Sezai Temelli and met with the former President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani, current president Nechivan Barzani, and Masrour Barzani, the current Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region. The delegation also visited numerous representatives from Kurdish political parties in the region. The visit is the first from a current HDP co-chair since former HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, currently jailed by the Turkish government, visited the region in 2016. A statement released by the HDP following a meeting with Massoud Barzani, said, “The parties exchanged views on various matters including regional issues and the unity of Kurds.”
- The Turkish military incursion targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) headquarters in Iraqi Kurdistan continued last week. In response to the ongoing incursion, a Kurdish official near Duhok called on residents of villages in the Turkish area of operations to leave their homes in order to escape the escalating conflict. The Turkish campaign, dubbed Operation Claw, has killed dozens of civilians since it was launched in May 2019.
Syria
- Following the U.S. and Turkey’s establishment of a buffer-zone in northeastern Syria intended to separate Turkey from Kurdish forces, the first joint U.S.-Turkey patrols in the designated sector took place on Saturday. That said, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed anger over the agreed upon “safe zone” and threatened to ship millions of Syrian refugees into Europe in the event the “safe zone” is not established in a timely manner to his liking. The Kurds had agreed to the establishment of a buffer-zone under U.S. supervision to stave off a Turkish invasion and the inevitable demographic changes that would accompany such an operation. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) General Commander Mazloum Abdi expressed that his forces are “not inclined to fight Turkey” and warned “Turkish threats of incursion have helped ISIS (Da’esh) sleeper cells reemerge in northeastern Syria.” Abdi also described the al Hawl refugee camp as a “time bomb” due to its insufficient resources and sizeable population of Da’esh supporters. Da’esh operatives have infiltrated al Hawl and other camps in order to carry out training and indoctrination operations, while Da’esh sympathizers have committed several murders within the confines of al Hawl over the last few months.
- Afrin remains plagued by a deteriorating security situation and multiple human rights abuses since its takeover by Turkish forces and allied Syrian jihadist groups in 2018. Last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released two reports exposing more recent human rights violations and crimes perpetrated against Afrin’s Kurdish population. According to SOHR, an elderly woman and her husband died after being physically assaulted when jihadists raided their home and stole an undisclosed sum of money. Likewise, 13 Kurds were arrested by jihadist groups in rural areas surrounding Afrin. On Monday, clashes also erupted between the Islamist factions of Jayesh al Islam (a Salafi-jihadi faction) and the Sultan Murad Division (a Turkish nationalist/Islamist group close to the Turkish government) over the control of Afrin’s sources of wealth and various criminal rackets.
Turkey
- Rallies and demonstrations protesting the removal of Kurdish mayors in Van, Diyarbakir, and Mardin reached their 21st day last week. Turkish police attacked several rallies and arrested dozens of protesters, including 42 HDP supporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Turkish government replaced nine previously dismissed HDP councilors with government trustees in two districts of Van Province. Four of the new trustees were appointed in Chaldiran District and four more were appointed in Edremit District. In Mus, seven HDP councilors were dismissed and will be replaced by government trustees. Concurrently, a leaked document from Turkey’s Ministry of the Interior exposed requests from the Minister of the Interior for information from the governor of Diyarbakir on 13 Kurdish mayors in the province. The Kurds are concerned about the possible removal of additional elected officials in Turkey’s Kurdish region. Additionally, Turkish police carried out numerous political arrests, detaining nine HDP supporters in Agri Province’s Patnos city. In Marsin, ten people, including the HDP’s local youth leader, were arrested. Finally, two Kurds were detained in the Lice District of Diyarbakir.