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A weekly brief of events that occurred in the Kurdish regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
- Last Thursday, Iranian border guards injured a Kurdish man from Sewllawa named Jamal Mohammdi. Mohammdi was shot while tending his farm after being mistakenly identified as a Kurdish border porter (Kolbar). Another Kolbar, Payman Yousifi, died from injuries suffered 10 days ago at the hands of Iranian authorities near Sardasht. Simultaneously, near Saqqez, a Kurdish shepherd lost his leg when he triggered a landmine. 61 Kolbars have been killed and at least 120 have been wounded since the beginning of 2019.
- A number of Kurdish activists remain in Iranian jails for protesting Turkey’s October incursion into the Kurdish region of Syria. The fate of Ferhad Muradi, a young Kurd from Sanandaj, remains unknown since his arrest on October 10, 2019. Sabat Rawnqi from Sewllawa, who was arrested on October 5, 2019, also remains unaccounted for. Both men’s families have spared no effort in attempting to locate them. Meanwhile, a political prisoner named Iqbal Zerai launched a hunger strike in protest of Iranian intelligence’s (Ettela’at) decision to detain him following the completion of a previously imposed sentence. Zerai was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 for “membership of a Kurdish opposition party.”
- Iranian Kurdistan’s suicide rate continues to rise due to poor living conditions and the Iranian regime’s persecution of Kurds. According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, seven people have committed suicide in Sanandaj over the past several weeks. Concurrently, a 28-year-old committed suicide in Dehgolan and a 63-year-old took their own life in Mehabad.
Iraq
- Iraqi Kurdistan’s leadership held several meetings on Tuesday to discuss Iraq’s current situation in light of continuing protests in Baghdad and other provinces. Following the Iraqi government’s announcement of a reform plan which included an amendment to the constitution, the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani headed a meeting attended by numerous Kurdish parties and Barham Saleh, the current President of Iraq. Barzani then held a press conference and stressed the Kurdistan region’s support for the “legitimate demands” of the protesters while noting that amendments to the constitution must be made in a “stable atmosphere.” Likewise, the Kurdish parties’ aim during the meetings was to forge a position of unity in the face of potential changes in Iraq, while the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “denounced efforts to push forward unconstitutional changes to the federal system of Iraq.” Iraqi security forces and Iranian-backed militias have killed more than 250 people since the latest round of protests began on October 1, 2019.
- The Council of Representatives of Iraq voted to abolish the provincial councils in all areas of the country except the Kurdistan region. The provincial governors will now report to parliamentary committees and the governor of Kirkuk Province will report to the province’s lawmakers.
- Two Kurdish farmers were kidnapped by unknown assailants near Qara Tapa in Diyala Province last week. The area remains under the control of Iran-backed militias and plagued by the presence of ISIS (Da’esh).
- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has chosen two Kurdish cities as new members of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. Iranian Kurdistan’s Sanandaj was chosen for music and Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah was selected for literature.
Syria
- On Tuesday, dozens of Kurds from the villages surrounding Kobani threw stones at Turkish HMMMWVs following a joint Turkish-Russian patrol near the city. Joint Turkish-Russian patrols began in the area on Monday after the complete withdrawal of US forces. Meanwhile, the Turkish military and its Syrian jihadist allies continued carrying out attacks in northeastern Syria despite the previously agreed upon ceasefire. Turkish-backed jihadists attacked several villages near the Christian town of Tal Tamer and killed a foreign aid worker. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) responded by deploying its Christian faction in the area to prevent further advances by the Turkish- backed terrorists. Syrian regime forces also entered Tal Tamer but did not come to the aid of the town’s residents. Meanwhile, officials from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation successfully negotiated the return of 18 Syrian soldiers previously captured by Turkish forces.
- SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi criticized the Syrian regime for calling on SDF personnel to join the Syrian army on an individual basis. Abdi said, “The form and approach of the Syrian Ministry of Defense’s statement and its call for members of our forces to “join individually” to the Syrian army is not welcomed.” In a separate statement, Abdi accused Turkey of pushing forward with its incursion into northeastern Syria and claimed, “Turkey has not adhered to the ceasefire agreement with the USA and is continuing its war.”
- A car bomb killed 13 civilians and injured 31 in Tal Abyad, which was seized by the Turkish military and its proxies on October 13, 2019. The President of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Ilham Ahmed accused Turkey of creating “chaos” and engineering demographic changes. Ahmed stated, “Using VBIED against civilians & among factions is a systematic policy by Turkish proxies to force indigenous populations to flee and create demographic change.”
- Due to a shortage of camps, hundreds of northeastern Syria’s 300,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP) have been settled in schools near Tal Tamer, resulting in an indefinite postponement of classes. The rest of the region’s IDPs fled to Iraqi Kurdistan and Kurdish cities in eastern Syria.
Turkey
- On Monday, the Turkish Minister of the Interior appointed a trustee to replace the previously sacked Kurdish mayor of Kiziltepe. The Turkish government has now removed a total of 13 elected Kurdish mayors in the cities of Diyarbakır, Van, Mardin, Hakkari, Yüksekova, Kulp, Kayapınar, Bismil, Kocaköy, Karayazı, Nusaybin, Erciş, Cizre Saray, and Kızıltepe. Concurrently, Turkish police prevented members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) from handing out leaflets related to a recently held conference in Istanbul. Turkish authorities also surrounded HDP lawmakers near Istanbul’s Taksim Square.