658
Iran
- The coronavirus has killed at least 400 people and infected thousands more in Iran’s Kurdish region. The Iranian regime, despite releasing some prisoners to mitigate the spread of the virus, continued its campaign of harassment and arrests targeting Kurdish activists and intensified its crackdown on journalists covering the government’s response to the pandemic. In Kermanshah, Iranian authorities detained a Kurdish journalist named Ghulam Raza Alaa after the province’s governor filed a lawsuit against him for sarcastically writing “the governor has the pandemic.” In Marivan, an Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurdish man, Aram Khosry, to three years in prison for “cooperation with a Kurdish opposition party.” Khosry was previously detained by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Ettela’at). Meanwhile, Iranian authorities transferred a number of prisoners from Mehabad to the Urmia Central Prison. Concurrently, a Kurdish activist named Kamaran Darweshi, who is currently serving a five-year sentence for “connection with Kurdish political parties,” launched a hunger strike to protest the Iranian regime’s assault on Kurdish political activities.
- The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported three Iranian soldiers were injured by mines near Saqqez on March 31. It is unknown whether the mines were recently placed or remnants from the Iran-Iraq War.
Iraq
- Despite authorities’ continuing implementation of lockdowns and curfews in Iraqi Kurdistan, the total number of coronavirus cases in the region reached 288 last week. In Erbil, 71 new cases were traced to a funeral procession that took place on March 21. Erbil’s prosecutor issued a warrant against five individuals who organized the procession, while the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Health quarantined 11 of the city’s neighborhoods to prevent further spread of the virus. Concurrently, in Sulaymaniah, over 20 people recovered from the virus and were released from hospitals. Likewise, President of the Kurdistan Region Nechrivan Barzani praised the people of Kurdistan for complying with lockdowns and curfews.
- Iraq’s Shi’ite Islamic parties, following the lead of Iranian-backed militias, rejected Prime Minister of Iraq-designate Adnan al Zurfi’s efforts to form a cabinet. Iraq’s Kurdish parties expressed no opinion on the matter and called for the Shi’ite bloc to agree on a candidate before they would offer any support. That said, al Zurfi requested the Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Mohammed al Halbousi designate a special session for voting on the cabinet. On another note, Iraqi National Intelligence Service chief Moustafa al Kazemi was again mentioned as a possible successor to al Zurfi last week.
Syria
- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council’s (SDC) delegation in Washington, DC released a statement that requested immediate aid for Syria’s Kurdish region to combat the coronavirus pandemic and said, “The people of North and East Syria are in grave need of your aid. Our region is in a dangerous situation, caught in between the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkish and Turkish-backed forces threatening further war and occupation of our region, and nearly a decade of war and instability leaving about 90 percent of our population below the poverty line, with many displaced.” The statement also addressed the region’s shortage of medical equipment and continued hosting of thousands of displaced people and ISIS (Da’esh) detainees. Despite the fact no coronavirus cases have been confirmed in northeastern Syria so far, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) lacks proper testing equipment and essential medical supplies.
- Ilham Ahmed, the current president of the SDC’s executive committee, called for the United Nations (UN) to pressure Turkey to halt its jihadist proxies’ continuing attacks on Syria’s Kurdish region, the most recent of which have been concentrated on the areas surrounding Ain Essa and Geri Spi. The Turkish-backed jihadists’ attacks have continued despite the October 2019 ceasefire agreement that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have consistently adhered to. Additionally, Turkish proxies have cut water and electricity supplies to Syria’s Kurdish region at least five times in the last month.
Turkey
- Turkey’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases now stands at 30,217. The virus has also caused at least 649 deaths in the nation so far and 8 new deaths were reported in Mardin and Diarbakir (Ahmed) provinces last week. The co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) criticized the Turkish government for not taking the pandemic seriously” and acting “too late.” Meanwhile, inmates in a Batman prison rioted after Turkish authorities denied them prison leave. The Turkish government responded to the riot by transferring hundreds of the inmates to Diyarbakir Prison, while the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) responded by urging Turkish authorities to ensure that any early or conditional release of prisoners is non-discriminatory and does not exclude prisoners detained on political grounds.