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Iran
- Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KPDI) General Secretary Khalid Azizi announced that the Iranian regime did not agree to hold additional talks with Iran’s Kurdish political parties. The Iranian regime had previously held secret talks with Iran’s Kurdish parties in Norway that were mediated by the Norwegian Center for Conflict Resolution (NOREF) in July 2018. Regarding the most recent proposed negotiations, KDPI and other Kurdish parties demanded the Iranian regime acknowledge the Kurdish issue and that talks be held publicly with senior Iranian officials and mediated by the NOREF. In 2018, five of Iran’s Kurdish parties formed the Cooperation Center of the Kurdistan Political Parties to facilitate increased coordination and improve the effectiveness of political action.
- Iran’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases hit 83,505 last week, and its official death count now stands at 5,209. That said, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) accused the regime of obfuscating the actual number of cases and claimed the virus had caused over 32,200 deaths in Iran. Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Iranian regime relaxed some coronavirus countermeasures and allowed a number of businesses to reopen. Granted, business owners in the Kurdish city of Qorveh protested the regime and demanded government aid to offset losses resulting from their closure.
- Ismael Murdi, a prominent Kurdish political prisoner, remains in critical condition after launching a hunger strike to protest the exclusion of thousands of prisoners from the Iranian regime’s temporary release program implemented to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Iranian authorities informed Muridi’s family of his condition on Sunday. Muridi is currently serving a 10-year sentence for “membership of a Kurdish opposition party.” Meanwhile, two Kurdish activists were detained in Bojnurd (Qasim Azimi) and Saqqez (Kamaran Abdi).
Iraq
- The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Health released statistics showing a total of 337 coronavirus cases and four deaths in Iraqi Kurdistan. 280 of the region’s 337 documented cases have recovered from the disease. In response to these numbers, Duhok Governorate announced the virus was under control and began lifting lockdowns in the province while announcing plans to begin relaxing restrictions on gatherings on Wednesday. In Sulaymaniyah Governorate, authorities have partially lifted lockdowns and most businesses are slated to reopen soon. Concurrently, Erbil Governorate is likely to begin implementing similar measures on April 22, and Kirkuk Governorate lifted a daytime curfew which ran from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
- On Sunday, a KRG delegation met with several Iraqi officials, including Iraq’s Minister of Oil, in Baghdad. Following the meeting, KRG Minister of Finance Awat Janab announced an agreement with Baghdad to transfer the production of 250,000 barrels of oil to the Government of Iraq. Janab also indicated the KRG intends to comply with OPEC’s plan to cut oil production.
- Turkish drones struck the Makhmour Refugee Camp south of Erbil on April 15, killing three young women named Havva Aydogan (age 22), Azime Aydogan (age 23), and Ayshe Ahmed Ferhan (age 17). The camp council claimed the three women were tending to their farm animals when the drones struck. Turkey has now attacked the camp, which holds Kurdish refugees from Turkey, four times since December 2017. At the same time, Turkish airstrikes hit Kurdistan Workers’ Party positions in Rawanduz’s District’s Zene Warte subdistrict on April 15 and April 20. Meanwhile, disputes between the Peshmerga forces of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) surfaced over the control of the area last week, though both parties intend to meet and attempt to resolve their outstanding differences this week.
- Kurdish security forces were placed on high alert in Kirkuk city in response to recent ISIS (Da’esh) attacks on security forces in the province and intelligence warning of imminent additional attacks. Iraqi federal police were also deployed to the city in an attempt to further bolster security. On another note, security forces arrested two senior Da’esh operatives, one of whom was a perpetrator of the 2014 Camp Speicher massacre in Tikrit.
Syria
- The Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria (AANES) extended a region-wide lockdown until May 1, though farmers and essential businesses remain excluded from such restrictive measures. The AANES also criticized the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in hiding a coronavirus case in Qamishli National Hospital that was recorded on March 27. The head of the AANES Health Department described the WHO’s failure to inform the AANES of the March 27 case as a “crime against five million people.” Qamishli National Hospital remains under the control of the Assad regime.
- Turkish-backed jihadists launched additional attacks on Ain Essa and the M4 Motorway last week. A senior commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Ardal Kobani, in an interview with Hawar News, claimed Turkey and its proxies are preparing a large-scale offensive in the region. Concurrently, a joint Turkish-Russian patrol took place west of Kobani last Thursday. The joint patrols were scaled back in response to the Idlib conflict but were never completely ceased. Simultaneously, in Deir Ez Zor Governorate’s Diban town, an explosion likely caused by Da’esh terrorists killed a 15-year-old boy and injured two more civilians.
- In Afrin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released a report detailing Turkish-backed jihadists’ continuous “looting of public and private properties in Afrin city and countryside, in order to force the civilians to leave their areas as a part of the systematic policy which the factions follow.” The report comes in the wake of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army’s kidnapping of over a dozen Kurdish civilians in the region last week.
Turkey
- Turkey’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases now stands at 90,980. The virus has also caused at least 2,100 deaths in the nation so far. In response to the ongoing pandemic, the Turkish government announced a nationwide lockdown, intended to initially last for four days, was to begin on Monday. Moreover, while the Turkish government has granted temporary leave to thousands of prisoners, including well-known mafia figures, to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, it continues to deny release to the prominent Kurdish political prisoner Selahhatin Demitras and thousands of other Kurdish activists and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).