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Iran
- Iran’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 91,472 last week. The coronavirus has also caused 5,806 deaths in the nation, while 70,933 of those infected have reportedly recovered. That said, several Iranian opposition groups, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), continue to accuse the Islamic regime of misleading the public and claim Iran’s actual coronavirus numbers are significantly higher than those reported. Likewise, Iranian authorities continue to obfuscate coronavirus statistics in Iranian Kurdistan, a region that has been hit especially hard by the pandemic.
- The Iranian regime has now executed at least 10 Kurds over the past two weeks in response to a March prison break in Saqqez. Most of the executed were previously charged with homicide and had received suspended death sentences, while additional Kurds are liable to face execution in the coming weeks. The regime’s actions have stoked public outrage, and many activists have described them as merely the latest embodiment of the Iranian government’s discriminatory policies towards Kurds.
- Iranian authorities continued their crackdown on Kurdish political activity last week in spite of the regime’s policy granting conditional release to some prisoners to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. On April 21, the Sanandaj Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurdish activist named Akbar Goili to five years in prison for “cooperation” with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported Goili was initially arrested on August 20, 2019 and free on bail prior to his sentencing. Simultaneously, a Kurdish man named Ismael Ardawani was arrested by Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) for “cooperation” with a Kurdish party in Marivan.
Iraq
- Iraq’s new prime minister-designate Mustafa al Kademi came one step closer to forming a new cabinet after reaching an agreement with Iraq’s political blocs to approve his selections in the Council of Representatives of Iraq (CRI). The Kurdish and Sunni blocs were the first to offer Kademi support, while it took several rounds of negotiations with the pro-Iran Shi’ite blocs to secure their consent. That said, Iraq’s Shi’ite parties may still reject some of al Kademi’s selected ministers and are likely to disapprove of Kurdish candidates.
- Iraq’s caretaker government halted provision of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) budget and salaries last week. In a memorandum dated April 16, Iraq’s Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Hamid al Ghazi referenced a previous agreement in which the KRG transferred 250,000 barrels of oil to Baghdad in exchange for its share of the national budget. KRG Minister of Planning Dara Rashid expressed a willingness to hand over all of Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil production to the Government of Iraq (GOI) yet also stated, “In return, Baghdad must commit to sending all the financial shares of the Kurdistan Region and the entitlements of the oil companies operating in Kurdistan region oilfields.” The GOI’s budget cuts are scheduled to go into effect in May, though a KRG delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdish Region Qubad Talabani will travel to Baghdad this week and attempt to negotiate a new agreement. Meanwhile, a KRG spokesperson denounced Baghdad’s use of the KRG budget to impose its political will on the Kurds.
- A suicide bomber targeted an Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) office in Kirkuk city on Tuesday, with initial reports claiming six intelligence personnel were injured. Tuesday’s attack is the most recent in a string of ISIS (Da’esh) operations in Iraq’s “Disputed Territories” that have exploited the fragile security situation created by the expulsion of Peshmerga from the region by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias in October 2017. Da’esh terrorists have killed at least 88 Iraqi security forces and 82 civilians since December 2019.
- Iraqi Kurdistan’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 355 this week, an increase from last week’s 337. That said, Iraqi Kurdistan’s provinces have been partially reopened in response to an overall decline in the number of active cases in the region, with restrictions relaxed on businesses and social gatherings and the reopening of two border crossings with Iran which had been previously shutdown for over a month.
Syria
- Turkey and its jihadist proxies continued to launch attacks along the M4 Motorway near Ain Essa and in the rural areas surrounding Aleppo. On Monday, a Turkish drone targeted an Asayish office in Kobani and caused property damage. In response to the most recent attacks, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria (AANES) released a statement calling on the US and Russia to fulfill “their responsibilities” and halt Turkish aggression, as both the US and Russia have reached separate ceasefire agreements with Turkey since it invaded northeastern Syria last October. Turkey responded by accusing Kurdish forces of trying to infiltrate the “safe zone,” but Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesperson Gabriel Keno denied the accusations and said, “All this information and news is unfounded, and a miserable attempt to distort the reality of what is happening on the ground.”
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported US forces carried out their first patrol in northeastern Syria since Turkey’s October invasion near al Darbasiyah on Monday. Meanwhile, joint Turkish-Russian military patrols continued near the “safe zone” amid tensions between Turkey and some of its jihadist proxies in Idlib.
- The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIR) released its annual 2020 report which recommended the US government “exert significant pressure on Turkey to provide a timeline for withdrawal from Syria and ensure neither its military nor its FSA allies attempt to expand their control in northeastern Syria or engage in religious and/or ethnic cleansing.” The report also praised the AANES for “maintaining control of the rest of the northeast and continuing to uphold its commitment to providing a relatively high degree of religious freedom and protecting other civil rights in areas under its authority.”
Turkey
- On Monday, imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan’s attorneys announced Turkish authorities allowed their client to have a phone conversation with his brother Mohammed Ocalan. Ocalan called for Kurdish unity in all parts of Kurdistan during the phone call.
- The Turkish government has requested the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) suspend the immunity of 21 more sitting members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which would allow Turkish authorities to investigate and jail them. During the TBMM’s previous term, the Turkish government arrested and jailed 12 HDP lawmakers.
- Turkey remains afflicted by the coronavirus pandemic and now has 115,000 confirmed cases of the disease, which has also caused at least 2,992 deaths so far. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have now detained at least 402 people in the last 42 days for posting information on social media regarding the pandemic and the government’s response.