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A weekly brief of events that occurred in the Kurdish regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Iran
- The Iranian regime plans to deploy additional sensors and drones to cover a 1,000 kilometer stretch of Iran’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan and monitor the activities of the Kurdish opposition groups and border porters (Kolbars). Meanwhile, Iranian authorities killed four Kolbars and injured several more last week. Iranian border guards wounded 35-year-old Sodeen Colashi in Khoy and a Kolbar named Hamid Husseini near Nowsud last Tuesday. Iranian border guards also ambushed a group of Kolbars near Sardasht on Wednesday and killed three Kolbars named Zanest Nazhat, Zanko Ahmadi, and Serosh Malarki. Iranian authorities also killed a Kolbar named Jalal Khezri and injured another named Saed Taheri near Piranshahr. Additionally, Iranian guards shot and wounded a Kolbar in Kermanshah on Thursday. Lastly, 57-year-old Ali Baqeri was injured when he fell from a cliff near Marivan. A total of 54 Kolbars have now been killed, and at least 125 have been wounded in 2020.
- The Iranian regime continued efforts to stifle political activity in Iranian Kurdistan last week. An Islamic Revolutionary Court extended the detention of Kurdish environmentalist activist and US resident Ashfeen Sheikhollah. Sheikhollah was initially arrested on June 30 while visiting relatives in Iran. Likewise, Iranian authorities arrested a Kurdish man named Sabir Salihi on Saturday in Sanandaj and another named Baized Chopan in Naghadeh on Monday. Finally, Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested two Kurds, Soliman Karimpoor and Khalid Mohammedzad, in Mehabad on Friday.
- A truck carrying chlorine canisters exploded in Ilam and injured 217 people. Pro-Iranian media outlets reported the incident on Friday.
Iraq
- French President Emmanuel Macron visited Iraq on Wednesday and met with several top officials, including the President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani. President Macron, in an indirect reference to Turkey and Iran’s roles in Iraq, expressed support for Iraq’s “sovereignty.” Macron also praised Iraq’s cooperation with France in the fight against terrorism and military, cultural, economic, and health fields. Finally, Macron “expressed delight at the ongoing talks between Erbil and Baghdad.” Macron’s visit was preceded by the French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly’s travel to Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.
- Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an unexpected move, invited Nechirvan Barzani to Ankara on Friday. The two leaders then met and discussed a “mutual willingness to strengthen bilateral relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey.” Barzani also met other Turkish officials and returned with two Yazidi children Turkey saved from ISIS (Da’esh). Erdogan’s invitation has been interpreted as a reaction to President Macron’s visit to Iraq, as both Baghdad and Erbil oppose Turkey’s invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan that the Turkish government claims is intended to combat the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
- The Turkish military, despite declaring the end of military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, carried out additional artillery strikes in the region last week, several of which targeted Duhok Governorate’s Amedi District on Tuesday. Moreover, Turkish soldiers opened fire on farmers in the Bradost District on Monday. At the same time, Turkey has established 37 military posts as deep as 40 kilometers inside the Kurdistan region, and its invasion, which was launched in May 2019, has killed dozens of civilians and displaced thousands more.
- A suicide bomber injured two federal police in Kirkuk Governorate’s Hawija District. The region, known as the “Disputed Territories,” continues to be plagued by insecurity caused by the reemergence of Da’esh cells. Meanwhile, Iraq’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) announced US-contracted security companies have received threats. Though the MOI did not mention the source of the threats, Iranian-backed militias have carried out numerous attacks and acts of intimidation targeting US forces and US-linked entities since December 2019.
Syria
- Fears of a new Turkish invasion caused hundreds of people to flee the Kurdish town of Dayabisia near the Turkish border last week. The panic was inspired by rumors, the reinforcement of Turkish proxies in the region, and renewed dialogue between Russia and Turkey, who continue to jointly patrol the Syrian-Turkish border. The Kurds fear a new Turkish-Russian deal could greenlight another Turkish incursion into the region. On another note, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Russian military planes transported additional equipment to bases in Raqqa and al Hasakah.
- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested a seven-man Da’esh cell responsible for building IEDs near Deir Ez Zor Governate’s as Shheell town. Simultaneously, local security forces defused four IEDs in Manbij. That said, a British Da’esh member escaped al Hawl camp last week, and an Australian Da’esh family remains missing and is presumed to have escaped.
Turkey
- A Turkish hazelnut farm owner named Hacı Hüseyin Cebecioğlu perpetrated a racist attack against a Kurdish family he employed in Sakyara on Friday and sparked an outcry against Turkish racism. The attack, which was recorded, involved numerous Turks assaulting Kurdish workers, including women and teenagers. Hundreds of Kurds travel to Turkish farms to work during the harvest season due to economic conditions in Turkey’s Kurdish region that are exacerbated by discriminatory government policies. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities released the perpetrators of this most recent incident after two days without charge.
- Turkish authorities continued their ongoing crackdown on Kurdish political activity by arresting Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) spokesperson Sedat Şenoğlu on Thursday in Istanbul. The HDK was established in 2011 and has a sizable Kurdish membership. Concurrently, Turkish police arrested dozens of senior members of the left-leaning Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP).
- Mithat Sancar, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), called upon the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Robert Spano to decline an honorary degree from Istanbul University. Spano received the honorary Juris Doctor degree after traveling to Turkey on September 3 and meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sancar, in a letter, requested Spano “reconsider” the acceptance since “there has been a continuous and systematic deterioration in the field of human rights in Turkey in recent years.“