Washington Kurdish Institute
December 29, 2020
2020 was an unprecedented year globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed nearly two million lives. Its indiscriminate and devastating path has destroyed families and communities and caused shattering economic hardships on a global scale. In addition to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, Kurds continue to face political adversity and peril in all four parts of Kurdistan.
Iran
Under the Islamic regime in Iran, the Kurdistan region (Rojhelat) continues to suffer economic and political setbacks. Kurds in Iran remain without representation in the government and are denied basic human rights. As of December 15, at least 253 activists were arrested by the Iranian security forces on false charges. The detention of these activists came after raids on their homes and confiscation of their personal belongings. Most of these detainees did not have a warrant for their arrest but, nonetheless, were forced to confess to charges they did not commit. These victims remain under Ettela’at (intelligence office) custody and will later be transferred to the Islamic judicial system. A majority of these activists were sentenced to years in prison for bogus accusations including membership in a Kurdish opposition party or disruption of national security. 2020’s victims include environmental and cultural activists like Zahra Mohammadi who was sentenced to ten years in prison for teaching the Kurdish language to children. Furthermore, the regime sponsored campaigns to destroy huge swaths of farmland in Rojhelat have decimated the environment in Kurdish inhabited lands.
Rojhelat endures double economic embargoes; one set of sanctions imposed on Iran by the international community and another embargo imposed on Rojhelat by the Iranian regime as part of the discriminatory policies used against the Kurds.
The Iranian regime incorrectly portrays itself as having a strong economy by misreporting unemployment and inflation numbers. The Pro-regime Statistical Center of Iran released monthly inflation rates for November which designated Iranian Kurdistan as one of the nation’s poorest and least developed regions. The Kurdish province of Ilam saw the highest monthly increase in consumer prices at 8.8 percent while the province of Sanadaj was ranked fourth among Iran’s provinces with a CPI increase of 7.1 percent. The unemployment rate in the Kurdistan region is among the highest in the nation with some years reaching 60 percent. According to the Iranian Parliamentary Research Center, the unemployment rate in the country in 2020 was 2.5 times more than what the government reported, bringing unemployment rates between 25 to 30 percent. The tremendous stress brought on by unemployment in the Kurdistan region puts Iranian Kurds at higher risk of poverty, suicide, and drug use. In 2020 at least 71 Kurds committed suicide, including 39 women who were often victims of domestic violence. Drug use in the Kurdistan region increased dramatically as the regime continued its illegal drug trade to fund its proxies across the region.
This year, Kurdish cross border labor workers, Kolbars, who transfer goods from Turkey and Iraq to Iran, experienced wide scale killing at the hands of Iranian border guards and Turkish forces. A total of 59 Kolbars died in 2020 while 179 were wounded. Many Kolbars were killed by Turkish forces and several of them froze to death due to the harsh weather conditions in the winter. Kolbars risk their lives on a daily basis to make a mere $20 to transfer 150kg of goods literally on their backs across the border.
Iranian Kurdish political parties that have been in exile since 979 revolution remain unrecognized by the United States and international community. After the Obama administration signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the “Iran deal,” US officials stopped meeting with Iranian opposition groups, including the Kurds. That policy continued under the Trump administration and no change is expected in the Biden administration, especially if the JCPOA is reactivated.
Iraq
In Iraq, Kurds faced one of the most severe economic crises since the establishment of their regional government in 1991. The economic crisis is a result of Baghdad’s policies toward the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). While the pandemic and low oil prices have severely impacted both Iraq and the Kurdistan region, the Kurds in Iraq experienced greater difficulties at the hands of regional actors attempting to undermine the Kurds as a punishment for their political stances in the Middle East. Since 2003, Iran has become the single most powerful player in Iraq. By the end of 2019, Iran wholly controlled the political scene in Iraq, and Iranian influence, continues to pit Baghdad against the Kurds.
Kurdistan’s government employees have not received salaries for months, one of many constitutional rights the KRG has been denied. Baghdad, under the order of Iran continues to place economic obstacles on the KRG in hopes of causing the KRG to collapse. Iran, through Baghdad, continues their attempts to punish the KRG for enjoying close relationships with the US, EU, and Arab gulf states. As of last week, the KRG reached a tentative agreement with Baghdad’s various political parties to receive its already reduced budget share after agreeing to a series of concessions that will likely weaken the Kurdish position.
The implementation of Article 140 of Iraq’s constitution calling for the normalization of disputed territories, remains unresolved. Baghdad not only failed to implement Article 140, but actually resumed the Baathist policy of Arabization in the disputed territories including, but not limited to Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Shingal, and Tuz Khurmatu. Iranian-backed militias, in coordination with the illegal government of Kirkuk, which took control on October 16, 2017 played a large role in the Arabization of these cities.
Security in the disputed territories continued to fail and decline in 2020 as the region experienced an increase in ISIS led terrorist attacks against Kurdish populations in Khanaqin and Kirkuk.
The Iranian regime targeted a US base in Erbil twice this year as a clear message to the US that Americans will not be safe from terror if they remain in the Kurdistan region and withdraw from Baghdad. The attacks were a clear message to the Kurdish administration to not welcome Americans in the region.
Turkish forces occupied hundreds of Kurdish villages and penetrated up to 20 miles into the region. The Turkish aggression in the region has been portrayed as fighting the PKK by Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan’s narrative would be believable if Turkey was not expanding its military power inside the entire region and targeting civilians. As a result of the invasion, many civilians were killed while thousands of Kurds and minority groups were evicted from their villages.
Syria
In the Syrian region of Kurdistan (Rojava), Kurds continue to struggle to merely survive. Nearly half of Rojava is still occupied by Turkey and their Jihadist proxies. Violations against the Kurds and other ethnic and religious minorities increased, especially in Afrin. The Turkish proxies consist of various Jihadist groups including al Qaeda affiliates, former ISIS militants, and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since their invasion of Afrin in 2018, these groups carried out Erdogan’s agenda to ethnically cleanse the Kurds. These proxies are responsible for war crimes and human rights violations including killing, kidnapping, ransoms, displacement, and overall destruction of Kurdish inhabited lands. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported hundreds of violations and abuses against the Kurds of Afrin. At the start of 2020, the “Suleiman Shah” terrorists kidnapped a number of Kurdish women. The al-Hamza Brigade terrorists killed a Kurdish olive farm owner for refusing to pay a ransom. The stolen olives from Afrin and pillaged goods by terror groups bring millions in illegal revenues as the olive products end up in US and global markets.
The same Turkish-backed al-Hamza faction is responsible for countless crimes including illegal detention of Kurdish women and rapes. Furthermore, these Turkish-backed mercenaries often fight each other over control of the revenue from the Afrin region. On May 29, a child was killed and a number of civilians were injured as a result of the skirmish between the al-Hamza brigade and Ahrar al Sham.
The Turkish invasion of Afrin displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds in Aleppo in 2018. While the displaced Kurds fled Turkish and Jihadist aggression, they ended up under the Syrian regime’s inhumane conditions. The camps holding the Kurds near Aleppo continued to suffer food and drug blockades by the Syrian regime. The Kurds of Rojava literally have nowhere safe to go.
On the eastern side, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration and their military, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), faced several challenges. Turkey continued bombardment of the Kurdish region in attempts to expand its so-called safe zone. Turkey also cut the water supply to half a million Kurds during the peak of the pandemic. While the SDF continued to cooperate with the US to defeat ISIS, Turkey intensified its war on Ain Essa in attempts to occupy it in agreement with Russia. The Kurds rejected a Russian offer to hand over the town to the Assad regime which put them in the same position as 2018 with Afrin. If Ain Essa is occupied by Turkey, then the Kurdish region will be divided into three fragmented parts occupied by Turkey. The town of Kobane, known for its heroic defense and defeat of ISIS, will fall under Turkish control if Ain Essa is occupied.
In Deir Ez Zor, the Assad regime used several Arab tribes who were loyal to ISIS to counter the influence of the SDF and destabilize the region for both the Kurds and the US. Several mysterious assassinations took place against both pro-SDF and anti-SDF, paving the way for ISIS, Russia, Iran, and the Syrian regime to achieve their goals.
Turkey
2020 continued a campaign to further eliminate Kurdish political representation in in Turkey. The Turkish government led by Erdogan and his Ultra-nationalist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), successfully undermined Turkey’s democracy. The Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lost almost all the seats they won in the 2019 elections after the government sacked the elected Kurdish officials and replaced them with pro-government trustees. After winning 65 municipalities, the HDP now controls just five small towns. Erdogan’s culture of expelling the democratically elected officials started in 2016 when he removed 94 Kurdish mayors out of 103 elected. The sacked mayors and administrators faced jailing and long-term imprisonment for baseless accusations to silence Kurdish voices. Additionally, Kurdish lawmakers were stripped of their immunity and later imprisoned. Last week, a senior HDP lawmaker and renowned Kurdish politician, Leyla Guven was sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison for membership in a terrorist organization, a line used by the government against millions of Kurds. The Turkish government continues to illegally imprison Selahatten Demirtas and dozens of former lawmakers of the HDP despite constant calls by the European Union and Human Rights organizations for their release. Furthermore, the Turkish police, led by the Ultranationalist Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, conduct mass arrests on a weekly basis against Kurdish activists and political figures. The Kurdish language remains taboo as many people face charges simply for speaking or singing in Kurdish. A rendition of an Italian play in Kurdish was banned in Istanbul. Hate crimes including the deaths of Kurds by civilians and security forces increased in 2020 and go unpunished.
The world is closely and eagerly watching the news of the arrival of a vaccine that can end the coronavirus. However, the Kurds continue to suffer from a different enemy which is the rule of authoritarian regimes in Turkey, Iran, and Syria.