918
Iran
- Iranian authorities jailed at least 23 people in Iran’s Kurdish region last week, including a female activist named Zaman Zeawia and film director named Medad Nazhad in Saqqez, a labor activist, Rebwar Abdullahi, and two female activists, Soma Shapari and Mahsa Mohamed, in Sanandaj (Sena), and two environmental activists named Ayoub Hadesi and Rahman Khadematikozar in Piranshahr. Iranian security forces also arrested several Kurds in Oshanavieh (Shino), Sarvabad, Javanrud, Bukan, and Baneh. Concomitantly, Iranian teachers, including some in the Kurdish region, went on strike to protest low wages and poor living conditions on Sunday. Iranian authorities detained dozens of organizers and members of local teachers’ unions immediately after the protests, including two teachers in Marivan named Jabar Dosti and Shabaan Mohamadi. A hardline Iranian lawmaker named Ahmed Naderi then warned “issues” regarding the Iranian government’s proposed budget for 2022 were liable to spur additional anti-government protests throughout the country.
- Iranian border guards injured a Kurdish border porter (kolbar) named Melad Rostami near Nowsud. Another kolbar died in a car accident in the same area on January 31. Lastly, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights claimed 52 kolbars were killed and 163 were injured in 2021.
Iraq
- Iraq’s political parties remain unable to agree on a presidential candidate. While the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) delegation in Baghdad reaffirmed its endorsement of Hoshiyar Zebari for the presidency, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) remains committed to current president Barham Salih. In the meantime, Iran and its proxies continue to pressure Muqtada al Sadr’s coalition, the KDP, and the Sunni blocs led by Mohammed al Halbousi. Three Katyusha rockets targeted Halbousi’s residence in Anbar Governorate on January 25 and injured two children. Though there have been no official claims of responsibility for the attack on Halbousi, Iranian-backed militias remain the prime suspects because they rejected his alliance with Sadr and reelection as Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq. Iraqi and Kurdish leaders denounced the attack, and on Monday, Halbousi and President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani visited Najaf and met with Sadr. At the same time, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander Ismael Qaani visited Iraq, ostensibly to build rapport with the new Iraqi government.
- The German Bundestag voted to end Germany’s mission in Syria and extend the presence of German troops in Iraq for nine months. Germany’s decision was warmly received by Kurdish officials, including Peshmerga commanders, as the German military provides weapons and training to the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces. On another note, Iraqi and Kurdish forces finalized the creation of several joint brigades that will attempt to counter the growing ISIS (Da’esh) presence in the “Disputed Territories” and now await the Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s approval of the brigades’ salaries.
- A Turkish drone strike killed a commander of the Yazidi Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) named Seliman Shamo Yousif last week. Simultaneously, several Turkish airstrikes hit alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in Duhok Governorate’s Amedi District.
Syria
- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced they achieved “full control” of the Sina’a prison in Hasakah Governorate on Sunday after Da’esh launched a complex attack on the facility to free its imprisoned operatives on January 20. The SDF also raided several locations near the prison, including Hasakah’s Gewaran neighborhood, and recaptured several terrorists. On Monday, the SDF released a report detailing the incident that claimed Da’esh detonated a car bomb in front of the prison’s main gate and then attacked the facility from three directions. Concurrently, Da’esh smuggled a large cache of weapons and ammunition to operatives in the prison and dug several escape tunnels that were connected to surrounding neighborhoods. The SDF said they neutralized 374 Da’esh terrorists, while 40 SDF personnel, 77 prison staff, and four civilians were killed. SDF officials also claimed they had evidence the attack was planned in Turkish-occupied areas and included at least some terrorists from Iraq. “The Turkish state is most responsible for the Da’esh terrorist attack on the Sina’a prison and the continued existence of the Da’esh terrorist organization,” read the report. Finally, the SDF repeated calls for the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute the thousands of Da’esh detainees who remain imprisoned in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Turkey
- Turkish police conducted raids and arrested several Kurds last week, including six people in Mardin on Wednesday, four members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Youth Council in Van, and a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) in Diyarbakir (Amed) named Several Gülmez. The police also raided the DBP office in Amed’s Bağlar district and confiscated books and documents. Further, a Turkish court in Abdurrahim Şahin Hatay sentenced the HDP leader of İskenderun district to two years, one month in prison for “propaganda for terrorist organization” based on a speech he delivered in 2014. At the same time, a new investigation has been launched against the HDP Co-chair Pervin Bulden for “improper conduct in court” in December of last year after she participated in the prosecution of a Turkish nationalist, murderer of a Kurdish woman in Izmir. During the hearing, Bulden called the court that the killer “trained to use weapons in Manbij [Syria] and he is an ISIS supporter” telling the court they “can’t just remain in silence.”
- Turkey’s Constitutional Court granted thirty days to the HDP defending their closure case. The HDP closure case was filed in March of 2021 by the State Prosecutor of the Constitutional Court. HDP’s assembly member Doğan Erbaş criticized the court and described the defense request as a “legal scandal” since the request ignores “the individual defense of the persons against whom a political ban is requested.” The HDP has requested additional time for the defense, but the court has not responded yet.