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A weekly brief of events occurred in the Kurdistan regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Iran
- A 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez named Mahsa Amini died on Friday after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for improperly wearing her hijab in Tehran on September 13. Amini fell into a coma during her arrest, and her family accused Iranian authorities of torturing her after the morality police released an edited video of the incident. Amini’s death sparked protests in Iranian Kurdistan and parts of Tehran that included protesters chanting “death to Khamenei.” Iranian authorities killed five Kurds and wounded at least 215 when they broke up protests across the Kurdish Region. Iranian authorities also arrested several activists, including Faranak Rafi’i and Lotfulh Ahmadi in Sena and Zaniar Nazhad in Tehran. Despite the Iranian regime’s crackdown, however, protests continued in several places, and a general strike commenced in Sana, Saqqiz, Mahabad, Shino, Marivan, Bana, Jawanro, Divandareh, Bokan, Urmia, Naghdeh, Kermanshah, Piranshahr, and Kamyaran. Simultaneously, thousands of Kurds participated in Amini’s funeral, where activists chanted anti-regime slogans and burned hijabs. Lastly, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan weighed in on Amini’s death and declared, “We will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable for such human rights abuses.”
- Iranian security forces arrested six Kurds in Piranshahr on Monday. Further, a Piranshahr court sentenced a Kurdish man named Rahman Qadiri to two years and seven months in prison for membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). Concurrently, Iranian border guards killed one Kurdish border porter (kolbar) and wounded three near Nowsud last week. Finally, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported that Turkish forces killed a kolbar near Khoy on Tuesday.
Iraq
- Iraq’s political parties resumed efforts to form a new government after the conclusion of the Shi’ite religious ceremony known as the Arba’een Pilgrimage. On Monday, the Iranian-backed Coordination Framework reaffirmed its commitment to Mohammed Shia al Sudani’s candidacy for the post of prime minister, but Iraq’s Kurdish parties remain unable to agree on a presidential candidate. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) remains committed to Rebar Ahmed, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has chosen to stick with Barham Saleh. That said, Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni parties appear willing to join the next government despite the Sadrists’ withdrawal.
- US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf held a press conference in Washington to discuss her recent visit to Tunisia, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, and Iraq. “I was very clear in sharing with all of Iraq’s leaders in Baghdad and Erbil our concern that an emerging economic crisis was going to be over – was going to overlay what was already a very serious political crisis,” said Leaf. Leaf also suggested a third party mediate efforts to overcome Iraq’s ongoing natural resource disputes. Moreover, Leaf expressed Washington’s concern Baghdad’s implementation of the Federal Supreme Court’s ruling risks driving foreign firms out of Iraq, as it would serve as “a terrible vote of no confidence in Iraq’s business environment.”
Syria
- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) concluded a one-month security operation inside the al Hol Camp that holds thousands of ISIS (Da’esh) operatives and their relatives last week. On Saturday, Commander for the Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force – Levant Brigadier General Claude Tudor held a joint press conference with SDF commander Newroz Ahmad and reaffirmed US support for the SDF and local security forces (Asayesh). “Our Global coalition is here to enable our partners to maintain the enduring defeat of ISIS and deny their ability to reconstitute,” said Tudor. Tudor also announced the SDF and the Asayesh detained approximately 300 Da’esh facilitators and dismantled a significant portion of Da’esh’s infrastructure in the camp. The SDF claimed it discovered 25 Da’esh hideouts and trenches in the camp’s center. Separately, the SDF announced a Turkish drone strike killed three of its personnel in Ain Essa on Friday. Turkey and its proxies also continued targeting SDF positions near Ain Essa, Tal Refaat, and west of Kobani.
Turkey
- In a newly suspicious death, the Turkish authorities announced the “suicide” of a Kurdish prisoner Barış Keve in Malataya prison. Keve was sentenced to six years and three months in prison. Keve’s sibling last spoke to him on September 16, denying anything was wrong with him before the announcement of his death. Separately, in Mersin, the Turkish police arrested a senior Kurdish politician of the Democratic Regions Party(DBP), Metin Inci, and two Kurdish women accused of “membership” of the Syrian Women’s Defence Units (YPJ).
- Hundreds of international lawyers signed an appeal to Turkey’s justice ministry, requesting a visit to jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. Simultaneously, Kurdish activists across Europe continued rallying to end the isolation imposed on Ocalan. The Turkish government has banned Ocalan’s lawyers and family from visiting since 2019. Ebru Güna, the spokesperson for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), accused the government of cutting off the isolation “aimed to cut Mr. Öcalan off from social dynamics, social forces, structures, those who support him, those who work through his ideological perspective.”