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A weekly brief of events occurred in the Kurdistan regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Iran
- General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) Mustafa Hijri told the BBC his party is “not ready” to cooperate with the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s son, Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi and several exiled activists recently launched a campaign to rally support for a ruling coalition led by him if the Iranian regime falls. However, Pahlavi has outlined no plans to protect minority rights and remains unable to secure the backing of most Iranian opposition groups.
- The Iranian regime arrested dozens more Kurds and sentenced others to prison as part of its ongoing campaign to completely eradicate civil unrest and opposition to its rule. Bokan’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Zhila Hozhbery from Marivan to five years in prison for “membership in an opposition party.” The same court sentenced Hussien Ahmadai to three years in prison and Kazem Ismael to one year in prison on charges of “membership in opposition parties” and “disruption of national security.” The regime also kidnapped activists in Sena, Marivan, Shabad, Dehloran, Dewalan, Harsin, and Bokan and detained a Kurdish imam in Sardasht who was delivering aid to earthquake victims in Khoy. Concurrently, Iranian security forces killed a young Kurdish man named Mokhtar Fathi for writing anti-government slogans on a wall in Saqqez. Moreover, Iranian border guards wounded two Kurdish border porters (kolbars) near Nowsud. Another kolbar was killed in a vehicle accident near Rwansur. Lastly, the United Kingdom (U.K.) sanctioned eight Iranian officials for human rights violations, including the governor of Sena Province and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces (IRGC-GF) in northwestern Iran, Hamzeh Sayyid al Shohada.
Iraq
- President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani met with several international officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during the 59th session of the Munich Security Conference. At the conference, Barzani stressed “the importance of stable relations between Erbil and Baghdad and resolving their pending differences.” Upon his return to Iraq, Barzani said meeting with international officials provided an “opportunity for the Kurdistan Region to convey its views to its partners” and stressed the “international community wants to help resolve the issues between Erbil and Baghdad.”
- On Sunday, a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation arrived in Baghdad and began a new round of talks with the Iraqi government. The two sides formed a joint committee tasked with drafting a new oil and gas bill. Another topic of discussion was Iraq’s 2023 budget bill, most notably the KRG’s share and salaries for public employees in Iraqi Kurdistan. Separately, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussien concluded his trip to Washington, D.C., where he and Secretary of State Blinken co-chaired a joint U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordination Committee to discuss economic cooperation, the energy sector, climate change, and Iraq’s water situation. While the Iraqi dinar did not gain significant value following the meeting, the U.S. welcomed Iraq’s efforts to “enact economic and monetary policy reforms, modernize its banking system, combat corruption, and prevent manipulation of its financial system.” The Iraqi dinar lost some of its value after the U.S. imposed new monitoring regulations on Iraq to curb the immense amount of dollars being smuggled into Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Syria
- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) conducted two joint raids with U.S. forces that targeted several senior ISIS (Da’esh) terrorists. On February 17, four U.S. servicemembers and a working dog were injured in an operation that killed a Da’esh leader named Hamza al Homisi. The following day, U.S. forces and the SDF launched a helicopter raid that ended with the arrest of a senior Da’esh operative responsible for planning attacks on SDF-run detention facilities and building improvised explosive devices.
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) called on Kurds who lost their homes in Jindires to return and show legal proof of ownership to prevent Turkish-backed groups from seizing their properties. The SOHR warned that Turkish-backed companies were planning to take charge of rebuilding the city, which was 90 percent destroyed by the Kahramanmaras earthquake and suffered hundreds of fatalities. Turkish proxies have already stolen most of the aid arriving in Afrin and continue to displace the city’s Kurdish residents and loot their belongings and properties. Concomitantly, two new earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria on February 20, injuring dozens of Syrians and collapsing several buildings.
Turkey
- On February 20, two more earthquakes struck Turkey’s Hatay province, bordering Syria. A 6.4 magnitude quake hit the Defne district at 8:04pm, and a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Samandag at 8:07 pm. Six have so far been declared dead due to the 2/20 quakes. Virgin Mary Orthodox Church, a 700-year-old basilica, is among the destroyed buildings in the city.
- During a field visit with several Kurdish politicians, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Parvin Bulden said that the number of victims in the Kurdish town of Urfa is “much higher” than those announced by the authorities. At the same time, Ahmet Turk, a veteran Kurdish politician, blamed the government’s delayed response in the area. “The absence of the state for two days and the subsequent intervention of NGOs, unfortunately, led to increased deaths. This is what an insensitive state sees to the people.” Said, Turk.
- On February 21, sixty-one lawyers from Halkci Hukukcular (Lawyers for the People) filed a criminal complaint against Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Communication Presidency Director Fahrettin Altun, the ministers, the governors, and the mayors of the cities destructed by the earthquake, the GSM operators, the involved contractors, and building control companies at the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s office. Their complaint alleges many charges, including “causing the death or injury of more than one person with eventual intent,” “causing death with gross negligence,” “breach of task of inspection,” and more. On February 16, 221 lawsuits were filed against government officials, building contractors, architects, and engineers.
- On February 16, some 20 Kurdish activists – including Swedish-Kurdish MEP Evin Incir and Bulgarian-Turkish MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk – protested in Strasbourg to voice dissatisfaction with the European Parliament (EP) ‘s and Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) ‘s handling of Abdullah Ocalan’s imprisonment on Imraili Island. The CPT is highly critical of solitary confinement and was unable to assess Ocalan’s treatment on a recent visit.