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A weekly brief of events occurred in the Kurdistan regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Iran
- The Iranian regime arrested several teachers and activists last week for protesting the string of poison gas attacks that has targeted girls’ schools in Iran. Iranian security forces detained six teachers in Sena and four in Saqqez, Kermanshah, and Ilam. The exiled Cooperation Center for Iranian Kurdistan’s Political Parties (CCIKP) expressed support for the protests and called for Iranian Kurds to dedicate this year’s Newroz celebrations to Jina Amini. Simultaneously, Iranian courts sentenced a female activist named Serour Malai’e to three years and six months in prison, another female activist named Haina Maroufi to five years in prison, and a Kurd from Sena named Kawa Bahrami to one year in prison. Iranian authorities also arrested a women’s rights activist named Sahan Khosravi. Moreover, Iranian security forces wounded two Kurdish porters (kolbars), and a mine from the Iran-Iraq War injured a Kurdish man near Sardasht. Separately, the U.S Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 39 entities constituting a network of banks and institutions responsible for facilitating the Iranian regime’s oil sales and moving its financial assets. Furthermore, the White House and U.S. State Department refuted Iranian claims the two parties nearly agreed to a prisoner exchange. Lastly, the European Union (EU) dissolved its system that was created to facilitate trade with Iran in 2019.
Iraq
- Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Naser Kanani demanded Iraq hand over Iranian Kurdish dissidents residing in Iraqi Kurdistan and “disarm” all Iranian Kurdish opposition parties on Iraqi soil. Several Kurdish parties and their members’ relatives have resided in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Koya town since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The Iranian regime has launched several attacks on exiled opposition parties in Iraq since 2018.
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin concluded his Iraq visit by meeting with President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil. Secretary Austin reaffirmed the U.S.’s commitment to providing security assistance to the Peshmerga and working with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on institutional reforms. Secretary Austin also denounced Iran’s repeated attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan and called for Kurdish leaders to overcome divisions. On a different note, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) presented their earlier agreement regarding election laws to the opposition parties. The arrangement divides Kurdistan into four electoral districts whose boundaries are based on the provinces of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, and Halabja. The parties remain divided on the issue of minority districts but agreed to use voter registrations from 2021 as a reference for constituent data.
Syria
- Russia agreed to repatriate 200 children linked to ISIS (Da’esh) from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) last week. Russia repatriated 49 children from AANES custody on March 11. A Sudanese delegation also agreed to repatriate female and juvenile relatives of Da’esh from the al Hol camp. The AANES and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) remain responsible for over 10,000 relatives of Da’esh members in the al Hol and Roj camps.
- Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies expelled over 15,000 people from 16 villages in the rural areas surrounding Tel Abyad. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) revealed that Turkish proxies occupied and looted abandoned homes in the villages. Last week’s events echo previous ethnic cleansing episodes perpetrated by Turkey and its Syrian allies in territories that were formerly administered by Kurdish authorities.
- The AANES reported Syrian government officials and Turkish proxy forces have been politicizing the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas impacted by the February 6 earthquake. The Assad regime has a long history of profiting from humanitarian aid and using it to patronize its supporters. On the other hand, the AANES has allocated resources to ongoing humanitarian relief efforts and called on all regional players to eliminate restrictions on the delivery of aid to earthquake-affected areas.
- The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a concurrent resolution, H.Con.Res.21, calling for the removal of all U.S. forces from Syria within six months with a vote of 321-103. H.Con.Res.21 was sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and its supporters argued, among other things, that such a small force possessed a limited ability to counter Da’esh in the Middle East. That said, various experts and military officers joined most of the House of Representatives in opposing the resolution. U.S. CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, having recently returned from visits to the AANES, stressed continued support for the SDF and ongoing U.S. operations were essential to prevent Da’esh’s resurgence.
Turkey
- An international watchdog organization known as the Turkey Tribunal filed a formal complaint against Turkey with the International Criminal Court. The complaint included details on approximately 1,300 victims of Turkish repression and outlined 17 disappearances and 800 incidents of torture. One incident detailed in the complaint was Turkish border guards’ torture and murder of a man near the Bab al Hawa border crossing in Syria’s Idlib Governorate, which sparked several protests.
- The Constitutional Court of Turkey unfroze the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party’s (HDP) bank accounts on Thursday. The HDP’s accounts were previously frozen due to politically motivated accusations of terrorism links from the Turkish government. However, the Turkish government is still attempting to close the HDP, and the latter’s defense teams will argue against the closure attempt on April 11. In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set May 14 as the date of the nation’s parliamentary and presidential elections. The HDP’s former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas, who has been illegally imprisoned since 2016, authored a statement addressed to Meral Aksener, leader of the Good Party (IYIP). Demirtas’s statement expressed hope the HDP and the National Alliance (Table of Six) could cooperate in unseating Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) but also called on Aksener to treat the HDP as an equal partner and remain cognizant of Kurdish positions and demands. Concomitantly, the National Alliance’s presidential candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is seeking HDP support to improve the coalition’s chances in May. The AKP has responded to the National Alliance’s overtures towards the HDP by reaching out to the Huda Par (Free Cause Party), an Islamist Kurdish party based in southeast Turkey. The AKP’s outreach is unlikely to impact the elections, however, as Turkish records indicate the Huda Par only has 11,589 members.
- Istanbul’s district governor banned the 21st Feminist Night March on International Women’s Day. Turkish police barricaded streets, tear-gassed marchers, and arrested at least 30 people for participating in the march. Nevertheless, participants chanted slogans like “the government must resign,” “we do not obey,” and the Kurdish-inspired “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi.”
- Turkish authorities arrested an Istanbul-based journalist named Fırat Bulut at Andarak’s Esenboğa Airport. Bulut was charged with espousing disinformation for reporting on the failures and shortcomings of the Turkish government’s response to the February 6 earthquake. Separately, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) removed 10 Syrian refugee families from the tents they were sheltering in without explanation.