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A Digest of Events in the Kurdistan Regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Iran
- The Iranian regime has intensified its campaign against Iranian Kurdish opposition based in Iraqi Kurdistan by demanding Baghdad extradite leaders and members. On July 13, Iranian judiciary official Kazem Gharibabadi announced that a list of nearly 120 individuals has been sent to Iraq for extradition. This follows Iran’s attacks, including airstrikes on Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups. In 2023, the Iranian regime signed a security agreement with Iraq to crack down on the Kurdish opposition after months of anti-government protests in Iran following the death of Kurdish woman Zhina Amini.
- On July 21, 2023, Iranian authorities secretly executed a Kurdish man named Daniyal Kazeminejad in Kermanshah Central Prison without informing his family. Kazeminejad had been sentenced for allegedly killing an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member during anti-government protests. Additionally, Feyzollah Shadi, a 47-year-old Kurdish resident of Kamyaran, was arrested by Iranian security forces and taken to an unknown location. His arrest, which included the sealing of his shop, is believed to be connected to his printing of an obituary for his grandmother, Masoumeh Doroudi, who sought justice after losing a child due to Khomeini’s fatwa in the 1980s. Separately, Goli Shadkam, a Kurdish researcher recently relocated to Canada, has been threatened by Iranian security agencies, notably the IRGC Intelligence. According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Shadkam, a former advisor to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Registration Office of Khorasan Razavi, has faced increased pressure due to her social media activism. Iranian authorities have targeted her family, friends, and colleagues in Iran, pressuring them to cease contact with her. Concurrently, Iranian security forces arrested Ali Allahwaisi, a former Kurdish political prisoner and civil activist from Senna, and his current whereabouts are unknown. Meanwhile, the IRGC forces opened fire on a group of border porters (kolbars) in Qandil Mountain, killing 19-year-old Kian Zini from Sardasht and injuring at least three others. This comes as another Kurdish man, Rebwar Rashidi, a 37-year-old kolbar from Baneh, died on July 21, 2024, at Kosar Hospital in Senna after being shot by Iranian Border Guards.
Iraq
- The Iraqi government has condemned Turkey’s military incursions into the Kurdistan Region, targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). However, the Iraqi government has not moved to file any complaints on an international level, but banned the PKK in Iraq. Since 2018, more than 800 Kurdish and Christian villages have been evicted in the Kurdistan Region due to Turkey’s ongoing military operations that killed dozens of civilians. In mid June, the Turkish forces launched a new operation that displaced 184 families in nine villages , according to the Community Peacemaker Teams. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Edrogan had earlier announced plans for a military campaign.
- On July 15, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Mohamed Al-Hassan as the new special representative for Iraq. As the UN representative, Al-Hassan will head the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which is set to have its mandate expire in 2025. Established in 2003, UNAMI is tasked with supporting Iraq’s development. On May 8, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani formally requested that UNAMI be terminated by the end of 2025. This move is widely believed to be driven by Iranian-backed factions, who may have taken issue with UNAMI’s engagement in human rights and democratic advocacy.
- The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has closed the submission period for candidates and parties for the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections. A total of 13 parties, 2 coalitions, and 124 individual candidates have registered. In addition to Kurdish candidates, 19 Christians and 20 Turkmen have also registered. A special committee is currently reviewing the submissions, and the sixth session of parliamentary elections is scheduled for October 20, as announced by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on June 26.
Syria
- Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, reacted to the proposed meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan by saying, “he will do it if it achieves the interests of the country.” He added that while proposing the meeting “may be important,” the problem lies in “the content of the meeting.” President Erdogan has initiated this meeting as part of a normalization effort between the two countries. Erdogan’s aim appears to be ending the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). While the Assad regime agrees with this, it also seeks to end Turkey’s support for Syrian opposition groups and the Turkish occupation in the country. So far, the normalization efforts between Syria and Turkey have been rejected by the US. While no progress has been made, the Iraqi government will facilitate the talks, per Iraq’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. The AANES expressed “absolute rejection” of normalization between Ankara and Damascus, stating it would cause “harm to the issue of Syria and its people.” They argued that without a “fundamental political solution,” which includes releasing prisoners and withdrawing from occupied areas, such normalization is “a hostile step against Syria.”
- According to the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), from January to June 2024, ISIS (Da’esh) terrorists claimed 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria, indicating an effort to reconstitute following years of decreased capability. In response, CENTCOM and its partners conducted 196 missions, resulting in the deaths of 44 terrorists and the detention of 166, including the elimination of eight senior Da’esh leaders. CENTCOM stated that the “pursuit of the estimated 2,500” terrorists at large, along with international efforts to repatriate over 9,000 detainees and rehabilitate more than 43,000 individuals in Syrian camps, “remains critical” to the enduring defeat of Da’esh. Earlier this month, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces arrested four terrorists in Deir Ez Zor, Raqqa, and Qamishli.
Turkey
- Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş has been sentenced to an additional 2.5 years in prison for speeches he made between 2015 and 2016, which were deemed as “publicly insulting” various Turkish institutions. Prior to this sentence, Demirtaş was given a 42-year prison term in May for his role in the 2014 Kobanî protests, where Kurds rallied against Da’esh terrorists. The trial, held at Mersin’s 14th Penal Court, was conducted via videoconference from Demirtaş’s current incarceration in Edirne F-Type Closed Prison. He criticized the prosecution as politically motivated and argued that if he were a nationalist or fascist, he would not face such charges. Despite multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordering his release, the Turkish government has not freed him, drawing international criticism.
- The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Dem) has appealed to the Administrative Court to halt and nullify the appointment of a trustee to Hakkari Municipality. The petition emphasizes that Mehmet Sıddık Akış, elected co-mayor with 48.92% of the votes in the March 31 elections, was unjustly dismissed on June 3, 2024. The Governor of Hakkari was appointed as deputy mayor, bypassing the legal stipulation that a municipal council member from the DEM Party should be elected. The petition argues that the routine appointment of trustees, particularly in Kurdish provinces, is a systematic attack on the party’s political presence and local governance, aiming to disenfranchise voters.