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Iraq
- The Council of Representatives of Iraq was unable to achieve quorum, which requires the presence of 220 of 329 lawmakers, and elect a new president on Saturday. Only 202 lawmakers showed up for Saturday’s vote, and the Iranian-backed bloc known as the Coordination Framework prevented Muqtada al Sadr’s coalition, which remains the Council of Representatives’ largest, from inducing enough Sunnis and independent lawmakers to participate. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Islamic Union boycotted the session as expected, but the New Generation surprisingly answered Sadr’s call and turned up on Saturday. The PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) remain divided on the next presidential nominee, with the PUK backing current president Barham Saleh, who is also supported by the Coordination Framework, and the KDP and Sadr promoting KRG Interior Minister, Rebar Ahmad, who was officially nominated last week. The Sadr coalition also announced it had selected Jaafar al Sadr as its nominee for the post of prime minister, though a president has to be selected first. Another presidential vote has been scheduled for March 30, but it remains to be seen if this session will occur or achieve quorum.
- The Deputy Speaker of the Council of Representatives, Hakim al Zamili, met with senior intelligence and foreign policy officials on March 28 to discuss the parliamentary investigative committee’s ongoing probe of the March 13 Iranian ballistic missile attack on Erbil. Zamili said the committee would submit its “final recommendations to Parliament for a vote” and reaffirmed Iraq’s good relations with its neighbors, going on to stress the desirability of dialogue and intelligence sharing over “military force and violation of sovereignty.”
- Iranian-backed militiamen burned down the KDP’s headquarters in Baghdad after a KDP member named Nayif Kurdistani tweeted, “I am with the Arab maraji, peace upon them, but I am not with the Indian, Persian, or Afghani maraji. They are not descendants of the messenger [Prophet Mohammed] even if they wear black turbans.” Kurdistani apologized for the tweet and said his comments were intended to show political support for al Sadr and his coalition. The KDP rejected Kurdistani’s remarks but also condemned the attacks on its headquarters and suspended operations in Baghdad to protest the second attack on the office in less than a year.
Iran
- Iranian authorities arrested dozens of Kurdish activists and event organizers in Sanandaj (Sena), Piranshahr, Marivan, and Salmas after thousands of Kurds defied strict security measures to hold massive Newroz celebrations. Though several of the detained were released shortly after their arrest, many remain jailed. Meanwhile, the exiled Cooperation Center for Iranian Kurdistan’s Political Parties (CCIKP) thanked Iranian Kurds for defying the regime’s ban on unauthorized celebrations. The CCIKP also said Iranian authorities had threatened activists and Kurds for wearing forbidden Kurdish clothing. Concurrently, the Hengaw Organization claimed Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) disguised themselves in Kurdish attire and detained some Kurds in Sanandaj.
- Shinno’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced seven Kurds to prison for “cooperation with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI).” The court sentenced Rahman Assadi to four years, Farhad Maroufi and Jalal Qadirzade to three years each, Hashem Khwan to thirty months, Obaid Anwari to two years, Mehran Solimanpour to eighteen months, and Rebar Charakdari to one year in prison.
Syria
- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commemorated the third anniversary of the end of the ISIS (Da’esh) caliphate on March 23 by warning of the ongoing terror threat the organization poses in Iraq and Syria. “We refer to the imminent dangers that ISIS continues to pose, especially its terror cells. We reiterate that the terrorist organization is trying to revive its dreams and will try to reassert control over parts of Iraq and Syria,” read a statement from the SDF, which also noted the international community’s inaction regarding the thousands of Da’esh terrorists and relatives who remain imprisoned in northeastern Syria. On the morning of March 29, Kurdish public security forces (Asayesh) foiled another escape attempt at al Hawl camp and exchanged small arms fire with Da’esh militants.
- The UN-backed Syrian Constitutional Committee concluded its seventh meeting without achieving any meaningful progress. That said, the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen, stated the participating parties discussed the four principles of foundations of governance, state identity, country symbols, and the structure and functions of public authorities. The committee consists of 15 representatives from the Syrian regime, 15 from the Turkish-backed opposition, and 15 from civil society organizations. Syria’s Kurds remain excluded from the committee because of a Turkish veto.
- The Turkish-backed al Hamzat group injured at least eight children when its fighters fired randomly into a school while attempting to detain a teacher in Afrin’s Maabatli village. Moreover, mines planted by Turkey or its proxies killed a shepherd and a child near Afrin’s Shirawa District, which serves as a buffer between Turkish-backed militias and Kurdish-occupied territory.
Turkey
- Following the 2022 Newroz celebrations, the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) leaders released a statement thanking the Kurdish population for “Insisting on the demand for peace against war, showing the way to a solution with enthusiasm, faith, determination.” Millions of Kurds across Turkey in the 2022 Newroz, but the Turkish government arrested hundreds across the Kurdish Region, including 59 Kurds in Izmer’s Menemen, Buca, Torbalı, Bayrakli, and Konak districts on Friday. The senior HDP lawmaker, Meral Danış Beştaş, blamed the media outlets, including those of the opposition, for not covering the celebration of Newroz by millions. Beştaş said, “ If you are going to talk about the HDP and the Kurds, you have to evaluate the 2022 Newroz. Do not discuss the HDP without considering this [Newroz celebration] because we will declare such discussions as hollow discussions.
- Van’s High Criminal Court sentenced Kurdish lawmaker Murat Sarısaç to a year and a half in prison for social media posts from 2010 to 2015. The court charged Sarısaç with “Propaganda for a terrorist organization.” Further, the police raided HDP’s building in Istanbul’s Kartal district on Wednesday. Separately, in a new hate crime, the HDP building in the Erdemli district of Mersin was targeted by shots from a pump rifle. The attack did not result in casualties but added to the series of hate crimes against the Kurds in recent years against the Kurds.