Kurdistan’s Weekly Brief April 18, 2023

Iran

• Poison gas attacks targeted dozens more girls’ schools in Iran last week, including schools in Tehran, Islamshahr, Karaj, Urmia, Qazvin, Babulsar, Harsin, Kermanshah, and Shiraz. At least 70 students were taken to hospitals following the most recent wave of attacks. Students in most of Mahabad’s schools protested the incidents by boycotting classes. Though the Iranian regime continues to deny involvement, several human rights organizations have accused the regime of turning a blind eye to hardliners committing such crimes to discourage female education. Moreover, the regime sentenced a Kurdish political prisoner named Nayeb Askari to death for the second time on charges of “enmity against God.” A famous Kurdish rapper named Saman Yasin is also facing execution for singing songs in support of anti-government protests. In Senna, a court sentenced a labor activist named Rafiq Salimi to five months in prison for “efforts against national security.” Further, the regime arrested four civilians in Bokan and the father of a deceased protester in Dewalan. Separately, the corpses of two Kurdish border porters (kolbar) believed to have drowned ten days ago were found near Baneh.   

• A delegation from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (VAJA) met with several Kurdish officials in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil. The secretary of the Socialist Party, Mohammed Haji Mohammed, revealed the two sides discussed several issues, including “disagreements” between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the status of exiled Iranian opposition parties in Iraq. Several leaked reports claimed the VAJA delegation pressured the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to expel and disarm Iranian Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan in an attempt to follow up on a recent security agreement between Baghdad and Tehran.  

Iraq 

• On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al Sudani announced Kurdish oil exports would resume via the Ceyhan pipeline “this week.” Al Sudani went on to say prospective oil purchasers would be required to sign contracts with Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). Despite al Sudani’s announcement and the recent Baghdad-Erbil agreement on oil exports, however, Iraq’s Iranian-backed parties remain committed to halting Kurdish oil exports. The U.S. called for all sides to work together and resume oil exports as quickly as possible.

• Iraq’s Council of Representatives read a proposed three-year budget bill for the second time on Monday. The proposed budget, approximately $151 billion, is the largest in Iraq’s history, and the KRG is set to receive 12.6 percent of it. The Council of Representatives plans to vote on the budget bill sometime after Eid. On a separate note, a Turkish drone struck a truck in Sulaymaniyah Governorate’s Penjwen District’s Kani Mirani village, killing three occupants. Several sources told Voice of America that the victims were members of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). 

Syria 

• Turkey and its proxies targeted several Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in Ain Essa with artillery on April 13. No casualties were reported. On April 14, one week after Turkey’s failed assassination attempt on SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi, a Turkish drone assassinated a different SDF commander in Hasakah Governorate. The SDF responded by attacking Turkish bases in northern Syria and wounding four Turkish soldiers. Turkey and its proxies then bombarded 13 villages and SDF positions with artillery and mortars on April 16 and 17, killing two SDF personnel. 

• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) revealed it has documented 53 ISIS (Da’esh) operations against military targets in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) since January 1, 2023. Additionally, Da’esh fighters killed four shepherds, kidnapped two others, and stole their flock of sheep in SDF-controlled rural areas of Deir Ez Zor Governorate on April 16. Da’esh also killed 26 civilians and Assad regime militiamen outside of the AANES on Sunday. That said, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced U.S. forces eliminated a senior Da’esh leader responsible for planning terrorist attacks in the Middle East and Europe and two other Da’esh operatives during a raid in northern Syria on April 17. No U.S. personnel were injured during the operation. On April 14, a joint SDF-Coalition operation killed a Da’esh terrorist in Deir Ez Zor Governorate’s al Khabor al Hasin village. 
• The Syrian regime continues its outreach to the Arab world this week. On April 14, the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited with his counterpart in Algeria to reinforce bilateral ties between the two nations. On  April 16, Mekdad announced that Syria’s return to the Arab League will be “almost impossible before correcting bilateral relations.” The Syrian government’s position has been shaped by statements like that of Qatar’s prime minister, who said on April 13 that the original basis for the 2011 suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League still stands and he reiterated Doha’s stance against normalization with Syria unless there is a political solution. Syrian outreach to other Arab League states has yielded some fruit for the regime, however – the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, announced on April 14 that it wanted the Arab League to readmit Syria to the group and proposed an Arab-led peace plan to end the ongoing conflict in the region. At their Friday meeting, the League refused to readmit Syria, but negotiations are ongoing.

Turkey

• A Turkish prosecutor made their closing remarks during the trial of 108 People’s Democratic Party (HDP) members that has become known as the Kobanî trial in Ankara on Friday. HDP members and supporters protested the trial by walking out of the courtroom before the prosecutor’s remarks to applause and chants of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi,” “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” and “Together we resist, together we win.” The HDP members on trial are facing prison sentences on charges of “disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country” for participating in a 2014 protest demanding Turkey support Syrian Kurds against Da’esh. During a conversation with Bianet, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, an HDP politician seeking election on May 14, said, “According to those who prosecute this case, being a part of a political party’s decision-making process, or even being a recognized face of a political party to the public, is sufficient evidence for being accused of a crime. This case was intended to be used as an instrument at all breaking and turning points of the oppressive regime dominating domestic politics in Turkey, in plain sight.”

• On April 14, Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chairperson of the HDP, announced on Twitter that a prime objective of the Green Left Party (YSP), which unified with the HDP to run in Turkey’s May elections, is the demobilization and demilitarization of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Demirtaş asserted a governing coalition including the YSP and HDP leadership would succeed where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has failed in rejuvenating peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish government that ended in 2015. Demirtas also criticized other presidential candidates and tweeted a picture of Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu running against three Erdogans. Kılıçdaroğlu has voiced intentions to coordinate with Turkey’s Kurdish-majority political parties to end the imprisonment of HDP politicians.

• Turkish youth vandalized the YSP’s election offices in Ankara and İzmir on April 12. The YSP declined to press charges against the offenders because of their ages. That same day, a Turkish court in Diyarbakir indicted 18 Kurdish journalists on charges of “membership in an illegal organization” for reporting on anti-Kurdish crimes. Concurrently, on Wednesday, the Mersin Second Heavy Penal Court sentenced a Kurdish man named Osman Şiban, who Turkish authorities previously tortured and threw from a military helicopter, to more than seven years in prison. The journalists who discovered the torture of Şiban and a man named Servet Turgut also received prison sentences.