Kurdistan Digest | September 17, 2024

A Digest of Events in the Kurdistan Regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

Iran 

• On September 15, a large public strike to commemorate the second anniversary of the Kurdish woman Zhina Amini’s death commenced across Iran’s Kurdish region. Amini was murdered by Iran’s morality police in 2022. In Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, Iranian authorities placed her parents under house arrest and prevented her family from visiting her grave in Aichi Cemetery. The regime also released water from a dam to prevent others from accessing the cemetery. Simultaneously, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported strikes in multiple cities, including Mahabad, Saqqez, and Sanandaj, were organized by civilians and Kurdish political parties. Authorities in many areas threatened shopkeepers who refused to open their stores and even broke into some closed stores. A significant regime military presence, including special forces and helicopters, was also observed in several cities. Amini’s death initially sparked protests in 2022 that resulted in the deaths of at least 120 Kurdish citizens. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities in Bokan arrested Ahmad Hassanzadeh, father of Mohammad Hassanzadeh, who was killed during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” demonstrations. Regime forces also arrested eight Kurds in Diwandarah, two in Piranshahr, two in Marivan, and a teenager in Dehghani. The regime also cracked down on activists and civilians for social media posts commemorating Amini’s death.

Iraq 

• On September 11, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq and met with several officials, including Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani. Al Sudani’s media office said the two sides discussed boosting security ties, strengthening economic links, and implementing 120 memoranda signed between Iran and Iraq since 2003. “This visit is important and represents a driving force for the growing path of bilateral relations, in light of the will and sincere desire to lead the two countries towards more cooperation and integration,” read a statement from al Sudani’s media office. Pezeshkian then traveled from Baghdad to Erbil and met with senior officials from Iraqi Kurdistan, including President of Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani. “President Barzani expressed the Kurdistan Region’s desire to strengthen ties and expand cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran in various fields. He highlighted the profound respect and appreciation the people of Kurdistan have for Iran’s continuous support during challenging times,” noted a statement from Barzani’s office. The Iranian president also invited Kurdistan Democratic Party (HDP) head and former President of Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani to visit Iran.

• A Turkish airstrike killed a Kurdish shepherd and damaged several homes in a village in Erbil Governorate’s Sidakan subdistrict. The Sidakan subdistrict has seen numerous recent clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) told Rudaw that 12 civilians, including five from Sidakan, have been killed or injured by Turkish attacks in the Kurdistan Region this year. Turkish and Iranian attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan have killed 425 civilians and wounded 420 since 1991.

• Iraqi Kurdistan’s delayed parliamentary elections are now set for October 20. The head of the Independent High Electoral Commission’s (IHEC) Erbil office announced campaigning for the elections will start this week. The campaigns will end 24 hours before the elections. October 20’s parliamentary elections will be Iraqi Kurdistan’s sixth since 1991, and 2.7 million of the region’s approximately 2.9 million eligible voters have received their voting cards.

• Iraq’s Council of Representatives postponed voting on the “Returning Properties to Their Owners” law again. A final session addressing the bill is expected later this week after Iraq’s Kurdish and Turkmen political parties, whose constituencies are most affected by the bill, agreed to the delay. A Kurdish lawmaker explained that the postponement is due to several unresolved issues that need further discussion before the law can be put to a vote. Turkish-backed Turkmen lawmaker Arashad al Salhi confirmed an agreement with the Kurdish blocs to delay voting on the cancellation of Revolutionary Command Council decisions concerning land until the end of the week. The Ba’ath regime’s Revolutionary Command Council confiscated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland owned by Kurds and some Turkmen and gave them to Arab settlers and members of the security services. The Iraqi government has failed to implement several constitutional provisions calling for the reversal of the Ba’ath-imposed demographic changes. At the same time, Shia lawmakers are now seeking Kurdish and Turkmen support for several controversial civil status amendments in exchange for backing the “Returning Properties to their Owners” bill.

Syria 

• The U.S. State Department issued a statement opposing the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s (AANES) recent efforts to hold municipal elections over what the U.S. perceives as an absence of the necessary conditions for free and fair elections in northeastern Syria. “The United States has consistently stated that any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent, and inclusive, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” read the State Department’s statement. This follows the AANES’s decision to postpone elections scheduled for June in response to pressure from the U.S., Russia, and Turkey. That said, it remains unclear if the AANES will postpone elections again or hold them as originally planned.

• The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the arrest and elimination of several ISIS (Da’esh) terrorists in separate operations that received direct support from the U.S.-led Coalition. On September 14, the SDF’s Anti-Terrorism Units (YAT) raided a Da’esh lair east of Raqqa, killing four members of a terror cell and confiscating several weapons. The SDF also detained two Da’esh operatives in two simultaneous operations in the al Hasakah countryside. On September 6, the SDF revealed it captured 34 Da’esh terrorists and killed 5 across northeastern Syria in July and August. Separately, U.S. air defenses shot down several drones targeting a military base in al Hasakah on September 15. Iranian-backed militias are suspected of perpetrating Sunday’s attack and have attacked U.S. interests in Iraq and Syria hundreds of times since October 2023.

• The Turkish proxy Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade violently suppressed a women-led protest against the heavy taxes imposed by Turkish-backed militias in occupied Afrin. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade members fired on protesters in Kashira village and injured at least eight women, some severely. Several local reports indicate one woman died from her injuries. Following the attack, the brigade imposed a curfew, cut off communications, and began arresting civilians. The protests were initially sparked by Turkish proxies’ ongoing human rights abuses, criminality, and excessive taxation of olive farmers. The Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade has demanded eight dollars per olive tree from displaced villagers, and other pro-Turkish factions have imposed similar fees in nearby areas. 

Turkey 

• Over 1,500 lawyers from 35 countries have signed a petition demanding an end to the isolation of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in complete isolation for over 42 months. Despite repeated requests, Öcalan has not been allowed to see his lawyers or family. International legal organizations held a press conference in Brussels to highlight the situation and call for action. The petition noted the violation of Öcalan’s human rights and right to defense, demanding that Turkey allow him and his fellow prisoners to meet with their lawyers and communicate with the outside world. Simultaneously, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) criticized Turkey’s policies, especially those under the ruling parties, highlighting Öcalan’s isolation since 1999 and his complete isolation since 2015. The DEM Party argued that İmralı Prison had become a symbol of legal violations, reflecting broader issues in Turkey’s political and international affiliations. The DEM Party’s statement was released after the first edition of the party’s “Central Organization Conference,” where various topics were discussed, including the Kurdish issue. The DEM Party accused the government of an “insistence on war policies,” which has “deepened the political crisis and caused an economic and social crisis accordingly.”