For more of the latest Kurdish news, see these sources:
ANF English https://anfenglishmobile.com/
Hawar News https://hawarnews.com/en/
Rojhelat http://rojhelat.info/en/
Komun Academy https://komun-academy.com
CHRI https://www.iranhumanrights.org/
Iran Human Rights https://iranhr.net/en/
Kurdistan Press Agency https://kurdpa.net/en
Kurdistan24 https://www.kurdistan24.net/en
Rudaw https://www.rudaw.net/english
Al-Monitor https://www.al-monitor.com
KHRN http://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en
KMMK https://kmmk-ge.org/
Hengaw https://hengaw.net/en
NEWS
1. 102 activists and lawyers from Eastern Kurdistan condemn invasion attacks by the Turkish state
2. Turkish air strikes target Asos mountains
3. Poverty more painful than bullets for kolbars in Iran
4. Iran threatens Telegram admins over publishing kolbar news
5. Imposing an imprisonment sentence for four participants of Haidar Ghorbani’s funeral
6. Iran court upholds death sentence for captured HPG fighter Hatem Özdemir
7. Kurdish Milad Jafari Dies Under Suspicious Circumstances in Police Custody
8. Escalation of Civil Society Crackdown; Arrests, Sentences and Summons
9. Turkey: Detained former Kurdish political prisoner faces deportation risk
10. Iran, Turkey make up most agricultural imports to Kurdistan Region
11. Releasing two teenage girls from Mahabad after torturing
12. Iran human rights report cites ‘huge progress’ despite recent violations
13. Debate on Iranian women’s access to soccer games flares up again
14. PJAK co-chair Vejîn: The people of Rojhilat see their existence thanks to leader Öcalan
15. Mesopotamia Ecology Movement: Our territory is facing an apocalypse
16. Denmark forces out asylum-seeking Kurdish woman, her twins
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. From a school wrestling prospect to a kolbar
REPORTS
1. Several human rights violations
2. Amnesty says Iranian authorities turned prisons into ‘waiting room of death’ for ill prisoners
3. March 2022: Human rights violations in Iranian Kurdistan
4. A report on the landmine victims during last year in Kurdistan
5. Arrest of 37 Kurdish citizens in March 2022
6. 33 Kolbars were killed and wounded in March 2022
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NEWS
1. 102 activists and lawyers from Eastern Kurdistan condemn invasion attacks by the Turkish state
24 April 2022 | ANF
102 activists and lawyers from Eastern Kurdistan condemned the invasion attack of the Turkish state in Southern Kurdistan in a statement. The statement said that international law was not applied to stop the ongoing violations carried out by the Turkish state…
2. Turkish air strikes target Asos mountains
22 April 2022 | ANF
The Turkish air force has attacked the Asos Mountains in the border area between southern and eastern Kurdistan. Reconnaissance flights are taking place over the region, where mainly PJAK is active.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/turkish-air-strikes-target-asos-mountains-59485
3. Poverty more painful than bullets for kolbars in Iran
21 April 2022 | Rudaw
Lying in a bed in one of Baneh’s hospitals in Iran’s Kurdish-majority west, the 22-year- old Mohammed Mawloodi can barely speak to people visiting him after being shot by Iranian border guards a week ago while working as kolbar, the thought of his poverty-struck family however, seems to be more painful than all the bullet wounds on his body.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/21042022
4. Iran threatens Telegram admins over publishing kolbar news
21 April 2022 | KHRN
At the same time as the intensification of the Iranian military forces targeting kolbars in the country’s western border areas, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Sardasht, West Azerbaijan province, have threatened admins of Telegram news channels over publishing information on the shootings.
https://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en/iran-threatens-telegram-admins-over-publishing-kolbar-news/
5. Imposing an imprisonment sentence for four participants of Haidar Ghorbani’s funeral
20 April 2022 | Hengaw
According to a report received by Hengaw Human Rights Organization, in the recent days, four citizens from Kamyaran called Mullah Mohammad Mirza Rahmani, Borhan Kamangar, Sirvan Ghorbani, and Amanj Ghorbani have been sentenced to 91 days in prison each by Branch 101 of Criminal Court 2 of Kamyaran. This sentence has been officially notified to them.
6. Iran court upholds death sentence for captured HPG fighter Hatem Özdemir
14 April 2022 | ANF
The People’s Defense Forces (HPG) fighter, Hatem Özdemir, who was captured by Iran in 2019, is to be executed. The sentence handed out to the fighter, detained in a prison in the eastern Kurdish city of Urmiye, was upheld.
7. Kurdish Milad Jafari Dies Under Suspicious Circumstances in Police Custody
13 April 2022 | IHR
Milad Jafari, a 25-year-old Kurdish man has died under suspicious circumstances in the custody of Shapour police station after being arrested by the police. According to his relatives, “he was tortured to obtain confessions, was bleeding from the nose and mouth, and there were bruises on his chest.”
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5163/
8. Escalation of Civil Society Crackdown; Arrests, Sentences and Summons
18 April 2022 | IHR
There has been an intensification of the crackdown on civil society in Iran over the last week. Six civil and workers’ rights activists, Amir Amirgholi, Amir Abbasi, Mohammad Irannejad, Sara Asgari, Nasrollah Amirlou and Morteza Seyedi were arrested. Rasoul Bodaghi, a civil activist and member of the Teachers’ Union was sentenced to five years imprisonment, and civil activist, Soheil Arabi has been summoned to serve his two-year sentence.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5166/
9. Turkey: Detained former Kurdish political prisoner faces deportation risk
11 April 2022 | KHRN
Turkish police have detained on 7 April a former Kurdish woman political prisoner, who holds Iranian citizenship, in Kayseri, central Turkey, and have transferred her to the city’s centre for the deportation of asylum seekers.
10. Iran, Turkey make up most agricultural imports to Kurdistan Region
11 April 2022 | Rudaw
The majority of agricultural products in the Kurdistan Region are imported as demand has increased in Ramadan, with around 70 percent coming from neighboring Iran and Turkey, head of Erbil’s fruit and vegetable market told Rudaw on Monday.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/110420222
11. Releasing two teenage girls from Mahabad after torturing
11 April 2022 | Hengaw
According to a report received by Hengaw Human Rights Organization, two teenage females from the village of “Kuse Kariz” in Mahabad, Parisa Sepahi, 17, and Kavyar Eliassy, 18, have been released from the detention center of the Intelligence Agency in the recent days.
https://hengaw.net/en/news/releasing-two-teenage-girls-from-mahabad-after-torturing
12. Iran human rights report cites ‘huge progress’ despite recent violations
10 April 2022 | Rudaw
Iran submitted on Saturday its midterm report to the United Nations (UN) on the country’s human rights situation, boasting of significant progress, but recent reports by watchdogs documenting human rights violations in the country prove the contrary.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/10042022
13. Debate on Iranian women’s access to soccer games flares up again
08 April 2022 | Al-Monitor
The incidents of March 29 in the northeastern city of Mashhad rekindled a dormant debate on the right of Iranian women to attend soccer matches as spectators. Iran’s national football team, which previously qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, was slated to play Lebanon in its final World Cup qualifier showdown last Tuesday. Nearly 2,000 women purchased tickets to watch the game at the Imam Reza Stadium, but in front of the venue gates, they were abruptly told they couldn’t watch the match.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/04/debate-iranian-womens-access-soccer-games-flares-again
14. PJAK co-chair Vejîn: The people of Rojhilat see their existence thanks to leader Öcalan
03 April 2022 | ANF
PJAK co-chair Zilan Vejîn said that the people of Rojhilat see their existence thanks to Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan, and added that PJAK has been fighting on a national and Apoist line for 19 years.
15. Mesopotamia Ecology Movement: Our territory is facing an apocalypse
02 April 2022 | ANF
The Mesopotamia Ecology Movement issued a written statement on deforestation policies, drawing attention to the ecological massacres in the region and in Turkey .. while Iraq/ Basra’s reed beds are destroyed, Iran’s Urmia Lake is dried up, and Syria’s woods are bombed…
https://anfenglishmobile.com/articles/search?q=Iran&page=2
16. Denmark forces out asylum-seeking Kurdish woman, her twins
01 April 2022 | KHRN
Denmark forcibly deported a Kurdish woman, who holds Iranian citizenship, and her two children, on 29 March after their application for political asylum was rejected by the Danish government.
https://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en/denmark-forces-out-asylum-seeking-kurdish-woman-her-twins/
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. From a school wrestling prospect to a kolbar
21 April 2022 | Rudaw
Taking one last puff of his cigarette, 30-year-old Payam Rawshani reminisces about his school days as an unbeatable athletic prospect and his dreams of competing in an international tournament, as he prepares to take the treacherous path of the mountains, transporting packages as a kolbar.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/210420221
REPORTS
1. Several human rights violations
23 April 2022 | Kurdpa
Between 03 and 23 April 2022 at least 13 human rights violations have been reported from Iranian Kurdistan.
https://kurdpa.net/en/news?Category=Human%20Rights
2. Amnesty says Iranian authorities turned prisons into ‘waiting room of death’ for ill prisoners
12 April 2022 | Rudaw
A rights watchdog on Tuesday released a damning report accusing the authorities in Iran of deliberately withholding life-saving medications from fatally ill prisoners, resulting in the death of more than 90 people held in custody over the past decade.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/12042022
3. March 2022: Human rights violations in Iranian Kurdistan
05 April 2022 | KHRN
In March, Iranian security forces detained dozens of Kurdish activists and the individuals who organise annual Newroz (also Nowruz in Persian) celebrations in the Kurdish cities and villages in Iran.
https://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en/february-2022-human-rights-violations-in-iranian-kurdistan/
4. A report on the landmine victims during last year in Kurdistan
04 April 2022 | Hengaw
According to statistics recorded by Hengaw Human Rights Organization’s Statistics and Documentation Data Center, from April 2021 to April 2022, at least 50 citizens were killed on the borders of Kurdistan by landmines and explosives left over from the 8-year Iran-Iraq war and new mines planted by the Revolutionary Guards.
5. Arrest of 37 Kurdish citizens in March 2022
03 April 2022 | Hengaw
According to registered statistics in the Documentation Centre of Hengaw Human Rights Organization, during March 2022, at least 37 Kurdish citizens were arrested by the Iranian government’s security agencies on charges of political and civic activities.
https://hengaw.net/en/news/arrest-of-37-kurdish-citizens-in-march-2022
6. 33 Kolbars were killed and wounded in March 2022
01 April 2022 | Hengaw
According to registered statistics recorded in the Documentation Centre of Hengaw Human Rights Organization, during March 2022, at least 33 Kolbars and salesmen were killed and wounded on the borders of Kurdistan, 43% of whom have victimized by direct fire from the Iranian armed forces.
https://hengaw.net/en/news/33-kolbars-were-killed-and-wounded-in-march-2022
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella@gn.apc.org
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaceinkurdistan1/
Contacts Estella Schmid: 07846 666 804 & Melanie Gingell: 07572 430903
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Maggie Cook, UNISON women activist; Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, journalist, Nick Hildyard, policy advisor, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Dr Les Levidow, Open University, Elfyn Llwyd, John McDonnell MP; Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, journalist, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, Maxine Peake, actor, Dr Thomas Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University, Trevor Rayne, writer, Joe Ryan, Bert Schouwenburg, International Trade Union Adviser; Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, journalist, Steve Sweeney, journalist, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Federico Venturini, Associate Researcher, University of Udine, Italy; Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Kariane Westrheim, Chair, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Hywel Williams MP.