IRAN/ROJHELAT: NEWS BRIEFING, 23 January – 05 February 2021
For all of the latest Kurdish news, see these sources:
ANF English: https://anfenglishmobile.com/
Hawar News: https://www.hawarnews.com/en/
Rojava Information Center: https://rojavainformationcenter.com
Women Defend Rojava: http://womendefendrojava.net/en/
Rojhelat: http://rojhelat.info/en/
Rojava Centre for Strategic Studies
Komun Academy:
MA NEWS
http://mezopotamyaajansi22.com/en/NEWS
Center for Human Rights in Iran
https://www.iranhumanrights.org/
Iran Human Rights
Kurdistan Press Agency
http://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en
NEWS
1. Media watchdog condemns ‘outrageous’ arrests of journalists in Iran
2. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Cover for State Terrorism
3. Dutch Kurdish filmmaker wins top photography award in Netherland
4. Iranian government has detained at least 114 Kurds since January 8
5. Kurdish teacher in Education Department in Mahabad detained
6. John Bolton: US should have done more for Kurds
7. Academic jailed in Iran pulls off daring escape back to Britain
8. Iran vows to take action against German companies that supplied Saddam with chemical weapons
9. Nature of Eastern Kurdistan under attack
10. Locals find bodies of 5 Kurdish couriers from Iran killed in Turkish avalanche
11. The crimes and violence of the Islamic Republic of Iran are a sign of the weakness of the regime!
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS
1. Urgent international action needed to secure release of Kurdish activists and others arbitrarily detained in Iran
2. Amnesty: Jailed Iranian Kurdish woman Zeynab Jalalian tortured
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NEWS
1. Media watchdog condemns ‘outrageous’ arrests of journalists in Iran
05 February 2021 | Rudaw
Iran arrested two journalists in late January, drawing condemnation of “vague charges” from a press freedom watchdog amid a growing number of arrests of activists and opposition figures.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/05022021
2. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Cover for State Terrorism
05 February 2021 | Iranfocus
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acts as a cover for state terrorism. The Antwerp court in Belgium announced its verdict on Thursday, February 4, on the charges of a “terrorist group.”
3. Dutch Kurdish filmmaker wins top photography award in Netherland
05 February 2021 | Kurdistan 24
Dutch Kurdish screenwriter and film director Beri Shalmashi and documentary film researcher Lyangelo Vasquez have won the top Dutch photography award Zilveren Camera (Silver Camera) 2020 in the Story Telling category for an interactive documentary about Kurdish refugees who fled Iran.
4. Iranian government has detained at least 114 Kurds since January 8
04 Feb 2021 | AFN NEWS
The Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK) reported that operations targeting students, civil society activists, teachers, journalists and artists in Eastern Kurdistan and Iran are continuing.
5. Kurdish teacher in Education Department in Mahabad detained
04 Feb 2021 | Hengaw
Following the mass detention of Kurdish activists, one of the teachers working in the education department of Mahabad district of West Azerbaijan (Urmia) province in Iranian Kurdistan has been detained by Iranian security forces and transferred to an unknown location.
https://hengaw.net/en/news/kurdish-teacher-in-education-department-in-mahabad-detained
6. John Bolton: US should have done more for Kurds; Iran remains biggest threat in Middle East; difficult to return to 2015 nuclear deal
03 Feb 2021 | Kurdistan24
“I think that the United States has not done as much for the Kurds as it should,” Amb. John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former National Security Council Advisor, told Kurdistan 24, “but over the years, over the past two decades, nobody else has done more for the Kurds.”
7. Academic jailed in Iran pulls off daring escape back to Britain
03 Feb 2021 | The Guardian
A British- Iranian dual national sentenced to nine years and three months in jail in Iran for co-operating with “a hostile state power” has smuggled himself out of Iran, escaping over the country’s treacherous mountainous border, and is now living in London.
8. Iran vows to take action against German companies that supplied Saddam with chemical weapons
28 January 2021 | Morning Star
Ismail Baqai Hamaneh, Tehran’s representative at the United Nations in Geneva , told the UN-linked Conference on Disarmament: “Iran will never back down from pursuing Germany’s crime of arming Saddam with chemical weapons.”
9. Nature of Eastern Kurdistan under attack
27 January 2021 | AFN NEWS
The nature of Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan, Iran) is a great blessing to its inhabitants; It is a generous basin with its beauty and abundance.
https://anfenglish.com/ecology/nature-of-eastern-kurdistan-under-attack-49605
10. Locals find bodies of 5 Kurdish couriers from Iran killed in Turkish avalanche
27 January 2021 | Kurdistan24
The bodies of five Kurdish couriers known as Kolbars have been found, just over a week after they were killed in an avalanche in a rural mountainous region between the Turkish provinces of Wan and Hakari, not far from the borders of Iran and the Kurdistan Region.
11. The crimes and violence of the Islamic Republic of Iran are a sign of the weakness of the regime!
January 23, 2021 Kongra
2020 was an exceptionally difficult year, especially for the peoples of Iran. Under the dictatorial regime of the Islamic Republic, Iran’s struggling economy continued to deteriorate, and the coronavirus pandemic added to all other hardships that the country’s people been endured for decades.
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS
1. Urgent international action needed to secure release of Kurdish activists and others arbitrarily detained in Iran
04 Feb 2021 | Kurdistan Press Agency
“We, the undersigned 37 civil society and human rights organizations, call for the urgent attention of the international community to an ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances by the Iranian authorities,
targeting scores of people from Iran’s disadvantaged Kurdish minority in the provinces of Alborz, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Tehran, and West Azerbaijan.”
2. Amnesty: Jailed Iranian Kurdish woman Zeynab Jalalian tortured
02 Feb 2021 | Kurdistan Human Rright Network
Amnesty International has accused Iran of torturing Kurdish woman political prisoner Zeynab Jalalian called upon readers to take urgent action by sending appeals to the country’s Head of Judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi.
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
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www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
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