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:
NEWS
1.Turkish police arrest three suspects in opposition mayor shooting
2. Anger over the removal of pro-Kurdish mayors in Turkey
3.Kurdish doctors use social media to educate diaspora on COVID-19
4. Hunger striker ‘walks into immortality’ after 297 days on hunger strike in a Turkish prison
5. Kongra Star commemorates victims of the Armenian genocide
6. Farewell to Mustafa Koçak in Istanbul
7. Turkey launches new attacks on Kurdish refugee camps
8. Turkey’s political prisoners face a potential Covid-19 death sentence – Sarah Glynn
9. Coronavirus: Syria’s Kurds set up dedicated hospital following first death
10. Turkey has a fence erected around Bilbile district of Afrin
11. Death toll from coronavirus exceeds one thousand in Turkey
12. Peace Mothers: We don’t want to see coffins coming out of prisons
13. Kurdish politician Siracettin Kayran dies in Heilbronn
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Trump needs a foreign policy win
2. Ravaged by war, Syria’s health care system is utterly unprepared for a pandemic
3. ‘No journalist is free until we are all free’
4. (VIDEO) Turkey’s War on the Kurds
5. Turkish economy to shrink for first time in a decade this year: Reuters poll
6. Turkey’s military aggression in Iraqi Kurdistan once again targets refugees
7. Thomas Jeffrey Miley talks about Rojava and the Left
8. Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved since 2018 offensive, says rights group
9. Rojava — « The people reject Turkey’s presence and the return of the Syrian regime »
10. Intel: Turkey says S-400 stance unchanged despite US pressure
11. Trying to turn Soylu’s resignation into an opportunity, the AKP government cannot hide its failure
12. (VIDEO) Solidarity message from Mexico: “Let’s defend life in #Rojava in times of #COVID19”
13. Three and a half years of torture by Turkish-backed militias
STATEMENTS
1. Release All Political Prisoners
2. Statement on Grup Yorum and the death of Helin Bolek
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NEWS
1.Turkish police arrest three suspects in opposition mayor shooting
25 April 2020|Ahval News
Turkish police on Saturday arrested three out of the 11 suspects detained in relation to shooting of a district mayor and his wife in southwestern Turkey, Evrensel newspaper reported. The remaining eight suspects in the shooting were released on parole, it said.
2. Anger over the removal of pro-Kurdish mayors in Turkey
25 April 2020|AFP via Yahoo News
The mix of fury and disappointment among residents was palpable inside a cafe in the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin after the government replaced the popular mayor with a trustee. One year on from local elections, 40 out of 65 municipalities won by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are now under the control of government-appointed trustees.
https://news.yahoo.com/anger-over-removal-pro-kurdish-mayors-turkey-045337978.html
3.Kurdish doctors use social media to educate diaspora on COVID-19
25 April 2020|Rudaw
In an effort to dispel misinformation and educate our global Kurdish community, the Kurdish American Medical Association has worked diligently to provide useful and reliable information about the virus.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/25042020
4. Hunger striker ‘walks into immortality’ after 297 days on hunger strike in a Turkish prison
24 April 2020|Morning Star
Representatives from the People’s Law Office confirmed hunger striker Mustafa Kocak’s death in a statement saying: “Our client Mustafa Kocak has been martyred on the 297th day of his death fast”.
5. Kongra Star commemorates victims of the Armenian genocide
24 April 2020|ANF English
Women’s umbrella organization in North and East Syria, Kongra Star, released a statement marking the 105th anniversary of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
6. Farewell to Mustafa Koçak in Istanbul
24 April 2020|ANF English
28-year-old prisoner Mustafa Koçak died in a prison in the western Turkish province of İzmir on the 297th day of his death fast which demanded a fair trial. An Istanbul court sentenced him to an aggravated life sentence plus 39 years imprisonment following a questionable trial.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/farewell-to-mustafa-kocak-in-istanbul-43253
7. Turkey launches new attacks on Kurdish refugee camps
22 April 2020|Green Left
Three women were killed in a Turkish drone attack on the Maxmur refugee camp in Southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) on April 15. The refugee camp was set up in 1998 by the United Nations to accommodate about 12,000 Kurds who were forced to flee Northern Kurdistan (south-eastern Turkey) because of Turkish military attacks.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/turkey-launches-new-attacks-kurdish-refugee-camps
8. Turkey’s political prisoners face a potential Covid-19 death sentence – Sarah Glynn
20 April 2020|Bella Caledonia
Overcrowded, poorly cleaned, and with a history of inadequate medical care that has left a legacy of damaged health, Turkish prisons can become a coronavirus hothouse, turning prison sentences to death sentences and providing a source of infection to wider society.
9. Coronavirus: Syria’s Kurds set up dedicated hospital following first death
20 April 2020|Middle East Eye
Syria’s Kurds have set up a specialised hospital for coronavirus cases after the first Covid-19 death was reported in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish Red Crescent said on Monday. On Friday, the United Nations reported a man in his 50s as the first coronavirus fatality in the Kurdish-held region of the country.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-syria-kurds-first-hospital-death
10. Turkey has a fence erected around Bilbile district of Afrin
11 April 2020|ANF English
Turkey continues to push ahead with the annexation of Afrin. After the construction of a wall around the canton, now the Bilbile district is being sealed off with a barbed-wire fence.
11. Death toll from coronavirus exceeds one thousand in Turkey
10 April 2020|ANF English
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has reached 47,029 while 307,210 people have been tested. In the meantime, 1,667 people are held in intensive care and 1,062 are intubated. 2,423 of those infected have recovered.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/death-toll-from-coronavirus-exceeds-one-thousand-in-turkey-42918
12. Peace Mothers: We don’t want to see coffins coming out of prisons
10 April 2020|ANF English
The AKP-MHP regime has proposed changes to the law of execution but they do not include political prisoners and this exclusion has prompted mobilization and campaigns among civil society organizations and prisoner’s relatives. There are around 300,000 prisoners in Turkish jails.
13. Kurdish politician Siracettin Kayran dies in Heilbronn
10 April 2020|ANF English
Siracettin Kayran was the provincial chairman of the BDP in Siirt in Northern Kurdistan for two election periods. He took part in the working group for faith issues in the Democratic Society Congress. Kayan fled from persecution in Turkey to Heilbronn , Germany five years ago.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/kurdish-politician-siracettin-kayran-dies-in-heilbronn-42913
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Trump needs a foreign policy win
24 April 2020|Zawya
Trump cannot let Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan make any deals with Russia. Less than a week after announcing it would activate its Russian-built S-400 missile defense systems, on April 20 Ankara announced that this will be postponed as a result of the coronavirus crisis. The activation of the systems would drive a wedge between the US and Turkey, and any deals between Erdogan and the Russians represents defeats for Trump.
https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/economy/story/Trump_needs_a_foreign_policy_win-SNG_173096192/
2. Ravaged by war, Syria’s health care system is utterly unprepared for a pandemic
23 April 2020|Middle East Institute
Officially, Syria has just 42 COVID-19 cases, all but one of them in regime-held areas, as testing capacity is almost non-existent elsewhere. The actual number is certainly higher, but there appear to be few severe cases at the moment.
https://www.mei.edu/publications/ravaged-war-syrias-health-care-system-utterly-unprepared-pandemic
3. ‘No journalist is free until we are all free’
22 April 2020|Morning Star
Kurdish journalists demanded the release of those held behind bars in Turkish prisons today as they paid tribute to the “honourable journey” made by those continuing to expose the truth despite great risk. This was on the 122nd anniversary of the publication of the first-ever Kurdish newspaper, the Kurdistan, on April 22 1898.
4. (VIDEO) Turkey’s War on the Kurds
22 April 2020| Freedom for Ocalan – Matt Nathan
Since the Turkish Republic was declared in 1923 the state has been in an ever-escalating war with the Kurdish people. This culminated in the armed conflict against the Kurdish liberation movement and under President Erdogan this war has become a central part of the regime’s wider persecution of the Left and the trade union movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrwrkwO8GRA&t=
5. Turkish economy to shrink for first time in a decade this year: Reuters poll
21 April 2020|Reuters
Turkey’s economy is expected to contract this year for the first time in over a decade as the coronavirus pandemic slashes output through mid-year, and it’s unlikely to grow again until 2021, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
6. Turkey’s military aggression in Iraqi Kurdistan once again targets refugees
20 April 2020|Washington Kurdish Institute
The regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a habit of using the plight of refugees as a tool to provoke and extort Europe and the broader international community. Millions of Syrians who have fled a bloody civil war in their homeland reside in Turkey, a country that has provided shelter and support to jihadist groups active in this conflict.
7. Thomas Jeffrey Miley talks about Rojava and the Left
20 April 2020|Peace in Kurdistan
The Rojava revolution faces great challenges going forward. But the revolutionary forces have already made history. Their democratic confederal project – with its emphasis on direct democracy against the state, multicultural accommodation, gender emancipation, and social ecology – has inspired people across the globe.
8. Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved since 2018 offensive, says rights group
20 April 2020|Rudaw
Since the Turkish invasion of January 2018, the Kurdish population of Afrin, northwest Syria, has fallen by more than 60 percent, according to a local rights group. Thousands of indigenous Kurds were forced to flee the area when Turkish forces and their Syrian militia proxies launched Operation Olive Branch.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/20042020
9. Rojava — « The people reject Turkey’s presence and the return of the Syrian regime »
18 April 2020|Ballast
Journalists Chris den Hond and Mireille Court had a rare opportunity to meet Syrian Kurds Mazlum Abdi and Polat Can near the front line. Abdi spent time in prison and is also wanted in Turkey: he’s general and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a joint Kurdish, Arab, Christian and Syriac military coalition known for defeating ISIS.
10. Intel: Turkey says S-400 stance unchanged despite US pressure
14 April 2020|Al-Monitor
Turkey’s stance on its S-400s hasn’t changed, even as the United States appeared to dangle support in Syria in exchange for Ankara abandoning the controversial Russian missile defense systems, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.
11. Trying to turn Soylu’s resignation into an opportunity, the AKP government cannot hide its failure
13 April 2020|Peoples’ Democratic Party
The way in which Turkey’s Interier Minsiter took and implemented the curfew decision showed his imprudence on a vital issue such as public health. This is not a simple mistake, or a display of shortsightedness, but a grave carelessness that has endangered the lives of millions and disregarded public health.
12. (VIDEO) Solidarity message from Mexico: “Let’s defend life in #Rojava in times of #COVID19”
11 April 2020|Women Defend Rojava
This message of solidarity from Mexico to Kurdistan was published by Kurdistan Solidarity, a committee in solidarity with Kurdistan in Mexico City, and launched with the declaration “Let’s defend the life in Rojava in the time of Covid-19” as part of the Global Day for Life “El Encierro No Me Calla” (“The closure does not silence me”).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaTHa5zas70
13. Three and a half years of torture by Turkish-backed militias
11 April 2020|ANF English
For three and a half years, A.H. from Azaz was severely tortured by the militia “Jabhat al-Shamiya” in prisons in the Turkish occupation zone in northern Syria. He also witnessed torture of Kurdish prisoners by imprisoned ISIS jihadists.
STATEMENTS
1. Release All Political Prisoners
15 April 2020|Peace in Kurdistan
As of 13 April 2020, Turkey had recorded 61,049 cases of Covid-19 and 1,296 deaths from it. Since the first case was diagnosed on 10 March the toll is rising quickly. the Minister of Justice said that 17 inmates of five prisons had been infected with the coronavirus and that three have died.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2020/04/15/release-all-political-prisoners-in-turkey/
2. Statement on Grup Yorum and the death of Helin Bolek
08 April 2020|Peace in Kurdistan
On 3 April 2020 Helin Bolek died on the 288th of a hunger strike turned death fast. Helin Bolek was a member of the popular Turkish folk band Grup Yorum. She protested the repression of her group and its supporters in Turkey and abroad by the Turkish government, led by President Erdogan.
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Gingell – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: John Austin, Christine Blower, NUT International Secretary, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans MEP, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Rahila Gupta, Nick Hildyard, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert MEP, Elfyn Llwyd, Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, International Coordinator, Green Party of England and Wales; Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Gareth Peirce, Maxine Peake, Lord Rea, Joe Ryan, Stephen Smellie, Steve Sweeney, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward MEP, Hywel Williams MP.