NEWS
1. YPG Spokesperson: We are a model for entire Syria
2. PKK: Rojava Revolution paved the way for democratic Middle East
3. KCK: Rojava Revolution will be the foundation of Democratic Syria
4. Turkey looks set to swap one state of emergency for another
5. Turkey’s huge scale of arrests and detentions condemned
6. “Ordinary” Turkey worse than under state of emergency
7. The ball stays in Turkey’s court: U.S. pastor to remain in jail
8. Austrian Chancellor: Turkey’s accession talks should end
9. Saleh Moslem refutes claims of a meeting with Syrian official
10. 22 internationalists join the human shields action in Qandil
11. Erdem Gül acquitted
12. Durham Miners Festival dedicated to Öcalan continues
13. UN report details large-scale human rights abuses in Afrin
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Turkey: Exposing Crimes of ISIS is Terrorism
2. Turkey: Kurds in Mus “working behind the adversary’s lines while still living in their hometown.
3. The War in Five Sieges
4. ‘Suffocating climate of fear’ in Turkey despite end of state of emergency
5. 200,000 people at the Durham Miners’ Gala just helped to bring a very important political prisoner into the mainstream
6. Work of the Kurdish and Turkish diaspora essential to strengthen Turkey’s democratic opposition, exiled academic says
7. State of emergency ends amid proposal of new anti-terror law
8. Arabization, Islamization and Kurdish ban in occupied Afrin
9. Demirtaş provision in the bill
10. Monopoly over secret funds
11. Ankara court rules continuation of Demirtaş’s imprisonment
12. Turkey’s Erdogan Expands Authoritarian Powers with Fascist Coalition Election Victory
STATEMENTS
1. 134th Durham Miner’s Gala Dedicated to the Freedom For Öcalan Campaign
2. Weekly Bulletin about Developments in Afrin and Northern Syria (15.06.2018 – 21.06.2018)
DOCUMENTS
1. Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Civilians in North-western Syria – 30 June 2018
2. Julie Ward MEP: REPORT ON GENERAL AND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN TURKEY JUNE 24 2018
3. Round Up of Observations on Turkish Elections June 2018.
EVENTS, CAMPAIGNS, ACTION
1. Public Forum | Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Turkey and Kurds: The Verdict Turkey Found Guilty of ‘War Crimes’: Where do we go from here?
2. Your Freedom and Mine, Book Launch and Discussion
3. Kurdish Academics Discuss their Vision for a Democratic Solution to the Crisis in the Middle East, at the European Parliament
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NEWS
1. YPG Spokesperson: We are a model for entire Syria
21 July 2018/ANF English
The YPG spokesperson assessed the role of the YPG/YPJ forces in the six years of Rojava Revolution.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/ypg-spokesperson-we-are-a-model-for-entire-syria-28377
2. PKK: Rojava Revolution paved the way for democratic Middle East
19 Jul 2018/ ANF News
Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) Executive Committee released a statement marking the sixth anniversary of the July 19 Rojava Revolution.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/pkk-rojava-revolution-paved-the-way-for-democratic-middle-east-28352
3. KCK: Rojava Revolution will be the foundation of Democratic Syria
19 Jul 2018/ ANF News
“Today, Rojava and Northern Syria is an oasis of stability and peace based on freedom and democracy, not only in Syria but entire Middle East territory”, KCK said.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/kck-rojava-revolution-will-be-the-foundation-of-democratic-syria-28343
4. Turkey looks set to swap one state of emergency for another
18 July 2018/Middle East Eye
Though Turkey’s state of emergency is being lifted on Wednesday night, a new law seeks to retain much of its extraordinary powers
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/new-controversial-law-comes-state-emergency-being-lifted-turkey-559500456
5. Turkey’s huge scale of arrests and detentions condemned
18 July 2018/The Morning Star
Turkey has been condemned over shocking human rights violations as a new report revealed the scale of arrests and detentions in the two years since a state of emergency was declared.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/turkeys-huge-scale-of-arrests-and-detentions-condemned
6. “Ordinary” Turkey worse than under state of emergency
18 July 2018/Cumhuriyet
Here are the highlights from fresh legislation conceived for the non-state of emergency period that outdoes the state of emergency.
http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/english/1030427/_Ordinary__Turkey_worse_than_under_state_of_emergency.html#
7. The ball stays in Turkey’s court: U.S. pastor to remain in jail
18 July 2018/The Region
A Turkish court has ruled to keep in jail an American pastor being tried on terrorism and spying charges, a case which has deepened a rift between two NATO allies.
http://theregion.org/article/13888-the-ball-stays-turkey-039-s-court-u-s-pastor-to-remain-jail
8. Austrian Chancellor: Turkey’s accession talks should end
18 July 2018/ANF News
The European Union should end accession negotiations with Turkey and pursue a different kind of cooperation with the country, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told Kathimerini in an interview.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/austrian-chancellor-turkey-s-accession-talks-should-end-28319
9. Saleh Moslem refutes claims of a meeting with Syrian official
18 July 2018/ANF News
The Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) Diplomatic Relations Spokesperson wrote on his Twitter account that he has not had any meeting with the Syrian Presidential Political and Media Adviser. “If such a thing had happened, I underline that our administration would never hide it from the public opinion”.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava/saleh-moslem-refutes-claims-of-a-meeting-with-syrian-official-28332
10. 22 internationalists join the human shields action in Qandil
17 July 2018/ANF News
Southern Kurdistan youth movement organized a voluntary human shield action in the Qandil mountains since July 12. Twenty-two internationalists from France, Switzerland, Spain and Catalonia have come to participate in the resistance campaign.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/22-internationalists-join-the-human-shields-action-in-qandil-28298
11. Erdem Gül acquitted
16 July 2018/Cumhuriyet
Our newspaper’s Ankara Representative Erdem Gül has been acquitted on the charge of obtaining and disclosing the state’s documents that require to be kept confidential on which he was prosecuted in relation to his reports on the ammunition-laden intelligence agency trucks.
http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/english/1028477/Erdem_Gul_acquitted.html#
12. Durham Miners Festival dedicated to Öcalan continues
14 July 2018/ANF News
This year the Durham Miners Festival has been dedicated to Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The Durham Miners Festival, the largest labor festival in the world, is underway in Durham, participated by 200 thousand people.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/durham-miners-festival-dedicated-to-Oecalan-continues-28239
13. UN report details large-scale human rights abuses in Afrin
08 July 2018/Kurdistan24
A new monthly report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for June details large-scale rights abuses in areas under Turkish control, such as Afrin which was taken in March by Turkey from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/07134cc0-d1c7-482d-84a0-df579e7255d8
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Turkey: Exposing Crimes of ISIS is Terrorism
20 July 2018/The Gatestone Institute
In an Orwellian nightmare, Eren Erdem, a former MP, journalist and the author of 9 books, who has courageously dedicated his career to exposing and condemning terrorist organizations, is now being accused of “aiding terrorists”. The real terrorists he has condemned, however, remain free.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12721/turkey-terrorism-whistleblowers
2. Turkey: Kurds in Mus “working behind the adversary’s lines while still living in their hometown”
20 June 2018/Index On Censorship
The story of jailed Kurdish reporter İdris Sayılgan is intertwined with the history of a village haunted by the ghosts of the dirty war of the 1990s and the Armenian Genocide. https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2018/07/turkey-kurds-mus-working-behind-the-adversarys-lines/
3. The War in Five Sieges
19 July 2018/The London Review of Books
“The further we drove into Raqqa, the worse the destruction became: most of the few buildings that are still intact have been taken over as command posts by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-Arab army that with the support of US-led airpower captured Raqqa after a four-month siege last October. There are equal numbers of Arabs and Kurds in the SDF, but the commanders we met were all Kurds” says Patrick Cockburn.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n14/patrick-cockburn/the-war-in-five-sieges?utm_source=LRB+icymi&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180721+icymi&utm_content=ukrw_nonsubs_icymi
4. ‘Suffocating climate of fear’ in Turkey despite end of state of emergency
19 July 2018/The Guardian
A day before Erdoğan was sworn in, another 18,600 public servants were dismissed over alleged links to terror groups, and on Tuesday academics who had signed a petition calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Kurds were sentenced to prison.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/18/turkeys-state-of-emergency-ends-but-crackdown-continues
5. 200,000 people at the Durham Miners’ Gala just helped to bring a very important political prisoner into the mainstream
18 July 2018/The Canary
This year’s Durham Miners’ Gala was dedicated to the campaign to free Kurdish leader and political prisoner Abdullah Öcalan, and it helped to bring the progressive movement surrounding him into the mainstream.
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/07/18/200000-people-at-the-durham-miners-gala-just-helped-to-bring-a-very-important-political-prisoner-into-the-mainstream/
6. Work of the Kurdish and Turkish diaspora essential to strengthen Turkey’s democratic opposition, exiled academic says
18 June 2018/Index On Censorship
The message that the government wants to send is: we celebrate our victory through the intimidation and suppression of people, depriving them of basic rights, of the basis for a life in dignity.
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2018/07/work-of-the-kurdish-and-turkish-diaspora-essential-to-strengthen-turkey-democratic-opposition-exiled-academic-says/
7. State of emergency ends amid proposal of new anti-terror law
18 July 2018/Hurriyet Daily News
Turkey’s two-year-long state of emergency came to an end yesterday amid the introduction of a draft bill that seeks to bring about new anti-terror laws by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). But opposition groups say the laws are as oppressive as the state of emergency.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/state-of-emergency-ends-amid-proposal-of-new-anti-terror-law-134715
8. Arabization, Islamization and Kurdish ban in occupied Afrin
18 July 2018/ANF News
German Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, GfbV) published a press release about the alarming atrocities committed by the occupant Turkish army and allied mercenaries in Afrin.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/arabization-islamization-and-kurdish-ban-in-occupied-afrin-28318
9. Demirtaş provision in the bill
18 July 2018/Cumhuriyet
The interval of thirty days for detention review conducted while examining applications for release has been extended to ninety days. CHP Istanbul MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu has pointed out that this provision being made on detention review comes in the wake of Demirtaş’s damages suit that was concluded a day or two ago.
http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/english/1030536/Demirtas_provision_in_the_bill.html#
10. Monopoly over secret funds
18 July 2018/Cumhuriyet
The secret funds, which were under the Prime Ministerial Office’s control in the parliamentary system, will now be controlled by the Presidency. The intelligence agency, General Directorate of Security, Interior Ministry, National Defence Ministry, National Security Council and Trade Ministry can also make expenditure from the secret funds included in the presidential budget under the head of “secret service expenses.”
http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/english/1029942/Monopoly_over_secret_funds.html#
11. Ankara court rules continuation of Demirtaş’s imprisonment
18 July 2018/Hurriyet Daily News
The former presidential candidate and HDP’s co leader has been in Edirne prison since November 2016. There are more than 30 cases filed against Demirtaş mostly for the crime of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or making propaganda for a terrorist organization via his public speeches.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-court-rules-continuation-of-demirtass-imprisonment-134711
12. Turkey’s Erdogan Expands Authoritarian Powers with Fascist Coalition Election Victory
27 June 2018/The Real News Network
After 15 years in power, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will serve another 5 years as president of NATO member Turkey. TRNN’s Ben Norton speaks with activist Aral Balkan about the AKP’s victorious coalition with the far-right extremist MHP, and the implosion of Turkish democracy
https://therealnews.com/stories/turkeys-erdogan-expands-authoritarian-powers-with-fascist-coalition-election-victory
STATEMENTS
1. 134th Durham Miner’s Gala Dedicated to the Freedom For Öcalan Campaign
15 July 2018/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
The 2018 Durham Miner’s Gala, the largest annual trade union festival in Europe, was dedicated to the Freedom For Öcalan trade union campaign, which is supported by 14 national trade unions, including the TUC, representing six million workers in the UK.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2018/07/15/134th-durham-miners-gala-dedicated-to-the-freedom-for-ocalan-campaign/
2. Weekly Bulletin about Developments in Afrin and Northern Syria (15.06.2018 – 21.06.2018)
https://icafrinresist.com/2018/06/22/1741/
DOCUMENTS
1. Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Civilians in North-western Syria – 30 June 2018
04 July 2018/Office for the High Commissioner (OHCR) via Relief Web
Civilians now living in areas under the control of Turkish forces and affiliated armed groups (eg the Free Syrian Army) continue to face hardships, which in some instances may amount to violations of international humanitarian law and violations or abuses of international human rights law.
https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/syria-monthly-human-rights-digest-june-2018
2. Julie Ward MEP: REPORT ON GENERAL AND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN TURKEY JUNE 24 2018
11 July 2018/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Arriving at our first port of call we were confronted with a large military presence outside a tiny rural school, nestled amongst a few scattered houses. There were 2 armoured vehicles parked in the school grounds and dozens of soldiers and security guards both inside and outside the building. I could not go inside, the soldiers said so, and they were armed.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2018/07/11/julie-ward-mep-report-on-general-and-presidential-elections-in-turkey-june-24-2018/
3. Round Up of Observations on Turkish Elections June 2018.
05 July 2018/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign facilitated a 6 person delegation to observe the Turkish election on 24 June 2018. The delegation was coordinated in response to a call from the HDP. Below are some of the responses written by delegates.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2018/07/05/round-up-of-hdp-election-observers-accounts-of-election-observations/
EVENTS, CAMPAIGNS, ACTION
1. Public Forum | Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Turkey and Kurds: The Verdict Turkey Found Guilty of ‘War Crimes’: Where do we go from here?
Event held on 18 July 2018
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2018/07/12/public-forum-permanent-peoples-tribunal-on-turkey-and-kurds-the-verdict-turkey-found-guilty-of-war-crimes-where-do-we-go-from-here/
2. Kurdish Academics Discuss their Vision for a Democratic Solution to the Crisis in the Middle East, at the European Parliament
04 July 2018/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
For the first time, an international conference brought together Kurdish and European academics to speak about- and discuss their visions for a democratic solution to the crisis in the Middle East. Kurdish academics from all parts of Kurdistan and academics from several European universities and research institutions met for one day in Brussels, on 28 June.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2018/07/04/kurdish-academics-discuss-their-vision-for-a-democratic-solution-to-the-crisis-in-the-middle-east/
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 059
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.