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: http://nrlsrojava.com/en/
Komun Academy: https://komun-academy.com
Peoples’ Democratic Party: https://www.hdp.org.tr/en/
KCK-Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union: https://kck-info.com
NEWS
- Damascus Government demands Turkey to release its share of Euphrates River
- “Politicians’ trial is evidence of Turkey’s relationship with ISIS”
- ECtHR: HDP deputy Kerestecioğlu’s freedom of expression violated
- Turkey aims to occupy the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish officials warn
- Kurdish guerrilla fighters call for youth to lead uprising against Turkish invasion
- Top Turkish court upholds jail term for Demirtaş as prosecutions of Kurds escalate
- Scores detained at anti-war protest start hunger strike in Slemani
- Turkey accused of chemical weapons attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Pro-Kurdish HDP urges Turkey to face up to Armenian Genocide
- HDP calls for international solidarity ahead of most important trial in modern Turkish history
- Turkey and allied Syrian forces building settlement on Kurdish land in Afrin: locals
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Selahattin Demirtaş: the trial of the man who wanted to be Turkey’s president
- Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman Dream: Major Threat due to New Military Occupation Operation in South Kurdistan
- Turkey Bans Largest Left-Wing Party
- Assessment of Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Iraq by Asos Hoshman
- KCDK-E: Turkish invasion takes place with Western approval
- (Video) Duran Kalkan says the “European Union blocks a solution in Turkey”
- Banning the pro-Kurdish HDP in Turkey is a move towards fascism
STATEMENTS
- The Guerrilla Defends all of Kurdistan – KCK Statement
- Celebrate May Day 2021 – PIK Statement
- The Armenian National Committee – International Condemns the Turkish Government’s Persecution of the HDP
- Women send open letter of support to the HDP in Turkey
- European politicians call for solidarity with HDP ahead of Kobanî trial
- Statement from Jeremy Corbyn MP – The Functioning of Democratic Institutions of Turkey
- On the high-level meeting between the EU leaders and Erdoğan
BOOKS
- Book review by Julie Ward of Struggle for Survival Under Authoritarianism in Turkey by Burcu Yasemin Şeyben
MULTIMEDIA
- (Video) Mehmet Ali Birand Lecture 2021 – Eren Keskin
- (Video) Iida Käyhkö: We should support HDP and democracy in Turkey
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NEWS
- Damascus Government demands Turkey to release its share of Euphrates River
6 May 2021| Hawar News Agency
After a shameful silence lasting more than three months, the Minister of Water Resources of the Damascus Government demanded that the Turkish side release Syria’s share of the water of the Euphrates River, and called on the international community and international organizations to intervene. During a tour of the province of Deir ez-Zor, Minister Tammam Raad noted decrease in water levels, impacting agriculture and drinking was, was due to “the blocking of water from the Turkish side, which we call upon to release in accordance with the fair quota established for both Syria and Iraq”.
- “Politicians’ trial is evidence of Turkey’s relationship with ISIS”
5 May 2021|Hawar News Agency
The Women’s Council in North and East Syria condemned the Turkish authorities’ trial of 108 politicians and HDP members, and said that this trial is illegal and is clear evidence of the close connection between the Turkish government and ISIS. “This trial comes against the background of the demonstrations and events that took place during ISIS terrorist attack on the city of Kobani in 2014, in solidarity with the city of resistance (Kobani), which was attacked and besieged by ISIS”, the statement reads in part.
- ECtHR: HDP deputy Kerestecioğlu’s freedom of expression violated
4 May 2021|Bianet
The European Court of Human Rights has concluded that Turkey violated freedom of expression of Peoples’ Democratic Party member Filiz Kerestecioğlu, who was stripped of MP status in 2016. In its decision today, the court ordered Turkey to pay Kerestecioğlu 5,000 Euro for damages and 4,000 Euro of court expenses for violating article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- Turkey aims to occupy the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish officials warn
4 May 2021|Morning Star
Turkey aims to occupy the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish officials warned today, as the world remains largely silent on the Nato member state’s latest illegal military operation. “Turkey is trying to empty Kurdistan of the Kurds,” Democratic Left Party in Syria general secretary Saleh Kedo said. He accused Ankara of using the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as an excuse to destroy Kurdish villages and occupy the Iraq-Turkey border in a bid to pressure the Kurdistan Regional Government.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/turkey-aims-empty-kurdistan-kurds-official-warns
- Kurdish guerrilla fighters call for youth to lead uprising against Turkish invasion
3 May 2021|Morning Star
Kurdish guerrilla fighters have called for a wave of resistance to the Turkish invasion of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, urging young people to organise uprisings in towns and cities. Ankara has been accused by Kurdish forces of using chemical weapons on three separate occasions and of shipping in 2,000 jihadists from the Free Syrian Army to join their assault.
- Top Turkish court upholds jail term for Demirtaş as prosecutions of Kurds escalate
30 April 2021|Ahval
The Turkish Court of Cassation has upheld a four-year eight-month prison sentence against Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, Mezopotamya news agency reported on Thursday. The timing of the top court’s decision, which came on the same day the so-called Kobane trials began, “shows that the ruling is part of the attacks to disband our party and our elected officials via the judiciary,” HDP deputy co-chair for human rights Ümit Dede said.
- Scores detained at anti-war protest start hunger strike in Slemani
28 April 2021|Morning Star
Scores of detainees who were taken into custody during an anti-war demonstration in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region have started a hunger strike in protest at their treatment, the Morning Star heard today. Hundreds of armed police and local intelligence officials swarmed Salim Street, Slemani’s main thoroughfare, looking for those involved in the demonstration. A source said that the arrest orders probably came from Turkey, working alongside the region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party, which is controlled by the Barzani family.
- Turkey accused of chemical weapons attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan
27 April 2021|Morning Star
Turkey has used chemical weapons three times in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq in the past three days, a senior Kurdish official told the Morning Star today. Kurdistan Communities Union spokesman Zagros Hiwa claimed that chemicals had been used during Turkish bombing of the Amedi district, in the mountainous region of Duhok, which borders Turkey.
- Pro-Kurdish HDP urges Turkey to face up to Armenian Genocide
Apr 24 2021|Ahval
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP released a statement on the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, urging Turkey to confront the genocide, Arti Gercek news site reported. “Turkey has to face up to the Armenian Genocide,” the HDP statement said, adding that “the great crime went unpunished, discrimination and hate crimes have thus became commonplace”.
- HDP calls for international solidarity ahead of most important trial in modern Turkish history
23 April 2021|Morning Star
Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party has called for international solidarity before a trial which has been described as the most important in modern Turkish history opens on Monday. The HDP, whose 55 MPs make it the third-largest force in the Turkish parliament, is under serious pressure, with 108 leading figures, including former co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, facing life imprisonment on a number of charges.
- Turkey and allied Syrian forces building settlement on Kurdish land in Afrin: locals
7 April 2021|Rudaw
Turkey and forces it backs in Syria are building a settlement for Arabs and Turks in the northern district of Afrin, local sources have told Rudaw. “Dozens of trees were bulldozed on land belonging to the village of Hajj Hasanah, north of the city of Jindires, the land was leveled, and settlement work began on it,” another local source in his 40s from the area said. By the time Ankara had seized control of Afrin city, following its invasion of northeast Syria, some 150,000 people were displaced from their homes, most of them Kurds, who fled to Kurdish-controlled areas in northeast Syria known as Rojava.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/070420211
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Selahattin Demirtaş: the trial of the man who wanted to be Turkey’s president
5 May 2021|Open Democracy
For more than four years, Selahattin Demirtaş, the writer and former co-chair of Turkey’s People’s Democratic Party, who in 2014 and 2018 ran in the country’s presidential elections, has been held in pre-trial detention on multiple terror-related charges. In December last year, the European Court of Human Rights found his detention to be unlawful and ordered his release. On 6 May, he will face his next hearing.
- Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman Dream: Major Threat due to New Military Occupation Operation in South Kurdistan
4 May 2021| Kurdistan National Congress via Peace in Kurdistan
We publish a new report from the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) about Turkish state expansionism in the region and the war against the Kurds, published May 2021.
- Turkey Bans Largest Left-Wing Party
29 April 2021| Sarah Parker and Phil Hearse, Peace in Kurdistan
Turkey’s leading left-wing formation, the Kurdish-led People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest party in parliament, was shut down March 17 by the Turkish Constitutional Court, doubtless under instruction from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. At the same time, in an attempt to decapitate the party, 687 of its leaders were formally banned from holding public office for five years, including many who are among the thousands of party supporters already in jail.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/turkey-bans-largest-left-wing-party/
- Assessment of Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Iraq by Asos Hoshman
30 April 2021|Peace in Kurdistan
This report assesses Turkey’s foreign policy in Iraq, especially in relation to the current political developments. It mainly considers the period during which the Justice and Development Party’s held power in Turkey and its state policy abroad, especially in the Kurdish regions in the north of Iraq. Particular focus is paid to the recent diplomatic relations and intelligence exchanges between Turkey and Iraq. The report also pays specific attention to Turkey’s further attacks on Iraqi territory justified through the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Mount Qandil, the role of the KRG, the KDP and the Barzani family
- KCDK-E: Turkish invasion takes place with Western approval
24 April 2021|ANF English
The Turkish army launched an air and ground operation in the guerrilla areas of Metina and Avashin last night, and the area of operations was expanded to the Zap region today. The Kurdish Democratic Social Congress Europe said in a statement that Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) is actually being coordinated with the United States and Europe.
https://anfenglish.com/news/kcdk-e-turkish-invasion-takes-place-with-western-approval-51564
- (Video) Duran Kalkan says the “European Union blocks a solution in Turkey”
23 April 2021|ANF English
PKK Executive Committee member Duran Kalkan spoke about a number of issues in a new interview, posted on the eve of the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. “The European Union blocks a solution in Turkey. It keeps the genocidal, fascist policy in Turkey on its feet”, Kalkan contends.
- Banning the pro-Kurdish HDP in Turkey is a move towards fascism
21 April 2021|Open Democracy
On 17 March, a top prosecutor filed a case with Turkey’s Constitutional Court demanding the closure of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, as well as a five-year political ban on more than 600 party members. Around the same time, HDP parliamentarian and prominent human rights advocate Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was forcibly removed from parliament, and later detained. These proceedings came just weeks after Turkey’s failed military operations in northern Iraq against the PKK and the arrest of more than 700 members and supporters of the HDP in a single day on dubious charges of “terrorism”.
STATEMENTS
- The Guerrilla Defends all of Kurdistan – KCK Statement
5 May 2021|Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) via Peace in Kurdistan
The genocidal, fascist AKP-MHP government has been carrying out an occupation attack against the Medya Defense Zones for 13 days now. Its goal is to crush the Kurdish Freedom Movement and finalize its policy of genocide. The HPG and YJA STAR guerrillas are putting up a historic resistance against this genocidal and fascist attack.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/the-guerrilla-defends-all-of-kurdistan-kck-statement/
- Celebrate May Day 2021 – PIK Statement
30 April 2021|Peace in Kurdistan
Peace in Kurdistan celebrates May Day as International Workers’ Day. Let us remember that when workers in Chicago peacefully assembled in Chicago in May 1886 to demand an eight-hour working day they were attacked by police and there ensued the Haymarket massacre. May Day symbolises and demonstrates the importance of struggle by the working masses for social advance.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/celebrate-may-day-2021-pik-statement/
- The Armenian National Committee – International Condemns the Turkish Government’s Persecution of the HDP
26 April 2021| Lragir.am
“Turkey is pushing ahead with a trial against opposition lawmakers despite an international outcry. Today, the trial of 108 politicians has started in turkey”, the statement says in part. “It is with dismay that we observe recent developments in Turkey involving systematic repression against elected politicians, and politically motivated cases against the HDP”.
https://www.lragir.am/en/2021/04/26/77983
- Women send open letter of support to the HDP in Turkey
24 April 2021|Peace in Kurdistan
Baroness Christine Blower reads out a letter drafted in support of Turkey’s now-banned People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/women-send-open-letter-of-support-to-the-hdp-in-turkey/
- European politicians call for solidarity with HDP ahead of Kobanî trial
22 April 2021|Bianet
Political party leaders from Europe and Members of the European Parliament have released a joint statement and made a call for solidarity with the Peoples’ Democratic Party ahead of the first hearing of the Kobanî trial scheduled for April 26.
- Statement from Jeremy Corbyn MP – The Functioning of Democratic Institutions of Turkey
22 April 2021|Jeremy Corbyn via Peace in Kurdistan
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP sent a letter to the Council of Europe to contribute to its debate regarding the situation in Turkey. “The role of the Council of Europe is to monitor human rights across all our member states. Monitoring is not an attack on an individual country, but it is a very important and responsible role that we must fulfil”, Corbyn writes before setting out a number of issues he is “very concerned” about.
- On the high-level meeting between the EU leaders and Erdoğan
7 April 2021|Peoples’ Democratic Part (HDP)
Foreign Affairs Spokespersons for the HDP put out a statement amid high-level talks between the EU and Turkey. “We have provided regular information to the international community about the policies of the Turkish government that have been undermining universal democratic values and human rights in Turkey since 2015”, the statement notes.
https://www.hdp.org.tr/en/on-the-high-level-meeting-between-the-eu-leaders-and-erdogan/15303/
BOOKS
- Book review by Julie Ward of Struggle for Survival Under Authoritarianism in Turkey by Burcu Yasemin Şeyben
4 May 2021| Julie Ward via Peace in Kurdistan
Everything in the book pivots to the 2013 Gezi Park protests as the major ignition point between the state and the citizenry, with performative practice and theatre makers at the heart of the stand-off. Having engaged with the initial stages of EU accession as part of its neo-liberal agenda the government was reluctant to address the demands of the bloc regarding fundamental rights of equality and democracy, and the main legacy of the ECOC was crass urban regeneration and rampant gentrification which excluded a burgeoning grassroots cultural movement.
MULTIMEDIA
- (Video) Mehmet Ali Birand Lecture 2021 – Eren Keskin
3 May 2021| Mehmet Ali Birand Lecture via Peace in Kurdistan
The annual Mehmet Ali Birand Lecture, organized since 2014 by Turkey’s Platform for Independent Journalism (Punto24) on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day. This year’s lecture will be delivered by Eren Keskin, lawyer, co-chair of the Human Rights Association and an indomitable defender of press freedom and freedom of expression in Turkey.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/video-mehmet-ali-birand-lecture-2021-eren-keskin/
- (Video) Iida Käyhkö: We should support HDP and democracy in Turkey
26 April 2021|Peace in Kurdistan
Iida Käyhkö is doing a PhD on security and criminalization and she is also solidarity activist with the Kurdish freedom movement and an organiser with feminist and anti-repression groups. Käyhkö discusses the Kobani Trial of 108 people, including HDP’s arrested former Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, forced closure of the HDP as well as Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/iida-kayhko-we-should-support-hdp-and-democracy-in-turkey/
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, 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, 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.