NEWS
- Baluken: European officials attach importance to Öcalan’s message
- Muslim: Kobanê resistance a basis for federal system and future of Syria
- KCK’s Bayık: Peace and solution only possible through struggle
- PEN Int’l Vice President: PKK should be removed from the terror list
- Syria war: Kurds stand ‘at the crossroads’ of the region’s long term hopes for peace
- Syrian Kurds, allies to approve federal plan despite Turkey
- WE ARE TRYING TO PREVENT FURTHER CHAOS IN TURKEY
- Ankara Suspicious About Washington’s ‘Federalization’ Plan in Syria
- Government-appointed trustee removes Kurdish signboard on municipality in Turkey
- American member of YPG: Turkey’s intervention in Syria aimed at impeding our advance against ISIS
- Senior US official: Kurds are part of Syria’s ceasefire agreement
- US: Syrian truce applies to Turks, Kurds
- Kurds reject Syrian opposition’s transition plan
- Turkey to continue bitter war with Kurds despite peace calls: experts
- Massive Kurdish Rally Demands Ocalan’s Release
- KURDISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Imagine a feminist village of the future
- Kurdish Factor ‘Key to the Success of the Syrian Ceasefire’
- Patrick Cockburn: The superpower deal on Syria is a plan for war as well as peace
- TURKEY’S KURDISH RED LINE IN SYRIA AND THE FIGHT AGAINST ISIL
- The BBC is smearing anti-ISIS fighters as ‘terrorists’ to please Turkey [OPINION]
- Repression of Turkish intellectuals elicits a global response
- Turkey has detained a prominent novelist. We unite to say this vendetta must end
- World academics, authors rally to Altans’ support
- Analysing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
CAMPAIGNS, ACTION
- URGENT APPEAL: We, intellectuals, writers, artists, politicians and human rights defenders, seek to draw urgent attention to the Turkish state’s invasion in Northern Syria and Rojava
- PRESS CONFERENCE: HOW much longer will BELGIUM support ERDOGAN?
- Emergency motion speech at TUC Conference on Kurdish Question
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NEWS
- Baluken: European officials attach importance to Öcalan’s message
16 September 2016 / ANF News
HDP Group Deputy Chairperson and İmralı Committee Member İdris Baluken held a series of meetings in the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Parliament (EP).
Baluken spoke to ANF and said that the isolation of the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan was discussed in the meetings.
http://anfenglish.com/news/baluken-european-officials-attach-importance-to-ocalan-s-message
- Muslim: Kobanê resistance a basis for federal system and future of Syria
15 September 2016 / ANF News
Speaking to Hawar News Agency (ANHA), Rojava’s Kobanê Canton Executive Assembly Co-President Enwer Muslim remarked that the people of Kobanê formed their own institutions and started to rule themselves in the wake of the July 19 Revolution.
- KCK’s Bayık: Peace and solution only possible through struggle
15 September 2016 / ANF News
KCK Executive Council Co-president Cemil Bayık said the following in the article he wrote for the Azadiya Welat and Yeni Özgür Politika newspapers, which was translated by ANF English service below:
“We don’t remember another fascist leader in world history who openly admits to his cruelty like Tayyip Erdoğan. Tayyip Erdoğan now says he will end the Kurdish people, with no need for any covers. Some Kurdish cohorts may wish to cover up Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascist face, but Tayyip Erdoğan tears through those covers. He says he will end the Kurd. He says there can be no nation, no political will, no administration on these lands except for the Turk. Talking of the “One” every day, he displays his mindset by saying he will not recognize the Kurd, the Kurdistan and the political will of the Kurds. They all say they will continue this war until the last guerilla is gone.
http://anfenglish.com/features/kck-s-bayik-peace-and-solution-only-possible-through-struggle
- PEN Int’l Vice President: PKK should be removed from the terror list
15 September 2016 / ANF News
A seminar titled “Which direction is Turkey going?” was held in the Freedom of Expression Building in Norwegian capital Oslo. The seminar was organised by Norwegian Editors Association, Journalists Society, Press Union, University of Oslo, Publishers Union and Freedom of Expression and PEN Norway. PEN International Vice President Eugene Schoulgin attended the seminar as a speaker while the speakers from Turkey were Freedom of Thought and Expression Initiative Spokesperson Şaner Yurdatapan and journalist Ragıp Zarakolu.
http://anfenglish.com/news/pen-int-l-vice-president-pkk-should-be-removed-from-the-terror-list
- Syria war: Kurds stand ‘at the crossroads’ of the region’s long term hopes for peace
15 Septmber 2016 / Independent
Syrians are cautiously enjoying a period of relative calm this week thanks to the US and Russian-brokered ceasefire.
The agreement between several rebel groups and the Syrian government came into effect at sundown on Monday, timed to coincide with the beginning of the Eid-al-Adha festival. While several infringements have been reported, no civilians are thought to have lost their lives in the first 48 hours.
- Syrian Kurds, allies to approve federal plan despite Turkey
8 Septmber 2016 / Reuters
Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies will approve a constitution for a new system of government in northern Syria next month, a top Kurdish politician said, defying a Turkish incursion aimed at curbing Kurdish influence in the area.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-idUSKCN11E1I4
- WE ARE TRYING TO PREVENT FURTHER CHAOS IN TURKEY
15 Septmber 2016 / Newsweek Europe
When Newsweek asked for my evaluation on the Turkish government’s legal proceedings against me after my 2015 speech, in which I stated my support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD)—who fight the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) on a daily basis—the ISIS suicide attack on a wedding in Gaziantep in Turkey’s southeast had not yet taken place. The Turkish government had not yet ventured into Syria. Above all, we weren’t this close to an even-wider regional war and a civil war in Turkey.
http://europe.newsweek.com/we-are-trying-prevent-further-chaos-turkey-498819?rm=eu
- Ankara Suspicious About Washington’s ‘Federalization’ Plan in Syria
14 September 2016 / Sputnik News
The US-Turkish relationship is bursting at the seams, as Washington continues to walk a tightrope between its Kurdish and Turkish allies in Syria. To complicate matters further, Ankara suspects Washington of harboring a plan to create a Kurdish autonomous entity in northern Syria.
https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160914/1045310218/turkey-us-syria-kurds-enclave.html
- Government-appointed trustee removes Kurdish signboard on municipality in Turkey
12 September 2016 / Kurdistan 24
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – In Turkey, a government-appointed trustee who on Sunday replaced an elected mayor in the town of Giyadin (Diyadin) removed the Kurdish signboard of the town’s municipality he now runs, leaving only the Turkish name.
- American member of YPG: Turkey’s intervention in Syria aimed at impeding our advance against ISIS
6 September 2016 / ARA News
- Senior US official: Kurds are part of Syria’s ceasefire agreement
14 September 2016 / ARA News
A senior US official on Wednesday said that the Kurds are part of the cessation of hostilities in Syria and should not be attacked, and are present near the key Castello Road in Aleppo.
http://aranews.net/2016/09/senior-us-official-kurds-part-syrias-ceasefire-agreement/
- US: Syrian truce applies to Turks, Kurds
13 September 2016 / K24
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The United States Department of State said the Russo-American ceasefire plan for Syria that began at sundown on Monday applies to Kurdish forces and the Turkish army.
- Kurds reject Syrian opposition’s transition plan
14 Septmber 2016 / ARA News
Syrian Kurds were angered by the recent transition plan, proposed by the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, as the plan does not envision any form of federalism in post-war Syria.
http://aranews.net/2016/09/kurds-reject-syrian-oppositions-transition-plan/
- Turkey to continue bitter war with Kurds despite peace calls: experts
14 September 2016 / ARA News
Experts suggest that the Turkish government will not listen to the new calls for peace by the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Mehmet Ocalan, the brother of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocala, visited the imprisoned leader on Sunday. Family members were not allowed to visit the Kurdish leader for over two years.
http://aranews.net/2016/09/turkey-continue-bitter-war-kurds-despite-peace-calls-experts/
- Massive Kurdish Rally Demands Ocalan’s Release
5 September 2016 / The Morning Star
TENS of thousands of Kurds from across Germany and Europe rallied in Cologne on Saturday demanding freedom for jailed liberation fighter Abdullah Ocalan.
More than 1,000 police were drafted in after organisers were prevented from using the local football stadium, the site of previous years’ events.
- KURDISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL
3 September 2016 / Venitism
The festival, which was held in 1992 for the first time, has been held in various German cities since. The festival was not allowed in 1995 due to the PKK ban in Germany.
Previously organised by YEK-KOM, the festival is organised by Navenda Civaka Demokratîk a Kurdên li Almanya – Democratic Kurdish Society Center in Germany (NAV-DEM) since 2014.
https://venitism.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/kurdish-cultural-festival/
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Imagine a feminist village of the future
11 September 2016 / Open Democracy
On the last day of the AWID International Forum in Brazil, more than two thousand women came together to help imagine a feminist future, and to look at the hard realities of getting there.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rahila-gupta/imagine-feminist-village?utm_s
- Kurdish Factor ‘Key to the Success of the Syrian Ceasefire’
13 September 2016 / Sputnik News
On Monday, the Russian-US sponsored ceasefire in Syria officially stepped into force. Asked to comment on the chances that the Lavrov-Kerry ceasefire plan has for turning into a comprehensive settlement, experts speaking to one of Russia’s leading independent online newspapers explained that ultimately, much will depend on the Kurdish wildcard.
https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160913/1045273559/syria-ceasefire-kurdish-factor-analysis.html
- Patrick Cockburn: The superpower deal on Syria is a plan for war as well as peace
12 September 2016 / Evening Standard
The agreement between the US and Russia on a ceasefire in Syria to begin at sunset this evening may work because these two powers are the heavy hitters in the Syrian conflict. They are powerful enough to get their allies and proxies to go along with the deal under which there will be a seven-day truce during which UN aid convoys will enter besieged areas.
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/patrick-cockburn-the-superpower-deal-on-syria-is-a-plan-for-war-as-well-as-peace-a3342906.html
- TURKEY’S KURDISH RED LINE IN SYRIA AND THE FIGHT AGAINST ISIL
14 September 2016 / War On The Rocks
Turkey’s military intervention in northern Syria (Operation Euphrates Shield) has raised both hopes and concerns about defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). While some regard it as a positive turning point in the anti-ISIL fight, particularly after Turkish and Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces quickly expelled ISIL from the strategically important border town of Jarablus, others see the incursion as a further setback. Turkish attacks on the U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Forces (YPG) — the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an affiliate of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the most effective anti-ISIL force in Syria — may leave Washington trapped between allies fighting each other in Syria. Underlying these scenarios are assumptions that Ankara has fundamentally changed its strategy, that Syrian Kurds are vital to defeating ISIL, and that a portending U.S. “betrayal of the Kurds” will undermine their will to fight and the effectiveness of the campaign.
http://warontherocks.com/2016/09/turkeys-kurdish-red-line-in-syria-and-the-fight-against-isil/
- The BBC is smearing anti-ISIS fighters as ‘terrorists’ to please Turkey
14 September 2016 / The Canary
It may have been just lazy journalism, but a BBC Radio 4 news update stated how Turkey was now determined to beat both Daesh (Isis/Isil) and YPG “terrorists”. No qualification or caveat was added to that statement, in spite of the fact that the Kurdish-led YPG has been at the forefront of the fight against Daesh. It was just left like that.
- Repression of Turkish intellectuals elicits a global response
15 September 2016 / Al Monitor
Religious holidays were seen as opportunities to heal social wounds and settle disputes. But nowadays that practice appears to further deepen existing political and ideological fissures while enabling millions of Turks to hit the roads for short holidays.
- Turkey has detained a prominent novelist. We unite to say this vendetta must end
11 September 2016 / The Guardian
We the undersigned call upon democrats throughout the world, as well as those who care about the future of Turkey and the region in which it exerts a leading role, to protest the vendetta the government is waging against its brightest thinkers and writers who may not share their point of view.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/11/turkey-coup-ahmet-altan-mehmet
- World academics, authors rally to Altans’ support
11 September 2016 / Platform 24
The recent detention of Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and other Turkish journalists and writers has produced a wave of international outrage and concern. Within 24 hours of the Altans’ being taken off by the police, 54 leading writers, academics and publishers from all corners of the world put their name to a letter in protest. Well known novelists such as Elena Ferrante or Peter Carey, Nobel laureates JM Coetzee and Orhan Pamuk, leading academics like John Berger or Adam Hochschild and famous human rights QC Philippe Sands, all volunteered their support.
http://platform24.org/en/articles/396/world-academics–authors-rally-to-altans–support
- Analysing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
26 August 2016 / International Viewpoint
In the wake of the failed military coup in Turkey, and the massive wave of state repression that has followed, building solidarity with the progressive resistance in Turkey and Kurdistan is even more vital. The attention of socialists and democrats worldwide will be turned towards the reactionary mobilisation that the ruling AKP has unleashed. This will put the HDP (Peoples Democratic Party) and the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) centre stage.
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article4673
CAMPAIGNS, ACTION
- URGENT APPEAL: We, intellectuals, writers, artists, politicians and human rights defenders, seek to draw urgent attention to the Turkish state’s invasion in Northern Syria and Rojava
15 September 2016 / Kurdistan National Congress
The Turkish army invaded the Northern Syrian City of Jarablus on 24 August 2016, using anti-ISIS operations as a pretext. The operation was in collaboration with the Syrian arm of El-Qaida (Jabhat Fatah al-Sham) and groups like Ahrar El-Sham.
ISIS handed over the city, Jarablus, without a single bullet being fired. This is a clear indication that there was a prior agreement between the parties that Jarablus would remain as a base for Salafi groups. Therefore, Jarablus will remain as a corridor for foreign fighters to cross into Syria to receive training and then to cross back over in order to be distributed throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
- PRESS CONFERENCE: HOW much longer will BELGIUM support ERDOGAN?
14 September 2016 / Kurdistan National Congress
For A Press Conference
About a Lawsuit against 33 Kurds
Date: 19th September
Place: in front of The Palace of Justice Brussels
Place Poelaert 1, 1000 Brussels
Time: 11.00
33 Kurdish activists are currently being prosecuted by Belgian courts. They are accused of participating in terrorist activities, but in reality all of them have been engaged in peaceful and democratic activities in Belgium, an EU member state.
http://www.kongrakurdistan.net/en/invitation-how-much-longer-will-belgium-support-erdogan/
- Emergency motion speech at TUC Conference on Kurdish Question
16 September/TUC Live Video
Chair, conference, Unite the Union moving emergency motion on Turkey and solidarity with the Kurdish population.
Colleagues it’s absolutely right that various unions have come together to submit this motion to conference.
Anyone with even one eye on the news will have seen the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Turkey and the slide towards a violent and authoritarian regime.
While this has been going on the wider world has kept disgracefully quiet, in the hope that if they say nothing then President Erodgan will stick to the deal and keep the refugees from Syria in Turkey and stop them disturbing us here in Europe.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/congress/congress-2016/emergency-and-composite-motions/emergency-motion-e7-turkey-and
http://unitelive.org/vital-for-world-democracy/
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: [estella24@tiscali.co.uk]estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Gingell – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Patrons: Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Kate Osamor MP, Elfyn Llwyd, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, John Austin, Christine Blower, NUT International Secretary, Simon Dubbins. UNITE International Director Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Mark Thomas, Nick Hildyard, Stephen Smellie, Derek Wall, Melanie Gingell