NEWS
1. 177 page long indictment against DBP’s Tuncel tells PKK’s history
2. 43 more villages placed under curfew in Amed countryside
3. Letter from Gebze Prison: We are under torture!
4. Turkey: Kurdish Activist Arrested for Social Media Posts on Armenian Genocide
5. European politicians blocked, have their passports seized in Sur
6. KCK: Everyone should stand with Sur’s people against demolition
7. Kurds condemn UK terrorist attack
8. YPG accuses Turkey of intensifying attacks on Kurdish areas north Syria
9. Syrian Kurds seek alliance with Baghdad to end isolation
10. Turkey Recruits Thousands of Free Syrian Army Rebels to Fight Kurds
11. Pro-Kurdish HDP resents US support of Turkey
12. Defending Turks’ Free Speech A Top Priority For UCU
13. Award-winning novelist says Turkey turned into a concentration camp
14. Turkish family kept at Kiev airport for days at Turkey’s request
15. Kurdish militants kill five Turkish security force members: military
16. Mourning, fear after death of Iraqi Kurdish opposition leader
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Turkish mothers take up civil disobedience
2. Turkey making itself at home in Syria
3. We Can’t Let Britain Become a Vast ISIS Recruiting Station
4. Guns and bullets and nothing more: the Syrian Kurds fighting ISIS
5. Introducing this week’s theme: New Turkey and Old Troubles
6. A Doctor’s Trial in a Turkish Border Town
7. Barzani’s refusal to step down created the political crisis in Kurdistan: Gunter
8. Noam Chomsky in Conversation with Amy Goodman on Climate Change, Nukes, Syria, WikiLeaks & More
EVENTS
1. Who’s Beating Back ISIS in Syria?
2. Kurds to Lay Flowers for Massacre Victims & Show Solidarity with the People of Manchester
3. International Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression.
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NEWS
1. 177 page long indictment against DBP’s Tuncel tells PKK’s history
30 May/ANF News
The 177 page long indictment prepared for Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-chair Sebahat Tuncel 7 months after her arrest includes a 115 page long section on the history of the PKK, and the rest is attempts to criminalize Tuncel’s activity within the DBP and her statements.
https://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/177-page-long-indictment-against-dbp-s-tuncel-tells-pkk-s-history-20234
2. 43 more villages placed under curfew in Amed countryside
30 May/ANF News
43 more villages have been placed under curfew in Amed’s Lice, Dicle, Hani and Kocaköy districts where a curfew was declared in 59 villages the day before amid an ongoing extensive operation by the Turkish army.
https://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/43-more-villages-placed-under-curfew-in-amed-countryside-20229
3. Letter from Gebze Prison: We are under torture!
30 May/ANF News
Strict pressure and torture in Gebze Type M Women’s Prison has taken a systemic form. The detainees are tortured in the place called “the under door”, under the guise of searches. Inmate Evrim Konak sent a letter from the prison telling her experiences.
https://anfenglish.com/human-rights/letter-from-gebze-prison-we-are-under-torture-20237
4. Turkey: Kurdish Activist Arrested for Social Media Posts on Armenian Genocide
30 May/ANF News
MMukaddes Alataş, a Kurdish human rights activist from Diyarbakir, was recently arrested for “being a member of a terror organization.” Her crime? She posted about the Armenian Genocide on social media and engaged in women’s rights activism.
http://armenianweekly.com/2017/05/30/mukaddes-alatas-arrested/
5. European politicians blocked, have their passports seized in Sur
28 May/ANF News
Police forces blocked a group of European politicians that came to Amed’s Sur district for solidarity with residents amid ongoing demolition.
https://anfenglish.com/news/european-politicians-blocked-have-their-passports-seized-in-sur-20212
6. KCK: Everyone should stand with Sur’s people against demolition
29 May/ANF News
Describing Sur as the soul of Amed, KCK called on everyone to support the resistance of Sur’s people against the Turkish state’s demolition.
https://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/kck-everyone-should-stand-with-the-people-of-sur-against-demolit-20222
7. Kurds condemn UK terrorist attack
24 May/ARA News
The Foreign Affairs Commission of the Cezire canton of the democratic self-administration in Rojava-Northern Syria on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attack in the UK that killed over 19 people. The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq (KRG) also condemned the terrorist attack.
http://aranews.net/2017/05/kurds-condemn-uk-terrorist-attack/
8. YPG accuses Turkey of intensifying attacks on Kurdish areas north Syria
29 May/ARA News
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said today that the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels continue to attack YPG positions near Kobane and Afrin.
http://aranews.net/2017/05/ypg-accuses-turkey-of-intensifying-attacks-on-kurdish-areas-north-syria/
9. Syrian Kurds seek alliance with Baghdad to end isolation
24 May/Middle East Eye
PYD party says it wants to work with Iraq’s armed forces to open a cross-border corridor to break ’embargo’ by Iraqi Kurdistan
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-kurds-hope-open-trade-corridor-baghdad-break-embargo-1010691368
10. Turkey Recruits Thousands of Free Syrian Army Rebels to Fight Kurds
25 May/Sputnik News
Turkey has ostensibly spent three months training a large rebel force planning to deploy them against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) told Sputnik Turkey on condition of anonymity.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201705241053924512-turkey-recruits-rebels-kurds/
11. Pro-Kurdish HDP resents US support of Turkey
28 May/Kurdistan 24
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) recently called on the United States to revise its Turkey policy, particularly concerning the Kurds.
Deputy Co-leader of the HDP in charge of foreign affairs Hisyar Ozsoy on Thursday praised the US ties with the Kurds in Iraq and Syria mainly thanks to the war against the Islamic State (IS) but resented American support for the Turkish government.
http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/9036533b-42ff-4df1-ad4c-6f7bdc1d84cf
12. Defending Turks’ Free Speech A Top Priority For UCU
29 May/Morning Star
FREEDOM of speech must be defended, lecturers’ union UCU delegates heard yesterday as they vowed to prioritise solidarity with Turkish academics as “a major campaign.”
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-d783-Defending-Turks-free-speech-a-top-priority-for-UCU
13. Award-winning novelist says Turkey turned into a concentration camp
27 May/Turkey Purge
Internationally acclaimed Turkish author and human right activist, Aslı Erdoğan said she sees parallels between today’s Turkey and the Germany during Nazi rule, adding that the country was turned into a concentration camp in the face of post-coup arrest waves.
https://turkeypurge.com/award-winning-turkish-novelist-says-turkey-turned-into-a-concentration-camp
14. Turkish family kept at Kiev airport for days at Turkey’s request
28 May/Turkey Purge
A Turkish family that was reportedly detained by Ukrainian authorities on Thursday, have been kept in a room at Kiev Boryspil Airport for three days, waiting to be deported to Turkey, according to a video recording the family members posted on social media.
https://turkeypurge.com/turkish-family-kept-at-kiev-airport-for-days-at-turkeys-request
15. Kurdish militants kill five Turkish security force members: military
25 May/Reuters
Four Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in two separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in eastern Turkey, the Turkish military said on Thursday. Three Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in a clash that broke out between PKK militants and security forces in the Caldiran district of Van province, the army statement said. It said four soldiers were also wounded in the clashes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-kurds-idUSKBN18L12A
16. Mourning, fear after death of Iraqi Kurdish opposition leader
18 May/Middle East Eye
The death of veteran political leader Nawshirwan Mustafa leaves questions about the future of opposition politics in Iraqi Kurdistan
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/mourning-and-concern-iraqi-kurdish-opposition-leader-dies-following-illness-598984594
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. Turkish mothers take up civil disobedience
26 May/Al Monitor
On May 22, Turkish social media was rocked by a picture of a woman being kicked and dragged on the street by police officers. The woman was the mother of scholar Veli Sacilik, who was standing in solidarity with Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/turkey-mothers-of-activists-head-to-civil-disobedience.html?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=20170530&bt_ee=BUuD+qJRv6+smJGtYuQKQpLKNEs7jhWMUC/0J+4/uL96sjNcyyplwXqnp1pyULUK&bt_ts=1496161410910
2. Turkey making itself at home in Syria
29 May/Al Monitor
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favorite slogan when defending Operation Euphrates Shield and other cross-border actions in Syria is, “If you are not in the field, then you will be on the menu.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/turkey-syria-ankara-set-up-state-structure-northern-parts.html
3. We Can’t Let Britain Become a Vast ISIS Recruiting Station
30 May/CounterPunch
The massacre in Manchester is a horrific event born out of the violence raging in a vast area stretching from Pakistan to Nigeria and Syria to South Sudan. Britain is on the outer periphery of this cauldron of war, but it would be surprising if we were not hit by sparks thrown up by these savage conflicts.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/30/we-cant-britainbecome-a-vast-isis-recruiting-station/
4. Guns and bullets and nothing more: the Syrian Kurds fighting ISIS
30 May/New Statesman
A sense of a betrayal pervaded the funeral, giving an angry edge to the mourners’ grief. The Kurds were used to the Turks killing their people. It was almost expected. What was different in their attitude to the killing of the 14 men and women buried that hot afternoon in the cemetery at Derik, among 20 fighters killed by Turkish air strikes just three days earlier, was that it had occurred under the watchful auspices of the Syrian Kurds’ big ally: America.
http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2017/05/guns-and-bullets-and-nothing-more-syrian-kurds-fighting-isis
5. Introducing this week’s theme: New Turkey and Old Troubles
26 May/Open Democracy
On April 16, 2017, Turkey endured one of its most problematic referendums in its history, not so much a new beginning as an important turning point in Turkish history. This week we explore its implications and effects.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/mehmet-kurt/introducing-this-weeks-theme-new-turkey-and-old-troubles
6. A Doctor’s Trial in a Turkish Border Town
29 May/New York Times
On April 24, 2017, Serdar Kuni, a 45-year-old Kurdish doctor accused of providing medical aid to Kurdish rebels, stood in a courtroom in Sirnak in southeastern Turkey <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/turkey/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> . The courtroom overlooked buildings reduced to rubble and a deserted mosque with broken windows. Police posts, circled with barbed wire fences, had sprung up every few hundred yards.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/opinion/a-doctors-trial-in-a-turkish-border-town.html?_r=0
7. Barzani’s refusal to step down created the political crisis in Kurdistan: Gunter
25 May/Ekurd Daily
A professor from the American University of Tennessee, Michael Gunter said on Wednesday that Massoud Barzani’s opposition to step down from his position as Iraq’s Kurdistan Region President has resulted in the continued political crisis in the region.
http://ekurd.net/barzani-refusal-step-down-2017-05-25#.WSaFxSbZylA.facebook
8. Noam Chomsky in Conversation with Amy Goodman on Climate Change, Nukes, Syria, WikiLeaks & More
29 May/Democracy Now
In this Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with the world-renowned linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/29/noam_chomsky_in_conversation_with_amy?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=0ab703e92a-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-0ab703e92a-190239665
EVENTS
1. Who’s Beating Back ISIS in Syria?
The event is on Wednesday 12th July, 7:30pm, at David’s Bookshop, Eastcheap, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 3DE. £3 entry.
www.davids-bookshops.co.uk
2. Kurds to Lay Flowers for Massacre Victims & Show Solidarity with the People of Manchester
http://kurdistantribune.com/kurds-to-lay-flowers-for-massacre-victims-show-solidarity-with-the-people-of-manchester/
3. International Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression
22-24 July 2017, Central London
http://www.secularconference.com <http://www.secularconference.com>
http://freethinker.co.uk/2017/05/10/celebrating-apostasy-and-blasphemy-in-london-in-july/
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: Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Julie Ward MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Kate Osamor MP, Elfyn Llwyd, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, John Austin, Christine Blower, NUT International Secretary, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, General Federations of Trade Unions, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, James Kelman, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Mark Thomas, Nick Hildyard, Stephen Smellie, Derek Wall, Melanie Gingell, Steve Sweeney