KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 4 – 10 June 2016
NEWS
- Western-backed SDF troops impose siege on ISIS in Manbij
- IS disguised as Kurdish fighters killed 37 Syrian civilians
- Bayık: Erdoğan is bringing himself and Turkey to an end
- MEPs Slam Erdogan’s Grab for Power as EU-Turkey Migrant Deal Falters
- Turkey’s immunity bill aimed at excluding HDP from politics, party says
- Turkey’s Erdoğan signs bill lifting 152 lawmakers’ immunity, paves way for 799 cases
- On the Ratification of Parliamentary Immunity Bill in Turkey
- Turkey’s President Erdogan Calls Women Who Work ‘Half Persons’
- A year on, Turkey’s Kurdish opposition fights for survival in parliament
- International Appeal : Forced Disappearance of DBP Executive in Police Custody
- Kobane: Iraqi Kurdistan’s Counter-Terrorism director calls for opening border with Rojava
- PYD to Be Included in Upcoming Round of Geneva Talks
- EXCLUSIVE – ‘Child slaves’ making uniforms for Isis: Inside the Turkish sweatshop where children as young as nine work 12 hours a day stitching combat gear used in battle by Islamic State
- Former US soldier visits Syria’s Kurdish region, calling for support to people displaced by war against ISIS
- Number of tourists visiting Turkey drops lowest since 1999 in April
- PEN calls for unconditional release of Kaboudvand
OPINION, ANALYSIS, COMMENTARY
- Confederal Kurdistan: the “commune of communes”
- Regaining hope in Rojava
- Kurds mount determined resistance
- Will Turkey’s military might be overshadowed by political failures?
- The Legacy of the Obama Administration: An Interview With Noam Chomsky
REPORT
- Iraqi Kurdistan: New GCHR report says women human rights defenders challenging violence
EVENT
- Public Forum ‘Regime Change in Turkey: Kurdish Politics and Foreign Policy’
Friday, 10 June 2016
NEWS
- Western-backed SDF troops impose siege on ISIS in Manbij
8 June 2016 / ARA News
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday imposed a siege on the ISIS-held city of Manbij from three directions, after recapturing dozens of villages and farms in the vicinity of the city north of Syria’s Aleppo province.
http://aranews.net/2016/06/kurdish-led-sdf-imposes-siege-isis-manbij/
- IS disguised as Kurdish fighters killed 37 Syrian civilians
9 June 2016 / Kurdistan 24
MANBIJ, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) – On Thursday, insurgents of the Islamic State (IS) disguised as Kurdish fighters infiltrated a village in the vicinity of the northern Syrian towns of Manbij and Jarabulus.
- Bayık: Erdoğan is bringing himself and Turkey to an end
9 June 2016 / ANF News
KCK Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık wrote the following in a Kurdish article published in Yeni Özgür Politika and Azadiya Welat newspapers, translated below by ANF English service.
“The partisan press and the AKP officials, especially president Tayyip Erdoğan, speak of the fatherland and the nation every time they open their mouths. As if some entity is out to steal their fatherland off of Turks, and they were waging a holy defense for the fatherland! The world has never seen such immoral reversal of the truth. They burn Kurdish cities to the ground, and at the same time they speak of “some people” wanting to banish Turks.
http://anfenglish.com/news/bayik-erdogan-is-bringing-himself-and-turkey-to-an-end
- MEPs Slam Erdogan’s Grab for Power as EU-Turkey Migrant Deal Falters
9 June 2016 / Sputnik News
The Turkish parliament’s decision to lift the immunity from prosecution of 138 of its members has been heavily criticized by MEPs, who described it as an attempt by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to silence the opposition and grab more powers.
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160609/1041078001/erdogan-eu-parliament-turkey-migrants.html
- Turkey’s immunity bill aimed at excluding HDP from politics, party says
8 June 2016 / Hurriyet Daily News
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement on June 8 that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s approval of a bill paving the way for the lifting of 152 lawmakers’ immunity, was aimed at excluding the Kurdish-issue focused party from politics.
The HDP said the approval, which was published in the Official Gazette on June 8, was “an anti-constitutional arrangement that specifically aims to exclude the HDP and its MPs from the democratic parliamentary process.”
- Turkey’s Erdoğan signs bill lifting 152 lawmakers’ immunity, paves way for 799 cases
9 June 2016 / Hurriyet Daily News
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved a bill late June 7 that will lift lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, paving the way to have the immunities of a score of lawmakers lifted.
The related constitutional amendment was published in the Official Gazette on June 8, opening the way for the trial 152 legislators, amounting to 27.6 percent of the total number of seats.
- On the Ratification of Parliamentary Immunity Bill in Turkey
8 March 2016 / People’s Democratic Party
On June 7th, 2016, President Erdoğan ratified the parliamentary bill to lift the legislative immunity of 138 MPs — an anti-Constitutional arrangement that specifically aims at excluding the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its MPs from the democratic parliamentary process. The law was immediately published in the Official Gazette today; it is in effect as of June 8th.
- Turkey’s President Erdogan Calls Women Who Work ‘Half Persons’
8 June 2016 / NBC News
Women who choose careers over motherhood are trailblazers in some parts of the world. But in Turkey they’re “deficient” — at least according to the nation’s president.
- A year on, Turkey’s Kurdish opposition fights for survival in parliament
8 June 2016 / Reuters
A year after Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition entered parliament as a party for the first time, to great fanfare about a maturing of Turkish democracy, its embattled leader is struggling to save it from banishment to the political wilderness.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-politics-kurds-idUSKCN0YU1XW
- International Appeal : Forced Disappearance of DBP Executive in Police Custody
6 June 2016 / People’s Democratic Party
Not a single day seems to pass without the war which the AKP government has launched against the Kurdish people in its drive to further entrench its hold on power acquires new dimensions.
- Kobane: Iraqi Kurdistan’s Counter-Terrorism director calls for opening border with Rojava
7 June 2016 / ARA News
Lahur Talabani, director of the Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG), affiliated with the Patriotic Union Party (PUK), called on the Iraqi Kurdish government to open its border with Rojava [Syria’s Kurdish region. Talabani’s call came during his visit to Kobane on Monday. “It’s shame for us Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan, that the border is closed,” Talabani said.
- PYD to Be Included in Upcoming Round of Geneva Talks
7 June 2016 / ANHA News
NEWS DESK – A source within the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the largest Kurdish party in Rojava, has confirmed that they will be involved in the next round of negotiations at Geneva.
Speaking to Kurdistan24, Sihanouk Dibo an advisor in the PYD, said they had received a detailed letter from United Nations Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is responsible for resolving the Syria crisis.
http://en.hawarnews.com/pyd-to-be-included-in-upcoming-round-of-geneva-talks/
- EXCLUSIVE – ‘Child slaves’ making uniforms for Isis: Inside the Turkish sweatshop where children as young as nine work 12 hours a day stitching combat gear used in battle by Islamic State
6 June 2016 / Daily Mail
Drawing slowly on his cheap cigarettes, 35-year-old Abu Zakour is hardened as he describes how he employs children as young as nine to stitch the uniforms that end up on the backs of frontline ISIS fighters.
The Syrian boys – and a couple of girls hidden upstairs – are paid a minimum of 40 Turkish lira (£10) a day to stitch, cut and measure out the camouflage material and help their older colleagues piece together the uniforms that get smuggled across the border to rebel groups.
- Former US soldier visits Syria’s Kurdish region, calling for support to people displaced by war against ISIS
9 June 2016 / ARA News
David Eubank, a former US special forces operative and head of the Free Burma Rangers, visited Kobane in a 4-days humanitarian trip to the Kurdish areas of Syria, also known as Rojava. “We are here to love and stand with people regardless of their religion, race or political affiliation,” Eubank told ARA News. He called on the international community to support the people displaced from their areas due to the ongoing military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) group, especially in Manbij city.
http://aranews.net/2016/06/former-us-soldier-calls-supporting-people-displaced-war-isis/
- Number of tourists visiting Turkey drops lowest since 1999 in April
23 May 2016 / Turkish Minute
Ministry of Culture and Tourism has released statistics on tourists, stating that the number of tourists visiting Turkey decreased 28 percent in April, compared to the same month of 2015, showing the lowest level since 1999.
- PEN calls for unconditional release of Kaboudvand
7 June 2016 / K24
LONDON, England (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, PEN International urged Iran to free Mohammad Sediq Kaboudvand whose health is deteriorating after a month of hunger strike.
“PEN International calls on the Iranian authorities to ensure that Kaboudvand receives all necessary medical attention,” the statement read.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, COMMENTARY
- Confederal Kurdistan: the “commune of communes”
8 June 2016 / Open Democracy
The demands pushed forward in both parts of Kurdistan are almost identical, both demonstrating an attempt at formally installing a confederal municipal system into the region.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/rosa-burc/confederal-kurdistan-commune-of-communes
- Regaining hope in Rojava
6 June 2016 / Open Democracy
This is a revolution in consciousness, not only in politics, and it has transformed the lives of countless women and men for generations to come.
Sometime in early February, I was excited to receive an invitation to participate in a women’s delegation to Rojava, the de-facto autonomous Kurdish majority region in northern Syria. The delegation was open to women journalists, activists and lawyers, and would be timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/jo-magpie/regaining-hope-in-rojava
- Kurds mount determined resistance
8 June 2016 / Revolutionary Communist Group
On 24 May 2016 the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), began to advance on Raqqa, the Islamic State (IS) headquarters. The SDF comprises 31 forces, including Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic and religious groups, but its largest components are the predominantly Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) of Rojava (Northern Syria/West Kurdistan). Their advance is receiving Coalition, predominantly US, air support. At the time of writing these forces have liberated towns and villages between Raqqa and the YPG/YPJ-run town of Ain Isa, and have encouraged and welcomed refugees fleeing IS.
http://revolutionarycommunist.org/middle-east/me/4367-km080616
- Will Turkey’s military might be overshadowed by political failures?
7 June 2016 / Al Monitor
Turkey’s annual Efes military exercises featured many firsts this year and seemed particularly relevant to the country’s current concerns.
Though the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is dealing with developments in Syria, border security issues, and combating the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), it nevertheless proceeded with the event May 30-31. The live-fire exercise was designed to test the combined operations of TSK’s land, naval, air and special forces. This year, for the first time, units from the United States, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Pakistan and Poland participated in the exercise.
- The Legacy of the Obama Administration: An Interview With Noam Chomsky
2 June 2016 / Truth Out
Anyone looking attentively at contemporary developments in the United States will surely notice that the country is undergoing a profound crisis of purpose and institutional legitimacy under a neoliberal regime in overdrive. And this is occurring less than eight years after the election of Barack Obama, whose political campaign raised hopes for a shift away from the neoconservative fallacies and imperial crimes that characterized the administration of George W. Bush.
REPORT
- Iraqi Kurdistan: New GCHR report says women human rights defenders challenging violence
1 June 2016 / Gulf Center for Human Rights
Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in Iraqi Kurdistan face the same risks as other human rights defenders worldwide, but as women, they are also subject to gender-specific threats and violence, according to a new report by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR).
The report, “Iraqi Kurdistan: Women Human Rights Defenders Challenging a Continuum of Violence”, is based on research conducted by GCHR in January of 2016 in Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimanyia. It is available in English and Arabic.
http://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1268
EVENT
- Public Forum ‘Regime Change in Turkey: Kurdish Politics and Foreign Policy’
Friday, 10 June 2016
The Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) is delighted to invite you to a Public Forum with keynote speaker Prof Dr Nuray Mert, political scientist and columnist and Dr Lenore G. Martin, Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, at Emmanuel College in Boston.
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
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