Catagory: Article (News)

A Kurdish man was stabbed to death by three Turkish men near Turkey’s capital Ankara because he was listening to Kurdish music, according to a media report.

A Kurdish teenager was killed in the country’s northwestern province of Sakarya on Monday following what witnesses have called a racially motivated attack, left-wing newspaper Evrensel reported.

Turkey was marked by four racist attacks on Kurdish families and workers over just two weeks, prompting outrage on the part of rights defender groups and civil society. The Human Rights Association (İHD) said in an official statement that these attacks were a result of the spread of discriminatory rhetoric in the country, while 15 bar associations described these attacks as “irreversible acts.”

Sixteen Kurdish seasonal farm laborers were attacked on September 4 by a farm owner and a group of villagers in Turkey’s northwestern province of Sakarya in an incident that appears to have been caused by anti-Kurdish sentiment, Turkish media reported.

The pressure on Kurds in Turkey to not speak their own language is a reflection of a general intolerance towards the Kurdish population, said Birca Belek Language and Culture Association Co-chair Mirza Roni.

A series of apparent hate crimes against Kurds took place in Turkey this week as a group of seasonal workers were attacked in Afyon province on Monday and a Kurdish family was attacked in Konya on Wednesday.

A 96-year-old woman is being forced to travel more than 500 kilometers from her home to receive treatment as part of judicial measures imposed on her by a court on the grounds that she insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.

The congenial and well-liked Conservative Party member of the British parliament, Sir David Amess, who was murdered on Friday, was active on two issues related to the Middle East.

Turkey has resumed cutting down trees in Duhok province months after they suspended the practice, according to local sources. Villagers have threatened to protest at Turkish military bases if the deforestation continues.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The official US commission charged with monitoring global religious rights and freedoms has expressed concerns on Saturday over Turkish threats to launch yet another operation against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Geng Shuang, called Turkey’s operations in northeast Syria illegal and criticized Ankara for cutting water supplies from that country’s Alouk water station on Wednesday.

China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Geng Shuang, called Turkey’s operations in northeast Syria illegal. “Since Turkey illegally invaded northeastern Syria, it has repeatedly cut off the water supply service from the Alouk water station,” he said.

Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş may be released on parole by the court on November 3, Turkish officials said in the action plan they submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

All-female militias in Syria have again swelled in numbers in recent years with many women joining the call to arms despite the risks

In-depth: Prompted by the release of a report by a group of British MPs, the debate comes as the crackdown on activists and politicians intensifies in the run-up to Turkey’s next elections.

The Syrian Kurdish forces in control of areas bordering Turkey in the north and east of Syria were the original proponents of a safe zone in the border regions and have welcomed negotiations on the issue, Mazloum Kobani, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told the SDF-linked Hawar News Agency.

DEMONSTRATIONS took place outside the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) today, demanding action against Turkey over its five-month bombing of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ankara is accused of using chemical weapons during the military operations, which have been condemned as a breach of international law and of Iraq’s national sovereignty.

Speaking at a rally outside the UN offices in Geneva, Democratic Kurdish Community Centre co-chair Berivan Avci implored the international community to stop turning a blind eye to Turkish war crimes.

Footage sent exclusively to the Morning Star purported to show the aftermath of a chemical attack, which officials said took place in the Avashin region of the mountainous Duhok province on May 3.

The General Council of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) considered all parties that provide Turkey with modern means of war as partners in their crimes against humanity, the latest of which is today against civilians in Kobani. The party called on the people home and abroad to express their rejection of such crimes, by the democratic means.

German Left Party, MP, Gökay Akbulut said the German government should cancel all agreements with the Turkish state that uses banned chemical weapons against the Kurdish people, adding that “countries that supply weapons to the Turkish state are complicit in genocidal attacks.”

TURKISH jets continued to pound Kurdish villages in Qandil and other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan today, amid growing demands for investigations over its alleged use of chemical weapons.

Missiles struck a number of villages in simultaneous attacks at around 10.30am local time, according to eyewitnesses, although no casualties were reported.

Salih Kado said that the occupying powers of Kurdistan agree to exterminate the Kurds because their economic and political interests are intertwined. He stressed that Turkey’s use of chemical weapons is part of the failed policy and a reaction to the defeat.

Secretary-General of the Syrian Kurdish Left Party, Saleh Kado

Kurdistan National Conference (KNK) condemned the Turkish occupying state ‘s use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish people and called upon the international community to take firm decision about the crimes that committed against the Kurds.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is looking into the possible use of chemical weapons in the conflict in northeastern Syria. The Kurdish Red Crescent has raised concerns about civilians being affected by chemical weapons in the conflict between Turkish and Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Crowds in the northwestern Syrian town of Tel Rifaat protested for the second day on Saturday against Turkish threats to launch a military offensive in the region, various local media reported.

A classical dictum cited by Clausewitz, the father of war studies as an academic discipline, tells us that starting a war is often easy while ending it is always difficult. Does that dictum apply to the war that Turkey has started against the Kurds by invading Syria? Right now, the answer is that no one knows. What is certain, however, is that the best outcome that Turkey might expect, is to be extricated from that hornet’s nest with a minimum of damage.

Editor’s Note: Turkey’s historic failure to find democratic solutions to Kurdish ethnic demands has created a deeply insecure and chronically irrational Turkish political culture, precipitated the end of the U.S.-Turkish strategic partnership, and pushed Ankara to work with Moscow, writes Ömer Taşpınar. This piece was originally in Responsible Statecraft.

Once used in the hunt for fugitive criminals, the global police agency’s most-wanted ‘red notice’ list now includes political refugees and dissidents

Gökkan was sentenced by the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court for her alleged support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Guerrillas who survived the Turkish chemical attack in Girê Sor, near the Turkish border, spoke about their experiences. According to the guerrillas, “International delegations can visit the tunnels and conduct research. There are still chemical traces.”

KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – On Wednesday, a Turkish drone targeted two civilian cars in the center of the city of Kobani, northern Syria, killing and wounding several people.

Eyewitnesses said that they heard a “strong” explosion from the Kobani Jadida neighborhood south of the city.

The drone attack resulted in the killing of two civilians and the injury of four others.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Saide Inac, a Kurdish singer better known by her stage name Hozan Cane, was sentenced in absentia by Turkey on Monday for her alleged support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), German media reported.

Under the sentence, Cane will have to serve over three years in prison. She did not participate in her trial since she has been back in Germany since July after a Turkish court lifted her travel ban.

Turkish media have welcomed Kosovo’s decision to ban a musical event called “Freedom to Kurdistan”, planned to take place in Pristina on Friday, claiming it aimed to spread propaganda in favour of terrorist organizations that are at war with Turkey.

Kosovo police stopped the event, organized by Kosovo’s “Sabota Social Centre” on Friday, startling many who wondered about the true cause of such an action.

Police on Saturday said only that they had received information about an “unannounced activity” and that the organizers lacked proper permits.

They also said that they had information that unnamed individuals might try to cause an incident during the event “that could result in consequences”.

Police confirmed they brought in two people for questioning after one of them was found with a knife while the other one failed to show an ID.

Rich Outzen, known in Ankara as “Eniste” – brother-in-law – because of his Turkish wife, is spearheading Washington’s efforts to

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – According to a report released earlier this week by a human rights organization, at least 877 civilians throughout 2020 were arrested by Turkish-backed militias and Turkish intelligence in the Afrin region of northern Syria.

This comes despite promises by the Syrian opposition to investigate and stop abuses by Turkish-backed groups in areas occupied by Turkey and its proxy militias, such as Afrin, Tal Abyad, and Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A new report issued on Tuesday by the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria suggests that Turkish-backed groups in the embattled Middle Eastern nation have “committed torture, cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes.”

It stated that the Turkish-supported Syrian National Army (SNA) continues to unlawfully arrest Kurdish citizens in areas under their control in northern Syria such as in Tal Abyad, Afrin, and Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye).

VAN, TURKEY/WASHINGTON —
Eighteen journalists, nearly all of whom work for Kurdish media outlets, stood trial at hearings across Turkey this week.

Lawyers and media rights groups say the trials show how Turkey’s laws on terrorism and protests can be used to detain or harass journalists.

The human rights organization “STJ registered the release of only 7 detainees, while the remaining 45 continue to be unaccounted for, including the women and children.”

A chemical weapons expert in Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime that gassed 100,000 people has been living in Britain for more than a decade.

The Iraqi scientist, a former brigadier general, claimed refugee status after arriving on a work visa.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tried to have him kicked out – but he was allowed to stay after insisting he faced execution if he had quit his role.

Judges ruled the man can only be referred to by the initials ASA.

He took his case to the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber and it ruled in his favour in July, a decision highlighted today by the Sunday Mirror.

While the world is busy with COVID-19, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime is actively engaged with its pan-Islamic and nationalistic ambitions in eliminating the most “disloyal” segments of the Kurdish population.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A senior US official from the state department visited Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil on Thursday, ensuring that Washington will encourage American companies to invest in the Region through a government-funded institution.

DUBAI, Sept 8 (Reuters) – United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas (DANA.AD) said on Wednesday a consortium it co-leads had secured $250 million in financing from the U.S. development agency to fund an expansion of gas production at the Khor Mor plant in Iraqi Kurdistan.

“Turkey has not allowed any media, legal institutions, and human rights organizations to enter the city and document the crimes and daily atrocities.”

TURKISH war planes have bombed a Kurdish village in Iraqi Kurdistan with chemical weapons, local officials told the Morning Star, demanding that war-crime investigations be opened.

The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has opened a new wheat marketing center in Erbil, a year after announcing the project.

Refugees accuse soldiers of ethnic cleansing as some 200,000 displaced

UN report is based on 538 witness interviews, documents, satellite imagery, photographs and videos relating to events away from the major battle zones during the first half of this year, Peter Stubley writes

A former British Army soldier has been charged with terror offences for allegedly planning to join Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Turkish authorities have dismissed nearly 28,000 teachers and suspended almost 9,500 others over alleged links to terrorism, a deputy prime minister said on Monday, pursuing a security crackdown followed a failed coup in July.

Turkey’s crackdown on Kurdish language schools has forced students and educators to take their courses underground.