KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 24 – 30 May 2014

HDP and DTK urge AKP to stop supporting ISIS
30 May 2014 / ANFPeoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Central Executive Board and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) have released statements strongly condemning the massacre committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Sham) gangs in Serêkaniyê region of West Kurdistan, Rojava. HDP and DTK both called on Turkey to stop providing support for the ISIS gangs. HDP Central Executive Board extended condolences to the families of victims and all Rojava people, and sent message of solidarity with those resisting against the attacks of gang groups and struggling for human rights, justice, equality and democracy.
HDP voiced sadness and anger caused by the massacre in Serêkaniyê, adding; “We are sad because civilians and children in the first place continue to be killed. We are angry because the government of the country we are living in, i.e. the ruling AKP government, bears political responsibility in this massacre which was carried out by ISIS gangs directly supported by Turkey.”
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/hdp-and-dtk-urge-akp-to-stop-supporting-isis.htm

Turkish security forces fire teargas to remove Kurdish roadblocks
30 May 2014 / eKurdTurkish paramilitary forces fired teargas and water cannon on Friday to try to reopen a highway blocked for almost a week by militants in the Kurdish southeast (Turkish Kurdistan), security sources said. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have blocked various points on the highway between Diyarbakir and Bingol provinces with trucks and cars seized over the past six days in protest at the building of several new military outposts. The blockade has raised tensions in the region and exposed the fragility of a peace process which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan launched with Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2012 to try to end a three-decade insurgency.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/5/turkey5032.htm

Villagers Return To Homes In Diyarbakir Province
24 May 2014 / Rojava ReportFamilies from the villages of Xaçek andHeridan in the Dicle district of Diyarbakir province have begun the process of returning to their homes, according to an article from DİHA and carried by Özgür Gündem. The villagers, who forced to leave as part of the Turkish state’s campaign of village evacuations in the 1990’s, are coming back as part of a project directed by the Return To Ancient Lands And Construction of Democracy Platform (Turkish: Kadim Topraklara Dönüş ve Demokratik İnşa Platformu). Villagers returning home were accompanied by the President of GÖÇ-DER Vecih Aydoğan, Co-Mayor of Greater Diyarbakır Fırat Anlı, and Mıgırdiç Margosyan, a well-known Armenian writer whose family is from Heridan.
http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/villagers-return-to-homes-in-diyarbakir-province/

Kurdish Village Gets Back Name
25 May 2014 / Daily Sabahinance Minister Mehmet Şimşek attended the ceremony where the village of Vergili in the northeastern province of Batman reverted to its original Kurdish name of "Becirman." Due to reforms passed in recent years, the region's people can replace the state-sanctioned  settlement names with the originals. Turkey is officially returning the original names of villages, which have been systematically replaced with Turkish names since the 1920s, as part of democratization efforts aiming to widen the scope of rights and freedoms and improve democratic standards. Most recently the name of the village Vergili, located in Batman, was replaced by "Becirman," its original Kurdish name.
http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/05/26/kurdish-village-gets-back-name

Turkish teacher sued for learning Kurdish language from his students
28 May 2014 / eKurdA criminal complaint has been filed against Turkish teacher Mustafa Engin for speaking Kurdish with his students at school. Mustafa Engin, a class teacher in Binpınar village of Erzurum's Karaçoban district, was first exiled on the grounds that he learned Kurdish to be able to understand his students, and spoke Kurdish instead of Turkish at school. The teacher against whom Erzurum Provincial Directorate for National Education filed a criminal complaint was later subjected to a criminal case initiated by the prosecution office that put the complaint of the Directorate in process. The first hearing of the trial will be held in Hınıs district of Erzurum Tuesday.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/5/turkey5029.htm

Roboski Mothers In Soma
25 May 2014 / Rojava ReportThe mothers who hearts were broken by bombs have embraced the mothers whose hearts are burning in the coal mines, according to an article from Özgür Gündem.
The families of 34 Kurds killed by a state bombing attack in Roboski in 2011 have met with families of workers from Soma. The Roboski mothers and the families of the workers prayed together for the souls of the murdered. Veli Encü, speaking for the Roboski families, said that “pain dimishes when it is shared. There is the same pain in Roboski and Soma. And it is the same power creating this pain.”
http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/roboski-mothers-in-soma/

Turkey's top court rules YouTube ban violates people's rights, orders access be restored
29 May 2014 / RTA YouTube ban imposed by the Turkish government back in March violates people's rights, the country's Constitutional Court has ruled. In a push against Prime Minister Erdogan's wishes, the court ordered that access to the video-sharing site be restored.
The block is expected to be lifted when the ruling reaches the Ministry of Communication and the Telecommunications Authority, local Anadolu news agency reported.  There has been no immediate comment from Turkey's telecommunications regulator on whether it will follow the Constitutional Court ruling, according to Reuters.
http://rt.com/news/162356-turkey-court-youtube-ban/

We Support Turkey's Peace Process, Says PYD Co-Chairman
27 May 2014 / Daily SabahSyrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) Co-Chairman Salih Müslim said that his party supports Turkey's peace process that began between Ankara and the Kurds in 2013 while offering an open opportunity for future dialogue. Müslim added that there has been a Kurdish-phobia in Turkey and that the country has not completely overcome the issue. Stating that Turkey is important for Syria, Müslim said, "There is no other way except a peace process. But, Turkey should be more courageous for the process." Turkey has sped up its efforts to ensure a peace process recently. Adopting a democratization package that aims for better rights and freedoms, the Turkish government allows for education in private schools to be conducted in languages other than Turkish as well as political campaigning.
http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/05/27/we-support-turkeys-peace-process-says-pyd-cochairman<http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/05/27/we-support-turkeys-peace-process-says-pyd-cochairman> 
ISIS Massacres In Serêkaniyê
28 May 2014 / Rojava ReportForces attached to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham have assaulted a number of villages near Serêkaniyê today, where they carried out a series of massacres early this morning. According to preliminary information at least 15 people were killed, including women and at least seven children. According to information sent from Serêkaniyê by an ANF reporter, ISIS gangs attacked the vıllages of Tileliye, Temade, Ovencake and neighboring hamlets, where they killed everyone they found. Early images from the villages show large numbers of bodies. One images shows the bodies of one women and four children. One child had its internal organs removed.
http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/isis-massacres-in-serekaniye/

YPG: 86 gang members killed in Serêkaniyê
30 May 2014 / ANFIslamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) gangs that carried out massacre in the Serêkaniyê region of West Kurdistan have suffered a heavy defeat in clashes with People's Defense Units (YPG) for the last two days.
YPG fighters strongly responded to the attacks of ISIS gangs that attempted to occupy the villages of Rawiya, Til Xenzir, Til Bilal and El Ferise in west Serêkaniyê on 28 May., using tanks and heavy weapons they brought from Tal Abyad and Rakka. Clashes which erupted on Wednesday evening lasted till late Thursday evening.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ypg-86-gang-members-killed-in-serekaniye.htm

Assad regime will not be allowed to hold elections in Syrian Kurdistan: TEV-DEM
29 May 2014 / eKurdIlham Ahmed, a member of the Executive Council of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) has announced that the Syrian regime will not be allowed to set up polling stations in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) for the election it plans to hold on June 3rd. Ahmed said that the Syrian regime does not officially recognize the rights of the Kurds as a people and that Kurds could only make alliances with powers that recognizes them. As the date of the election approaches, Ahmed spoke with ANF about the Presidential elections in Syria, the reasons that the regime is holding them now, and relations between the regime and the Kurds more generally. Ahmed went on to describe how the Syrian regime is now taking a tactical approach to the Kurds, but has not made any official changes in their policies of the past and thus has no legitimacy as concerns the Kurds.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/5/syriakurd1212.htm
International Aid Organisations visit refugee camp in Hakamiya
27 May 2014 / ANFA delegation of representatives of five international organizations has visited the Hakamiya refugee camp in the town of Derik at Al-Jazeera (Cizire) Canton to review the current situation in the camp and the possibilities of assistance.
The delegation consisted of representatives of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program of the United Nations, the International Rescue Committee, Doctors without Borders and the Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid.
The delegation has conducted several meetings with the leaders in the camp. The talks focused on possible benefits of assistance for the refugees.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/international-aid-organizations-in-the-refugee-camp-hakamiya.htm<http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/international-aid-organizations-in-the-refugee-camp-hakamiya.htm> 
Cross-Border Convoy Moves Food Aid Into Northeast Syria As Access Constraints Intensify
16 May 2014 / UN World Food Programme The United Nations World Food Programme has started moving more food supplies from Turkey into northeast Syria through the Nusaybin border crossing point to assist displaced families cut off from food supplies in Al-Hassakeh governorate.
•    A convoy of 34 trucks carrying 796 metric tons of food including sugar, lentils, rice, bulgur, tomato paste, beans, vegetable oil, pasta, salt, and wheat flour – enough to feed 58,000 people for one month – left Wednesday and will deliver urgently needed food assistance over the next few days.
•    The convoy is also carrying 10 temporary warehouses to augment WFP food storage capacity in Qamishli, from where food is dispatched and distributed all over the governorate.
•    In late March, food stocks for 50,000 people were delivered to Qamishli as part of an inter-agency, cross-border convoy carrying various forms of humanitarian aid.
http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/cross-border-convoy-moves-urgently-needed-food-aid-northeast-syria-access-constrai<http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/cross-border-convoy-moves-urgently-needed-food-aid-northeast-syria-access-constrai> 
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
A Middle Eastern ‘Perfect Storm’
24 May 2014 / Al ArabiyaIn July, the world will commemorate the centennial of World War I, also known as,” The war to end all wars.” In addition to its horrendous human cost of 37 million casualties, the war led to the demise of the old European political order with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, German and Ottoman empires, and the birth of new states and a precarious new political order. Before the war’s end, the British and the French decided to divide their Middle Eastern inheritance from the retreating and dying Ottoman Empire. The resulting secret scheme known as the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, named after the two diplomats who negotiated its terms.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2014/05/24/A-Middle-Eastern-Perfect-Storm-.html

Turkey: What Is the Kurdish Question?
29 May 2014 / Kurdistan TribuneWhat is the Kurdish Question?  From Istanbul to Ankara, one is likely to hear the resentful, bitter lament “What do Kurds want?  They have all the same rights as we do.”  There remains a deep chasm of animosity between they and we.  After ninety years of Kurdish persecution and thirty years of armed conflict, only one who has been hypnotized by mainstream media can fail to know what Kurds want.
They want the Turkish government to stop killing them and to recognize their Kurdish identity and language.  They want peace and democracy.  They want the military occupation of their towns and cities to be withdrawn.  Every news story about the Kurdish Question includes the boiler plate statement that over 40,000 people have died in Turkey’s internal conflict since 1984, but conveniently omits the fact that most of them have been innocent Kurds killed by their own government.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2014/turkey-kurdish-question/

State crime in Turkey: the Roboski Massacre
12 May 2014 / Open DemocracyVisiting Roboski, a small isolated mountain village on the Turkish Iraqi border, is a sobering experience. For over two years Roboski has been a village in mourning. At 21.39 on December 28, 2011, disaster struck and in an instant the village lost its youth when they became victim to the Turkish government’s ‘war on terror’. Thirty-four of a party of 38 - most of them children - were slaughtered in an aerial bombardment by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet. Those killed were engaging in traditional cross border trade.  Roboski is a poor village where there is little or no work. Cross border trade provides a small and welcome income for the older men and pocket money for the purchase of notebooks, stationary and pens for the teenagers.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/penny-green-saniye-karakas/state-crime-in-turkey-roboski-massacre <http://www.opendemocracy.net/penny-green-saniye-karakas/state-crime-in-turkey-roboski-massacre> 
The Spirit of 1968 and the Apoist Youth Movement
May 2014 / The Kurdish Question We are currently going through a very historical period. This period is especially important for the revolutionary youth movement of Turkey and the Kurdistan freedom movement. The month of May carries many spiritual meanings for the revolutionary front. Wherever we look during this month we see legendary struggles and lives sacrificed as a result of them. This is why we name the month of May as "the month of martyrs". This does not only apply to the revolutionary youth of Kurdistan and Turkey but for revolutionary youths all around the world. The fact that the global youth movements of the sixties peaked in the month of May in 1968, proves our initial point.
http://kurdishquestion.com/component/k2/the-spirit-of-1968-and-the-apoist-youth-movement/88-the-spirit-of-1968-and-the-apoist-youth-movement.html <http://kurdishquestion.com/component/k2/the-spirit-of-1968-and-the-apoist-youth-movement/88-the-spirit-of-1968-and-the-apoist-youth-movement.html> 
Kurdish Literature Revival Grows On The Back Of Turkish Reforms
24 May 2014 / Daily SabahDemocratization process sees a four-fold increase in the number of Kurdish publications. It has been a very busy time for Abdullah Keskin, the owner of an Istanbul-based Kurdish book publisher Avesta. Last month, the publisher set up a stand at a book fair in the western city of İzmir, a place well-known as a stronghold of Turkey's nationalist and republican heritage. Despite this sensitivity when asked about any reaction, he said, "I did not face insults from pro-republicans during the fair." Another Kurdish-language publisher, Süleyman Çevik, owner of Istanbul-based publisher Nubihar, had a similar experience, claiming he did not face any hostility during the fair.
http://www.dailysabah.com/books/2014/05/24/kurdish-literature-revival-grows-on-the-back-of-turkish-reforms

The real price of coal
22 May 2014 / Weekly WorkerSoma illustrates how the value of miners’ lives is linked to the price of coal, just as it was in Victorian Britain. The recent denationalisation of the Turkish coal industry brought with it a squeeze on safety standards and workers’ rights, just as it did here. After nationalisation and a continuous rise in safety standards in Britain’s post-war coal industry - both driven by a strong miners’ union - we had a decade of defeats from 1985, culminating in privatisation in 1994. This process was marked by the repeal of several important mine safety acts, and a simultaneous purge of union militants. During this time we lost many key union lay safety inspectors, and this resulted in a catastrophic fall in safety standards and a rise in the number of men killed in the mines.
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1011/the-real-price-of-coal/
 
Rival Kurdish parties battle for power in Syria
28 May 2014 / Al MonitorThe Kurdish parties in Iraq and Syria are increasingly engaged in a low-scale cold war. The new power vacuum in the Kurdish areas of Syria has led to an escalation of tit-for-tat arrests, political office closures, expulsions, demonstrations, media campaigns and border closures instead of more cooperation. The imprisoned head of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, and the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, Massoud Barzani, have competed over the leadership of the Kurds for decades. Ocalan’s party is the most powerful Kurdish nationalist party in Turkey, while Barzani leads the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The power vacuum in Syria has led to new competition between the two parties, after the PKK became the strongest actor in northern Syria.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/kurdistan-kdp-pyd-erbil-barzani-ocalan-syria.html#ixzz337ADPSfF <http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/kurdistan-kdp-pyd-erbil-barzani-ocalan-syria.html#ixzz337ADPSfF> 
Wars Within Wars
26 May 2014 / Weekly StandardBy Jonathan Spyer: With Syrian presidential elections scheduled for June, the incumbent and shoo-in for reelection, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, is campaigning on the promise that 2014 will be the year in which military operations in Syria end. However, the situation in northern Syria, exemplified by the conflict in the canton of Kobani, an area stretching from the Turkish border to south of Kobani city, and from Tell Abyad in the east to Jarabulus in the west, casts doubt on Assad’s optimism. Kobani is under Kurdish control, but cuts into a larger section of territory controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a jihadist organization. ISIS aims to hold a clear, contiguous area stretching from Syria’s border with Turkey into western Iraq, where it controls territory in the provinces of Ninewah and Anbar. The existence of the Kurdish canton of Kobani interferes with this plan, and since March ISIS has launched daily attacks against positions held by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) at the edges of the enclave.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/wars-within-wars_792851.html?page=1 <http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/wars-within-wars_792851.html?page=1> 
Turkish Efforts Facilitate Export Of KRG Oil To Europe
24 May 2014 / Daily SabahThe first shipment of oil piped from northern Iraq was sold to European markets on Thursday and the revenue will be deposited in Turkey's state-run Halkbank, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said in a statement on Friday. The autonomous region said sales from the Turkish port of Ceyhan would continue despite opposition from the federal government in Baghdad, which has threatened legal action against any company involved in "smuggling" Iraqi oil. The oil exports were expected to begin months ago. The first shipment of oil piped from northern Iraq was sold to European markets on Thursday and the revenue will be deposited in Turkey's state-run Halkbank, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said in a statement on Friday.
http://www.dailysabah.com/energy/2014/05/24/turkish-efforts-facilitate-export-of-krg-oil-to-europe

The proud neoliberalisation of Iraqi-Kurdistan
21 May 2014 / Open DemocracyViolence, sectarianism, oil politics. These are the predominant themes covered in news and political debate when it comes to Iraq. Add to this, during the recent election campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, issues that ranked high among candidates included promises to defend Kurdistan against its enemies and to integrate the disputed city of Kirkuk into Kurdish territory. Apart from such appeals to nationalist sentiment, it seems as if one major issue goes unnoticed: the creeping process of neoliberalisation.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/schluwa-sama/proud-neoliberalisation-of-iraqikurdistan<http://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/schluwa-sama/proud-neoliberalisation-of-iraqikurdistan> 
How the Kurds Got Their Way
May-June Issue / Foreign AffairsThe surge of ethnic and sectarian strife in Syria and across the Middle East has led a number of analysts to predict the coming breakup of many Arab states. This potential upending of the region’s territorial order has come to be known as “the end of Sykes-Picot,” a reference to the secret 1916 Anglo-French agreement to divide up the Middle Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire into British and French zones of control. Because the European treaties that created new Arab states in the aftermath of World War I upheld the outlines of that agreement, Sykes-Picot became the convenient shorthand for the map that colonial powers imposed on the region, one that has remained essentially constant to the present day.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141216/marina-ottaway-and-david-ottaway/how-the-kurds-got-their-way