1. Twelve-year-old shot dead in Turkey's Kurdish southeast
15 January 2015 / ReutersA 12-year-old boy was shot dead in Cizre in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, the sixth person to be killed in the largely Kurdish town in the last three weeks, security sources said. Local witnesses said police teams were traveling through the area at the time he was shot. However, Interior Minister Efkan Ala told broadcaster Haberturk that police had not fired guns or tear gas and said an investigation had been launched.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-turkey-kurds-idUSKBN0KO0U020150115 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-turkey-kurds-idUSKBN0KO0U020150115>
3. Police kill two teenagers in Cizre and the people and their organizations react
15 January 2015 / Turkey HarvestFourteen-year-old Ümit Kurt was shot and killed by police last week in Cizre. Abdullah Kurt, the father of Ümit Kurt, has told Turkish media, “My son was working for 20 Turkish Liras (a day) for spending money. He never hurt anyone. As he was trying to earn his bread, he was shot in the heart and killed. I will pursue the killers in both worlds.” He made his comments to Radikal yesterday, the day that that 12-year-old Nihat Kazanhan was shot dead by police in Cizre. The police have claimed that they did not shoot Ümit Kurt. Abdullah Kurt challenged this by saying, “When my son was shot, there was nobody on the street except an armored personnel carrier. If they didn’t shoot him, who did?”
http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/police-kill-two-teenagers-in-cizre-and.html
4. Two political murders, a mining company and the oppression of women---some news and comments on Turkey and North Kurdistan today
13 January 2015 / Turkey HarvestWe have two political murders to discuss this evening and some other news which we believe sheds more light on living and working conditions in Turkey and North Kurdistan. Perhaps the major news for us today is that an Istanbul court has arrested two policemen involved in the inquiry into the 2007 assassination of progressive Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. We have been giving thumbnail sketches this case almost weekly for some time now and repeat in our posts that this case has been kept alive by popular mobilizations and great legal work. This latest news further exposes cracks in the government’s efforts to delay and obstruct justice, or may signal a willingness on the state’s part to throw someone under the bus.
http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/two-political-murders-mining-company.html
5. Öcalan sends letter to Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean people
13 January 2014 / ANFKurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has sent a letter to the Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean people, emphasising the importance of their participating in the construction of a democratic common nation in their ancestral homeland.
The letter noted that the calamities caused by capitalist modernity, the latest representative of the central system of civilisation, had begun to be seen by all the peoples of the world, in particular in the Middle East, and that there were important lessons to be learned from the tragedies of the exploited peoples targeted.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ocalan-sends-letter-to-assyrian-syriac-chaldean-people.htm
6. KCK: Every death in prison is a murder
13 January 2014 / ANF KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has issued a statement reacting to the increasingly ongoing deaths of political prisoners in Turkish jails. Recalling that five revolutionary inmates have lost their lives in prison within the past two weeks, KCK stressed that the AKP state intended to make the situation of ill prisoners a matter of negotiation. KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency pointed out that the AKP state's oppressive, fascistic and revengeful policies disregarding universal law and human rights continued to be imposed on revolutionary inmates in Turkish prisons.
The KCK statement also emphasised that hundreds of inmates who remain in jail despite being in a life-threatening situation are also further denied treatment while they cannot even meet their needs by themselves.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/kck-every-death-in-prison-is-a-murder.htm
7. 'This is what being a Kurd is about'
10 January 2015 /Al JazeeraMulkiye Demir Kilinc, a 32-year-old Turkish Kurd and mother of two, is going to jail for selling books. She was charged with aiding a terrorist organisation when she sold some books in 2011 to a man accused of belonging to the militant Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). At the time, she was working in a bookstore in the Mesopotamia Culture Centre (MKM) in Istanbul, which promotes Kurdish culture.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/what-being-kurd-about-2015165576342191.html
8. Turkey PM speaks of press freedom despite crackdown
16 January 2015 / EU ObserverTurkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday (15 January) said freedom of speech is as much valued in Turkey as in the West so long as it doesn’t insult Islam.
He spoke as prosecutors launched an investigation into the Cumhuriyet newspaper after it published four pages from Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine whose Paris office was attacked by Islamist extremists for its Mohammed cartoons. "Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to insult," Davutoglu said in Ankara, before heading to Brussels for talks with EU Council president Donald Tusk on Turkey's stalled EU-membership bid.
https://euobserver.com/justice/127240
9. European Parliament accepts resolution on freedom of expression in Turkey
16 January 2015 / Good Morning TurkeyThe European Parliament approved a resolution on freedom of expression in Turkey on Jan. 15, with most of the 593 members of the parliament voting for the measure’s adoption. Out of the 593 MEPs, 511 of them approved the resolution titled “Freedom of expression in Turkey: Recent arrests of journalists, media executives and systematic pressure against media,” 11 voted against, while 31 MEPS abstained.
The resolution condemns the recent police raids and the detention of a number of journalists and media representatives on Dec. 14, 2014 in Turkey, stressing that “these actions call into question the respect for the rule of law and freedom of the media.”
http://www.goodmorningturkey.com/european-parliament-accepts-resolution-freedom-expression-turkey/
10. Groups rally in Paris for assassinated Kurdish women on 2nd anniversary
11 January 2015 / HurriyetA group marched in central Paris on Jan. 10 in protest at the fact that the suspects of the killing of three Kurdish women have still not been brought to justice, on the second anniversary of the assassinations. The group gathered at the Democratic Society Center, near the Gare du Nord train station, from where they marched to Stalingrad Square, before leaving a wreath in front of the Kurdistan Information Office, where the murders took place. Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); Fidan Doğan, 32, a spokeswoman for the organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Şaylemez, 25, were killed in Paris on Jan. 9, 2013.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/groups-rally-in-paris-for-assassinated-kurdish-women-on-2nd-anniversary-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76804&NewsCatID=351
11. ISIS losing ground in symbolic Kobani battle
15 January 2015 / Al ArabiyaWith more than a thousand militants killed and territory slipping away, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group is losing its grip on the Syrian border town of Kobani under intense U.S.-led airstrikes and astonishingly stiff resistance by Kurdish fighters.
It is a stunning reversal for ISIS, which just months ago stood poised to conquer the entire town - and could pierce a carefully crafted image of military strength that helped attract foreign fighters and spread horror across the Middle East.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/01/15/ISIS-losing-ground-in-symbolic-Kobani-battle-.html
12. Lawyers in solidarity with Rojava Revolution to visit Cizire Canton
13 January 2015 / ANFMembers of the initiative of “Lawyers’ Solidarity with the Rojava Revolution” departed yesterday from Istanbul in order to visit the Cizire (Jazireh) Canton of Rojava between 13-17 January. The members of the solidarity initiative will be in Suruç at the border with Rojava between 17-18 January.
The Lawyers’ Solidarity Group organised a press conference before their departure for Cizire in the office of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association. The delegation is composed of lawyers from bar associations from Istanbul and Ankara as well as from Lawyers for Solidarity, Lawyers for Democracy, from SDP, Lawyers Office for the Oppressed, Açılım Lawyers Office and Asrın Lawyers Office.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/lawyers-in-solidarity-with-rojava-revolution-to-visit-cizire-canton.htm
13. Kurdish PYD leader invited to Moscow peace talks over Syria
16 January 2015 / eKurdThe Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that talks will be held in Moscow between the Syrian regime and opposition groups between January 26-29.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mihail Bogdanov said delegations would arrive on January 26, adding that there would be talks with representatives of the opposition on 27 January, followed by a meeting of the opposition with representatives of the Syrian government on 28 January.
http://ekurd.net/kurdish-pyd-leader-invited-to-moscow-peace-talks-over-syria-2015-01-16
14. Today's report from Rojava, Mount Sinjar and the refugees
13 January 2015 / Turkey HarvestOnce again we will talk here about the revolution in Rojava and the struggle in Sinjar and we will deliberately mix up our items in order to underscore the continuity and mass work of the liberation movement.
28 communes established in 12 daysThe women of Tirbespiyê city (Cizîre Canton, Rojava) established 28 communes in 12 days. Seventeen of them are in the city, 4 in the villages of the Sinciqê region and 7 are in the Aliyan region. The women started their campaign on January 2. The communes were established through meetings in which hundreds of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian women attended. The communes also formed several committees.
http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/todays-report-from-rojava-mount-sinjar.html
15. ISIS: Baghdadi Orders Execution of 56 Fighters after Kurdish Defeat in Erbil
15 January 2015 / IB TimesIslamic State's self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ordered the execution of 56 of his fighters after ISIS troops were defeated by Kurds in northern Iraq. ISIS fighters were defeated in the south of Erbil, which is the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, and the fighters were executed on Baghdadi's command in Mosul, Saeed Mamozini, an official in the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), told Al Arabiya.
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/isis-baghdadi-orders-execution-56-fighters-after-kurdish-defeat-erbil-620469
16. Gunter: ‘Post-state entities reshaping Middle East map’
15 January 2015 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe urgency of the present situation facing the people of Kobane and the longer term implications of the transformation of the Middle East were issues addressed at the public meeting in the House of Lords on 12 January which was jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Kurdistan National Congress (KNK).
Titled The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds, the meeting discussed the Kurdish role in the fight against ISIS and the alternative model offered by the establishment of the self-administration in Rojava.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/15/gunter-post-state-entities-reshaping-middle-east-map/
17. New book on ‘The Kurdish Spring’ published
15 January 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignDavid L. Philips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, has released his latest book titled The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East, which will be available in February from Transaction Publishers. Here is a bit more about the book:
Kurds are the largest stateless people in the world. An estimated thirty-two million Kurds live in “Kurdistan,” which includes parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran—today’s “hot spots” in the Middle East. The Kurdish Spring explores the subjugation of Kurds by Arab, Ottoman, and Persian powers for almost a century, and explains why Kurds are now evolving from a victimized people to a coherent political community.http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/15/4059/ <http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/15/4059/>
18. Oil prices fall below $40; shockwaves for producers
14 January 2015 / RudawOil prices fell below $40 Wednesday, as Kuwait reportedly sold a barrel of crude at $38.9, according to the state-run Kuwait News Agency. If verified, this is the lowest price for Brent crude in nearly six years. Falling prices have sent shockwaves among oil producers, also heavily affecting Iraq and its autonomous northern Kurdistan Region.
Iraq’s state budget dropped from 174 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $145 billion) in 2014 to 120 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $100 billion) this year. In an with Rudaw published early this month, Iraq’s Finance Minister Hosyar Zebari said that the country has a difficult year ahead due to serious financial shortfalls.
http://rudaw.net/english/business/14012015
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
19. 'Welcome to Stalingrad. Welcome to Kobane': Inside the Syrian Town Under Siege by the Islamic State
13 January 2015 / Vice"Welcome to Stalingrad. Welcome to Kobane," said a Kurdish militant, starting his car. A mad dash across the closed Turkish border had just brought us into the majority Kurdish Syrian town, then nearing its 100th day of fighting off a brutal siege by the Islamic State. The jihadists have blitzed it since mid-September from the south, west, and east after taking over all the nearby towns, sending wave after wave of fighters for more than three months.
https://news.vice.com/article/welcome-to-stalingrad-welcome-to-kobane-inside-the-syrian-town-under-siege-by-the-islamic-state
20. Surfer Vs. ISIS
14 January 2015 / SurferNot long ago, Dean Parker spent the bulk of his days soaked in the tropical warm-water peaks of Central America. At 49, the Florida native thought he’d carved out a small slice of paradise for himself as a surf instructor in Costa Rica. No wetsuits, no stress, plenty of waves—you know, the dream. One quiet evening, Parker found himself overcome with emotion as he set before his television set. On screen, a Western reporter was reporting on the situation facing the Yazidi people—an ethnic Kurdish minority—in Northern Iraq. These headlines had been on the news for weeks, but this particular story pulled at Parker.
http://www.surfermag.com/features/surferjointsfightinsyria/
21. The AKP, the Kurds and the siege of Kobane
13 January 2015 / InternationalV iewpoint“Zero problems with the neighbours” - such was the motto of Turkish diplomacy directed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (and current Prime Minister) Ahmet Davutoglu since 2009. This goal of “normalization”" of Turkey’s relations with the neighbouring countries was paradoxically accompanied by the “neo-Ottoman” motivation to establish a politico-cultural and economic hegemony over the countries of the Middle East. But the crisis today around the resistance of Kobane shows that these goals seem far from being achieved. Yet, at the beginning of the wave of revolutions in the Arab countries, the Turkey of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, erected into a “Muslim Democratic” model by the Western imperialisms, appeared to be well placed to show an example to these Muslim societies at full boiling point. Its fraternal relations with the Muslim Brotherhood movements seemed also to favour its ascent in the region.
http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article3805 <http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article3805>
22. Dispossession In Rojava And Possible Solutions
January 2015 / The Kurdish QuestionRojava becomes more important both in the regional and international context. Since the ISIS's attempt to occupy Kobanî, the media and political actors of the world have paid more attention to the social, political and military developments in Rojava. It happened thanks to the international mobilization for saving Kobanî and support for the YPG (People's Defense Units) and the YPJ (Women's Defense Units) against radical Salafist organization, the ISIS, who tried to expand its so called 'Islamic State' into Western Kurdistan (Rojava). The struggle of Kurdish forces, some FSA (Free Syrian Army) units and Peshmerga forces still continues in Kobanî. It has been more than 100 days of resistance and recent reports from the region indicate that the ISIS is pushed back and leaves many loses behind.
http://www.kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/dispossession-in-rojava-and-possible-solutions-in-rojava.html
23. Kurds demand unity amid battle against Islamic State
13 January 2015 / ECFROutside the morgue at Diyarbakir cemetery in eastern Turkey, Hanifi Cam waits for the body of his 24-year-old daughter, Gulsum, to be draped in Kurdish nationalist red, yellow and green. Gulsum was a Kurd from Turkey, but she trained with militants from the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in the Qandil Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, and died in combat in Kobane, a Kurdish-run town in Syria.
As the bodies of Kurdish children killed in Syria or Iraq come home for burial in Turkey, feelings of cross-border Kurdish solidarity are growing in their communities, despite the deeply divided nature of the Kurdish nationalist movement.
http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_kurds_demand_unity_amid_battle_against_islamic_state399
24. How Cizre became a combat zone?
11 January 2015 / Al MonitorWhen I stepped off the plane at Serafettin Elci Airport, the taxi drivers who surrounded me wanted to talk about what was going on in Cizre [in predominately Kurdish southeastern Turkey] rather than bargaining for a fare. They all asked the same question: “There is a war going on here. Nobody even writes about it. Why are you so late in coming?” When we entered Cizre, it reeked of heavy pepper gas. In the town, with shop shutters closed, people don't go out unless they have to. Apart from bakeries and pharmacies, almost all other shops are closed.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2015/01/turkey-syria-kurds-kobane-cizre.html##ixzz3P0K7MqD9
25. Turkish Kurds' electoral strategy is a high-wire act
14 January 2014 / Al MonitorAs Turkey’s controversial president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mulls plans to boost his executive powers the country’s Kurds have emerged as key players in a high-stakes gamble that could either bolster the country’s shaky democracy or suck it into chaos. The drama is centered on parliamentary elections to be held June 7. Few doubt that Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has held power since 2002, is headed for a fourth straight electoral victory. But it is unlikely to muster the 376 seats needed to unilaterally rewrite the constitution in ways that would enable the president to tighten his grip. Should Erdogan cling to his ambitions, the AKP will need to turn to another party for its support. And this is where the Kurds enter the picture.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/01/turkey-syria-kurds-electoral-strategy.html##ixzz3P0FPudnJ
26. Explaining the Turkish Military’s Opposition to Combating ISIS
15 January 2015 / Washington InstituteWhile Ankara’s decision for or against fighting ISIS will be a political one, the military’s lingering resentment toward the AKP, the PKK, and Arabs could be a formidable obstacle to Turkish intervention. In all the discussions about Turkey not being particularly supportive to the coalition fighting the “Islamic State”/ISIS, little has been said about the military’s role in shaping the government’s policy. In part this reflects the ruling Justice and Development Party’s diminution of the military’s role in policy formulation since 2002, and the ascendancy of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) for the implementation of Syria policy.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/explaining-the-turkish-militarys-opposition-to-combating-isis
27. Yazidi refugees in Turkey: back to their homeland?
14 January 2014 / RoarMagLast month Ayşan Sönmez visited the refugee camps of the displaced Kurds from Kobani in Suruç, Turkey. This is her report from her recent visit to the Yazidi refugee camps in Diyarbakir and Mardin.The price of oil has hit rock bottom and the dollar has skyrocketed against the Turkish lira. In the meantime a war is raging just across the border and the Yazidis have been displaced for something like the 74th time in their history. Indeed, isn’t this how things stand?
http://roarmag.org/2015/01/yazidi-refugees-turkey/
28. A visit to the front: Iraq’s Kurds bolster defense outside Kirkuk
15 January 2015 / McClatchyThe bridge not far from the village of Khrabarut doesn’t look like much – a single concrete track over a drainage canal about 100 yards long – but it’s turned into a pivotal landmark in the fight between Kurdish forces and the Islamic State southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
“Whoever controls that bridge controls the area right now,” said one Kurdish fighter at a nearby checkpoint before pointing off in the distance to a plume of flame where an oil well burned off excess natural gas. “And that’s why.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/01/15/253277/a-visit-to-the-front-iraqs-kurds.html?sp=/99/117/#storylink=cpy
29. The Kurds' Big Year
12 January 2015 / Foreign Affairs(Registration required) For the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, 2014 was more momentous a year than any since the region won autonomy, in 1991. On December 9, 2014, Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), reaffirmed his commitment to Kurdish statehood after making a historic call for an independence referendum on June 30, 2014. Barzani’s announcement came after the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s (ISIS) incursion into northern Iraq earlier that month, which effectively eliminated Baghdad’s control over the disputed territories of Kurdistan.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142765/michael-tanchum/the-kurds-big-year
Monday, 19 January 2015
Meeting Report: The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds
Gunter: ‘Post-state entities reshaping Middle East map’http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/15/gunter-post-state-entities-reshaping-middle-east-map/
15 January, 2015
The urgency of the present situation facing the people of Kobane and the longer term implications of the transformation of the Middle East were issues addressed at the public meeting in the House of Lords on 12 January which was jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Kurdistan National Congress (KNK).
Titled The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds, the meeting discussed the Kurdish role in the fight against ISIS and the alternative model offered by the establishment of the self-administration in Rojava.
As host, Lord Hylton stated the Kurds still need all the friends that they can get and this was especially the case in respect of the unrecognised entity of Rojava where urgently needed supplies were only getting through with great difficulty.
The meeting attracted parliamentarians, Middle East researchers, activists and journalists.
The main speaker was Professor Michael M. Gunter, an expert on the Kurds and the politics of the Middle East, who is the author of a new book, Out of Nowhere: The Kurds in Syria in Peace and War, which is one of the first serious attempts to examine the developments in Rojava.
He argued that the Kurds and ISIS could be defined as “post-state entities” and in their very different ways both are currently playing a role in reshaping the map of the Middle East.
They had both established new “trans-state forms” in the vacuum left by the virtual collapse of the traditional nation states of Syria and Iraq, Professor Gunter said.
He outlined some of the key factors that had led up to the crisis such as the oppressive minority rule of existing states and their failure to provide even the basic level of services for the people.
With regards to the emergence of ISIS, Prof Gunter pointed to the early tacit support of Turkey which had sought to use the militant Islamist group to overthrow Assad in Syria.
Turkey had provided a crucial transit for jihadist traffic from places such as Chechnya to fight in Syria and Iraq.
He remarked that ISIS had managed to attract wide support and had successfully recruited even from non-Sunni populations despite its use of suicide attacks and beheading of victims.
The group’s ideology was bolstered by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam prevalent in conservative Saudi Arabia.
Prof Gunter saw some differences between the ISIS organisation in Syria and Iraq: in Iraq, it was largely internally based and many leading operatives were former Baathists, whereas in Syria, far more of its recruits were foreign nationals.
He believed that mistaken foreign policies of the US had contributed to the growth of ISIS, including the release of jihadist prisoners held in Iraq.
He explained how the Kurds were now leading the fight against ISIS and that this involved the peshmerga from the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq and Kurdish forces from Syria.
The battle for Kobane has been a crucial factor in bringing together the KRG and PYD Kurds in a common cause.
In particular, the PYD and PKK guerrillas had won respect through their efforts in the rescue of the Yezidi Kurds under siege by ISIS. They had “saved the day”, he said.
The ISIS threat had created some strange bedfellows with the US now dropping supplies to Kurds affiliated to the PKK.
In contrast, Turkey has shown reluctance to help relieve Kobane because it saw support for Syrian Kurds as tantamount to supporting the PKK.
It suited Turkish policy to have the Kurds and ISIS engaged in a fight against each other.
However, the crisis had exposed serious strategic differences between Turkey and its US ally.
Furthermore, Prof Gunter pointed out that unlike Turkey, the US does not consider the PYD to be a terrorist organisation and he argued that this was an important factor as it suggests that the US might come to revise its view of the PKK as terrorists.
In conclusion, he argued that the new situation in the Middle East called for a new paradigm to understand the changes that were taking place. Observers had been slow to grasp the major changes taking places in Iraq and Syria which effectively were no longer unitary states.
Professor Gunter’s presentation was followed by two Kurdish speakers who addressed aspects of the current crisis in Rojava and Kobane from different perspectives.
Güney Yildiz, a BBC journalist, argued that the Kurds too often had found themselves facing the wrong enemies and with few friends. The Kurds had fought Iran when the Shah was in power and a staunch ally of the West. Likewise, they had fought in Iraq when Saddam Hussein had for many years been a Western ally.
Syria had also entered into a détente with the West when Assad had first assumed power.
Since the uprising, the Kurds had pursued a “third way” which had put them outside the simple narrative of people in opposition to the oppressive state.
He pointed out that the Kurds had been fighting ISIS for over two years but in Syria they had embarked on a new struggle from 2003 when the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was founded.
He stated that the US had been forced through circumstances to change its approach to the Kurds as they had been shown to be the only effective force standing against ISIS. The success of the people of Kobane presented a huge new opportunity for the Kurds to gain recognition.
The panel of speakers concluded with Aysegul Erdogan, who was representing Roj Women Association. She explained the important role of Kurdish women in Rojava and their resistance to the ISIS attack on Kobane.
The struggle of Kurdish women, however, was not a recent phenomenon but should be traced back to the 1980s.
She paid tribute to the three Kurdish women who were brutally assassination in Paris exactly two years ago and whose assassins had still not been brought to justice.
She explained that developments in Rojava were an outcome of the democratic autonomy project outlined by Abdullah Ocalan who recognised that no society can be run on a democratic basis unless women are allowed full participation.
Aysegul stressed the way that Kurdish women were actively involved in building a new form of social organisation in Rojava and that they had opportunities to take part in decision making as equal partners alongside men.
She said this essentially meant that Kurdish freedom was equal to women’s rights.
By becoming active, Kurdish women were transforming the mentality and culture of the region.
A wide ranging discussion was inspired by the presentations which touched on various issues including progress on women’s rights in the KRG, the influence of foreign intervention in the region and the evolving nature of US relations with the Kurds.
In terms of practical initiatives that could be undertaken in the UK to assist the people of Rojava, Estella Schmid, PIK, suggested that there needed to be more delegations to witness precisely what was being achieved in Rojava despite the ongoing conflict with ISIS. There also must be wider discussions among politicians and policy makers about the issues raised by the speakers.
DM, 15/01/2015
15 January, 2015
The urgency of the present situation facing the people of Kobane and the longer term implications of the transformation of the Middle East were issues addressed at the public meeting in the House of Lords on 12 January which was jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Kurdistan National Congress (KNK).
Titled The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds, the meeting discussed the Kurdish role in the fight against ISIS and the alternative model offered by the establishment of the self-administration in Rojava.
As host, Lord Hylton stated the Kurds still need all the friends that they can get and this was especially the case in respect of the unrecognised entity of Rojava where urgently needed supplies were only getting through with great difficulty.
The meeting attracted parliamentarians, Middle East researchers, activists and journalists.
The main speaker was Professor Michael M. Gunter, an expert on the Kurds and the politics of the Middle East, who is the author of a new book, Out of Nowhere: The Kurds in Syria in Peace and War, which is one of the first serious attempts to examine the developments in Rojava.
He argued that the Kurds and ISIS could be defined as “post-state entities” and in their very different ways both are currently playing a role in reshaping the map of the Middle East.
They had both established new “trans-state forms” in the vacuum left by the virtual collapse of the traditional nation states of Syria and Iraq, Professor Gunter said.
He outlined some of the key factors that had led up to the crisis such as the oppressive minority rule of existing states and their failure to provide even the basic level of services for the people.
With regards to the emergence of ISIS, Prof Gunter pointed to the early tacit support of Turkey which had sought to use the militant Islamist group to overthrow Assad in Syria.
Turkey had provided a crucial transit for jihadist traffic from places such as Chechnya to fight in Syria and Iraq.
He remarked that ISIS had managed to attract wide support and had successfully recruited even from non-Sunni populations despite its use of suicide attacks and beheading of victims.
The group’s ideology was bolstered by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam prevalent in conservative Saudi Arabia.
Prof Gunter saw some differences between the ISIS organisation in Syria and Iraq: in Iraq, it was largely internally based and many leading operatives were former Baathists, whereas in Syria, far more of its recruits were foreign nationals.
He believed that mistaken foreign policies of the US had contributed to the growth of ISIS, including the release of jihadist prisoners held in Iraq.
He explained how the Kurds were now leading the fight against ISIS and that this involved the peshmerga from the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq and Kurdish forces from Syria.
The battle for Kobane has been a crucial factor in bringing together the KRG and PYD Kurds in a common cause.
In particular, the PYD and PKK guerrillas had won respect through their efforts in the rescue of the Yezidi Kurds under siege by ISIS. They had “saved the day”, he said.
The ISIS threat had created some strange bedfellows with the US now dropping supplies to Kurds affiliated to the PKK.
In contrast, Turkey has shown reluctance to help relieve Kobane because it saw support for Syrian Kurds as tantamount to supporting the PKK.
It suited Turkish policy to have the Kurds and ISIS engaged in a fight against each other.
However, the crisis had exposed serious strategic differences between Turkey and its US ally.
Furthermore, Prof Gunter pointed out that unlike Turkey, the US does not consider the PYD to be a terrorist organisation and he argued that this was an important factor as it suggests that the US might come to revise its view of the PKK as terrorists.
In conclusion, he argued that the new situation in the Middle East called for a new paradigm to understand the changes that were taking place. Observers had been slow to grasp the major changes taking places in Iraq and Syria which effectively were no longer unitary states.
Professor Gunter’s presentation was followed by two Kurdish speakers who addressed aspects of the current crisis in Rojava and Kobane from different perspectives.
Güney Yildiz, a BBC journalist, argued that the Kurds too often had found themselves facing the wrong enemies and with few friends. The Kurds had fought Iran when the Shah was in power and a staunch ally of the West. Likewise, they had fought in Iraq when Saddam Hussein had for many years been a Western ally.
Syria had also entered into a détente with the West when Assad had first assumed power.
Since the uprising, the Kurds had pursued a “third way” which had put them outside the simple narrative of people in opposition to the oppressive state.
He pointed out that the Kurds had been fighting ISIS for over two years but in Syria they had embarked on a new struggle from 2003 when the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was founded.
He stated that the US had been forced through circumstances to change its approach to the Kurds as they had been shown to be the only effective force standing against ISIS. The success of the people of Kobane presented a huge new opportunity for the Kurds to gain recognition.
The panel of speakers concluded with Aysegul Erdogan, who was representing Roj Women Association. She explained the important role of Kurdish women in Rojava and their resistance to the ISIS attack on Kobane.
The struggle of Kurdish women, however, was not a recent phenomenon but should be traced back to the 1980s.
She paid tribute to the three Kurdish women who were brutally assassination in Paris exactly two years ago and whose assassins had still not been brought to justice.
She explained that developments in Rojava were an outcome of the democratic autonomy project outlined by Abdullah Ocalan who recognised that no society can be run on a democratic basis unless women are allowed full participation.
Aysegul stressed the way that Kurdish women were actively involved in building a new form of social organisation in Rojava and that they had opportunities to take part in decision making as equal partners alongside men.
She said this essentially meant that Kurdish freedom was equal to women’s rights.
By becoming active, Kurdish women were transforming the mentality and culture of the region.
A wide ranging discussion was inspired by the presentations which touched on various issues including progress on women’s rights in the KRG, the influence of foreign intervention in the region and the evolving nature of US relations with the Kurds.
In terms of practical initiatives that could be undertaken in the UK to assist the people of Rojava, Estella Schmid, PIK, suggested that there needed to be more delegations to witness precisely what was being achieved in Rojava despite the ongoing conflict with ISIS. There also must be wider discussions among politicians and policy makers about the issues raised by the speakers.
DM, 15/01/2015
KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 24 December 2014 9 January 2015
1. Exclusive: Senior Kurdish rebel leader warns Iraq must stay united to defeat 'savage' Isis
24 December 2014 / GuardianIraq must remain a united country in order to defeat the jihadis of the Islamic State, a senior leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has insisted.
Cemil Bayik, co-founder of the PKK and field commander of the organisation warned that it would be “very dangerous” if Iraq were partitioned. Unless Iraq’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities worked together to counter the threat of Isis, the “fascist” group would benefit, he told the Guardian in an exclusive interview.
“If it (Iraq) is divided, the war will intensify and the threat of Da’esh (Isis) to smaller communities will become greater,” said Bayik, speaking in the group’s Qandil mountain stronghold in northern Iraq. “But if they stay united against Da’esh, they can sort out their differences at a later stage through dialogue.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/24/pkk-kurdish-leader-cemil-bayik-iraq-syria-isis
2. Meeting terms with PKK’s jailed leader Öcalan change
23 December 2014 / HurriyetThe parties involved in the Kurdish peace bid have jointly declared that a new phase in the process has begun, as committees under the guidance of the Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security will meet with the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, while the İmralı delegation of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will also join the meetings. HDP’s İmralı delegation, consisting of HDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder, HDP deputy parliamentary group chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Hatip Dicle, will be able to enter the meetings conducted with Öcalan on the İmralı Island together with the Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security committees.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/meeting-terms-with-pkks-jailed-leader-ocalan-change-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76006&NewsCatID=338
3. CENİ: Until light is shed on Paris murders our actions will continue
4 January 2015 / Kurdish InfoThe Kurdish Women’s Peace Office (CENİ) has issued a written statement saying it will continue its campaign under the slogan “Your silence is due to your complicity” until those responsible for the murders planned by shady international forces are revealed.
CENİ condemned the murders of three Kurdish women revolutionaries, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez, on 9 January 2013 in a building in one of the busiest streets in Paris in the middle of the day. CENİ commemorated the three Kurdish women, saying that Sakine Cansız had resisted all manner of repression following the military coup of 12 September, and was a role model for the Kurdish women’s movement for her resistance to all sexist and hegemonic attacks.
http://www.kurdishinfo.com/ceni-light-shed-paris-murders-actions-will-continue
4. Youth killed in clashes in Turkey's Kurdish southeast
7 January 2015 / ReutersA 14-year-old boy was shot dead during clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday evening, and another man was wounded, security sources said. It was the latest in a series of deaths highlighting the fragility of a two-year-old peace process between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in pursuit of greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds. The protests took place in Cizre, a mainly Kurdish town near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Syria, where supporters of Kurdish Islamist party Huda-Par and youth groups linked to the PKK have clashed in recent weeks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/07/us-turkey-kurds-idUSKBN0KG0RO20150107
5. Tent city in Suruç raided by troops every week
8 January 2015 / ANFThe 6th tent city opened for refugees from Kobanê in Suruç is being raided once a week by Turkish troops in armoured vehicles. Fidan Kanlıbaş, who works at the camp, said the Turkish authorities were trying to create an atmosphere of fear.
The sixth tent city being established in Suruç for refugees from Kobanê is being obstructed by the authorities. The camp, in the village of Külünçe, consists of 1,200 tents and has a capacity of 8,000, but the Turkish authorities are refusing to give permission for the camp, which has been set up by the Suruç municipality, and want the refugees to go to the state-run AFAD camp.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/tent-city-in-suruc-raided-by-troops-every-week.htm
6. Turkey, UN sign agreement to assist Syrian refugees
7 December 2014 / World BulletinThe Turkish Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency and UNHCR signed an agreement Tuesday to provide humanitarian services to needy Syrian refugees. Officials said Turkey and the UN refugee agency will cooperate to deliver 12 mobile clinics, 10 ambulances and 10 vaccination units.
AFAD Director General Fuat Oktay said the Turkish government has delivered $5 billion worth of aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey.
"The financial aid from the international community is $264 million," Oktay added. "$179 million of this aid came from the UN."
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/152398/turkey-un-sign-agreement-to-assist-syrian-refugees
7. Dutch journalist released after being detained at home in southeastern Turkey
6 January 2015 / HurriyetFrederike Geerdink, a Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist, has been released after being detained by police in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Jan. 6. Geerdink had earlier stated on her Twitter account that eight police officers were searching her house and would take her to the local police station.
“Terrorism police just searched my house, team of 8 guys,” Geerdink tweeted on Jan. 6.
“They take me to the station now. Charge: propaganda for terrorist organization,” she added. The Justice Ministry said in a written statement on Jan. 6 that there had been three different complaints to the Ankara police accusing the journalist of making PKK propaganda through her Twitter account, after which the Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/dutch-journalist-detained-at-home-in-southeastern-turkey.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76557&NewsCatID=341
8. Michael Rubin: The US should consider Turkey a terror state
2 January 2014 / Kurdish Daily NewsFormer Pentagon adviser and senior scholar at American Enterprise Institute and Naval Postgraduate School Michael Rubin said that the US government should consider Turkey a terror state. In an exclusive interview with Frankfurt based Kurdish Newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika, Rubin answered various questions surrounding the current environment in the Middle East and called on the US administration to remove the Kurdistan Workers’ Party from its list of terrorist organizations.
http://kurdishdailynews.org/2015/01/02/michael-rubin-the-us-should-consider-turkey-a-terror-state/
9. Asya Abdulla interview: Investigation Continues on ISIS’s Use of Chemical Weapons
8 December 2014 / eKurdOur appointment was supposed to be at her office, but she had guests and could not manage it. However, to keep her promise, later she suddenly entered the house where we were staying. In the first few minutes, I was stressed but she calmed me down with some soothing sentences. Having put aside her AK47 and wearing the special shawl of Kurdish guerrilla fighters, she began to answer my questions kindly. Before starting the interview, I asked her which university she graduated from; her response was subtle: “I’m a graduate of revolution”
http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/syriakurd1737.htm <http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/syriakurd1737.htm>
10. Syria Daily, Dec 26: Is the Islamic State Failing to Govern?
26 December 2014 / EA WorldviewThe Washington Post has published the latest in a series of media declarations that the Islamic State is failing in Syria and Iraq, not on the battlefield but in governing and delivering services in the areas that it controls:
The Islamic State’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules.
Services are collapsing, prices are soaring, and medicines are scarce in towns and cities across the “caliphate” proclaimed in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, residents say, belying the group’s boasts that it is delivering a model form of governance for Muslims.http://eaworldview.com/2014/12/syria-daily-islamic-state-failing-govern/
11. The people of Sinjar (Shengal) are drawn into struggle
5 January 2015 / HarvestWe have several items from Sinjar to mention and comment on tonight. Once again we are highlighting the differences between the humanism of the liberation movement and the barbarism of ISIS and imperialism. It has been announced that five mass graves in and around the town of Sinune in Sinjar will be opened and documented under the supervision of officials. Xiyas Surçî, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) spokesman for Mosul, said in a statement today that the mass graves uncovered following the operations of the guerrillas, peshmerga and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) forces will officially be opened.
http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-people-of-sinjar-shengal-are-drawn.html <http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-people-of-sinjar-shengal-are-drawn.html>
13. Kurds to march in Paris on 10 January
1 January 2015 / ANF
On the second anniversary of the murder in Paris of Kurdish women Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) on 9 January 2013, the Kurds are to hold a march under the slogan: “Your silence is due to your being an accessory”. An organising committee established following a call by the Democratic Kurdish Council in France, has announced the activities which will take place on 9 and 10 January. The commemoration activities will include a “March for Truth and Justice” and events being organised under the heading: “France is remaining silent at these murders because of political interests.” French organisations are also involved in the organising committee.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kurds-to-march-in-paris-on-10-january.htm <http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kurds-to-march-in-paris-on-10-january.htm>
14. Pope Francis Receives Delegation Of Persecuted Yazidis In Vatican
8 January 2014 / BreitbartPope Francis today received a delegation of the community of the Yazidi, led by their world leader, Tahsin Said Ali Beg, and their supreme spiritual leader, the Skeikh Kato, both of whom are residents of Iraqi Kurdistan.
One of the delegates referred to the Pope as “father of the poor” as the delegation thanked him for his support for the Yazidi in this time of persecution and suffering, as well as speaking of some 5,000 women Yazidis who have been enslaved by ISIS.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/08/pope-francis-receives-delegation-of-persecuted-yazidis-in-vatican/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. Sakine, a life dedicated to Kurdistan and women’s freedom
9 December 2014 / ANFIt is the second anniversary of the murder of Sakine Cansız (Sara) a founder member of the PKK and the Women’s Freedom Movement. Sakine Cansız was known for her part in the party’s legendary prison struggle and represented the spirit of women’s international solidarity in the 21st century.
Sakine Cansız was one of the sources of the strength, morale and motivation of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Sakine Cansız’s 40 years of experience of resistance and struggle, her courage, passion for life, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination, honesty and simple outlook on life, her love for the Kurdish leadership and a free Kurdistan established the identity and hue of the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/sakine-a-life-dedicated-to-kurdistan-and-women-s-freedom-1.htm
16. Peace and stability in Turkey, Kurdistan, the Middle East and the wider world: a personal perspective on the events of the year just gone and prospects for the future
6 January 2015 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignDavid Morgan: Peace and stability in Turkey, in Kurdistan, in the Middle East and in the wider world might seem extremely precarious and elusive prospects in the light of the descent into chaos in Syria and Iraq witnessed in 2014, but there is never an option to entirely give up hope if you believe in life and it is a natural instinct for all living creatures to desire to continue to live in a state of comfort where basic wants for food, sustenance and love are satisfied. Thousands of years of human progress, enlightenment, ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness cannot simply be wiped out by the wars, wanton destruction and genocide endured in the recent period.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/peace-and-stability-in-turkey/<http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/peace-and-stability-in-turkey/>
17. Turkey and the media: Trying times
7 January 2014 / The EconomistFrederike Geerdink, a Dutch journalist with a close interest in the Kurds, claims to be the only Western journalist in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. On January 6th anti-terrorist police raided her apartment. “Terrorism police just searched my house. Team of 8 guys. They take me to the station now. Charge: ‘propaganda for terrorist organisation,’” Ms Geerdink tweeted as she was hauled off.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, was visiting Ankara. And even as Ms Geerdink was being grilled about her Kurdish contacts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, was telling diplomats “there is no freer press, either in Europe or anywhere in the world, than in Turkey.”
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21638069-president-insists-there-no-freer-press-turkeys-really-trying-times
18. Turkey’s not so splendid isolation
January 2015 / La Monde Diplomatique“Turkey’s stand is ethical. Our regional policy is one of values, human and democratic, which everyone should agree on. That’s why the coup against [Egyptian president] Mohammed Morsi [on 3 July 2013] was so disappointing.” Yasin Aktay, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chairman for foreign relations, opened our conversation with Egypt and the government’s “ethical stand”, as did everyone I spoke with in and around the AKP. He went on: “We thought the West would isolate the new regime. But it sat and watched the murder of democracy — the massacre [of Muslim Brothers] in Rabia Square and the silencing of the media — which meant opening the way to IS [so-called Islamic State].”
http://mondediplo.com/2015/01/02turkey
20. Roboskî massacre, truths and lies
28 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThis place and date have embedded themselves in the memories of the peoples of Kurdistan, Turkey and the region as one of the first Kurdish massacres of the 21st century. On 28 December 2011 a group consisting mainly of children set out from the villages of Roboski (Ortasu) and Bujeh (Gülyazı) and crossed the artificial borders drawn by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which did not just divide the country into four parts, but also dismembered towns, villages and families, to carry out cross border trade. Those on both sides of the border have been condemned to denial and annihilation, and to hunger, poverty and no identity. Despite the bans of the occupying states, the Kurds have, in addition to continuing their struggle against these borders, maintained their social cohesion.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3115:roboski-massacre-truths-and-lies&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
21. Ekrem Dumanli: Turkey’s witch hunt against the media
1 January 2015 / Washington PostWhen I first appeared in court after last month’s raid on my newspaper in Istanbul and 80 hours of detention, I asked the judge: “Two columns and a news report: Is that all the evidence against me?” The judge replied, “Yes.” It surely was an “I rest my case” moment for me — as well as for the dismal state of Turkish democracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey’s leader for almost 12 years, Erdogan contributed to economic successes and democratic reforms during his first and second terms. However, emboldened by consecutive election victories and incompetent opposition parties, he is now leading Turkey toward one-man, one-party rule.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ekrem-dumanli-turkeys-witch-hunt-against-the-media/2015/01/01/7544429a-8fad-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ekrem-dumanli-turkeys-witch-hunt-against-the-media/2015/01/01/7544429a-8fad-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203>
22. The Unfolding Revolution in Rojava
8 January 2014 / DissentThe emergence of ISIS during the summer as a regional war lord in Iraq and Syria led to the usual media hysteria about the latest threat to our turbo-consumerist societies in the West. ISIS is going to take over the Middle East and then come to get us in our affluent homelands where freedom and democracy are under peril from the Islamist bogeyman. Such simplistic nonsense echoes the media disinformation about ISIS and its ”irresistible” expansion across the Middle East. The media puts on the same tired old record. The plight of the Kurds and other ethnic minorities in Northern Iraq and Northern Syria necessitates the ”humanitarian” intervention of American imperialism and its puppet allies in Europe and the Gulf monarchies.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/the-unfolding-revolution-in-rojava/
23. Efrîn Economy Minister: Rojava Challenging Norms Of Class, Gender And Power
22 December 2014 / Rojava ReportThe following interview was conducted with Dr. Amaad Yousef, the Minister of Economy for the Efrîn Canton in Rojava by Sedat Yılmaz and appeared in Özgür Gündem. Yılmaz spoke with Dr. Yousef as he took part in a conference organized by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) in the city of Van last month. The subject of the conference was the ‘Democratic Economy.’ The interview has been translated into English below.
-Let’s speak a little about before the revolution. What was the status of the Kurds? What things did they have?Geographically Rojava covers an area of 18 thousand 300 square kilometers. It is divided into three cantons. However Rojava can support a population two or three times larger than are living there. 60% of Syria’s poor were Kurds. Because they did not allow factories to be open, or development or any form of enrichment in the region of Rojava.
http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/efrin-economy-minister-rojava-challenging-norms-of-class-gender-and-power/
24. Why Jineology? Re-Constructing The Sciences Towards A Communal And Free Life
January 2014 / Kurdish QuestionGönül Kaya is a journalist and representative of the Kurdish women's movement. This article is the transcript of her speech at the Jineology Conference in March 2014 in Cologne, Germany.The Free Women's Movement of Kurdistan evaluates jineology as an important step in its ongoing intellectual, ideological-political self-defense and mobilization struggle of about 30 years. I would like to introduce -albeit briefly- the main principles of jineology, which the Kurdish women's movement offers to the women's movements around the world.
http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/why-jineology.html <http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/why-jineology.html>
25. No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper
29 December 2014 / Lib.comProfessor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, activist, anarchist David Graeber had written an article for the Guardian in October, in the first weeks of the ISIS attacks to Kobane (North Syria), and asked why the world was ignoring the revolutionary Syrian Kurds.
Mentioning his father who volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic in 1937, he asked: “If there is a parallel today to Franco’s superficially devout, murderous Falangists, who would it be but ISIS? If there is a parallel to the Mujeres Libres of Spain, who could it be but the courageous women defending the barricades in Kobane? Is the world -and this time most scandalously of all, the international left- really going to be complicit in letting history repeat itself?”
https://libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014
Comments: http://libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014#comment-549599
26. The False Friends of Kobanê
6 January 2015 / Jacobin MagFor nearly four months now, heavily armed Islamic State (IS) militants have been laying siege to the city of Kobanê in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava). Another IS massacre was initially feared. But the homegrown defense units of Kobanê, despite being hopelessly outmatched militarily, have been able to repel IS incursions for a surprisingly long time — and for much of this time without help. It has been a pitched battle that has repeatedly seen bitter house-to-house fighting.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/the-battle-for-kobane/ <https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/the-battle-for-kobane/>
27. “Inside Kobane” – BBC World News documentary
3 January 2014 / YoutubeThe Kurdish border city of Kobane in Northern Syria has been under siege by Islamic State fighters for more than three months. But Kurdish forces are managing to retain hold of most of the city. As well as keeping IS at bay, they see getting their story out to the rest of the world as a vital part of their mission. An Iranian Kurdish film-maker spent a few days inside Kobane following the men and women risking their lives to publicise the ongoing battle.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/inside-kobane-bbc-world-news-documentary/<http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/inside-kobane-bbc-world-news-documentary/> 28. ‘Everywhere Around Is the Islamic State’ — On the Road in Iraq with YPG Fighters
30 December 2014 / ViceThe Syrian Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gathered behind a berm of hard brown sand as they prepared to cross the border — smoking and discussing the route among themselves. From the Iraqi side, trucks loaded with Yazidi refugees streamed through in plumes of fine dust, met by Syrian volunteers handing them cartons of fruit juice, biscuits, and cigarettes.
The Yazidi Kurds, marginalized followers of a secretive religion, had fled their homes in advance of an offensive by the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, and taken shelter on Mount Sinjar — a range of barren, waterless crags, where many of the weakest died of thirst and heat exhaustion. Earlier, at the newly created Newroz refugee camp in Derik, Yazidis bitterly described their privations.
https://news.vice.com/article/best-of-vice-news-2014-everywhere-around-is-the-islamic-state-on-the-road-in-iraq-with-ypg-fighters
29. The Case Against Centralization in IraqIn the past, some US policy makers extended limited calls for the partitioning of Iraq. Senator Joseph Biden in 2006 promoted the idea of a Sunni, Kurdish, and Shia state in Iraq. The pro-Kurdish former US diplomat Peter Galbraith also argued for partition in 2006. But the official US policy under the Obama administration eventually crystallized in support of a strengthened central authority under Iraqi PM Nouri al Maliki, which led to the de-facto partitioning of Iraq. After the US troops left Iraqi soil in 2011, the Iraqi PM issued an arrest order for Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi, and managed to push the Sunnis into the arms of the Jihadist Islamic state (IS).
https://medium.com/@vvanwilgenburg/the-case-against-centralization-in-iraq-f479c415bb6f
24 December 2014 / GuardianIraq must remain a united country in order to defeat the jihadis of the Islamic State, a senior leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has insisted.
Cemil Bayik, co-founder of the PKK and field commander of the organisation warned that it would be “very dangerous” if Iraq were partitioned. Unless Iraq’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities worked together to counter the threat of Isis, the “fascist” group would benefit, he told the Guardian in an exclusive interview.
“If it (Iraq) is divided, the war will intensify and the threat of Da’esh (Isis) to smaller communities will become greater,” said Bayik, speaking in the group’s Qandil mountain stronghold in northern Iraq. “But if they stay united against Da’esh, they can sort out their differences at a later stage through dialogue.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/24/pkk-kurdish-leader-cemil-bayik-iraq-syria-isis
2. Meeting terms with PKK’s jailed leader Öcalan change
23 December 2014 / HurriyetThe parties involved in the Kurdish peace bid have jointly declared that a new phase in the process has begun, as committees under the guidance of the Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security will meet with the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, while the İmralı delegation of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will also join the meetings. HDP’s İmralı delegation, consisting of HDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder, HDP deputy parliamentary group chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Hatip Dicle, will be able to enter the meetings conducted with Öcalan on the İmralı Island together with the Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security committees.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/meeting-terms-with-pkks-jailed-leader-ocalan-change-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76006&NewsCatID=338
3. CENİ: Until light is shed on Paris murders our actions will continue
4 January 2015 / Kurdish InfoThe Kurdish Women’s Peace Office (CENİ) has issued a written statement saying it will continue its campaign under the slogan “Your silence is due to your complicity” until those responsible for the murders planned by shady international forces are revealed.
CENİ condemned the murders of three Kurdish women revolutionaries, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez, on 9 January 2013 in a building in one of the busiest streets in Paris in the middle of the day. CENİ commemorated the three Kurdish women, saying that Sakine Cansız had resisted all manner of repression following the military coup of 12 September, and was a role model for the Kurdish women’s movement for her resistance to all sexist and hegemonic attacks.
http://www.kurdishinfo.com/ceni-light-shed-paris-murders-actions-will-continue
4. Youth killed in clashes in Turkey's Kurdish southeast
7 January 2015 / ReutersA 14-year-old boy was shot dead during clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday evening, and another man was wounded, security sources said. It was the latest in a series of deaths highlighting the fragility of a two-year-old peace process between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in pursuit of greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds. The protests took place in Cizre, a mainly Kurdish town near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Syria, where supporters of Kurdish Islamist party Huda-Par and youth groups linked to the PKK have clashed in recent weeks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/07/us-turkey-kurds-idUSKBN0KG0RO20150107
5. Tent city in Suruç raided by troops every week
8 January 2015 / ANFThe 6th tent city opened for refugees from Kobanê in Suruç is being raided once a week by Turkish troops in armoured vehicles. Fidan Kanlıbaş, who works at the camp, said the Turkish authorities were trying to create an atmosphere of fear.
The sixth tent city being established in Suruç for refugees from Kobanê is being obstructed by the authorities. The camp, in the village of Külünçe, consists of 1,200 tents and has a capacity of 8,000, but the Turkish authorities are refusing to give permission for the camp, which has been set up by the Suruç municipality, and want the refugees to go to the state-run AFAD camp.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/tent-city-in-suruc-raided-by-troops-every-week.htm
6. Turkey, UN sign agreement to assist Syrian refugees
7 December 2014 / World BulletinThe Turkish Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency and UNHCR signed an agreement Tuesday to provide humanitarian services to needy Syrian refugees. Officials said Turkey and the UN refugee agency will cooperate to deliver 12 mobile clinics, 10 ambulances and 10 vaccination units.
AFAD Director General Fuat Oktay said the Turkish government has delivered $5 billion worth of aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey.
"The financial aid from the international community is $264 million," Oktay added. "$179 million of this aid came from the UN."
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/152398/turkey-un-sign-agreement-to-assist-syrian-refugees
7. Dutch journalist released after being detained at home in southeastern Turkey
6 January 2015 / HurriyetFrederike Geerdink, a Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist, has been released after being detained by police in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Jan. 6. Geerdink had earlier stated on her Twitter account that eight police officers were searching her house and would take her to the local police station.
“Terrorism police just searched my house, team of 8 guys,” Geerdink tweeted on Jan. 6.
“They take me to the station now. Charge: propaganda for terrorist organization,” she added. The Justice Ministry said in a written statement on Jan. 6 that there had been three different complaints to the Ankara police accusing the journalist of making PKK propaganda through her Twitter account, after which the Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/dutch-journalist-detained-at-home-in-southeastern-turkey.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76557&NewsCatID=341
8. Michael Rubin: The US should consider Turkey a terror state
2 January 2014 / Kurdish Daily NewsFormer Pentagon adviser and senior scholar at American Enterprise Institute and Naval Postgraduate School Michael Rubin said that the US government should consider Turkey a terror state. In an exclusive interview with Frankfurt based Kurdish Newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika, Rubin answered various questions surrounding the current environment in the Middle East and called on the US administration to remove the Kurdistan Workers’ Party from its list of terrorist organizations.
http://kurdishdailynews.org/2015/01/02/michael-rubin-the-us-should-consider-turkey-a-terror-state/
9. Asya Abdulla interview: Investigation Continues on ISIS’s Use of Chemical Weapons
8 December 2014 / eKurdOur appointment was supposed to be at her office, but she had guests and could not manage it. However, to keep her promise, later she suddenly entered the house where we were staying. In the first few minutes, I was stressed but she calmed me down with some soothing sentences. Having put aside her AK47 and wearing the special shawl of Kurdish guerrilla fighters, she began to answer my questions kindly. Before starting the interview, I asked her which university she graduated from; her response was subtle: “I’m a graduate of revolution”
http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/syriakurd1737.htm <http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/syriakurd1737.htm>
10. Syria Daily, Dec 26: Is the Islamic State Failing to Govern?
26 December 2014 / EA WorldviewThe Washington Post has published the latest in a series of media declarations that the Islamic State is failing in Syria and Iraq, not on the battlefield but in governing and delivering services in the areas that it controls:
The Islamic State’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules.
Services are collapsing, prices are soaring, and medicines are scarce in towns and cities across the “caliphate” proclaimed in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, residents say, belying the group’s boasts that it is delivering a model form of governance for Muslims.http://eaworldview.com/2014/12/syria-daily-islamic-state-failing-govern/
11. The people of Sinjar (Shengal) are drawn into struggle
5 January 2015 / HarvestWe have several items from Sinjar to mention and comment on tonight. Once again we are highlighting the differences between the humanism of the liberation movement and the barbarism of ISIS and imperialism. It has been announced that five mass graves in and around the town of Sinune in Sinjar will be opened and documented under the supervision of officials. Xiyas Surçî, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) spokesman for Mosul, said in a statement today that the mass graves uncovered following the operations of the guerrillas, peshmerga and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) forces will officially be opened.
http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-people-of-sinjar-shengal-are-drawn.html <http://turkeyharvest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-people-of-sinjar-shengal-are-drawn.html>
13. Kurds to march in Paris on 10 January
1 January 2015 / ANF
On the second anniversary of the murder in Paris of Kurdish women Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) on 9 January 2013, the Kurds are to hold a march under the slogan: “Your silence is due to your being an accessory”. An organising committee established following a call by the Democratic Kurdish Council in France, has announced the activities which will take place on 9 and 10 January. The commemoration activities will include a “March for Truth and Justice” and events being organised under the heading: “France is remaining silent at these murders because of political interests.” French organisations are also involved in the organising committee.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kurds-to-march-in-paris-on-10-january.htm <http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kurds-to-march-in-paris-on-10-january.htm>
14. Pope Francis Receives Delegation Of Persecuted Yazidis In Vatican
8 January 2014 / BreitbartPope Francis today received a delegation of the community of the Yazidi, led by their world leader, Tahsin Said Ali Beg, and their supreme spiritual leader, the Skeikh Kato, both of whom are residents of Iraqi Kurdistan.
One of the delegates referred to the Pope as “father of the poor” as the delegation thanked him for his support for the Yazidi in this time of persecution and suffering, as well as speaking of some 5,000 women Yazidis who have been enslaved by ISIS.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/08/pope-francis-receives-delegation-of-persecuted-yazidis-in-vatican/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. Sakine, a life dedicated to Kurdistan and women’s freedom
9 December 2014 / ANFIt is the second anniversary of the murder of Sakine Cansız (Sara) a founder member of the PKK and the Women’s Freedom Movement. Sakine Cansız was known for her part in the party’s legendary prison struggle and represented the spirit of women’s international solidarity in the 21st century.
Sakine Cansız was one of the sources of the strength, morale and motivation of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Sakine Cansız’s 40 years of experience of resistance and struggle, her courage, passion for life, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination, honesty and simple outlook on life, her love for the Kurdish leadership and a free Kurdistan established the identity and hue of the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/sakine-a-life-dedicated-to-kurdistan-and-women-s-freedom-1.htm
16. Peace and stability in Turkey, Kurdistan, the Middle East and the wider world: a personal perspective on the events of the year just gone and prospects for the future
6 January 2015 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignDavid Morgan: Peace and stability in Turkey, in Kurdistan, in the Middle East and in the wider world might seem extremely precarious and elusive prospects in the light of the descent into chaos in Syria and Iraq witnessed in 2014, but there is never an option to entirely give up hope if you believe in life and it is a natural instinct for all living creatures to desire to continue to live in a state of comfort where basic wants for food, sustenance and love are satisfied. Thousands of years of human progress, enlightenment, ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness cannot simply be wiped out by the wars, wanton destruction and genocide endured in the recent period.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/peace-and-stability-in-turkey/<http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/peace-and-stability-in-turkey/>
17. Turkey and the media: Trying times
7 January 2014 / The EconomistFrederike Geerdink, a Dutch journalist with a close interest in the Kurds, claims to be the only Western journalist in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. On January 6th anti-terrorist police raided her apartment. “Terrorism police just searched my house. Team of 8 guys. They take me to the station now. Charge: ‘propaganda for terrorist organisation,’” Ms Geerdink tweeted as she was hauled off.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, was visiting Ankara. And even as Ms Geerdink was being grilled about her Kurdish contacts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, was telling diplomats “there is no freer press, either in Europe or anywhere in the world, than in Turkey.”
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21638069-president-insists-there-no-freer-press-turkeys-really-trying-times
18. Turkey’s not so splendid isolation
January 2015 / La Monde Diplomatique“Turkey’s stand is ethical. Our regional policy is one of values, human and democratic, which everyone should agree on. That’s why the coup against [Egyptian president] Mohammed Morsi [on 3 July 2013] was so disappointing.” Yasin Aktay, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chairman for foreign relations, opened our conversation with Egypt and the government’s “ethical stand”, as did everyone I spoke with in and around the AKP. He went on: “We thought the West would isolate the new regime. But it sat and watched the murder of democracy — the massacre [of Muslim Brothers] in Rabia Square and the silencing of the media — which meant opening the way to IS [so-called Islamic State].”
http://mondediplo.com/2015/01/02turkey
20. Roboskî massacre, truths and lies
28 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThis place and date have embedded themselves in the memories of the peoples of Kurdistan, Turkey and the region as one of the first Kurdish massacres of the 21st century. On 28 December 2011 a group consisting mainly of children set out from the villages of Roboski (Ortasu) and Bujeh (Gülyazı) and crossed the artificial borders drawn by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which did not just divide the country into four parts, but also dismembered towns, villages and families, to carry out cross border trade. Those on both sides of the border have been condemned to denial and annihilation, and to hunger, poverty and no identity. Despite the bans of the occupying states, the Kurds have, in addition to continuing their struggle against these borders, maintained their social cohesion.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3115:roboski-massacre-truths-and-lies&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
21. Ekrem Dumanli: Turkey’s witch hunt against the media
1 January 2015 / Washington PostWhen I first appeared in court after last month’s raid on my newspaper in Istanbul and 80 hours of detention, I asked the judge: “Two columns and a news report: Is that all the evidence against me?” The judge replied, “Yes.” It surely was an “I rest my case” moment for me — as well as for the dismal state of Turkish democracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey’s leader for almost 12 years, Erdogan contributed to economic successes and democratic reforms during his first and second terms. However, emboldened by consecutive election victories and incompetent opposition parties, he is now leading Turkey toward one-man, one-party rule.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ekrem-dumanli-turkeys-witch-hunt-against-the-media/2015/01/01/7544429a-8fad-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ekrem-dumanli-turkeys-witch-hunt-against-the-media/2015/01/01/7544429a-8fad-11e4-ba53-a477d66580ed_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203>
22. The Unfolding Revolution in Rojava
8 January 2014 / DissentThe emergence of ISIS during the summer as a regional war lord in Iraq and Syria led to the usual media hysteria about the latest threat to our turbo-consumerist societies in the West. ISIS is going to take over the Middle East and then come to get us in our affluent homelands where freedom and democracy are under peril from the Islamist bogeyman. Such simplistic nonsense echoes the media disinformation about ISIS and its ”irresistible” expansion across the Middle East. The media puts on the same tired old record. The plight of the Kurds and other ethnic minorities in Northern Iraq and Northern Syria necessitates the ”humanitarian” intervention of American imperialism and its puppet allies in Europe and the Gulf monarchies.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/the-unfolding-revolution-in-rojava/
23. Efrîn Economy Minister: Rojava Challenging Norms Of Class, Gender And Power
22 December 2014 / Rojava ReportThe following interview was conducted with Dr. Amaad Yousef, the Minister of Economy for the Efrîn Canton in Rojava by Sedat Yılmaz and appeared in Özgür Gündem. Yılmaz spoke with Dr. Yousef as he took part in a conference organized by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) in the city of Van last month. The subject of the conference was the ‘Democratic Economy.’ The interview has been translated into English below.
-Let’s speak a little about before the revolution. What was the status of the Kurds? What things did they have?Geographically Rojava covers an area of 18 thousand 300 square kilometers. It is divided into three cantons. However Rojava can support a population two or three times larger than are living there. 60% of Syria’s poor were Kurds. Because they did not allow factories to be open, or development or any form of enrichment in the region of Rojava.
http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/efrin-economy-minister-rojava-challenging-norms-of-class-gender-and-power/
24. Why Jineology? Re-Constructing The Sciences Towards A Communal And Free Life
January 2014 / Kurdish QuestionGönül Kaya is a journalist and representative of the Kurdish women's movement. This article is the transcript of her speech at the Jineology Conference in March 2014 in Cologne, Germany.The Free Women's Movement of Kurdistan evaluates jineology as an important step in its ongoing intellectual, ideological-political self-defense and mobilization struggle of about 30 years. I would like to introduce -albeit briefly- the main principles of jineology, which the Kurdish women's movement offers to the women's movements around the world.
http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/why-jineology.html <http://kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/why-jineology.html>
25. No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper
29 December 2014 / Lib.comProfessor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, activist, anarchist David Graeber had written an article for the Guardian in October, in the first weeks of the ISIS attacks to Kobane (North Syria), and asked why the world was ignoring the revolutionary Syrian Kurds.
Mentioning his father who volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic in 1937, he asked: “If there is a parallel today to Franco’s superficially devout, murderous Falangists, who would it be but ISIS? If there is a parallel to the Mujeres Libres of Spain, who could it be but the courageous women defending the barricades in Kobane? Is the world -and this time most scandalously of all, the international left- really going to be complicit in letting history repeat itself?”
https://libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014
Comments: http://libcom.org/forums/news/no-genuine-revolution-interview-graeber-evrensel-newspaper-29122014#comment-549599
26. The False Friends of Kobanê
6 January 2015 / Jacobin MagFor nearly four months now, heavily armed Islamic State (IS) militants have been laying siege to the city of Kobanê in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava). Another IS massacre was initially feared. But the homegrown defense units of Kobanê, despite being hopelessly outmatched militarily, have been able to repel IS incursions for a surprisingly long time — and for much of this time without help. It has been a pitched battle that has repeatedly seen bitter house-to-house fighting.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/the-battle-for-kobane/ <https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/the-battle-for-kobane/>
27. “Inside Kobane” – BBC World News documentary
3 January 2014 / YoutubeThe Kurdish border city of Kobane in Northern Syria has been under siege by Islamic State fighters for more than three months. But Kurdish forces are managing to retain hold of most of the city. As well as keeping IS at bay, they see getting their story out to the rest of the world as a vital part of their mission. An Iranian Kurdish film-maker spent a few days inside Kobane following the men and women risking their lives to publicise the ongoing battle.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/inside-kobane-bbc-world-news-documentary/<http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2015/01/06/inside-kobane-bbc-world-news-documentary/> 28. ‘Everywhere Around Is the Islamic State’ — On the Road in Iraq with YPG Fighters
30 December 2014 / ViceThe Syrian Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gathered behind a berm of hard brown sand as they prepared to cross the border — smoking and discussing the route among themselves. From the Iraqi side, trucks loaded with Yazidi refugees streamed through in plumes of fine dust, met by Syrian volunteers handing them cartons of fruit juice, biscuits, and cigarettes.
The Yazidi Kurds, marginalized followers of a secretive religion, had fled their homes in advance of an offensive by the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, and taken shelter on Mount Sinjar — a range of barren, waterless crags, where many of the weakest died of thirst and heat exhaustion. Earlier, at the newly created Newroz refugee camp in Derik, Yazidis bitterly described their privations.
https://news.vice.com/article/best-of-vice-news-2014-everywhere-around-is-the-islamic-state-on-the-road-in-iraq-with-ypg-fighters
29. The Case Against Centralization in IraqIn the past, some US policy makers extended limited calls for the partitioning of Iraq. Senator Joseph Biden in 2006 promoted the idea of a Sunni, Kurdish, and Shia state in Iraq. The pro-Kurdish former US diplomat Peter Galbraith also argued for partition in 2006. But the official US policy under the Obama administration eventually crystallized in support of a strengthened central authority under Iraqi PM Nouri al Maliki, which led to the de-facto partitioning of Iraq. After the US troops left Iraqi soil in 2011, the Iraqi PM issued an arrest order for Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi, and managed to push the Sunnis into the arms of the Jihadist Islamic state (IS).
https://medium.com/@vvanwilgenburg/the-case-against-centralization-in-iraq-f479c415bb6f
KURDISH NEWS UPDATE, 19 23 December 2014
1. Kobanî Canton Justice Minister: We will seek international justice
20 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThere have been arrests of people wounded during the resistance in Kobanî and who went to Turkey legally after the ISIS attack launched from the Mürşitpınar border gate on 29 November. Kobanî Canton Justice Minister Awaz Ali said the arrests in Turkey of people wounded in ISIS attacks on Kobanê were in contravention of international law. Ali added: “If Turkey does not change its stance we will have to go to international courts.” The Minister stressed that “Injured people we have sent to Turkey for treatment have been arrested in violation of international law", calling on Turkey to put an end to this state of affairs.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3068:kobani-canton-justice-minister-we-will-seek-international-justice&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
2. YPG issues a statement on Kobanî and Şingal (Sinjar)
21 December 2014 / Hawar NewsYPG (People's Defense Units) or West Kurdistan (Rojava) issues a statement on the ongoing clashes both in Kobanî and in the region from Cezaa (Jaza'h) to Şingal (Sinjar). Full text of the statement is given below:
"For the Media and Public Opinion: The brutal attacks by the ISIS / Daesh terrorists who attempt to occupy Kobani continued yesterday on the 96th day. Yet the operation initiated on December 18th by our forces of the People’s Defense Units and the Women's Defense Units YPJ against the terrorist groups is effectively continuing[…]”
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3070:ypg-issues-a-statement-on-kobani-and-ingal-sinjar&catid=6:manet
3. HPG-YBS: Operation to liberate Sinjar continues
21 December 2014 / ANFHPG (People's Defense Forces) Sinjar Command and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) Command has announced in a written statement that the Operation to Liberate Sinjar launched on 19 December continued. According to the statement, the northern side of the Mount Sinjar has been cleansed of ISIS gangs as part of the operation which is being carried out by forces affiliated to the HPG and YBŞ that have advanced up to the entrance of the Sinjar town centre at around 11 am yesterday.
Fierce clashes erupted between HPG-YBŞ forces and the ISIS gangs at the entrance of Sinjar, with Kurdish forces having hit the ISIS positions and entered two neighborhoods of the town.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/hpg-ybs-operation-to-liberate-sinjar-continues.htm
4. HPG Sinjar Command: We will play our role for the freedom of Sinjar
20 December 2014 / ANFThe HPG (People's Defence Forces) Sinjar Command has announced that the Sinjar - Rojava corridor has been reopened. The HPG Sinjar Command issued a written statement, saying operations were continuing for the liberation of the entire northern part of Sinjar, and that Sinjar town had been surrounded. “Our forces will play a necessary role in the liberation of Sinjar and will be open to coordination with peshmerga forces,” the statement emphasised.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/hpg-sinjar-command-we-will-play-our-role-for-the-freedom-of-sinjar.htm
5. KCK greets the liberation of Sinjar
21 December 2014 / ANFKCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement greeting the liberation by Kurdish forces of the Sinjar town in South Kurdistan yesterday.
“Our people and the public opinion should know that our guerrilla forces will continue their operations until South Kurdistan and Rojava is entirely cleansed of the ISIS fascism”, underlined the KCK. The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency greeted and celebrated the HPG (People's Defense Forces) YJA Star (Free Women's Troops) YPG-YPJ (People's/Women's Protection Units) and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) forces that have “been deployed at strategic points of Sinjar and waged a battle against the ISIS fascists for five months now, and cleansed Sinjar of ISIS gangs and liberated the town as result of a heroic operation yesterday”.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/kck-greets-the-liberation-of-sinjar.htm
6. Communist spirit: Kurds to avenge rape/killing of Yazidi women and children
22 December 2014 / Medhaj NewsThe YJA STAR (Free Women's Troops) Central Command has said it will take revenge for Êzidî (Yazidi) women by inflicting a mortal blow on the fascism of ISIS. The Command has issued a statement regarding the ‘Liberation operation’ carried out in Sinjar.
The YJA STAR Central Command saluted the liberation of Şingal by the guerrilla forces, saying their heroic resistance to ISIS attacks had created a spirit of freedom, adding: “On 3 August ISIS fascism perpetrated a massacre of the Êzidî Kurds in Şingal, abducting hundreds of women and children. From the beginning our HPG-YJA STAR guerrillas and YBŞ forces were the only hope of the people of Şingal. Four over 4 months the guerrilla forces have carried out a spirited resistance.”
http://www.medhajnews.com/article.php?id=NDQyMA==
7. Backed by U.S. Airstrikes, Kurds Reverse an ISIS Gain
18 December 2014 / The New York TimesKurdish forces, backed by a surge of American airstrikes in recent days, recaptured a large swath of territory from Islamic State militants on Thursday, opening a path from the autonomous Kurdish region to Mount Sinjar in the west, near the Syrian border.
The two-day offensive, which involved 8,000 fighters, known as pesh merga, was the largest one to date in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, according to Kurdish officials. It was also a successful demonstration of President Obama’s strategy for battling the extremist group: American air power combined with local forces doing the fighting on the ground.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/world/middleeast/backed-by-us-airstrikes-kurds-regain-ground-from-isis.html?_r=2
8. Kobanî people return to their homeland
21 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThree months after the historic YPG/YPJ resistance to ISIS attacks on Kobanî began, and as the gangs are being forced back, the people who took refuge in Suruç and other places have begun to return. On the 98th day of the resistance by the YPG and YPJ fighters, the ISIS gangs have to a great extent been forced into retreat. With the advance of the YPG/YPJ fighters the civilians who left Kobanî at the height of gang attacks have begun to return to the city. Although the gangs are continuing to fire mortars, 4 families returned with their children yesterday and were taken to safe areas by officials of the People’s House (Mala Gel). The families said that after 3 months away they were happy to have returned to Kobanî.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3075:kobani-people-return-to-their-homeland&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
9. Representatives of European trade unions in Suruç
17 December 2014 / ANF
The visits of the international organisations to the Suruç district of Urfa to show their solidarity with the Kobanê and Sinjar resistances and to assess the situation and the needs of the refugees from Kobanê and Sinjar who have been forced to leave their houses, continue. Recently the representatives of two of the biggest trade unions in Europe, from RMT and ETF, have paid a visit to Suruç. Following meetings with authorities in Suruç, the delegation of the trade unions went to the village of Mehser at the border, where the the resistance vigil in solidarity with Kobanê continues since the beginning of ISIS attacks three months ago. The delegtaion was welcomed by the villagers chanting the slogan “Biji Berxwedana Kobanê, (Long Live Kobanê resistance”.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/representatives-of-european-trade-unions-in-suruc.htm
10. Der Spiegel reporter says threats in Turkey 'worse than the Taliban's'
20 December 2014 / BGN NewsHasnain Kazim, the Der Spiegel magazine reporter for Turkey, attended the 7th German-Turkish Journalists roundtable meeting. During his speech, Kazim underlined that although he loves Turkey, as a foreign media member he stated that he faced hard circumstances. He noted that he received many death threats while working in Pakistan. “Even the threats were not as intense and heavy as the ones in Turkey,” he added.
Kazim added that Der Spiegel, like many western media magazines, has no press relationship with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
http://national.bgnnews.com/der-spiegel-reporter-says-threats-in-turkey-worse-than-the-talibans-haberi/2344
11. World still doesn’t fully grasp Gülenist threat, warns journalist jailed by group
21 December 2014 / Daily SabahAn investigative journalist, Nedim Şener, who has been targeted and arrested by members of the Gülen Movement in the police and judiciary in the past years after writing a book about the misconduct of police officers affiliated with the movement in Hrant Dink's murder, told Daily Sabah that the Gülen Movement has two different faces - one for Turkey and another for abroad. This has led to the change of perception while evaluating the movement and its activities worldwide.
http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/12/21/world-does-not-fully-understand-gulenist-threat-says-journalist
12. 'Erdoğan sent the agents to Germany for PKK and Gülen movement'
21 December 2014 / ANFAs the repercussions of the arrests of three Turkish agents in Germany continue, a sorce in the German intelligence services told Bild newspaper that Turkish president Erdoğan had sent the agents for the PKK and Gülen movement. The newspaper added that one of the three, Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu, was a close confidante of Erdoğan.
Last week the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe announced that 3 Turkish citizens had been detained for espionage. Two were arrested at Frankfurt airport as they entered Germany, while the other was detained at his home in Wuppertal.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/erdogan-sent-the-agents-to-germany-for-pkk-and-gulen-movement.htm
13. HDP co-chair heads to Moscow for talks on regional issues
22 Dece,ber 2014 / HurriyetCo-Chair of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş departed on Dec. 22 for a five-day visit to the Russian capital city of Moscow where he is expected to hold talks on regional conflicts, with a particular focus on the battle against jihadists in Rojava, the Kurdish region in the northern part of Syria. Demirtaş will be accompanied by Nazmi Gür, the deputy co-leader of the HDP in charge of external affairs, during the visit, the party’s press office announced Dec. 21. Government officials, members of the Russian Parliament, political parties, civil society organizations and media outlets will be among Demirtaş’s contacts in Moscow, the HDP said, without elaborating.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-co-chair-heads-to-moscow-for-talks-on-regional-issues.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75928&NewsCatID=338
14. Iraq: Yezidi women and girls face harrowing sexual violence
23 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalTorture, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, suffered by women and girls from Iraq’s Yezidi minority who were abducted by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), highlights the savagery of IS rule, said Amnesty International in a new briefing today. Escape from hell- Torture, sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity in Iraq provides an insight into the horrifying abuse suffered by hundreds and possibly thousands of Yezidi women and girls who have been forcibly married, “sold” or given as “gifts” to IS fighters or their supporters. Often, captives were forced to convert to Islam.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iraq-yezidi-women-and-girls-face-harrowing-sexual-violence-2014-12-23
15. AI: Dire conditions expose gaps in humanitarian assistance in KRG
19 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalA lack of coordination and major gaps in humanitarian assistance is causing untold hardship for many of the 900,000 people displaced by the conflict in Iraq who are sheltering in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), said Amnesty International.
Delegates from the organization who have just returned from a visit to the KRI found that many displaced people lacked basic items they need to survive the winter such as blankets, warm clothes and heating. Thousands are living in poorly equipped camps or informal settlements in dire conditions.
“There are shocking gaps in the humanitarian response. As a result, scores of people are living in ill-equipped camps or buildings with no walls and no shelter from the cold, wind or rain. Children are running around in thin clothes in the freezing cold. In some camps, toilets and clean water are inadequate.”
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iraq-dire-winter-conditions-expose-shocking-gaps-humanitarian-assistance-thousands-displaced-20
16. Investigation into 10 German deputies who held PKK flag
21 December 2014 / eKurdThe Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a criminal investigation into ten deputies from the Left Party (Die Linke) who held up a PKK flag last month. The prosecutor’s office accepted the photograph shared by the deputies on social media in support of parliamentarian Nicole Gohlke, whose immunity was lifted on account of unfurling a PKK flag, as evidence of a ‘crime’. The Federal Parliamentary Immunity Commission in Munich removed the immunity of Left Party deputy Nicole Gohlke after she unfurled a PKK flag at a solidarity night for Kobanê in Munich on 18 November. Following this, the Left Party deputies unfurled a PKK flag in the Federal Parliament in protest on 13 December.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/turkey5272.htm
17. Protesters call for press freedom in Turkey
19 December 2014 / NUJThe NUJ sent support to a Downing Street protest against media oppression in Turkey.
Last week, Turkish police arrested more than 20 journalists including Ekrem Dumanli, the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s largest circulating newspaper Zaman and Hidayet Karaca, the chairman of Samanyolu Media Group. They also arrested the directors, producers and even scriptwriters of a popular TV series.
It is now estimated that 60 to 70 per cent of the media in Turkey is controlled by the government. Earlier this year the Turkish government banned YouTube and Twitter in Turkey because it could not control and censor its content. Now, the government is taking similar steps against another group of independent media outlets.
https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/protesters-take-concerns-over-press-freedom-in-turkey-to/
18. Memed Aksoy speaks at Assata Shakur event in London
23 December 2014 /Peace in Kurdistan CampaignKurdish activist Memed Aksoy was recently invited by the Tri-Continental Anti-Imperialist Platform to speak on the Rojava revolution and the historic resistance of the Kurdish people in Kobane. The inspiring event was dedicated to the life and works of Assata Shakur and featured contributions from Black Panther activists and spoken word artists. You can watch Memed's presentation at the event below.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/23/memed-aksoy-speaks-at-assata-shakur-event-in-london/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
19. Kurdish group fighting Islamic State tells America: Stop calling us terrorists
22 December 2014 / Global PostWhen the United States joined the fight against the Islamic State in September this year, it inevitably wound up with some strange bedfellows.
From the Shia militias that killed US troops by the hundreds during the most violent days of the Iraq war, to Iran — Washington’s public enemy number one.
Then there is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group unknown to most Americans until a few months ago.
The PKK’s decades-long fight for autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds receives little attention in the West. This is especially the case since the most violent days of its guerilla campaign wound down.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/141221/kurdish-group-fighting-islamic-state-tells-america-sto
20. Voices questioning the PKK’s continued listing growing louder
23 December 2014 / Delist the PKKAt the end of a busy year, we wanted to bring your attention several articles that have appeared in US media in recent months that question the PKK continued listing as a terrorist organisation. Most recently, the Global Post’s Richard Hall spoke with Cemil Bayik on a visit to the Qandil Mountains about the PKK’s continued listing on international terrorism lists, in particular in the context of the group’s centrality in the fight against ISIS in the region.
http://delistthepkk.com/voices-questioning-the-pkks-continued-listing-growing-louder/
21. “A revolution in daily life”
22 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignAcross the domains of government in the canton of Cizire, people are working, mostly on a voluntary basis, to make ambitious transformations to society. Doctors want to build a modern free healthcare system but also, they told us, to collect and disseminate suppressed local knowledge about healing and to change the conditions of life in general. They aim, they said, to build a way of life free of the separations – between people and between people and nature – that drive physical and mental illness. Academics want to orient education to ongoing social problems. They plan, they said, to abandon exams and destroy divides between teachers and students and between established disciplines. The new discipline of “jinology” (the science of women) constructs an alternative account of mythology, psychology, science and history.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/22/a-revolution-in-daily-life/ <http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/22/a-revolution-in-daily-life/>
22. Impressions of Rojava: a report from the revolution
16 December 2014 / Roar MagIn early December an international delegation visited Rojava’s Cezire canton where they learned about the ongoing revolution, cooperation and tolerance.
From December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting Rojava as part of a delegation of academics from Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, the UK, and the US. We assembled in Erbil, Iraq, on November 29 and spent the next day learning about the petrostate known as the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), with its oil politics, patronage politics, feuding parties (KDP and PUK), and apparent aspirations to emulate Dubai.
http://roarmag.org/2014/12/janet-biehl-report-rojava/
23. What the Zaman Raid Means for Turkey’s Media
17 December 2014 / The New YorkerLate last Saturday night, Celil Sağır left his home, in an Istanbul suburb, for the offices of the Turkish media group Zaman, where he works as the managing editor of the English-language daily Today’s Zaman. Earlier that week, an anonymous Twitter user, going by the name Fuat Avni, who claims to be part of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s inner circle, had warned that there would be a police operation against media outlets that were seen to be loyal to Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Turkish imam whose vast network of followers occupy influential roles across Turkish institutions, including government and media.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/after-zaman-raid-turkeys-journalists-rally-erdogan
24. Endangered Turkish journalist speaks in Chicago—was anyone listening?
19 December 2014 / The BleaderTurkish journalist Kerim Balci was advised that the reason the Chicago media paid no attention to his visit here is that Wednesday was an unusual news day. "Particularly because of the old lady who passed away," Balci explained to me, a reference to the funeral of Judy Baar Topinka. Besides, he went on, the audience he was speaking to wasn't in Chicago anyway; it was back home in Turkey.
Well, maybe. I can remember a time when there were enough reporters to go around, enough space in the papers to spare a Balci a few inches, and enough of a sense of Chicago as part of a wide and interesting world for a city editor to send somebody over to the Turkish consulate to hear what he had to say[…]
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/12/19/endangered-turkish-journalist-speaks-in-chicagowas-anyone-listening
25. Turkey’s Inside Man
19 December 2014 / Foreign PolicyIn the informal hierarchy of the Gulen movement — a powerful if opaque Islamic group with numerous followers in Turkey’s media, police, and judiciary — Huseyin Gulerce used to be as close as it gets to the top. In the 1990s, he headed Zaman, a top-selling Gulenist newspaper currently in the crosshairs of a government-backed terror probe, and the Writers and Journalists Foundation, the movement’s public relations arm.
He first met the movement’s leader, the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, in the summer of 1980. During his years as editor of Zaman, he says, the pair would meet every week. After Gulen moved to the United States in 1999, fleeing charges of conspiring to overthrow Turkey’s secular order, of which he was later acquitted, Gulerce traveled to see him “twice per year, on average,” he says. He became known, at least in those days, as Gulen’s point man in Turkey.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/19/turkeys-inside-man-erdogan-gulenist-huseyin-gulerce/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=*Editors%20Picks&utm_campaign=2014_EditorsPicksRS19%2F12
26. The Islamic State and Partisanship in Turkey
17 December 2014 / Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceThe war in Syria has not only tested Turkey’s economic and institutional ability to absorb over 1.1 million refugees, but has deepened latent tensions between secularists, leftists, Kurds, and Islamists. In particular, the increasingly visible presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Turkey has polarized the country, with opponents of the Erdogan government saying its support of the Syrian opposition has allowed IS to flourish, even generating homegrown support for militant Islam.
http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/12/17/islamic-state-and-partisanship-in-turkey/hwr4?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoksq7IZKXonjHpfsX57eQkXaCg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YEIRMZ0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
27. How the West's campaign against IS lets the region off the hook
22 December 2014 / Middle East EyeUltimately, the West’s strategy against IS - which asks little of regional power players - may make it more difficult to displace the group or the sentiments that feed it
The decision by US president Barack Obama to assemble an international coalition and launch air strikes in Iraq and Syria in response to the rise of the self-named Islamic State group (IS) makes him the fourth consecutive US president to embark on military action in the region. The track record so far is hardly encouraging, as the success of IS so stunningly testifies. The rather rapid assembling of more than 60 countries, including many from the region, behind the coalition might have suggested a shared vision and prioritisation of the threat posed by this new and particularly rabid strain of extremism.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/how-wests-campaign-against-lets-region-hook-1631704210#sthash.mYafOIve.dpuf
28. VIDEO: Stephen Kinzer, US Foreign Policy in the Middle East and the Arab Spring
9 December 2014 / YoutubeStephen Kizner speaks with the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x52XCNxuk_I&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs
29. VIDEO: Sectarianization: ISIS, the Syrian Conflict & the Future of the Middle East
5 December 2014 / YoutubeA panel of Syria scholars jointly convened by the University of Denver's Center for Middle East Studies and the Aspen Institute's Middle East Programs on October 1, 2014 at the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons. The panel includes Joshua Landis, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Steven Heydemann, Vice President of Applied Research on Conflict at the United States Institute of Peace, and Marwa Daoudy, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ-CaglfQms&spfreload=10
30. VIDEO: Matthew Barber on ISIS, Yazidis, and the Enslavement of Thousands of Women Matthew Barber discusses the kidnap of Yezidi women last summer with the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjLNcUaIbl8
31. Iran as an Occupying Force in Syria
17 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteIt is no longer accurate to describe the war in Syria as a conflict between Syrian rebels on the one hand and Bashar al-Assad's regime forces “supported” by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG), Hezbollah, and Iraqi militias on the other. Most major battles in Syria—along the frontlines of regime-held areas—are now being directed and fought by the IRG and Hezbollah, along with other non-Syrian Shi‘i militias, with Assad forces in a supportive or secondary role.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/iran-occupying-force-syria
PRESS RELEASES AND STATEMENTS
32. IFJ/EFJ Condemn mass Arrest of Turkish Journalists
15 December 2014 / European Federation of JournalistsThe International Federation of Journalists and its regional group, the European Federation of Journalists, today condemned the shock raid on Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu TV media resulting in the arrest of at least 31 persons including journalists and media executives.
Within the 31 people's group there are 4 journalists, 11 media workers (scriptwriters, producers and technical advisors) and 16 police officers, according to the last update.
“We are appalled by this brazen assault on press freedom and Turkish democracy” said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. “One year after the exposure of corruption at the heart of government, the authorities appear to be exacting their revenge by targeting those who express opposing views.”
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/ifjefj-condemn-mass-arrest-of-turkish-journalists/
33. Turkey: ARTICLE 19 expresses concern about arrest of journalists
15 December 2014 / Article 19On 14 December, at least 24 people were arrested in police raids on a leading newspaper and TV station in Turkey.
ARTICLE 19 has expressed concern over the arrests. Director of Programmes David Diaz-Jogeix said: “ARTICLE 19 is concerned about the emerging trend of repressing dissenting media outlets in Turkey, restricting freedom of information and freedom of expression.”
http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37798/en/turkey:-article-19-expresses-concern-about-arrest-of-journalists#sthash.vvXvnDER.dpuf
EVENTS
3 – 5 April 2015
“Challenging Capitalist Modernity II: Dissecting Capitalist Modernity–Building Democratic Confederalism”In 2012, for three days in Hamburg hundreds of students, intellectuals and activists came together to discuss perspectives to overcome the current, crisis-struck system of capitalist modernity and the ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement and others on this topic. Next year, a second conference shall also focus on the critique of the capitalist modernity but most importantly it will in detail talk about how to build its alternative. Thus economy and women’s freedom shall be two main themes in the 2015 conference.
The headlines of the 5 topic blocks are:
• Dissecting Capitalist Modernity
• Capitalist Modernity vs Democratic Modernity
• Industrialism vs Ecological Industry and Communal Economy
• Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Revolutionary Theory
• Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practises
Venue: Hamburg University, Audimax, Germany.
Registration is now open – please find all the technical information you might need at: http://www.networkaq.net/
20 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThere have been arrests of people wounded during the resistance in Kobanî and who went to Turkey legally after the ISIS attack launched from the Mürşitpınar border gate on 29 November. Kobanî Canton Justice Minister Awaz Ali said the arrests in Turkey of people wounded in ISIS attacks on Kobanê were in contravention of international law. Ali added: “If Turkey does not change its stance we will have to go to international courts.” The Minister stressed that “Injured people we have sent to Turkey for treatment have been arrested in violation of international law", calling on Turkey to put an end to this state of affairs.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3068:kobani-canton-justice-minister-we-will-seek-international-justice&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
2. YPG issues a statement on Kobanî and Şingal (Sinjar)
21 December 2014 / Hawar NewsYPG (People's Defense Units) or West Kurdistan (Rojava) issues a statement on the ongoing clashes both in Kobanî and in the region from Cezaa (Jaza'h) to Şingal (Sinjar). Full text of the statement is given below:
"For the Media and Public Opinion: The brutal attacks by the ISIS / Daesh terrorists who attempt to occupy Kobani continued yesterday on the 96th day. Yet the operation initiated on December 18th by our forces of the People’s Defense Units and the Women's Defense Units YPJ against the terrorist groups is effectively continuing[…]”
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3070:ypg-issues-a-statement-on-kobani-and-ingal-sinjar&catid=6:manet
3. HPG-YBS: Operation to liberate Sinjar continues
21 December 2014 / ANFHPG (People's Defense Forces) Sinjar Command and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) Command has announced in a written statement that the Operation to Liberate Sinjar launched on 19 December continued. According to the statement, the northern side of the Mount Sinjar has been cleansed of ISIS gangs as part of the operation which is being carried out by forces affiliated to the HPG and YBŞ that have advanced up to the entrance of the Sinjar town centre at around 11 am yesterday.
Fierce clashes erupted between HPG-YBŞ forces and the ISIS gangs at the entrance of Sinjar, with Kurdish forces having hit the ISIS positions and entered two neighborhoods of the town.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/hpg-ybs-operation-to-liberate-sinjar-continues.htm
4. HPG Sinjar Command: We will play our role for the freedom of Sinjar
20 December 2014 / ANFThe HPG (People's Defence Forces) Sinjar Command has announced that the Sinjar - Rojava corridor has been reopened. The HPG Sinjar Command issued a written statement, saying operations were continuing for the liberation of the entire northern part of Sinjar, and that Sinjar town had been surrounded. “Our forces will play a necessary role in the liberation of Sinjar and will be open to coordination with peshmerga forces,” the statement emphasised.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/hpg-sinjar-command-we-will-play-our-role-for-the-freedom-of-sinjar.htm
5. KCK greets the liberation of Sinjar
21 December 2014 / ANFKCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement greeting the liberation by Kurdish forces of the Sinjar town in South Kurdistan yesterday.
“Our people and the public opinion should know that our guerrilla forces will continue their operations until South Kurdistan and Rojava is entirely cleansed of the ISIS fascism”, underlined the KCK. The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency greeted and celebrated the HPG (People's Defense Forces) YJA Star (Free Women's Troops) YPG-YPJ (People's/Women's Protection Units) and YBŞ (Sinjar Resistance Units) forces that have “been deployed at strategic points of Sinjar and waged a battle against the ISIS fascists for five months now, and cleansed Sinjar of ISIS gangs and liberated the town as result of a heroic operation yesterday”.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/kck-greets-the-liberation-of-sinjar.htm
6. Communist spirit: Kurds to avenge rape/killing of Yazidi women and children
22 December 2014 / Medhaj NewsThe YJA STAR (Free Women's Troops) Central Command has said it will take revenge for Êzidî (Yazidi) women by inflicting a mortal blow on the fascism of ISIS. The Command has issued a statement regarding the ‘Liberation operation’ carried out in Sinjar.
The YJA STAR Central Command saluted the liberation of Şingal by the guerrilla forces, saying their heroic resistance to ISIS attacks had created a spirit of freedom, adding: “On 3 August ISIS fascism perpetrated a massacre of the Êzidî Kurds in Şingal, abducting hundreds of women and children. From the beginning our HPG-YJA STAR guerrillas and YBŞ forces were the only hope of the people of Şingal. Four over 4 months the guerrilla forces have carried out a spirited resistance.”
http://www.medhajnews.com/article.php?id=NDQyMA==
7. Backed by U.S. Airstrikes, Kurds Reverse an ISIS Gain
18 December 2014 / The New York TimesKurdish forces, backed by a surge of American airstrikes in recent days, recaptured a large swath of territory from Islamic State militants on Thursday, opening a path from the autonomous Kurdish region to Mount Sinjar in the west, near the Syrian border.
The two-day offensive, which involved 8,000 fighters, known as pesh merga, was the largest one to date in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, according to Kurdish officials. It was also a successful demonstration of President Obama’s strategy for battling the extremist group: American air power combined with local forces doing the fighting on the ground.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/world/middleeast/backed-by-us-airstrikes-kurds-regain-ground-from-isis.html?_r=2
8. Kobanî people return to their homeland
21 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThree months after the historic YPG/YPJ resistance to ISIS attacks on Kobanî began, and as the gangs are being forced back, the people who took refuge in Suruç and other places have begun to return. On the 98th day of the resistance by the YPG and YPJ fighters, the ISIS gangs have to a great extent been forced into retreat. With the advance of the YPG/YPJ fighters the civilians who left Kobanî at the height of gang attacks have begun to return to the city. Although the gangs are continuing to fire mortars, 4 families returned with their children yesterday and were taken to safe areas by officials of the People’s House (Mala Gel). The families said that after 3 months away they were happy to have returned to Kobanî.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3075:kobani-people-return-to-their-homeland&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
9. Representatives of European trade unions in Suruç
17 December 2014 / ANF
The visits of the international organisations to the Suruç district of Urfa to show their solidarity with the Kobanê and Sinjar resistances and to assess the situation and the needs of the refugees from Kobanê and Sinjar who have been forced to leave their houses, continue. Recently the representatives of two of the biggest trade unions in Europe, from RMT and ETF, have paid a visit to Suruç. Following meetings with authorities in Suruç, the delegation of the trade unions went to the village of Mehser at the border, where the the resistance vigil in solidarity with Kobanê continues since the beginning of ISIS attacks three months ago. The delegtaion was welcomed by the villagers chanting the slogan “Biji Berxwedana Kobanê, (Long Live Kobanê resistance”.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/representatives-of-european-trade-unions-in-suruc.htm
10. Der Spiegel reporter says threats in Turkey 'worse than the Taliban's'
20 December 2014 / BGN NewsHasnain Kazim, the Der Spiegel magazine reporter for Turkey, attended the 7th German-Turkish Journalists roundtable meeting. During his speech, Kazim underlined that although he loves Turkey, as a foreign media member he stated that he faced hard circumstances. He noted that he received many death threats while working in Pakistan. “Even the threats were not as intense and heavy as the ones in Turkey,” he added.
Kazim added that Der Spiegel, like many western media magazines, has no press relationship with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
http://national.bgnnews.com/der-spiegel-reporter-says-threats-in-turkey-worse-than-the-talibans-haberi/2344
11. World still doesn’t fully grasp Gülenist threat, warns journalist jailed by group
21 December 2014 / Daily SabahAn investigative journalist, Nedim Şener, who has been targeted and arrested by members of the Gülen Movement in the police and judiciary in the past years after writing a book about the misconduct of police officers affiliated with the movement in Hrant Dink's murder, told Daily Sabah that the Gülen Movement has two different faces - one for Turkey and another for abroad. This has led to the change of perception while evaluating the movement and its activities worldwide.
http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2014/12/21/world-does-not-fully-understand-gulenist-threat-says-journalist
12. 'Erdoğan sent the agents to Germany for PKK and Gülen movement'
21 December 2014 / ANFAs the repercussions of the arrests of three Turkish agents in Germany continue, a sorce in the German intelligence services told Bild newspaper that Turkish president Erdoğan had sent the agents for the PKK and Gülen movement. The newspaper added that one of the three, Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu, was a close confidante of Erdoğan.
Last week the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe announced that 3 Turkish citizens had been detained for espionage. Two were arrested at Frankfurt airport as they entered Germany, while the other was detained at his home in Wuppertal.
http://www.en.firatnews.com/news/news/erdogan-sent-the-agents-to-germany-for-pkk-and-gulen-movement.htm
13. HDP co-chair heads to Moscow for talks on regional issues
22 Dece,ber 2014 / HurriyetCo-Chair of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş departed on Dec. 22 for a five-day visit to the Russian capital city of Moscow where he is expected to hold talks on regional conflicts, with a particular focus on the battle against jihadists in Rojava, the Kurdish region in the northern part of Syria. Demirtaş will be accompanied by Nazmi Gür, the deputy co-leader of the HDP in charge of external affairs, during the visit, the party’s press office announced Dec. 21. Government officials, members of the Russian Parliament, political parties, civil society organizations and media outlets will be among Demirtaş’s contacts in Moscow, the HDP said, without elaborating.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-co-chair-heads-to-moscow-for-talks-on-regional-issues.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75928&NewsCatID=338
14. Iraq: Yezidi women and girls face harrowing sexual violence
23 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalTorture, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, suffered by women and girls from Iraq’s Yezidi minority who were abducted by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), highlights the savagery of IS rule, said Amnesty International in a new briefing today. Escape from hell- Torture, sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity in Iraq provides an insight into the horrifying abuse suffered by hundreds and possibly thousands of Yezidi women and girls who have been forcibly married, “sold” or given as “gifts” to IS fighters or their supporters. Often, captives were forced to convert to Islam.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iraq-yezidi-women-and-girls-face-harrowing-sexual-violence-2014-12-23
15. AI: Dire conditions expose gaps in humanitarian assistance in KRG
19 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalA lack of coordination and major gaps in humanitarian assistance is causing untold hardship for many of the 900,000 people displaced by the conflict in Iraq who are sheltering in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), said Amnesty International.
Delegates from the organization who have just returned from a visit to the KRI found that many displaced people lacked basic items they need to survive the winter such as blankets, warm clothes and heating. Thousands are living in poorly equipped camps or informal settlements in dire conditions.
“There are shocking gaps in the humanitarian response. As a result, scores of people are living in ill-equipped camps or buildings with no walls and no shelter from the cold, wind or rain. Children are running around in thin clothes in the freezing cold. In some camps, toilets and clean water are inadequate.”
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iraq-dire-winter-conditions-expose-shocking-gaps-humanitarian-assistance-thousands-displaced-20
16. Investigation into 10 German deputies who held PKK flag
21 December 2014 / eKurdThe Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a criminal investigation into ten deputies from the Left Party (Die Linke) who held up a PKK flag last month. The prosecutor’s office accepted the photograph shared by the deputies on social media in support of parliamentarian Nicole Gohlke, whose immunity was lifted on account of unfurling a PKK flag, as evidence of a ‘crime’. The Federal Parliamentary Immunity Commission in Munich removed the immunity of Left Party deputy Nicole Gohlke after she unfurled a PKK flag at a solidarity night for Kobanê in Munich on 18 November. Following this, the Left Party deputies unfurled a PKK flag in the Federal Parliament in protest on 13 December.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/turkey5272.htm
17. Protesters call for press freedom in Turkey
19 December 2014 / NUJThe NUJ sent support to a Downing Street protest against media oppression in Turkey.
Last week, Turkish police arrested more than 20 journalists including Ekrem Dumanli, the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s largest circulating newspaper Zaman and Hidayet Karaca, the chairman of Samanyolu Media Group. They also arrested the directors, producers and even scriptwriters of a popular TV series.
It is now estimated that 60 to 70 per cent of the media in Turkey is controlled by the government. Earlier this year the Turkish government banned YouTube and Twitter in Turkey because it could not control and censor its content. Now, the government is taking similar steps against another group of independent media outlets.
https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/protesters-take-concerns-over-press-freedom-in-turkey-to/
18. Memed Aksoy speaks at Assata Shakur event in London
23 December 2014 /Peace in Kurdistan CampaignKurdish activist Memed Aksoy was recently invited by the Tri-Continental Anti-Imperialist Platform to speak on the Rojava revolution and the historic resistance of the Kurdish people in Kobane. The inspiring event was dedicated to the life and works of Assata Shakur and featured contributions from Black Panther activists and spoken word artists. You can watch Memed's presentation at the event below.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/23/memed-aksoy-speaks-at-assata-shakur-event-in-london/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
19. Kurdish group fighting Islamic State tells America: Stop calling us terrorists
22 December 2014 / Global PostWhen the United States joined the fight against the Islamic State in September this year, it inevitably wound up with some strange bedfellows.
From the Shia militias that killed US troops by the hundreds during the most violent days of the Iraq war, to Iran — Washington’s public enemy number one.
Then there is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group unknown to most Americans until a few months ago.
The PKK’s decades-long fight for autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds receives little attention in the West. This is especially the case since the most violent days of its guerilla campaign wound down.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/141221/kurdish-group-fighting-islamic-state-tells-america-sto
20. Voices questioning the PKK’s continued listing growing louder
23 December 2014 / Delist the PKKAt the end of a busy year, we wanted to bring your attention several articles that have appeared in US media in recent months that question the PKK continued listing as a terrorist organisation. Most recently, the Global Post’s Richard Hall spoke with Cemil Bayik on a visit to the Qandil Mountains about the PKK’s continued listing on international terrorism lists, in particular in the context of the group’s centrality in the fight against ISIS in the region.
http://delistthepkk.com/voices-questioning-the-pkks-continued-listing-growing-louder/
21. “A revolution in daily life”
22 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignAcross the domains of government in the canton of Cizire, people are working, mostly on a voluntary basis, to make ambitious transformations to society. Doctors want to build a modern free healthcare system but also, they told us, to collect and disseminate suppressed local knowledge about healing and to change the conditions of life in general. They aim, they said, to build a way of life free of the separations – between people and between people and nature – that drive physical and mental illness. Academics want to orient education to ongoing social problems. They plan, they said, to abandon exams and destroy divides between teachers and students and between established disciplines. The new discipline of “jinology” (the science of women) constructs an alternative account of mythology, psychology, science and history.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/22/a-revolution-in-daily-life/ <http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/22/a-revolution-in-daily-life/>
22. Impressions of Rojava: a report from the revolution
16 December 2014 / Roar MagIn early December an international delegation visited Rojava’s Cezire canton where they learned about the ongoing revolution, cooperation and tolerance.
From December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting Rojava as part of a delegation of academics from Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, the UK, and the US. We assembled in Erbil, Iraq, on November 29 and spent the next day learning about the petrostate known as the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), with its oil politics, patronage politics, feuding parties (KDP and PUK), and apparent aspirations to emulate Dubai.
http://roarmag.org/2014/12/janet-biehl-report-rojava/
23. What the Zaman Raid Means for Turkey’s Media
17 December 2014 / The New YorkerLate last Saturday night, Celil Sağır left his home, in an Istanbul suburb, for the offices of the Turkish media group Zaman, where he works as the managing editor of the English-language daily Today’s Zaman. Earlier that week, an anonymous Twitter user, going by the name Fuat Avni, who claims to be part of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s inner circle, had warned that there would be a police operation against media outlets that were seen to be loyal to Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Turkish imam whose vast network of followers occupy influential roles across Turkish institutions, including government and media.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/after-zaman-raid-turkeys-journalists-rally-erdogan
24. Endangered Turkish journalist speaks in Chicago—was anyone listening?
19 December 2014 / The BleaderTurkish journalist Kerim Balci was advised that the reason the Chicago media paid no attention to his visit here is that Wednesday was an unusual news day. "Particularly because of the old lady who passed away," Balci explained to me, a reference to the funeral of Judy Baar Topinka. Besides, he went on, the audience he was speaking to wasn't in Chicago anyway; it was back home in Turkey.
Well, maybe. I can remember a time when there were enough reporters to go around, enough space in the papers to spare a Balci a few inches, and enough of a sense of Chicago as part of a wide and interesting world for a city editor to send somebody over to the Turkish consulate to hear what he had to say[…]
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/12/19/endangered-turkish-journalist-speaks-in-chicagowas-anyone-listening
25. Turkey’s Inside Man
19 December 2014 / Foreign PolicyIn the informal hierarchy of the Gulen movement — a powerful if opaque Islamic group with numerous followers in Turkey’s media, police, and judiciary — Huseyin Gulerce used to be as close as it gets to the top. In the 1990s, he headed Zaman, a top-selling Gulenist newspaper currently in the crosshairs of a government-backed terror probe, and the Writers and Journalists Foundation, the movement’s public relations arm.
He first met the movement’s leader, the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, in the summer of 1980. During his years as editor of Zaman, he says, the pair would meet every week. After Gulen moved to the United States in 1999, fleeing charges of conspiring to overthrow Turkey’s secular order, of which he was later acquitted, Gulerce traveled to see him “twice per year, on average,” he says. He became known, at least in those days, as Gulen’s point man in Turkey.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/19/turkeys-inside-man-erdogan-gulenist-huseyin-gulerce/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=*Editors%20Picks&utm_campaign=2014_EditorsPicksRS19%2F12
26. The Islamic State and Partisanship in Turkey
17 December 2014 / Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceThe war in Syria has not only tested Turkey’s economic and institutional ability to absorb over 1.1 million refugees, but has deepened latent tensions between secularists, leftists, Kurds, and Islamists. In particular, the increasingly visible presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Turkey has polarized the country, with opponents of the Erdogan government saying its support of the Syrian opposition has allowed IS to flourish, even generating homegrown support for militant Islam.
http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/12/17/islamic-state-and-partisanship-in-turkey/hwr4?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoksq7IZKXonjHpfsX57eQkXaCg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YEIRMZ0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
27. How the West's campaign against IS lets the region off the hook
22 December 2014 / Middle East EyeUltimately, the West’s strategy against IS - which asks little of regional power players - may make it more difficult to displace the group or the sentiments that feed it
The decision by US president Barack Obama to assemble an international coalition and launch air strikes in Iraq and Syria in response to the rise of the self-named Islamic State group (IS) makes him the fourth consecutive US president to embark on military action in the region. The track record so far is hardly encouraging, as the success of IS so stunningly testifies. The rather rapid assembling of more than 60 countries, including many from the region, behind the coalition might have suggested a shared vision and prioritisation of the threat posed by this new and particularly rabid strain of extremism.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/how-wests-campaign-against-lets-region-hook-1631704210#sthash.mYafOIve.dpuf
28. VIDEO: Stephen Kinzer, US Foreign Policy in the Middle East and the Arab Spring
9 December 2014 / YoutubeStephen Kizner speaks with the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x52XCNxuk_I&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs
29. VIDEO: Sectarianization: ISIS, the Syrian Conflict & the Future of the Middle East
5 December 2014 / YoutubeA panel of Syria scholars jointly convened by the University of Denver's Center for Middle East Studies and the Aspen Institute's Middle East Programs on October 1, 2014 at the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons. The panel includes Joshua Landis, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Steven Heydemann, Vice President of Applied Research on Conflict at the United States Institute of Peace, and Marwa Daoudy, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ-CaglfQms&spfreload=10
30. VIDEO: Matthew Barber on ISIS, Yazidis, and the Enslavement of Thousands of Women Matthew Barber discusses the kidnap of Yezidi women last summer with the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjLNcUaIbl8
31. Iran as an Occupying Force in Syria
17 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteIt is no longer accurate to describe the war in Syria as a conflict between Syrian rebels on the one hand and Bashar al-Assad's regime forces “supported” by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG), Hezbollah, and Iraqi militias on the other. Most major battles in Syria—along the frontlines of regime-held areas—are now being directed and fought by the IRG and Hezbollah, along with other non-Syrian Shi‘i militias, with Assad forces in a supportive or secondary role.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/iran-occupying-force-syria
PRESS RELEASES AND STATEMENTS
32. IFJ/EFJ Condemn mass Arrest of Turkish Journalists
15 December 2014 / European Federation of JournalistsThe International Federation of Journalists and its regional group, the European Federation of Journalists, today condemned the shock raid on Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu TV media resulting in the arrest of at least 31 persons including journalists and media executives.
Within the 31 people's group there are 4 journalists, 11 media workers (scriptwriters, producers and technical advisors) and 16 police officers, according to the last update.
“We are appalled by this brazen assault on press freedom and Turkish democracy” said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. “One year after the exposure of corruption at the heart of government, the authorities appear to be exacting their revenge by targeting those who express opposing views.”
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/ifjefj-condemn-mass-arrest-of-turkish-journalists/
33. Turkey: ARTICLE 19 expresses concern about arrest of journalists
15 December 2014 / Article 19On 14 December, at least 24 people were arrested in police raids on a leading newspaper and TV station in Turkey.
ARTICLE 19 has expressed concern over the arrests. Director of Programmes David Diaz-Jogeix said: “ARTICLE 19 is concerned about the emerging trend of repressing dissenting media outlets in Turkey, restricting freedom of information and freedom of expression.”
http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37798/en/turkey:-article-19-expresses-concern-about-arrest-of-journalists#sthash.vvXvnDER.dpuf
EVENTS
3 – 5 April 2015
“Challenging Capitalist Modernity II: Dissecting Capitalist Modernity–Building Democratic Confederalism”In 2012, for three days in Hamburg hundreds of students, intellectuals and activists came together to discuss perspectives to overcome the current, crisis-struck system of capitalist modernity and the ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement and others on this topic. Next year, a second conference shall also focus on the critique of the capitalist modernity but most importantly it will in detail talk about how to build its alternative. Thus economy and women’s freedom shall be two main themes in the 2015 conference.
The headlines of the 5 topic blocks are:
• Dissecting Capitalist Modernity
• Capitalist Modernity vs Democratic Modernity
• Industrialism vs Ecological Industry and Communal Economy
• Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Revolutionary Theory
• Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practises
Venue: Hamburg University, Audimax, Germany.
Registration is now open – please find all the technical information you might need at: http://www.networkaq.net/
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