2. Turkey Rejects Autonomy in Peace Process with Kurds
11 December 2014 / Prensa LatinaThe Turkish Government denied today in an incisive way the possibility of discussing autonomy with the Democratic Party of the Peoples (HDP) as part of the peace process with the Kurds. According to the newspaper Hürriyet Daily News, the Turkish deputy prime minister, Yalcin Akdogan, said that during the conversations with the HDP, intermediary in the negotiations with the outlawed Party of the Workers of Kurdistan (PKK), topics such as autonomy or the general amnesty will not be tackled.
On his side, the deputy chief of the delegation of the HDP in Istanbul, Sirri Süreyya Onder, aimed that the draft of the dialogue project sent by the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, includes issues like the democratization of the local administrations, but it does not speak specially about 'autonomy'.
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3362771&Itemid=1
3. South African women visit KJAR in Kandil
15 December 2014 / Kurdish InfoA delegation of different women’s organizations from South Africa has visited the East Kurdistan Free Women’s Community (KJAR) in the Medya Defence Areas and spoken to women guerrillas. The delegation said they had arranged the visit to see Kurdistan and meet Kurdish women guerrillas.
In a news item on Newroz TV that broadcasts to Iran and East Kurdistan, Samanta Osmal, Leme Kotze, Tumn Solivade and Lin Payine said they had come to meet the women guerrillas of the Kurdish Freedom Movement that they had heard about through the international media. The South African women said they were happy to have made the acquaintance of Kurdish women guerrillas and were given information regarding the struggle of the KJAR.http://www.kurdishinfo.com/south-african-women-visit-kjar-kandil <http://www.kurdishinfo.com/south-african-women-visit-kjar-kandil>
4. Women in tent cities get organised in the spirit of YPJ
17 December 2014 / ANFWomen from Kobanê, who had to take flight to Suruç following the attacks of the ISIS gangs on the town, are now organising themselves under women's assemblies in the tent cities they are staying, and continuing here their works they started to organise in the wake of the revolution in Rojava.
Women from Kobanê have gathered together in 5 tent cities in Suruç and formed women assemblies in order to discuss their problems and produce solutions.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/women-in-tent-cities-get-organised-in-the-spirit-of-ypj.htm <http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/women-in-tent-cities-get-organised-in-the-spirit-of-ypj.htm>
5. 822 bodies in 47 mass graves in Siirt
14 December 2014 / ANFThe Human Rights Association (IHD) Siirt branch has called for a commemorative memorial to be built in Newala Qeseba (Kasaplar Deresi), saying there are 47 mass graves in the province containing 822 bodies. The Siirt branch of the IHD announced the findings of a report into mass graves yesterday in the Newala Qeseba (Kasaplar Deresi – Butchers’ Valley) area, where there are the bodies of more than 200 PKK fighters, including founding member Mahsum Korkmaz (Agit) and Armenians massacred in 1915. A large crowd was present, including executives of the IHD and MEYA-DER and members of the DBP Siirt branch, with a banner bearing the words: “Mass graves are a crime against humanity - Newala Qeseba should be protected” and photographs of some of those who died in ‘unsolved murders’ were carried.http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/822-bodies-in-47-mass-graves-in-siirt.htm <http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/822-bodies-in-47-mass-graves-in-siirt.htm>
6. PKK and PAJK inmates in Muş prison issue appeal
15 December 2014 / ANFKurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Party (PAJK) inmates of Muş prison have issued a statement condemning new measures introduced by the prison authorities and called for the public to be aware of this.
PKK and PAJK prisoners in Muş prison sent a written statement through the Van branch of TUYAD-DER, drawing attention to recent rights violations in all jails in Kurdistan and Turkey, saying: “While the AKP Government continues to use delaying tactics in the process of resolution, in the prisons we, the PKK and PJAK prisoners, are being subjected to intimidation. The prison authorities are trying to introduce new rules that are contrary to human dignity. They have stepped up body searches on leaving the blocks and when we go for visits or to see lawyers.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/pkk-and-pajk-inmates-in-mus-prison-issue-appeal.htm
7. Abdullah Öcalan’s message to the EUTCC Conference
15 December 2014 / Kurdish Info“Dear guests,
For the past two years now we have been working on the democratic solution and peace process with determination and hope, and are now entering a historical period in which these efforts have brought us to the negotiating stage.
This process of democratic negotiation will not only bring a fair and permanent solution to a century-old problem, but at the same time, the democratic political consequences of this will enhance and promote peace in the Middle East and will serve to ensure the joint democratic futures of the peoples of the Middle East…”
http://www.kurdishinfo.com/abdullah-ocalans-message-eutcc-conference <http://www.kurdishinfo.com/abdullah-ocalans-message-eutcc-conference>
8. Arrests of Turkish journalists widely condemned across the world
16 December 2014 / GuardianThe arrests of journalists in Turkey have been deplored by international human rights organisations, press freedom groups and UK journalists’ bodies.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the arrests will harm media freedom and chill free speech. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called it a “brazen assault on press freedom and Turkish democracy.”
The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) described“the heavy-handed actions” as smacking of “political vengeance.” The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) saw the arrests as “part of a trend by Turkey’s government in recent years to use terrorism accusations to bring its critics to heel.”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/dec/16/arrests-of-turkish-journalists-widely-condemned-across-the-world
10. HRW warns Turkey's security bill undermines rights
13 December 2014 / ANFThe Turkish government’s proposed expansion of police powers to search and detain and for the use of firearms would undermine human rights protections, warned Human Rights Watch, remarking that a number of the proposals in a draft security bill would circumvent the role of prosecutors and judiciary in ways that directly undercut safeguards against the arbitrary abuse of power. According to the HRW, the new security bill would stiffen penalties for people involved in some protests and allow provincial governors to instruct police to focus on particular crimes and perpetrators, seemingly usurping the role of prosecutors and judges.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/hrw-warns-turkey-s-security-bill-undermines-rights.htm <http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/hrw-warns-turkey-s-security-bill-undermines-rights.htm>
11. Salih Muslim: ISIS-Turkey relations should be investigated
18 December 2014 / Kurdish InfoDemocratic Union Party (PYD) Co-President Salih Muslim who spoke to ANF reacted angrily to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s comment that Turkey did not support ISIS, proposing that an independent international commission be set up to carry out an inquiry.
Q: What is the current situation in the cantons of Rojava? Is there still a threat of attack?A:There is war and struggle in Rojava. While military defence against attacks is continuing efforts are also being made to establish a system, which is gradually coming into being. All the institutions and people are involved in this system. The defence of this unique system is being undertaken by the people of Rojava from Tel Kocher to Afrin.
http://www.kurdishinfo.com/salih-muslim-isis-turkey-relations-investigated
12. Female fighters battle for freedom and equality in Syria: TRFN
16 December 2014 / ReutersEvery night before 27-year-old Arin goes to bed, she hangs her Makarov, a Russian semi-automatic pistol, from a steel coat rack by the entrance to her one-bedroom apartment in a small, dusty town on the Syrian border with Iraq.
The pistol was an award for her success on the front line in the battle to protect Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria and is a far cry from her life a year ago when she was working as a nurse in Cologne in Germany.
"This is a bloody war," Arin, using only her combat name, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the almost deserted apartment block in Til Kocher in northeastern Syria.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/16/us-syria-women-idUSKBN0JU0D020141216?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
13. Two leading Iraqi Kurdish parties are taken off US terrorism list
13 December 2014 / Middle East EyeTwo leading parties in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) were removed from the US terrorist list late on Friday.
Brett McGurk, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Syria, confirmed on his Twitter account on Saturday that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had been removed.
“Congress has passed the NDAA [The National Defense Authorisation Act] w/a provision removing PUK & KDP from the list of designated organisations under US immigration laws”, wrote McGurk.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/two-leading-iraqi-kurdish-parties-are-taken-us-terrorism-list-1048291370#sthash.tbCJPJdf.dpuf
14. Two Leading Iraqi Kurdish Groups Fighting The Islamic State To Be Taken Off U.S. Terror List
12 December 2014 / Huffington PostTwo of the leading political parties representing the Middle East's stateless Kurdish population will soon be removed from a U.S. list of potential terrorist groups, in a move that U.S. and Kurdish officials say will resolve a long-standing dispute between Washington and a community that has proven to be one of its favored partners in the region, most recently in the fight against the militant group known as the Islamic State.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/16/iraqi-kurds-terrorist_n_6331382.html
15. Report: 27th Day Of Hunger Strike By Kurdish Political Prisoners In Urmiye’s Central Prison
16 December 2014 / RojhelatOn Thursday, 20th of November 2014, 27 Kurdish political prisoners in Urmiye’s central prison started a large scale hunger strike to condemn transfer of dangerous convicts to ward of political prisoners, as well as transfer of political prisoners to non-political wards and also to protest inhumane pressure by intelligence office inside the prison.
Firat News Agency has prepared and published a detailed report on prisoner’s hunger strike as well as condition of Urmiye’s central prison and this report has been translated by Rojhelat.info.http://rojhelat.info/en/?p=7970 <http://rojhelat.info/en/?p=7970>
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
16. My Impressions Of Rojava
15 December 2014 / Kurdish QuestionFrom December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting Rojava as part of a delegation of academics from Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. 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. We soon had enough and on Monday morning were relieved to drive to the Tigris, where crossed the border into Syria and entered Rojava, the majority-Kurdish autonomous region of northern Syria.
http://www.kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/my-impressions-of-rojava.html<http://www.kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/my-impressions-of-rojava.html>
17. Kurdish female fighters battle for freedom and equality in Syrian Kurdistan
16 December 2014 / Medhaj NewsEvery night before 27-year-old Arin goes to bed, she hangs her Makarov, a Russian semi-automatic pistol, from a steel coat rack by the entrance to her one-bedroom apartment in a small, dusty town on the Syrian border with Iraq. The pistol was an award for her success on the front line in the battle to protect Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria) and is a far cry from her life a year ago when she was working as a nurse in Cologne in Germany. "This is a bloody war," Arin, using only her combat name.
"But we need to fight it, we need to protect our women and children or nobody else will defend us."
http://medhajnews.com/article.php?id=NDA4Ng==
18. Can Turkey under Erdoğan any longer be deemed a reliable western ally?
15 December 2014 / GuardianRecep Tayyip Erdoğan’s politics of paranoia has taken another ugly twist with the arrest of more than 30 opposition journalists, media workers, former police chiefs and investigators on palpably flimsy conspiracy charges. The Turkish president’s latest coup – nobody in Istanbul doubts he personally ordered the nationwide raids – highlights a bigger, awkward question for the EU and the US: can Turkey under Erdoğan any longer be deemed a reliable, democratic western ally?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/15/turkey-erdogan-western-ally
19. The stakes of Kobani
December 2014 / Roads and KingdomsIt’s midnight and bitterly cold when Muhammed Sik’s corpse arrives from the border. Mourners stand at a petrol station 15km outside Diyarbakir, Turkey’s unofficial Kurdish capital, rubbing their hands together to keep warm. When the coffin arrives, they lead the way to the city’s morgue accompanied by the wail of the siren: another ‘martyr’ has arrived. Sik was killed by ISIS militants in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in late October. He had left his home near Diyarbakir to defend neighboring Kurds from the tightening ISIS siege, but was trapped by the jihadists. His body was found riddled with bullet wounds to the neck, sides and leg.
http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/the-stakes-of-kobani/
20. The Fight Against ISIS on the Border Between Turkey and Syria
15 December 2014 / TimeIn recent weeks, the town of Kobani in Syria has become a symbol of resistance against Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militants.
A battle to control the border city has raged for over two months between ISIS and Kurdish fighters, as the town occupies a strategic position on the Turkish border that, if it were to fall, would allow ISIS to control much of the region.
http://time.com/3631586/islamic-state-kobani-turkey-syria-kurds/
21. Visionary Failure: on Turkey’s Foreign Policy
13 December 2014 / Research TurkeyFollowing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s election as Turkey’s president in August 2014, the governing Justice and Development Party announced that the new prime minister would be Ahmet Davutoğlu, an international relations scholar who rose to prominence as foreign policy advisor to Erdoğan in the 2000s, and has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2009. Pundits attribute his meteoric rise in domestic politics to his ability to earn Erdoğan’s trust in a fast-changing political landscape. Davutoğlu and his team are hailed as foreign policy visionaries in the government circles, so one expects his nomination as prime minister to be an acknowledgment of their achievements in that area, too. Yet, it is precisely the unravelling of that vision that will challenge the new government.
http://researchturkey.org/visionary-failure-on-turkeys-foreign-policy/?mc_cid=bd378a631f&mc_eid=8a417700dd
22. In Turkey, A Child Is A Terrorist
14 December 2014 / Alliance for Kurdish RightsFirst a picture of a boy. Then a black flood overlaid with meter upon meter of red, yellow and green fabric, moving in waves on the shoulders of those beneath it. Finally pale hands, dark hands, wrinkled, callused, steady hands performing a wonted act, the tendons pressing against the worn skin carrying the coffin.
On the sixth of December, 2013 Kurds in the Gever district of Colemêrg (Yüksekova in Hakkari, Turkey) gathered to demonstrate against continuing attacks on the graves of PKK guerillas. Being a permanent component of any Kurdish assembly, the Turkish police was present and armed with the standard kit for rallies: tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. Clashes erupted between the police and protesters, leaving two to die at the hands of the Turkish police: Veysel İşbilir and Mehmet Reşat İşbilir.
http://kurdishrights.org/2014/12/14/in-turkey-a-child-is-a-terrorist/
23. Kurdish Peace Process: Is it Resolution or Deception Process?
16 December 2014 / eKurdSince coming to power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has promised to resolve Turkey’s Kurdish problem and in the last several years it has initiated a ‘Resolution Process’ which has been commended by many Kurds and non-Kurds alike. It was a bold step that broke many taboos and placed the Kurdish question firmly on Turkey’s national agenda. However, progress has been very slow which has in turn led to criticism that the ‘Resolution Process’ is not honest. The AKP rejects these criticisms and insists the process in genuine despite the lack of tangible results.
This raises an interesting question about the extent to which the AKP might be more interested in the process of negotiations than in meaningful change.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/turkey5267.htm
24. How Iraq Became a Proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
December 2014 / The Tower The United States and its Western allies have recently undertaken airstrikes and other military measures against the Islamic State (I.S., also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Iraq. Contrary to the spirit of most statements coming out of Washington, however, this military action cannot be properly viewed as simply an effort to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State—mainly because the Western actions are limited only to air strikes, which would be ineffective on their own in achieving that end. Rather, this campaign is quite obviously meant to help the main ground forces currently fighting the I.S.—namely, the Iraqi government and Shia militias in Iraq—in the hopes that the Islamic State may be defeated through their combined efforts.
http://www.thetower.org/article/how-iraq-became-a-wholly-owned-subsidiary-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/
Monday, 19 January 2015
Janet Biehl gives her impressions of Rojava following recent delegation
MY IMPRESSIONS OF ROJAVAhttp://www.kurdishquestion.com/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/my-impressions-of-rojava.html
Originally published in The Kurdish Question, www.kurdishquestion.comFrom December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting Rojava as part of a delegation of academics from Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. 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. We soon had enough and on Monday morning were relieved to drive to the Tigris, where crossed the border into Syria and entered Rojava, the majority-Kurdish autonomous region of northern Syria.
The Tigris river channel was narrow, but society of social and political revolution that we encountered on the far shore could not have been more different from the KRG. As we disembarked, we were greeted by the Asayis, or civilian security forces of revolution; the Asayis reject the label police, since police serve the state, whereas they serve the society. Over the next nine days, we would explore Rojava’s revolutionary self-government an old-fashioned state of total immersion (we had no Internet access to distract us). Our delegation’s two organizers—Dilar Dirik (a talented Ph.D. student at Cambridge University) and Devriş Çimen (head of Civaka Azad, the Kurdish Center for Public Information in Germany)—took us on an intensive tour of the various revolutionary institutions. Rojava consists of three geographically noncontiguous cantons; we would see only the easternmost one, Cizire, due to the ongoing war with the Islamic State, which rages to the west, especially in Kobane. But everywhere we were welcomed warmly.
At the outset, the deputy foreign minister, Amine Ossi, introduced us to the history of the revolution. The Baath regime, a system of one-party rule, had long insisted that all Syrians were Arabs and attempted to “Arabize” the country’s four million Kurds, suppressing their identity and stripping those who objected of citizenship. After Tunisian and Egyptian opposition groups mounted insurgencies in 2011’s Arab Spring, rebellious Syrians too rose up, initiating the civil war. In the summer of 2012 regime authority collapsed in Rojava, where the Kurds had little trouble persuading its officials to depart nonviolently. Rojavans (I’ll call them by that name because while they are mostly Kurds, they are also Arabs, Assyrians, Chechens, and others) then faced a choice of aligning themselves either with the regime that had persecuted them, or with the mostly Islamic militant opposition groups.
Rojava’s Kurds being relatively secular, they refused both sides and decided instead to embark on a Third Way, based on the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader who rethought he Kurdish issue, the nature of revolution, and an alternative modernity to the nation-state and capitalism. Initially, under his leadership, Kurds had fought for a state, but several decades ago, again under his leadership, their goal began to change: they now reject the state as a source of oppression and instead strive for self-government, for popular democracy. Drawing eclectically from sources in history, philosophy, politics, and anthropology, Öcalan proposed Democratic Confederalism, as the name for the overarching program of bottom-up democracy, gender equality, ecology, and a cooperative economy. Te implementation of those principles, in institutions not only of democratic self-government but also of economics, education, health, and gender, is called Democratic Autonomy.
Under their Third Way, Rojava’s three cantons declared Democratic Autonomy and formally established it in a “social agreement” (the nonstatist term it uses instead of “constitution”). Under that program, they created a system of popular self-government, based in neighborhood commune assemblies (comprising several hundred households each), which anyone may attend, and with power rising from the bottom up through elected deputies to the city and cantonal levels. When our delegation visited a Qamislo neighborhood, we attended a meeting of a local people’s council, where the electricity and matters relating to women, conflict resolution, and families of martyrs were discussed; men and women sat and participated together. Elsewhere in Qamislo, we witnessed an assembly of women addressing problems particular to their gender.
Gender is of particular importance to this project in human emancipation. We quickly realized that the Rojava Revolution is fundamentally a women’s revolution. This part of the world is traditionally home to extreme patriarchal oppression: to be born female is to be at risk for violent abuse, childhood marriage, honor killings, polygamy, and more. But today the women of Rojava have shaken off that tradition and participate fully in public life: at every level of politics and society, institutional leadership consists not of one position but two, one male and one female official—for the sake of gender equality and also to keep power from concentrating into one person’s hands.
Representatives of Yekitiya Star, the umbrella organization for women’s groups, explained that women are essential to democracy—they even defined the antagonist of women’s freedom, strikingly, not as patriarchy but as the nation-state and capitalist modernity. The women’s revolution aims to free everyone. Women are to this revolution what the proletariat was to Marxist-Leninist revolutions of the past century. It has profoundly transformed not only women’s status but every aspect of society.
Even the traditionally male ones like the military. The people’s protection units (YPG) have been joined by YPJ, women’s units, whose images by have now become world famous, are defending the society against the jihadist forces of ISIS and Al-Nusra with Kalashnikovs and, perhaps equally formidably, a fierce intellectual and emotional commitment not only to their community’s survival but to its political ideas and aspirations. When we visited a meeting of YPJ, we were told that the fighters’ education consists not only of training in practical matters like weapons but also in Democratic Autonomy. We are fighting for our ideas, they emphasized at every turn. Two of the women who met with us had been injured in battle; one sat with an IV bag, another with a metal crutch; both were wincing in pain but had the fortitude and self-discipline to participate in our session.
Rojavans fight for the survival of their community but above all, as the YPJ told us, for their ideas. They even put the successful implementation of democracy above ethnicity. Their social agreement affirms the inclusion of ethnic minorities (Arabs, Chechens, Assyrians) and religions (Muslims, Christians, Yezidis), and Democratic Autonomy in practice seems to bend over backwards to include minorities, without imposing it on others against their will, leaving the door open to all. When our delegation asked a group of Assyrians to tell us their challenges with Democratic Autonomy, they said they had none. In nine days we could not possibly have scoured Rojava for all problems, and our interlocutors candidly admitted that Rojava is hardly above criticism, but as far as I could see, Rojava at the very least aspires to model tolerance and pluralism in a part of the world that has seen far too much fanaticism and repression—and to whatever extent it succeeds, it deserves commendation.
Rojava’s economic model “is the same as its political model,” an economics adviser in Derik told us: to create a “community economy, “ building cooperatives in all sectors and educating the people in the idea. The adviser expressed satisfaction that even though 70 percent of Rojava’ s resources must go to the war effort, the economy still manages meet everyone’s basic needs. They strive for self-sufficiency, because they must: the crucial fact is that Rojava exists under an embargo. It can neither export to nor import from its immediate neighbor to the north, Turkey, which would like to see the whole Kurdish project disappear. Even the KRG, fellow Kurds but economically beholden to Turkey, observes the embargo, although more cross-border KRG-Rojava trade is occurring now, in the wake of political developments. But the country still lacks resources. That does not dampen their spirit: “If there is only bread, then we all have a share,” the adviser told us.
We visited an economics academy and economic cooperatives: a sewing cooperative in Derik, making uniforms for the defense forces; a cooperative greenhouse, growing cucumbers and tomatoes; a dairy cooperative in Rimelan, where a new shed was under construction. The Kurdish areas are the most fertile parts of Syria, home its abundant wheat supply, but the Baath regime had deliberately kept the area pre-industrial, a source of raw materials. Hence wheat was cultivated but could not be milled into flour. We visited a mill, newly constructed since the revolution, improvised from local materials. It now provides flour for the bread consumed Cizire, whose residents get three loaves a day.
Similarly, Cizire was Syria’s major source of petroleum, with several thousand oil rigs, mostly in the Rimelan area. But the Baath regime ensured that Rojava had no refineries, forcing the oil to be transported to refineries elsewhere in Syria. But since the revolution, Rojavans have improvised two new oil refineries, which are used mainly to provide diesel for the generators that power the canton. The local oil industry, if such it can be called, produces only enough for local needs, nothing more.
The level of improvisation was striking throughout the canton. The more we traveled through Rojava, the more I marveled at the do-it-yourself nature of the revolution, its reliance on local ingenuity and the scarce materials at hand. But it was not until we visited the various academies-- the women’s academy in Rimelan and the Mesopotamian Academy in Qamislo—that I realized that it is integral to the system as a whole.
The education system in Rojava is nontraditional, rejecting ideas of hierarchy, power, and hegemony. Instead of following a teacher-student hierarchy, students teach each other and learn from each other’s experience. Students learn what is useful, in practical matters; they “search for meaning,” as we were told, in intellectual matters. They do not memorize; they learn to think for themselves and make decisions, to become the subjects of their own lives. They learn to be empowered and to participate in Democratic Autonomy.
Images of Abdullah Öcalan are everywhere, which to Western eyes might suggest something Orwellian: indoctrination, knee-jerk belief. But to interpret those images that way would be to miss the situation entirely. “No one will give you your rights,” someone quoted Öcalan to us—“you will have to struggle to obtain them.” And to carry out that struggle, Rojavans know they must educate both themselves and society. Öcalan taught them Democratic Confederalism, as a set of principles; their role has been to figure out how to implement it, in Democratic Autonomy, and thereby empower themselves.
The Kurds have historically had few friends. They were ignored by the Treaty of Lausanne that divided up the Middle East after World War I. For most of the past century, they suffered as minorities in Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Their language and culture have been suppressed, their identities denied, their human rights overruled. They are on the wrong side of NATO, where Turkey is permitted to call the shots on Kurdish matters. They have long been outsiders. That experience has been brutal, involving torture, exile, and war. But it has also given them strength and independence of mind. Öcalan taught them how to reset the terms of their existence in a way that gave them dignity and self-respect.
This do-it-yourself revolution by an educated populace is embargoed by their neighbors and gets along by the skin of its teeth. It is nonetheless an endeavor that pushes the human prospect forward. In the wake of the twentieth century, many people have come to the worst conclusions about human nature, but in the twenty-first, Rojavans are setting a new standard for what human beings are capable of; in a world fast losing hope, they shine as a beacon.
Anyone with a bit of faith in humanity should wish the Rojavans well with their revolution and do what they can to help it succeed. They should demand that their governments stop allowing Turkey to define a rejectionist international policy toward the Kurds and toward Democratic Autonomy. They should demand an end to the embargo against Rojava.
The members of the delegation in which I participated (even though I am not an academic) did their work well. Sympathetic to the revolution, they nonetheless asked challenging questions, about Rojava’s economic outlook, about the handling ethnicity and nationalism, and more. The Rojavans we met, accustomed to grappling with hard questions, responded thoughtfully and even welcomed critique. Readers interested in learning more about the Rojava Revolution may look forward to forthcoming writings by the other delegation members: Welat (Oktay) Ay, Rebecca Coles, Antonia Davidovic, Eirik Eiglad, David Graeber, Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Johanna Riha, Nazan Üstündag, and Christian Zimmer. As for me, I have much more to say than this short article allows and plan to write a further work, one that incorporates drawings I made during the trip.
*Janet Biehl (1953—) is an author, copy editor, and graphic artist living in Burlington, Vermont. In the late 1980s she was heavily involved with the Burlington Greens and the Left Green Network, and for more than two decades was involved with popularizing and developing the theory and politics of social ecology.
From 1987 to 2000 she published and, together with Murray Bookchin, co-editedLeft Green Perspectives. She was on the first editorial board of our journalCommunalism. She has written on libertarian municipalism and a range of critiques of deep ecology, ecofeminism, and far-right tendencies. Biehl no longer considers herself part of the social ecology movement, but her writings remain a source of inspiration.
Her books include Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics <http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Our-Way-Rethinking-Eco-Feminist/dp/0921689780/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299486923&sr=8-2> (1991) andThe Politics of Social Ecology <http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Social-Ecology-Libertarian-Municipalism/dp/1551641003/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299486923&sr=8-3> : Libertarian Municipalism (1997; on which a series of international conferences was based). She also editedThe Murray Bookchin Reader <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0304338745/sr=1-1/qid=1299487125/ref=sr_1_1_oe_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299487125&sr=1-1> (1997) and has written several articles on Bookchin’s life and thought for our publications. Biehl was Bookchin’s partner and collaborator and is currently working on his political biography.
Originally published in The Kurdish Question, www.kurdishquestion.comFrom December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting Rojava as part of a delegation of academics from Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. 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. We soon had enough and on Monday morning were relieved to drive to the Tigris, where crossed the border into Syria and entered Rojava, the majority-Kurdish autonomous region of northern Syria.
The Tigris river channel was narrow, but society of social and political revolution that we encountered on the far shore could not have been more different from the KRG. As we disembarked, we were greeted by the Asayis, or civilian security forces of revolution; the Asayis reject the label police, since police serve the state, whereas they serve the society. Over the next nine days, we would explore Rojava’s revolutionary self-government an old-fashioned state of total immersion (we had no Internet access to distract us). Our delegation’s two organizers—Dilar Dirik (a talented Ph.D. student at Cambridge University) and Devriş Çimen (head of Civaka Azad, the Kurdish Center for Public Information in Germany)—took us on an intensive tour of the various revolutionary institutions. Rojava consists of three geographically noncontiguous cantons; we would see only the easternmost one, Cizire, due to the ongoing war with the Islamic State, which rages to the west, especially in Kobane. But everywhere we were welcomed warmly.
At the outset, the deputy foreign minister, Amine Ossi, introduced us to the history of the revolution. The Baath regime, a system of one-party rule, had long insisted that all Syrians were Arabs and attempted to “Arabize” the country’s four million Kurds, suppressing their identity and stripping those who objected of citizenship. After Tunisian and Egyptian opposition groups mounted insurgencies in 2011’s Arab Spring, rebellious Syrians too rose up, initiating the civil war. In the summer of 2012 regime authority collapsed in Rojava, where the Kurds had little trouble persuading its officials to depart nonviolently. Rojavans (I’ll call them by that name because while they are mostly Kurds, they are also Arabs, Assyrians, Chechens, and others) then faced a choice of aligning themselves either with the regime that had persecuted them, or with the mostly Islamic militant opposition groups.
Rojava’s Kurds being relatively secular, they refused both sides and decided instead to embark on a Third Way, based on the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader who rethought he Kurdish issue, the nature of revolution, and an alternative modernity to the nation-state and capitalism. Initially, under his leadership, Kurds had fought for a state, but several decades ago, again under his leadership, their goal began to change: they now reject the state as a source of oppression and instead strive for self-government, for popular democracy. Drawing eclectically from sources in history, philosophy, politics, and anthropology, Öcalan proposed Democratic Confederalism, as the name for the overarching program of bottom-up democracy, gender equality, ecology, and a cooperative economy. Te implementation of those principles, in institutions not only of democratic self-government but also of economics, education, health, and gender, is called Democratic Autonomy.
Under their Third Way, Rojava’s three cantons declared Democratic Autonomy and formally established it in a “social agreement” (the nonstatist term it uses instead of “constitution”). Under that program, they created a system of popular self-government, based in neighborhood commune assemblies (comprising several hundred households each), which anyone may attend, and with power rising from the bottom up through elected deputies to the city and cantonal levels. When our delegation visited a Qamislo neighborhood, we attended a meeting of a local people’s council, where the electricity and matters relating to women, conflict resolution, and families of martyrs were discussed; men and women sat and participated together. Elsewhere in Qamislo, we witnessed an assembly of women addressing problems particular to their gender.
Gender is of particular importance to this project in human emancipation. We quickly realized that the Rojava Revolution is fundamentally a women’s revolution. This part of the world is traditionally home to extreme patriarchal oppression: to be born female is to be at risk for violent abuse, childhood marriage, honor killings, polygamy, and more. But today the women of Rojava have shaken off that tradition and participate fully in public life: at every level of politics and society, institutional leadership consists not of one position but two, one male and one female official—for the sake of gender equality and also to keep power from concentrating into one person’s hands.
Representatives of Yekitiya Star, the umbrella organization for women’s groups, explained that women are essential to democracy—they even defined the antagonist of women’s freedom, strikingly, not as patriarchy but as the nation-state and capitalist modernity. The women’s revolution aims to free everyone. Women are to this revolution what the proletariat was to Marxist-Leninist revolutions of the past century. It has profoundly transformed not only women’s status but every aspect of society.
Even the traditionally male ones like the military. The people’s protection units (YPG) have been joined by YPJ, women’s units, whose images by have now become world famous, are defending the society against the jihadist forces of ISIS and Al-Nusra with Kalashnikovs and, perhaps equally formidably, a fierce intellectual and emotional commitment not only to their community’s survival but to its political ideas and aspirations. When we visited a meeting of YPJ, we were told that the fighters’ education consists not only of training in practical matters like weapons but also in Democratic Autonomy. We are fighting for our ideas, they emphasized at every turn. Two of the women who met with us had been injured in battle; one sat with an IV bag, another with a metal crutch; both were wincing in pain but had the fortitude and self-discipline to participate in our session.
Rojavans fight for the survival of their community but above all, as the YPJ told us, for their ideas. They even put the successful implementation of democracy above ethnicity. Their social agreement affirms the inclusion of ethnic minorities (Arabs, Chechens, Assyrians) and religions (Muslims, Christians, Yezidis), and Democratic Autonomy in practice seems to bend over backwards to include minorities, without imposing it on others against their will, leaving the door open to all. When our delegation asked a group of Assyrians to tell us their challenges with Democratic Autonomy, they said they had none. In nine days we could not possibly have scoured Rojava for all problems, and our interlocutors candidly admitted that Rojava is hardly above criticism, but as far as I could see, Rojava at the very least aspires to model tolerance and pluralism in a part of the world that has seen far too much fanaticism and repression—and to whatever extent it succeeds, it deserves commendation.
Rojava’s economic model “is the same as its political model,” an economics adviser in Derik told us: to create a “community economy, “ building cooperatives in all sectors and educating the people in the idea. The adviser expressed satisfaction that even though 70 percent of Rojava’ s resources must go to the war effort, the economy still manages meet everyone’s basic needs. They strive for self-sufficiency, because they must: the crucial fact is that Rojava exists under an embargo. It can neither export to nor import from its immediate neighbor to the north, Turkey, which would like to see the whole Kurdish project disappear. Even the KRG, fellow Kurds but economically beholden to Turkey, observes the embargo, although more cross-border KRG-Rojava trade is occurring now, in the wake of political developments. But the country still lacks resources. That does not dampen their spirit: “If there is only bread, then we all have a share,” the adviser told us.
We visited an economics academy and economic cooperatives: a sewing cooperative in Derik, making uniforms for the defense forces; a cooperative greenhouse, growing cucumbers and tomatoes; a dairy cooperative in Rimelan, where a new shed was under construction. The Kurdish areas are the most fertile parts of Syria, home its abundant wheat supply, but the Baath regime had deliberately kept the area pre-industrial, a source of raw materials. Hence wheat was cultivated but could not be milled into flour. We visited a mill, newly constructed since the revolution, improvised from local materials. It now provides flour for the bread consumed Cizire, whose residents get three loaves a day.
Similarly, Cizire was Syria’s major source of petroleum, with several thousand oil rigs, mostly in the Rimelan area. But the Baath regime ensured that Rojava had no refineries, forcing the oil to be transported to refineries elsewhere in Syria. But since the revolution, Rojavans have improvised two new oil refineries, which are used mainly to provide diesel for the generators that power the canton. The local oil industry, if such it can be called, produces only enough for local needs, nothing more.
The level of improvisation was striking throughout the canton. The more we traveled through Rojava, the more I marveled at the do-it-yourself nature of the revolution, its reliance on local ingenuity and the scarce materials at hand. But it was not until we visited the various academies-- the women’s academy in Rimelan and the Mesopotamian Academy in Qamislo—that I realized that it is integral to the system as a whole.
The education system in Rojava is nontraditional, rejecting ideas of hierarchy, power, and hegemony. Instead of following a teacher-student hierarchy, students teach each other and learn from each other’s experience. Students learn what is useful, in practical matters; they “search for meaning,” as we were told, in intellectual matters. They do not memorize; they learn to think for themselves and make decisions, to become the subjects of their own lives. They learn to be empowered and to participate in Democratic Autonomy.
Images of Abdullah Öcalan are everywhere, which to Western eyes might suggest something Orwellian: indoctrination, knee-jerk belief. But to interpret those images that way would be to miss the situation entirely. “No one will give you your rights,” someone quoted Öcalan to us—“you will have to struggle to obtain them.” And to carry out that struggle, Rojavans know they must educate both themselves and society. Öcalan taught them Democratic Confederalism, as a set of principles; their role has been to figure out how to implement it, in Democratic Autonomy, and thereby empower themselves.
The Kurds have historically had few friends. They were ignored by the Treaty of Lausanne that divided up the Middle East after World War I. For most of the past century, they suffered as minorities in Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Their language and culture have been suppressed, their identities denied, their human rights overruled. They are on the wrong side of NATO, where Turkey is permitted to call the shots on Kurdish matters. They have long been outsiders. That experience has been brutal, involving torture, exile, and war. But it has also given them strength and independence of mind. Öcalan taught them how to reset the terms of their existence in a way that gave them dignity and self-respect.
This do-it-yourself revolution by an educated populace is embargoed by their neighbors and gets along by the skin of its teeth. It is nonetheless an endeavor that pushes the human prospect forward. In the wake of the twentieth century, many people have come to the worst conclusions about human nature, but in the twenty-first, Rojavans are setting a new standard for what human beings are capable of; in a world fast losing hope, they shine as a beacon.
Anyone with a bit of faith in humanity should wish the Rojavans well with their revolution and do what they can to help it succeed. They should demand that their governments stop allowing Turkey to define a rejectionist international policy toward the Kurds and toward Democratic Autonomy. They should demand an end to the embargo against Rojava.
The members of the delegation in which I participated (even though I am not an academic) did their work well. Sympathetic to the revolution, they nonetheless asked challenging questions, about Rojava’s economic outlook, about the handling ethnicity and nationalism, and more. The Rojavans we met, accustomed to grappling with hard questions, responded thoughtfully and even welcomed critique. Readers interested in learning more about the Rojava Revolution may look forward to forthcoming writings by the other delegation members: Welat (Oktay) Ay, Rebecca Coles, Antonia Davidovic, Eirik Eiglad, David Graeber, Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Johanna Riha, Nazan Üstündag, and Christian Zimmer. As for me, I have much more to say than this short article allows and plan to write a further work, one that incorporates drawings I made during the trip.
*Janet Biehl (1953—) is an author, copy editor, and graphic artist living in Burlington, Vermont. In the late 1980s she was heavily involved with the Burlington Greens and the Left Green Network, and for more than two decades was involved with popularizing and developing the theory and politics of social ecology.
From 1987 to 2000 she published and, together with Murray Bookchin, co-editedLeft Green Perspectives. She was on the first editorial board of our journalCommunalism. She has written on libertarian municipalism and a range of critiques of deep ecology, ecofeminism, and far-right tendencies. Biehl no longer considers herself part of the social ecology movement, but her writings remain a source of inspiration.
Her books include Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics <http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Our-Way-Rethinking-Eco-Feminist/dp/0921689780/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299486923&sr=8-2> (1991) andThe Politics of Social Ecology <http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Social-Ecology-Libertarian-Municipalism/dp/1551641003/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299486923&sr=8-3> : Libertarian Municipalism (1997; on which a series of international conferences was based). She also editedThe Murray Bookchin Reader <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0304338745/sr=1-1/qid=1299487125/ref=sr_1_1_oe_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299487125&sr=1-1> (1997) and has written several articles on Bookchin’s life and thought for our publications. Biehl was Bookchin’s partner and collaborator and is currently working on his political biography.
KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 6 12 December 2014
1. KCK: Resolution Project is a serious opportunity
11 December 2014 / ANFThe KCK Executive Co-Presidency has issued a statement emphasising that the "Peace and Democratic Negotiation Process Draft” prepared by Abdullah Öcalan constitutes a serious opportunity for Turkey and the Middle East.” The KCK statement added that all components of the movement had debated the draft submitted by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan to the HDP delegation on 29 November, and that there was full agreement that the draft should be accepted and implemented as a project of democratisation that would create radical democratisation in Turkey and the Middle East. http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/kck-resolution-project-is-a-serious-opportunity.htm
2. Öcalan: Everyone should support the process
12 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThe two-day 11th International Conference on EU, Turkey, the Middle East and the Kurds hosted by the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) started at the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday.
Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan sent a message to the conference, which was read out by Nelson Mandela's lawyer, Essa Mossa.
In his message, Abdullah Öcalan drew attention to the fact the 2-year-long process of resolution had reached the stage of negotiation, and called for everyone, first and foremost bodies in Europe, to support the process.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3029:oecalan-everyone-should-support-the-process&catid=6:manet
3. Erdogan plans Arabic Ottoman lessons in schools
8 December 2014 / Oman ObserverTurkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed yesterday to make lessons in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools — a highly symbolic move which enraged secularists who claim he is pursuing an increasingly religious agenda. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished the Ottoman language in 1928, replacing its Arabic alphabet with a Latin one.
He also purged the language of many of its Arabic, Persian and Greek words to create a “pure” Turkish closer to the language people spoke.
Critics claimed the plan was another bid to roll back Ataturk’s secular reforms, which were based on a strict separation between religion and state.
http://main.omanobserver.om/erdogan-plans-arabic-ottoman-lessons-in-schools/
5. IPRI releases comprehensive report into status of peace process
12 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (IPRI) has released a report from its fact-finding mission into the peace process in Turkey. You can read the executive summary below. The full report is also available for download.
A press conference with the authors, Judge Essa Moosa, Francis Wurtz and Osman Kavala, was also held in the European Parliament for the release of this report. You can watch the press conference here.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/12/ipri-releases-comprehensive-report-into-status-of-peace-process/
7. Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak accused of being Western stooges by pro-government press
12 December 2014 / GuardianMajor Turkish authors Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak have been accused by the pro-government Turkish press of being controlled by an “international literature lobby” that has the Turkish government in its sights.
An article in the pro-Erdoğan paper Takvim this week includes the claim that this literature lobby selects a few authors from each country and then uses them to attack the government. Images of Shafak and Pamuk have been circulated on social media, bearing the line “they are projects” – implying that they are projects developed by western powers to criticise the Turkish government. Earlier this year, a piece in the pro-government Yeni Akit said the two writers were “not human”.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/12/pamuk-shafak-turkish-press-campaign
8. Cameron says UK and Turkey working hand in glove to stop Isis fighters
9 December 2014 / GuardianDavid Cameron faced an awkward diplomatic encounter with Turkey’s prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu last night as he promised to share high-level intelligence on Islamic State fighters but his counterpart hit out at foreign “propaganda” about them passing through Turkish territory. On his first trip to Turkey for four years, Cameron said the UK was working “hand in glove” with the country to address the scourge of Isis fighters. During a press conference, the prime minister said some UK citizens are crossing the Turkish border or trying to return home via the same route, and claimed the two countries were working “as closely as we possibly can” to tackle the threat.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/09/cameron-turkey-uk-cooperation-stop-foreign-islamic-state-fighters
9. Turkey assimilates Kurds from Kobanî in AFAD tent city
8 December 2014 / Hawar NewsChildren from Kobanî staying in the state-run AFAD tent city in the old gendarme station are being taught Arabic instead of Kurdish, their mother tongue. People from Kobanî want their children to be taught Kurdish, saying: "in Arabic they are only being given Koranic lessons. They are not being taught to read and write. We don’t know who is running the school."
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3014:turkey-assimilates-kurds-from-kobani-in-afad-tent-city&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
10. Isis releases drone footage of suicide bombings in Kobani
10 December 2014 / IndependentIsis released footage this week of drone footage from Kobani, Syria, purportedly showing the sites of suicide bombings carried out by the militant group.
The footage was released on 9 December and appears to show aerial shots of the Syrian border city of Kobani, where Kurdish forces, now backed by US air strikes, have been trying to hold back Isis advances since September of this year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-release-drone-footage-of-suicide-bombings-in-kobani-9917198.html<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-release-drone-footage-of-suicide-bombings-in-kobani-9917198.html>
11. US denies sending arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters
10 December 2014 / HurriyetThe U.S. State Department has denied supplying U.S. arms to Kurdish forces defending the besieged town of Kobane, insisting that any supplies are from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq. “The United States is not providing U.S. arms to the PYD [the Democratic Union Party],” a department official told the Anadolu Agency on Dec. 9. Turkey views the party as a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and has condemned arming the People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ), the armed wings of the PYD.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-denies-sending-arms-to-syrian-kurdish-fighters---.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75429&NewsCatID=359
12. Call For International Front In Kobanê
8 December 2014 /Rojava ReportSocialist and revolutionary organizations in Turkey have issued a joint statement in which they announced the formation of the Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri – ‘United Freedom Forces’ or BÖG – in Kobanê and called for an international front to defend the revolution in Rojava, according to an article from Özgür Gündem.
The statement was made made by lyas Hekimoğlu, who spoke in the name of the BÖG. Hekimoğlu, stressing that the resistance in Kobanê had become a 21st century Paris Commune, said “In a Middle East where capitalist barbarism and imperialist interests are pursued with savagery the Rojava Model – which aims at and is building a form of life which is anti-capitalist, communal and on the side of freedom and democracy – is presenting an internationalist way of life to the peoples of the Middle East and the world. Kobanê is not the first, nor will it be the last.”
https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/call-for-international-front-in-kobane/
13. International visits to Cizîre Canton continue
6 December 2014 / HawarnewsAn international delegation including scientists from many different countries has gone to West Kurdistan (Rojava). The delegation, which travelled from South Kurdistan to the Cizîre Canton of Rojava will receive information about the democratic autonomous administrations in Rojava. The delegation, which includes scientists, academics, writers and journalists from several countries, was established to go to examine the "Rojava model", as it is known. The delegation went to the capital of South Kurdistan, Hewlêr (Erbil), last week. After meeting the Regional Administration and KNK representatives there, they have travelled to Rojava through the Sêmalka border crossing. They are expected to stay in West Kurdistan until 9 December.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3001:international-visits-to-cizire-canton-continue&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
14. KHRAG December newsletter published
9 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe Kurdish Human Rights Action Group, based in South Africa, has released its December newsletter and it is available to download here. The newsletter includes an article by a Cape Town activist who recently travelled to north Kurdistan on the invitation of the DTK. Judge Essa Mossa, chairperson of KHRAG and member of the International Peace and Reconcilliation Initiative (IPRI), will be speaking at this year’s EUTCC conference which is taking place this week.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/09/khrag-december-newsletter-published/
15. Muslim: We are defending democracy in Kobanê
11 December 2014 / ANFThe Kurdish conference that began yesterday is continuing at the European Parliament (EP). Today there is a discussion on: “What are the alternatives to chaos in the Middle East (Security, Stability and Prosperity)?“
The debate is being chaired by Prof. Michael Gunter and Osman Kavala, and the speakers are Prof. Ofra Bengio from Tel Aviv university, Bahar Şimşek from Ankara university, EP deputy Bodil Ceballos, journalist Fréderike Geerdink, Prof. Abbas Vali from Bosphorus university and PYD Co-President Salih Muslim.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/muslim-we-are-defending-democracy-in-kobane.htm
16. Germany: March in Cologne against PKK ban
6 December 2014 / eKurd84 Kurdish, German and Turkish organisations are holding a protest march Saturday in Cologne against the ban on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK. YXK executive Sema Kocatepe has issued a statement calling on all Kurds to attend the demonstration.
The march comes a few days before the interior ministers of the 16 German states meet in Cologne on 11 and 12 December to discuss, inter alia, the ban on the PKK. The 84 organisations responded to a call by the Kurdistan Students’ Union (YXK) and the Interventionistische Linke (IL) organisation to set up the “Bündiss Gegen İMK“ platform to protest the ban on the PKK and other anti-democratic measures in Germany.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/turkey5263.htm
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
17. The Vortex: A Turkish city on the frontier of Syria’s war
8 December 2014 / The New YorkerGaziantep, a city in southern Turkey some forty miles from the Syrian border, has become a bustling hub at the center of the Middle East’s latest conflict. It’s a destination for spies and refugees, insurgent fighters and rebel leaders, foreign-aid workers and covert jihadists—all enmeshed in Syria’s multisided war.
I recently drove to one of Gaziantep’s upscale neighborhoods, an area of pastel apartment blocks with balconies, and took pictures of American Patriot-missile batteries on a nearby hillside. They were pointed at Syria. The missiles were deployed, last year, to defend against Scuds fired at rebel militias by the government of Bashar al-Assad.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/08/vortex
18. What Kobani Needs
5 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteIn the ongoing fighting in and around Kobani in northern Syria, it appears likely that the defending Kurdish forces will ultimately prevail and be able to expel the Islamic State (ISIS). However, in order to enable refugees to return, substantial aid and reconstruction efforts will be needed, and more benign Turkish border policies are essential in the meantime.
Construction and Housing: In the early days of the Syrian revolution, the regime tried to calm protesters with limited reforms, including the abolishment of “Decree 49,” which had regulated land ownership and construction in border areas and was used in a discriminatory fashion against Kurds.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/what-kobani-needs
19. The Kurdish 'Angels of Kobane' Are Fighting on a Second Front
10 December 2014 / NewsweekIn the ongoing fight against the terrorists of the Islamic State (ISIS), Kurdish women have had the spotlight turned on them like never before. Since the siege of Kobane by ISIS fighters, images of gun-toting female Kurds have been splashed across the newspaper pages and TV screens of the West. One, possibly mythological, female fighter has drawn particular attention. Dubbed the ‘Angel of Kobani’, she is beautiful and blonde-haired, is reputed to have killed a hundred ISIS fighters and has come to epitomise the media’s portrayal of the Kurdish women involved in the war.
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/angels-kobane-are-fighting-second-front-290835.html
20. A day in YPJ positions
6 December 2014 / Hawar NewsYPJ fighters who have been waging an epic resistance for 80 days in Kobanî have not just been defending a city, but are also demolishing the mentality of male dominance. "We are not just fighting here. We are organising a new way of life and war in these emplacements", the YPJ fighters say. We spent a day in the emplacements of YPJ fighters, who have gained a special place in the hearts of women everywhere with the leadership they have demonstrated in the resistance in Kobanî.
We have to walk for 15 minutes across muddy ground under heavy mortar fire to reach the positions of the YPJ fighters. Then a vehicle comes to take us to the south western front where Commander Peyman and the YPJ fighters are stationed.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3003:a-day-in-ypj-positions&catid=6:manet
21. AKP and ISIS: What Is Turkey Preparing In The Hatay?
10 December 2014 / Rojava ReportISIS functionaries are establishing themselves throughout Hatay province. ISIS schools and centers for jihadi education are being opened, safe houses are being set up, and various organizations are being founded. Facilities belonging to the Turkish army are being used by ISIS functionaries, and camps which are under the administration of the Turkish army and in which thousands of people are now living are being converted into ISIS bases.
https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/akp-and-isis-what-is-turkey-preparing-in-the-hatay/
22. Washington-Ankara Tensions Will Shape Obama’s Legacy in Turkey
5 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteTurkey-U.S. relations were off to a good start when President Obama launched his campaign to reconcile the United States with the Muslim world in a 2009 speech to the Turkish National Assembly in which he described Turkey as a “model partner.”. Regional dynamics, Ankara’s foreign policy miscalculations, and diverging priorities, however, have driven a wedge between the two allies.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/washington-ankara-tensions-will-shape-obama%E2%80%99s-legacy-turkey
23. Isis: the inside story
11 December 2014 / GuardianIn the summer of 2004, a young jihadist in shackles and chains was walked by his captors slowly into the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq. He was nervous as two American soldiers led him through three brightly-lit buildings and then a maze of wire corridors, into an open yard, where men with middle-distance stares, wearing brightly-coloured prison uniforms, stood back warily, watching him.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story
24. Is the United States Complicit with ISIS?
11 December 2014 / Commentary MagazineMichael Rubin: Is the United States complicit with the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daash)? The answer to that question is, of course, no, even though the accusation that the United States created ISIS is a staple of both Iranian and Russian propaganda. Frankly, responsibility for the rise of ISIS rests on Turkey, which may have supplied it directly and which knowingly served as a transit hub for jihadists going to and from the Islamic State; Qatar and Saudi Arabia which for so long have funded the religious radicalism which provides the basis of ISIS; and perhaps Syria itself which believed that ISIS’s growth would enable the regime to rally ordinary Syrians around Bashar al-Assad, arguably a less-noxious choice, much in the same way that lung cancer is “better” than pancreatic cancer.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/12/11/is-the-united-states-complicit-with-isis/
25. The European Kurds rallying to fight IS
10 December 2014 / Open DemocracyJanroj Yilmaz Keles: Kurds, of whom there are estimated to be 30-35m, comprise the largest ethnic community in the Middle East after Turks, Arabs and Persians—and the largest in the world without a state. Most live in the disputed territory of Kurdistan. which covers east and south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, west Iran and northern Syria. Various revolts in pursuit of an independent Kurdistan or autonomy within these national borders have wrought no significant political or structural changes, except in Iraq, where Kurds have had a de facto state since 1991.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/janroj-yilmaz-keles/european-kurds-rallying-to-fight-is
11 December 2014 / ANFThe KCK Executive Co-Presidency has issued a statement emphasising that the "Peace and Democratic Negotiation Process Draft” prepared by Abdullah Öcalan constitutes a serious opportunity for Turkey and the Middle East.” The KCK statement added that all components of the movement had debated the draft submitted by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan to the HDP delegation on 29 November, and that there was full agreement that the draft should be accepted and implemented as a project of democratisation that would create radical democratisation in Turkey and the Middle East. http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/kck-resolution-project-is-a-serious-opportunity.htm
2. Öcalan: Everyone should support the process
12 December 2014 / Hawar NewsThe two-day 11th International Conference on EU, Turkey, the Middle East and the Kurds hosted by the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) started at the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday.
Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan sent a message to the conference, which was read out by Nelson Mandela's lawyer, Essa Mossa.
In his message, Abdullah Öcalan drew attention to the fact the 2-year-long process of resolution had reached the stage of negotiation, and called for everyone, first and foremost bodies in Europe, to support the process.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3029:oecalan-everyone-should-support-the-process&catid=6:manet
3. Erdogan plans Arabic Ottoman lessons in schools
8 December 2014 / Oman ObserverTurkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed yesterday to make lessons in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools — a highly symbolic move which enraged secularists who claim he is pursuing an increasingly religious agenda. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished the Ottoman language in 1928, replacing its Arabic alphabet with a Latin one.
He also purged the language of many of its Arabic, Persian and Greek words to create a “pure” Turkish closer to the language people spoke.
Critics claimed the plan was another bid to roll back Ataturk’s secular reforms, which were based on a strict separation between religion and state.
http://main.omanobserver.om/erdogan-plans-arabic-ottoman-lessons-in-schools/
5. IPRI releases comprehensive report into status of peace process
12 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (IPRI) has released a report from its fact-finding mission into the peace process in Turkey. You can read the executive summary below. The full report is also available for download.
A press conference with the authors, Judge Essa Moosa, Francis Wurtz and Osman Kavala, was also held in the European Parliament for the release of this report. You can watch the press conference here.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/12/ipri-releases-comprehensive-report-into-status-of-peace-process/
7. Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak accused of being Western stooges by pro-government press
12 December 2014 / GuardianMajor Turkish authors Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak have been accused by the pro-government Turkish press of being controlled by an “international literature lobby” that has the Turkish government in its sights.
An article in the pro-Erdoğan paper Takvim this week includes the claim that this literature lobby selects a few authors from each country and then uses them to attack the government. Images of Shafak and Pamuk have been circulated on social media, bearing the line “they are projects” – implying that they are projects developed by western powers to criticise the Turkish government. Earlier this year, a piece in the pro-government Yeni Akit said the two writers were “not human”.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/12/pamuk-shafak-turkish-press-campaign
8. Cameron says UK and Turkey working hand in glove to stop Isis fighters
9 December 2014 / GuardianDavid Cameron faced an awkward diplomatic encounter with Turkey’s prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu last night as he promised to share high-level intelligence on Islamic State fighters but his counterpart hit out at foreign “propaganda” about them passing through Turkish territory. On his first trip to Turkey for four years, Cameron said the UK was working “hand in glove” with the country to address the scourge of Isis fighters. During a press conference, the prime minister said some UK citizens are crossing the Turkish border or trying to return home via the same route, and claimed the two countries were working “as closely as we possibly can” to tackle the threat.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/09/cameron-turkey-uk-cooperation-stop-foreign-islamic-state-fighters
9. Turkey assimilates Kurds from Kobanî in AFAD tent city
8 December 2014 / Hawar NewsChildren from Kobanî staying in the state-run AFAD tent city in the old gendarme station are being taught Arabic instead of Kurdish, their mother tongue. People from Kobanî want their children to be taught Kurdish, saying: "in Arabic they are only being given Koranic lessons. They are not being taught to read and write. We don’t know who is running the school."
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3014:turkey-assimilates-kurds-from-kobani-in-afad-tent-city&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
10. Isis releases drone footage of suicide bombings in Kobani
10 December 2014 / IndependentIsis released footage this week of drone footage from Kobani, Syria, purportedly showing the sites of suicide bombings carried out by the militant group.
The footage was released on 9 December and appears to show aerial shots of the Syrian border city of Kobani, where Kurdish forces, now backed by US air strikes, have been trying to hold back Isis advances since September of this year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-release-drone-footage-of-suicide-bombings-in-kobani-9917198.html<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-release-drone-footage-of-suicide-bombings-in-kobani-9917198.html>
11. US denies sending arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters
10 December 2014 / HurriyetThe U.S. State Department has denied supplying U.S. arms to Kurdish forces defending the besieged town of Kobane, insisting that any supplies are from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq. “The United States is not providing U.S. arms to the PYD [the Democratic Union Party],” a department official told the Anadolu Agency on Dec. 9. Turkey views the party as a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and has condemned arming the People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ), the armed wings of the PYD.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-denies-sending-arms-to-syrian-kurdish-fighters---.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75429&NewsCatID=359
12. Call For International Front In Kobanê
8 December 2014 /Rojava ReportSocialist and revolutionary organizations in Turkey have issued a joint statement in which they announced the formation of the Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri – ‘United Freedom Forces’ or BÖG – in Kobanê and called for an international front to defend the revolution in Rojava, according to an article from Özgür Gündem.
The statement was made made by lyas Hekimoğlu, who spoke in the name of the BÖG. Hekimoğlu, stressing that the resistance in Kobanê had become a 21st century Paris Commune, said “In a Middle East where capitalist barbarism and imperialist interests are pursued with savagery the Rojava Model – which aims at and is building a form of life which is anti-capitalist, communal and on the side of freedom and democracy – is presenting an internationalist way of life to the peoples of the Middle East and the world. Kobanê is not the first, nor will it be the last.”
https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/call-for-international-front-in-kobane/
13. International visits to Cizîre Canton continue
6 December 2014 / HawarnewsAn international delegation including scientists from many different countries has gone to West Kurdistan (Rojava). The delegation, which travelled from South Kurdistan to the Cizîre Canton of Rojava will receive information about the democratic autonomous administrations in Rojava. The delegation, which includes scientists, academics, writers and journalists from several countries, was established to go to examine the "Rojava model", as it is known. The delegation went to the capital of South Kurdistan, Hewlêr (Erbil), last week. After meeting the Regional Administration and KNK representatives there, they have travelled to Rojava through the Sêmalka border crossing. They are expected to stay in West Kurdistan until 9 December.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3001:international-visits-to-cizire-canton-continue&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
14. KHRAG December newsletter published
9 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe Kurdish Human Rights Action Group, based in South Africa, has released its December newsletter and it is available to download here. The newsletter includes an article by a Cape Town activist who recently travelled to north Kurdistan on the invitation of the DTK. Judge Essa Mossa, chairperson of KHRAG and member of the International Peace and Reconcilliation Initiative (IPRI), will be speaking at this year’s EUTCC conference which is taking place this week.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/09/khrag-december-newsletter-published/
15. Muslim: We are defending democracy in Kobanê
11 December 2014 / ANFThe Kurdish conference that began yesterday is continuing at the European Parliament (EP). Today there is a discussion on: “What are the alternatives to chaos in the Middle East (Security, Stability and Prosperity)?“
The debate is being chaired by Prof. Michael Gunter and Osman Kavala, and the speakers are Prof. Ofra Bengio from Tel Aviv university, Bahar Şimşek from Ankara university, EP deputy Bodil Ceballos, journalist Fréderike Geerdink, Prof. Abbas Vali from Bosphorus university and PYD Co-President Salih Muslim.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/muslim-we-are-defending-democracy-in-kobane.htm
16. Germany: March in Cologne against PKK ban
6 December 2014 / eKurd84 Kurdish, German and Turkish organisations are holding a protest march Saturday in Cologne against the ban on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK. YXK executive Sema Kocatepe has issued a statement calling on all Kurds to attend the demonstration.
The march comes a few days before the interior ministers of the 16 German states meet in Cologne on 11 and 12 December to discuss, inter alia, the ban on the PKK. The 84 organisations responded to a call by the Kurdistan Students’ Union (YXK) and the Interventionistische Linke (IL) organisation to set up the “Bündiss Gegen İMK“ platform to protest the ban on the PKK and other anti-democratic measures in Germany.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/12/turkey5263.htm
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
17. The Vortex: A Turkish city on the frontier of Syria’s war
8 December 2014 / The New YorkerGaziantep, a city in southern Turkey some forty miles from the Syrian border, has become a bustling hub at the center of the Middle East’s latest conflict. It’s a destination for spies and refugees, insurgent fighters and rebel leaders, foreign-aid workers and covert jihadists—all enmeshed in Syria’s multisided war.
I recently drove to one of Gaziantep’s upscale neighborhoods, an area of pastel apartment blocks with balconies, and took pictures of American Patriot-missile batteries on a nearby hillside. They were pointed at Syria. The missiles were deployed, last year, to defend against Scuds fired at rebel militias by the government of Bashar al-Assad.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/08/vortex
18. What Kobani Needs
5 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteIn the ongoing fighting in and around Kobani in northern Syria, it appears likely that the defending Kurdish forces will ultimately prevail and be able to expel the Islamic State (ISIS). However, in order to enable refugees to return, substantial aid and reconstruction efforts will be needed, and more benign Turkish border policies are essential in the meantime.
Construction and Housing: In the early days of the Syrian revolution, the regime tried to calm protesters with limited reforms, including the abolishment of “Decree 49,” which had regulated land ownership and construction in border areas and was used in a discriminatory fashion against Kurds.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/what-kobani-needs
19. The Kurdish 'Angels of Kobane' Are Fighting on a Second Front
10 December 2014 / NewsweekIn the ongoing fight against the terrorists of the Islamic State (ISIS), Kurdish women have had the spotlight turned on them like never before. Since the siege of Kobane by ISIS fighters, images of gun-toting female Kurds have been splashed across the newspaper pages and TV screens of the West. One, possibly mythological, female fighter has drawn particular attention. Dubbed the ‘Angel of Kobani’, she is beautiful and blonde-haired, is reputed to have killed a hundred ISIS fighters and has come to epitomise the media’s portrayal of the Kurdish women involved in the war.
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/angels-kobane-are-fighting-second-front-290835.html
20. A day in YPJ positions
6 December 2014 / Hawar NewsYPJ fighters who have been waging an epic resistance for 80 days in Kobanî have not just been defending a city, but are also demolishing the mentality of male dominance. "We are not just fighting here. We are organising a new way of life and war in these emplacements", the YPJ fighters say. We spent a day in the emplacements of YPJ fighters, who have gained a special place in the hearts of women everywhere with the leadership they have demonstrated in the resistance in Kobanî.
We have to walk for 15 minutes across muddy ground under heavy mortar fire to reach the positions of the YPJ fighters. Then a vehicle comes to take us to the south western front where Commander Peyman and the YPJ fighters are stationed.
http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3003:a-day-in-ypj-positions&catid=6:manet
21. AKP and ISIS: What Is Turkey Preparing In The Hatay?
10 December 2014 / Rojava ReportISIS functionaries are establishing themselves throughout Hatay province. ISIS schools and centers for jihadi education are being opened, safe houses are being set up, and various organizations are being founded. Facilities belonging to the Turkish army are being used by ISIS functionaries, and camps which are under the administration of the Turkish army and in which thousands of people are now living are being converted into ISIS bases.
https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/akp-and-isis-what-is-turkey-preparing-in-the-hatay/
22. Washington-Ankara Tensions Will Shape Obama’s Legacy in Turkey
5 December 2014 / Middle East InstituteTurkey-U.S. relations were off to a good start when President Obama launched his campaign to reconcile the United States with the Muslim world in a 2009 speech to the Turkish National Assembly in which he described Turkey as a “model partner.”. Regional dynamics, Ankara’s foreign policy miscalculations, and diverging priorities, however, have driven a wedge between the two allies.
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/washington-ankara-tensions-will-shape-obama%E2%80%99s-legacy-turkey
23. Isis: the inside story
11 December 2014 / GuardianIn the summer of 2004, a young jihadist in shackles and chains was walked by his captors slowly into the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq. He was nervous as two American soldiers led him through three brightly-lit buildings and then a maze of wire corridors, into an open yard, where men with middle-distance stares, wearing brightly-coloured prison uniforms, stood back warily, watching him.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story
24. Is the United States Complicit with ISIS?
11 December 2014 / Commentary MagazineMichael Rubin: Is the United States complicit with the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daash)? The answer to that question is, of course, no, even though the accusation that the United States created ISIS is a staple of both Iranian and Russian propaganda. Frankly, responsibility for the rise of ISIS rests on Turkey, which may have supplied it directly and which knowingly served as a transit hub for jihadists going to and from the Islamic State; Qatar and Saudi Arabia which for so long have funded the religious radicalism which provides the basis of ISIS; and perhaps Syria itself which believed that ISIS’s growth would enable the regime to rally ordinary Syrians around Bashar al-Assad, arguably a less-noxious choice, much in the same way that lung cancer is “better” than pancreatic cancer.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/12/11/is-the-united-states-complicit-with-isis/
25. The European Kurds rallying to fight IS
10 December 2014 / Open DemocracyJanroj Yilmaz Keles: Kurds, of whom there are estimated to be 30-35m, comprise the largest ethnic community in the Middle East after Turks, Arabs and Persians—and the largest in the world without a state. Most live in the disputed territory of Kurdistan. which covers east and south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, west Iran and northern Syria. Various revolts in pursuit of an independent Kurdistan or autonomy within these national borders have wrought no significant political or structural changes, except in Iraq, where Kurds have had a de facto state since 1991.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/janroj-yilmaz-keles/european-kurds-rallying-to-fight-is
Lawyers for Kurdish community to take on Schedule 7 powers in court hearing
09.12.14
PRESS NOTICE
A hearing is set to take place at Folkestone Magistrates Court next week in which solicitors representing members of the Kurdish community in London will attempt to recover hundreds of pounds confiscated by police during a counter-terrorism border stop.
The money was taken from a coach load of demonstrators who were stopped in Dover on their way to a protest in Paris in January this year. Under Schedule 7 powers, the police detained the mostly female passengers, searched them and confiscated any cash they were holding, alleging it were to be used as ‘resources for a proscribed organisation’. Like many other minority groups in the UK, the Kurdish community is heavily criminalised and and disproportionately targeted by counter-terrorism measures such as this, which impose punishment without the need for a trial.
You will find more details on the incident and controversial use of the draconian Schedule 7 measures below and an article relating to the incident attached. The hearing will take place at 9.50am on Wednesday 17th December.
--- Briefing on Dover incident
PRESS NOTICE
A hearing is set to take place at Folkestone Magistrates Court next week in which solicitors representing members of the Kurdish community in London will attempt to recover hundreds of pounds confiscated by police during a counter-terrorism border stop.
The money was taken from a coach load of demonstrators who were stopped in Dover on their way to a protest in Paris in January this year. Under Schedule 7 powers, the police detained the mostly female passengers, searched them and confiscated any cash they were holding, alleging it were to be used as ‘resources for a proscribed organisation’. Like many other minority groups in the UK, the Kurdish community is heavily criminalised and and disproportionately targeted by counter-terrorism measures such as this, which impose punishment without the need for a trial.
You will find more details on the incident and controversial use of the draconian Schedule 7 measures below and an article relating to the incident attached. The hearing will take place at 9.50am on Wednesday 17th December.
--- Briefing on Dover incident
Use of Schedule 7 powers at Dover:
On the evening of 10th January 2014 a convoy of three coaches set out from the Kurdish Community Centre in Haringey to attend a mass demonstration in France marking the anniversary of the murders in Paris of three Kurdish activists Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez. The murders were a truly shocking event and credible evidence has emerged linking the murders to elements connected to the Turkish State.
The coaches from the KCC arrived at Dover port at approximately 2:00am on 11th January 2014. The first two coaches were permitted to proceed without incident. But the almost entirely female passengers on the third coach were directed off the coach and required to wait for a period of over 7 hours while each person (and/or family group) was questioned under the controversial provisions of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Under Schedule 7 no reasonable suspicion is required to detain anyone and no explanation needs to be provided for why a detention is taking place. It therefore provides the perfect opportunity for the police to gather information on individuals regardless of whether there is a genuine belief that they are involved in activities that could properly be characterised as terrorism. It is a criminal offence not to answer questions.
Confiscation of Cash under the ATCSA
In parallel to the questioning, the passengers were searched. Those who were carrying cash had it confiscated under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act (ATCSA) 2001, on the grounds that the police reasonably suspected that it was intended to be used for the purposes of terrorism.
Nine months after the money was originally seized, on 2 October 2014 the police made a formal application to the court for the forfeiture of the seized cash. As the reason for the application, “it is believed that the cash represents the resources of a proscribed organisation, namely the PKK, and was intended to be used for the purposes of terrorism”.
No evidence has been provided so far to support this allegation. The Kurds enroute to Paris have been doubly penalized – prevented from attending the commemoration, and deprived of their cash. This illustrates how anti-terror powers impose punishment without trial.
At a time when the world is just beginning to wake up to the true centrality of the Kurdish question in the Middle East, this application could not be any more ill-judged.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees are fleeing the violence aimed at them and living in appalling conditions. They are reliant on support from the Kurdish diaspora, both physical and moral, from all parts of the world. To criminalise any expression of lawful support for the Kurdish cause serves to assist those who refuse to recognise its legitimacy.
The next hearing in this case is 17 th December, 9.50am, Courtroom 02 at Folkstone Magistrates Court, The Law Courts, Castle Hill Ave, Folkestone, Kent CT20 2GS, where the Kurds’ legal representatives will again request the return of the confiscated funds.
On the evening of 10th January 2014 a convoy of three coaches set out from the Kurdish Community Centre in Haringey to attend a mass demonstration in France marking the anniversary of the murders in Paris of three Kurdish activists Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez. The murders were a truly shocking event and credible evidence has emerged linking the murders to elements connected to the Turkish State.
The coaches from the KCC arrived at Dover port at approximately 2:00am on 11th January 2014. The first two coaches were permitted to proceed without incident. But the almost entirely female passengers on the third coach were directed off the coach and required to wait for a period of over 7 hours while each person (and/or family group) was questioned under the controversial provisions of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Under Schedule 7 no reasonable suspicion is required to detain anyone and no explanation needs to be provided for why a detention is taking place. It therefore provides the perfect opportunity for the police to gather information on individuals regardless of whether there is a genuine belief that they are involved in activities that could properly be characterised as terrorism. It is a criminal offence not to answer questions.
Confiscation of Cash under the ATCSA
In parallel to the questioning, the passengers were searched. Those who were carrying cash had it confiscated under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act (ATCSA) 2001, on the grounds that the police reasonably suspected that it was intended to be used for the purposes of terrorism.
Nine months after the money was originally seized, on 2 October 2014 the police made a formal application to the court for the forfeiture of the seized cash. As the reason for the application, “it is believed that the cash represents the resources of a proscribed organisation, namely the PKK, and was intended to be used for the purposes of terrorism”.
No evidence has been provided so far to support this allegation. The Kurds enroute to Paris have been doubly penalized – prevented from attending the commemoration, and deprived of their cash. This illustrates how anti-terror powers impose punishment without trial.
At a time when the world is just beginning to wake up to the true centrality of the Kurdish question in the Middle East, this application could not be any more ill-judged.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees are fleeing the violence aimed at them and living in appalling conditions. They are reliant on support from the Kurdish diaspora, both physical and moral, from all parts of the world. To criminalise any expression of lawful support for the Kurdish cause serves to assist those who refuse to recognise its legitimacy.
The next hearing in this case is 17 th December, 9.50am, Courtroom 02 at Folkstone Magistrates Court, The Law Courts, Castle Hill Ave, Folkestone, Kent CT20 2GS, where the Kurds’ legal representatives will again request the return of the confiscated funds.
KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 30 November 5 December 2014
1. Heyva Sor: Emergency Appeal for Kobane
5 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignHeyva Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Moon) has issued a new appeal for donations and humanitarian aid for the people of Kobane and refugees across the region. International humanitarian relief in this region has been virtually non-existent and the Turkish government has made inadequate provision for refugees fleeing violence in Sinjar and Kobane to Suruc and the surrounding areas inside the Turkish border. Thousands of people are being hosted in self-made camps and are being fed, clothed and cared for by volunteers.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/05/3982/
2. Kurds blame Turkey as suicide bombers hit Kobani
29 November 2014 / ReutersTurkey's main Kurdish party accused the government of turning a blind eye to Islamic State militants on its soil on Saturday after suicide bombers attacked the town of Kobani along its southern border with Syria.
Four Islamic State militants blew themselves up in Kobani, one detonating a car bomb at the Mursitpinar border crossing. At least 30 people were killed in clashes across the town, a monitoring group and local officials said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/29/us-mideast-crisis-kurds-kobani-idUSKCN0JD06R20141129
3. Abdullah: Turkish state disregarded lives of thousands of civilians
1 December 2014 / ANFPYD Co-President Asya Abdullah who spoke to ANF's Sedat Sur about Saturday's suicide attacks in Mürşitpınar border gate area said that the ISIS attack on Kobanê launched from Turkish territory had not only targeted military forces, adding that one dimension of the attack had been an attempt to carry out a massacre of civilians.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/abdullah-turkish-state-disregarded-lives-of-thousands-of-civilians.htm
4. KCK: Our people should stand by the Kobanê resistance
30 November 2014 / ANFKCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement in the wake of yesterday's attack ISIS gangs launched on Kobanê town of West Kurdistan, Rojava, from Turkish soil.
KCK recalled that the fascist ISIS groups backed by Turkey have been attacking Kobanê to overthrow the Rojava revolution and to occupy the town for two and a half months now, and that the brave resistance of YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) fighters and the local people has however inflicted severe losses and fatal blows on the gang groups and not allowed them to realise their vicious plan.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kck-our-people-should-stand-by-the-kobane-resistance.htm
5. Öcalan: Legal guarantees essential for the process
30 November 2014 / ANFThe HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) delegation for İmralı talks, made up of Group Deputy Chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, Istanbul MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder and DTK (Democratic Society Congress) Co-chair Hatip Dicle involved for the first time, issued a statement providing details of the meeting with Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı prison yesterday.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ocalan-legal-guarantees-essential-for-the-process.htm
6. Night raid on Suruç Municipality
2 December 2014 / ANFThe supplementary service building of the Suruç Municipality in Aligor that is being used to serve people from Kobanê who took refuge in Suruç was raided midnight by Turkish soldiers and police supported by armoured vehicles. The police interrogated dozens of people staying at the building, including children and the elderly, and seized their identity cards.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/night-raid-on-suruc-municipality.htm
7. Top Turkish court's review of 10 pct election threshold prompts political debate
1 December 2014 / HurriyetTurkish political parties have launched a fresh debate over the possibility of lifting the 10 percent threshold in the election system, with the Constitutional Court now considering an application to review the matter. The debate was triggered after Constitutional Court head Haşim Kılıç was quoted as saying by daily Habertürk on Nov. 30 that the Court was working on applications and would make a decision in two or three weeks.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/top-turkish-courts-review-of-10-pct-election-threshold-prompts-political-debate.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75074&NewsCatID=338
8. Turkish Police to Get More Search Powers
3 December 2014 / New York TimesThe Turkish police will have wider latitude to conduct searches, and the government will have greater control over the judiciary, under a bill passed late Tuesday by Parliament.
The legislation will allow the police to obtain search warrants based merely on “reasonable suspicion,” rather than requiring “a strong suspicion based on concrete evidence,” the former standard. The country’s courts will have broader powers to seize the assets of people under investigation, including those suspected of “disrupting constitutional order.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/turkish-police-to-get-more-search-powers.html?_r=1
9. The world’s pitiful response to Syria’s refugee crisis
5 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalWorld leaders are failing to offer protection to Syria’s most vulnerable refugees with catastrophic consequences, Amnesty International has warned in a new briefing ahead of a UN pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December.
Left Out in the Cold: Syrian refugees abandoned by the international community highlights the pitiful numbers of resettlement places offered by the international community. Around 3.8 million refugees from are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Only 1.7 per cent of this number have been offered sanctuary by the rest of the world since the crisis began more than three years ago.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/world-s-pitiful-response-syria-s-refugee-crisis-2014-12-05
10. Gysi: Embargo on Rojava must be lifted immediately
3 December 2014 / ANFThe Parliamentary Group Chair of Die Linke (German Left Party), Gregor Gysi, has demanded the urgent lifting of the embargo on Rojava after his visit to South Kurdistan and Rojava last week. Gysi said Germany must undertake responsibilities in sending urgent aid to the region and called on the member countries of the UN Security Council to immediately take action.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/gysi-embargo-on-rojava-must-be-lifted-immediately.htm
11. EXCLUSIVE: Survivors of Islamic State massacre share their untold story (VIDEO)
4 December 2014 / Your Middle EastThe Islamic State (IS) massacre of Iraq's Yezidi minority in the town of Sinjar has been widely documented and reported worldwide since August. But the survivors are now saying that the reported narrative is incomplete, claiming they were betrayed by the Kurdish peshmergas. The Iraqi central government and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have termed the massacre "genocide", while the UN timidly describes it as "an attempted genocide”.
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/exclusive-survivors-of-islamic-state-massacre-share-their-untold-story-video_28361
12. Kurdish activist speaks at Tri-continental Anti-imperialist Platform event
1 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe Tricontinental Anti-imperialist Platform held an event at Housemans in central London recently entitled Global Resistance: From Ferguson to People’s Korea. Activist and member of the Kurdish Student Union and People’s Assembly, Elif Sarican, took part in the event, which connected resistance struggles from across the world, on the place of the Kurdish struggle in the borader movement against colonialism and imperialism. You can watch the video of her presentation below
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/01/kurdish-activist-speaks-at-tri-continental-anti-imperialist-platform-event/
13. Event report: Feminicide in Sinjar
2 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignOn Saturday 22 November, representatives of several women’s organisations gathered in SOAS University for a seminar to discuss the use of sexualised violence in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria. In particular, the event sought to bring attention to the kidnapping of Yezidi women in the Sinjar province by ISIS fighters in August and discuss ways to campaign for their release. The seminar was introduced and chaired Isabel Käser, a PhD candidate, at the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, and included members of a newly emerging Women’s Alliance for Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria, a platform of UK based women’s groups who convened following the crisis in Sinjar.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/02/event-report-feminicide-in-sinjar/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
14. Latest ISIS attack on Kobanê implicates Turkey once more
2 December 2014 / RoarmagIn the early hours of Saturday, November 29, on the 75th day of the resistance of Kobanê, the militants of the Islamic State launched yet another attack against the city. In the 2.5 months that ISIS has been besieging the predominantly Kurdish city at the border with Turkey it launched numerous attacks — ranging from indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas with tanks, mortars and heavy artillery to suicide attacks by individuals and car bombs (VBIEDs) — but never before did it attack the city from the north, from the Turkish side of the border.
http://roarmag.org/2014/12/isis-attacks-kobane-from-turkey/
15. Kurds Defend Kobani From Islamic State
4 December 2014 / Huffington PostThe men and women of Kobani call one another "heval" — Kurdish for 'comrade' — and fight with revolutionary conviction, vowing to liberate what they regard as Kurdish land from Islamic State group militants.
Amid the wasteland and destroyed buildings, a sense of camaraderie has developed among the town's defenders who have for more than two months doggedly fought off the advances by the extremists.
Often, members of the same family can be found on the front lines.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/kobani-kurds-islamic-state_n_6269496.html
16. Is the Islamic State finding refuge in Turkey?
2 December 2014 / Al MonitorAccording to the Kobani watchers in Caykara [Mahzer] village, Islamic State (IS) forces crossed from Turkey and attacked the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces controlling the Syrian side of Mursitpinar border, crossing from the rear. IS badly wants to capture the crossing. Did the IS car bomb attack at Mursitpinar Saturday morning [Nov. 29] originate from Turkey? Information provided by official sources about how the attack was carried out is murky. The Mahzer crowd congregating directly behind the Mursitpinar crossing insist the bomb-laden vehicle came from Turkey, broke the lock on the gate and crossed to Syria.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/12/turkey-syria-border-mursitpinar-kobane-kurds-isis.html##ixzz3Kw9aIPsF<http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/12/turkey-syria-border-mursitpinar-kobane-kurds-isis.html##ixzz3Kw9aIPsF>
17. The No State Solution: Institutionalizing Libertarian Socialism in Kurdistan
2 November 2014 / New PoliticsIn what many outside of the territory are referring to as the Rojava Revolution, a major shift in political philosophy and political programmatics has taken place in Kurdistan. Yet, this shift is not limited to the region of Rojava, or what many call Syrian or Western Kurdistan – a region where the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has taken an active part in this change. In “Turkish,” or rather Northern Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been the foremost leader. In Eastern Kurdistan (lying within Iranian borders) the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) has taken to the change in ideological orientation as well.
http://newpol.org/content/no-state-solution-institutionalizing-libertarian-socialism-kurdistan
18. The Iraqis and the Kurds Have Struck a Deal…Here’s Why That’s Very Bad News for ISIS Terrorists
4 December 2014 / I J ReviewOne of the things the Iraqi government had to do to defeat ISIS was to reach a deal with the Kurds on oil revenue. The Kurdish government hadn’t received any money due from the Iraqi government for months. They were unable to pay the peshmerga fighters that were keeping ISIS at bay since the summertime.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/211052-bad-news-isis-iraqis-struck-deal-give-kurds-money-weapons/
19. Talking Turkey
5 December 2014 / CounterpunchOn Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin clinched a groundbreaking deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that will strengthen economic ties between the two nations and make Turkey the major hub for Russian gas in the region. Under the terms of the agreement, Russia will pump additional natural gas to locations in central Turkey and to a “hub at the Turkish-Greek border” which will eventually provide Putin with backdoor access to the lucrative EU market, although Turkey will serve as the critical intermediary. The move creates a de facto Russo-Turkey alliance that could shift the regional balance of power decisively in Moscow’s favor, thus creating another formidable hurtle for Washington’s “pivot to Asia” strategy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/05/talking-turkey/
20. A Surprising History of Turkey in America
26 November 2014 / Foreign PolicyTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently made the news when he claimed that Muslim seafarers "discovered America" and that when Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba in 1492 he found a mosque, built there by the natives, who were also Muslim. It may sound ridiculous (OK, itis ridiculous), but it says a lot about Turkey’s president and the Islamic chauvinism that makes Erdogan’s "new Turkey" so different from the secular ideals of the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/11/26/a-surprising-history-of-turkey-in-america/?wp_login_redirect=0
5 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignHeyva Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Moon) has issued a new appeal for donations and humanitarian aid for the people of Kobane and refugees across the region. International humanitarian relief in this region has been virtually non-existent and the Turkish government has made inadequate provision for refugees fleeing violence in Sinjar and Kobane to Suruc and the surrounding areas inside the Turkish border. Thousands of people are being hosted in self-made camps and are being fed, clothed and cared for by volunteers.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/05/3982/
2. Kurds blame Turkey as suicide bombers hit Kobani
29 November 2014 / ReutersTurkey's main Kurdish party accused the government of turning a blind eye to Islamic State militants on its soil on Saturday after suicide bombers attacked the town of Kobani along its southern border with Syria.
Four Islamic State militants blew themselves up in Kobani, one detonating a car bomb at the Mursitpinar border crossing. At least 30 people were killed in clashes across the town, a monitoring group and local officials said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/29/us-mideast-crisis-kurds-kobani-idUSKCN0JD06R20141129
3. Abdullah: Turkish state disregarded lives of thousands of civilians
1 December 2014 / ANFPYD Co-President Asya Abdullah who spoke to ANF's Sedat Sur about Saturday's suicide attacks in Mürşitpınar border gate area said that the ISIS attack on Kobanê launched from Turkish territory had not only targeted military forces, adding that one dimension of the attack had been an attempt to carry out a massacre of civilians.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/abdullah-turkish-state-disregarded-lives-of-thousands-of-civilians.htm
4. KCK: Our people should stand by the Kobanê resistance
30 November 2014 / ANFKCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement in the wake of yesterday's attack ISIS gangs launched on Kobanê town of West Kurdistan, Rojava, from Turkish soil.
KCK recalled that the fascist ISIS groups backed by Turkey have been attacking Kobanê to overthrow the Rojava revolution and to occupy the town for two and a half months now, and that the brave resistance of YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) fighters and the local people has however inflicted severe losses and fatal blows on the gang groups and not allowed them to realise their vicious plan.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/kck-our-people-should-stand-by-the-kobane-resistance.htm
5. Öcalan: Legal guarantees essential for the process
30 November 2014 / ANFThe HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) delegation for İmralı talks, made up of Group Deputy Chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, Istanbul MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder and DTK (Democratic Society Congress) Co-chair Hatip Dicle involved for the first time, issued a statement providing details of the meeting with Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı prison yesterday.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ocalan-legal-guarantees-essential-for-the-process.htm
6. Night raid on Suruç Municipality
2 December 2014 / ANFThe supplementary service building of the Suruç Municipality in Aligor that is being used to serve people from Kobanê who took refuge in Suruç was raided midnight by Turkish soldiers and police supported by armoured vehicles. The police interrogated dozens of people staying at the building, including children and the elderly, and seized their identity cards.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/night-raid-on-suruc-municipality.htm
7. Top Turkish court's review of 10 pct election threshold prompts political debate
1 December 2014 / HurriyetTurkish political parties have launched a fresh debate over the possibility of lifting the 10 percent threshold in the election system, with the Constitutional Court now considering an application to review the matter. The debate was triggered after Constitutional Court head Haşim Kılıç was quoted as saying by daily Habertürk on Nov. 30 that the Court was working on applications and would make a decision in two or three weeks.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/top-turkish-courts-review-of-10-pct-election-threshold-prompts-political-debate.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75074&NewsCatID=338
8. Turkish Police to Get More Search Powers
3 December 2014 / New York TimesThe Turkish police will have wider latitude to conduct searches, and the government will have greater control over the judiciary, under a bill passed late Tuesday by Parliament.
The legislation will allow the police to obtain search warrants based merely on “reasonable suspicion,” rather than requiring “a strong suspicion based on concrete evidence,” the former standard. The country’s courts will have broader powers to seize the assets of people under investigation, including those suspected of “disrupting constitutional order.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/turkish-police-to-get-more-search-powers.html?_r=1
9. The world’s pitiful response to Syria’s refugee crisis
5 December 2014 / Amnesty InternationalWorld leaders are failing to offer protection to Syria’s most vulnerable refugees with catastrophic consequences, Amnesty International has warned in a new briefing ahead of a UN pledging conference in Geneva on 9 December.
Left Out in the Cold: Syrian refugees abandoned by the international community highlights the pitiful numbers of resettlement places offered by the international community. Around 3.8 million refugees from are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Only 1.7 per cent of this number have been offered sanctuary by the rest of the world since the crisis began more than three years ago.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/world-s-pitiful-response-syria-s-refugee-crisis-2014-12-05
10. Gysi: Embargo on Rojava must be lifted immediately
3 December 2014 / ANFThe Parliamentary Group Chair of Die Linke (German Left Party), Gregor Gysi, has demanded the urgent lifting of the embargo on Rojava after his visit to South Kurdistan and Rojava last week. Gysi said Germany must undertake responsibilities in sending urgent aid to the region and called on the member countries of the UN Security Council to immediately take action.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/gysi-embargo-on-rojava-must-be-lifted-immediately.htm
11. EXCLUSIVE: Survivors of Islamic State massacre share their untold story (VIDEO)
4 December 2014 / Your Middle EastThe Islamic State (IS) massacre of Iraq's Yezidi minority in the town of Sinjar has been widely documented and reported worldwide since August. But the survivors are now saying that the reported narrative is incomplete, claiming they were betrayed by the Kurdish peshmergas. The Iraqi central government and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have termed the massacre "genocide", while the UN timidly describes it as "an attempted genocide”.
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/exclusive-survivors-of-islamic-state-massacre-share-their-untold-story-video_28361
12. Kurdish activist speaks at Tri-continental Anti-imperialist Platform event
1 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignThe Tricontinental Anti-imperialist Platform held an event at Housemans in central London recently entitled Global Resistance: From Ferguson to People’s Korea. Activist and member of the Kurdish Student Union and People’s Assembly, Elif Sarican, took part in the event, which connected resistance struggles from across the world, on the place of the Kurdish struggle in the borader movement against colonialism and imperialism. You can watch the video of her presentation below
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/01/kurdish-activist-speaks-at-tri-continental-anti-imperialist-platform-event/
13. Event report: Feminicide in Sinjar
2 December 2014 / Peace in Kurdistan CampaignOn Saturday 22 November, representatives of several women’s organisations gathered in SOAS University for a seminar to discuss the use of sexualised violence in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria. In particular, the event sought to bring attention to the kidnapping of Yezidi women in the Sinjar province by ISIS fighters in August and discuss ways to campaign for their release. The seminar was introduced and chaired Isabel Käser, a PhD candidate, at the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, and included members of a newly emerging Women’s Alliance for Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria, a platform of UK based women’s groups who convened following the crisis in Sinjar.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/12/02/event-report-feminicide-in-sinjar/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
14. Latest ISIS attack on Kobanê implicates Turkey once more
2 December 2014 / RoarmagIn the early hours of Saturday, November 29, on the 75th day of the resistance of Kobanê, the militants of the Islamic State launched yet another attack against the city. In the 2.5 months that ISIS has been besieging the predominantly Kurdish city at the border with Turkey it launched numerous attacks — ranging from indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas with tanks, mortars and heavy artillery to suicide attacks by individuals and car bombs (VBIEDs) — but never before did it attack the city from the north, from the Turkish side of the border.
http://roarmag.org/2014/12/isis-attacks-kobane-from-turkey/
15. Kurds Defend Kobani From Islamic State
4 December 2014 / Huffington PostThe men and women of Kobani call one another "heval" — Kurdish for 'comrade' — and fight with revolutionary conviction, vowing to liberate what they regard as Kurdish land from Islamic State group militants.
Amid the wasteland and destroyed buildings, a sense of camaraderie has developed among the town's defenders who have for more than two months doggedly fought off the advances by the extremists.
Often, members of the same family can be found on the front lines.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/kobani-kurds-islamic-state_n_6269496.html
16. Is the Islamic State finding refuge in Turkey?
2 December 2014 / Al MonitorAccording to the Kobani watchers in Caykara [Mahzer] village, Islamic State (IS) forces crossed from Turkey and attacked the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces controlling the Syrian side of Mursitpinar border, crossing from the rear. IS badly wants to capture the crossing. Did the IS car bomb attack at Mursitpinar Saturday morning [Nov. 29] originate from Turkey? Information provided by official sources about how the attack was carried out is murky. The Mahzer crowd congregating directly behind the Mursitpinar crossing insist the bomb-laden vehicle came from Turkey, broke the lock on the gate and crossed to Syria.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/12/turkey-syria-border-mursitpinar-kobane-kurds-isis.html##ixzz3Kw9aIPsF<http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/12/turkey-syria-border-mursitpinar-kobane-kurds-isis.html##ixzz3Kw9aIPsF>
17. The No State Solution: Institutionalizing Libertarian Socialism in Kurdistan
2 November 2014 / New PoliticsIn what many outside of the territory are referring to as the Rojava Revolution, a major shift in political philosophy and political programmatics has taken place in Kurdistan. Yet, this shift is not limited to the region of Rojava, or what many call Syrian or Western Kurdistan – a region where the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has taken an active part in this change. In “Turkish,” or rather Northern Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been the foremost leader. In Eastern Kurdistan (lying within Iranian borders) the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) has taken to the change in ideological orientation as well.
http://newpol.org/content/no-state-solution-institutionalizing-libertarian-socialism-kurdistan
18. The Iraqis and the Kurds Have Struck a Deal…Here’s Why That’s Very Bad News for ISIS Terrorists
4 December 2014 / I J ReviewOne of the things the Iraqi government had to do to defeat ISIS was to reach a deal with the Kurds on oil revenue. The Kurdish government hadn’t received any money due from the Iraqi government for months. They were unable to pay the peshmerga fighters that were keeping ISIS at bay since the summertime.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/211052-bad-news-isis-iraqis-struck-deal-give-kurds-money-weapons/
19. Talking Turkey
5 December 2014 / CounterpunchOn Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin clinched a groundbreaking deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that will strengthen economic ties between the two nations and make Turkey the major hub for Russian gas in the region. Under the terms of the agreement, Russia will pump additional natural gas to locations in central Turkey and to a “hub at the Turkish-Greek border” which will eventually provide Putin with backdoor access to the lucrative EU market, although Turkey will serve as the critical intermediary. The move creates a de facto Russo-Turkey alliance that could shift the regional balance of power decisively in Moscow’s favor, thus creating another formidable hurtle for Washington’s “pivot to Asia” strategy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/05/talking-turkey/
20. A Surprising History of Turkey in America
26 November 2014 / Foreign PolicyTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently made the news when he claimed that Muslim seafarers "discovered America" and that when Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba in 1492 he found a mosque, built there by the natives, who were also Muslim. It may sound ridiculous (OK, itis ridiculous), but it says a lot about Turkey’s president and the Islamic chauvinism that makes Erdogan’s "new Turkey" so different from the secular ideals of the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/11/26/a-surprising-history-of-turkey-in-america/?wp_login_redirect=0
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