INSTITUT KURDDE PARIS E Information and liaison bulletin N° 408 MARCH 2019 The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of Culture This bulletin is issued in French and English Price per issue : France: 6 € — Abroad : 7,5 € Annual subscribtion (12 issues) France : 60 € — Elsewhere : 75 € Monthly review Directeur de la publication : Mohamad HASSAN Misen en page et maquette : Ṣerefettin ISBN 0761 1285 INSTITUT KURDE, 106, rue La Fayette - 75010 PARIS Tel. : 01-48 24 64 64 - Fax : 01-48 24 64 66 www.fikp.org E-mail: bulletin@fikp.org Information and liaison bulletin Kurdish Institute of Paris Bulletin N° 408 March 2019 • ROJAVA: THE LAST BASTION OF ISIS FALLS, TURKEY STILL THREATENING • TURKEY: MASS SUICIDES IN PRISONS, BAD PRE-ELECTION SURVEYS FOR ERDOĞAN • IRAQ: STILL WITHOUT A NEW GOVERN- MENT, KURDISTAN PUTS AN END TO “SALARY SAVINGS” FOR ITS CIVIL SER- VANTS • IRAN: DEATH IN CUSTODY OF AN ENVI- RONMENTAL ACTIVIST, WIDESPREAD REPRESSION ROJAVA: THE LAST BASTION OF ISIS FALLS, TURKEY STILL THREATENING n Rojava, the main 4th July on the investigations con- Bellingcat estimates at least to 10 piece of news this ducted by the online media Turkish soldiers and more than month has been the Bellingcat into the ongoing “low- 100 jihadists killed... On the 1st of announcement on the intensity insurgency” in the canton the month, an improvised explo- I 23rd of the fall to the (https://www.bellingcat.com/ne sive device, detonated as Syrian hands of the Syrian Democratic ws/mena/2019/03/01/wrath-of- Free Army fighters passed by, Forces (SDF) of the last village the-olives-tracking-the-afrin-insur- killed 3 people near Al-Bab, an held by ISIS in Syria, Baghuz. If it gency-through-social-media/). ambush claimed by the HRE formally puts an end to the territo- In addition to the YPGs them- (Hawar). Conversely, Turkish fire rial existence of the “Caliphate”, selves, which are less active, and targeted without loss the positions the same cannot be said for ISIS with many unclaimed attacks, 2 of the Al-Bab military council, itself, whose conversion into a non- groups appear: “Wrath of the affiliated with the SDF. According territorialised clandestine organiza- Olives” (Ghadab al-Zaytoun) and to local sources, some 70 Turkish tion has begun... “Afrin Liberation Forces” (HRE, military vehicles have been Hêzên Rizgariya Efrînê), who deployed in this area in front of In Afrin, attacks against pro- together have been responsible for the SDF lines. On the 4th, the HRE Turkish jihadists and mercenaries more than 220 attacks since the claimed several actions, including continued. Al-Monitor reported on invasion, whose death toll the death of 8 jihadists in a shoot- • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 408 • March 2019 ing incident near Azaz on March Syria documenting the abuses of dismantled a Turkish-backed 1st, and 4 others in a vehicle explo- jihadists in Afrin (arbitrary deten- jihadist cell, uncovering explo- sion that also injured 3 people. tion, abductions, torture, etc), the sives and other equipment (WKI). The same statement also claimed US State Department in turn docu- Despite this, a suicide attack on the death on March 2 north of mented violations committed in the 9th near the city targeted a Aleppo of 6 fighters of the “Syrian Afrin by the Turkish army and its joint patrol between GIs and fight- National Army” (despite its name jihadist auxiliaries. The 2018 ers of the Manbij Military Council a creation of Turkey). On the 9th, Human Rights Report, published (MMC), resulting in 8 injuries, the explosion of a motorcycle, on the 14th including 7 civilians (Sputnik). unclaimed, killed 3 people and (https://www.state.gov/docu- injured 1 in Jerablous, controlled ments/organization/289474.pdf), The Turkish-American discussion by pro-Turkish ASL factions. documents extremely serious vio- about the possible “security zone” lations of international law, such of the Syrian North still seems to On the 18th, “Wrath of the Olives” as the murder of several civilians make as few progress as ever. On claimed the death of 3 Turkish sol- in the al-Mahmudiya neighbour- the 6th, the Turkish President stat- diers in Ajil, a village near al-Bab, hood at the time of the takeover of ed in an interview on Kanal-24 that in the explosion of a bomb trig- the city on the 16 March 2018, he could not accept a security gered as their convoy was passing killed in a strike on a market, then zone in the Syrian North if it were by (ANF). On the 19th, the anniver- during its occupation, the looting not entrusted to Turkey: Turkey sary of the Turkish invasion, thou- and confiscation of Kurdish fami- wants to control it itself in order to sands of demonstrators took to the lies’ homes and the forced dis- expel the YPGs. On the 25th, streets in Syria and abroad in placement of many civilians. according to the Turkish Anatolia protest. On the 19th, according to According to several testimonies, Agency, US Special Envoy for local sources, pro-Turkish authorities the Turkish military, often present, Syria James Jeffrey indicated that in Afrin distributed leaflets in did nothing to prevent looting or YPG would not be allowed to Turkish and Arabic prohibiting the confiscation of Yezidi residences, maintain a presence there, while celebration of Newrouz. On the churches and temples, and subse- insisting that the US would pro- 20th, the HRE announced that quent complaints to the pro- tect its SDF partners... they had carried out 3 attacks in Turkish military police were Afrin, one of which, with half a unsuccessful (Kurdistan 24). However, the threat of a Turkish dozen jihadists killed, could be the According to a report published attack still hangs over Rojava. On deadliest since the invasion on 21 September by the Asia Times, the 12th, Mustafa Shawrash, an (AMN). In another one, a sniper Afrin, formerly entirely Kurdish, Iraqi PUK peshmergas official, killed at least one FSA fighter on a after the expulsions or flight of said in an interview with the checkpoint. On the 31st December, some of its inhabitants and their Defence Post that his party was the Turkish Ministry of Defense replacement by Arab rebels, is ready to provide material and confirmed the death of a soldier in now only half Kurdish. Those who logistical assistance to YPG if this the Shera district in fire exchange stayed are afraid and are not threat materialized. Shawrash said with “terrorists”. According to the allowed to sell their olives in Syria that, because these troops belong SOHR, the attack, which also (Ahval). to the Iraqi state, it would not be wounded another soldier, was car- possible to send fighters, but ried out by the YPG. The Turkish Turkey is also continuing to exert material and medical assistance army retaliated with more than pressure on the United States over was possible. Injured YPGs are 150 projectiles (Rûdaw). It should its relations with the PYD. On the already being treated in hospitals be noted that several unclaimed 2nd, the Anatolia state agency in Suleimaniyeh. attacks resulting in the death of accused the Americans of having civilians and kidnappings fol- organised an exchange agreement Following Donald Trump's lowed by executions of civilians between PYD and ISIS in Baghuz announcement of his withdrawal accused of being collaborators of allowing jihadists and their fami- last December, the Syrian the occupants have been con- lies to remain in camps controlled Democratic Council reportedly demned by the YPG, which have by the Kurds, from where, if they refused the assistance offered by pointed the finger at the Turkish wish so, they could reach Syrian the “Roj Pechmergas”, who are MIT (secret service). areas under Turkish control, such Syrians themselves, but affiliated as Afrin, Azaz or Jerablous, or to the Democratic Party of After the publication at the end of even enter Turkey with false pass- Kurdistan in Syria, close to the February of a report by the United ports (Ahval)! In Manbij, City Iraqi KDP. The complexity of the Nations Commission of Inquiry on Security announced that it had relations between Kurdish parties n° 408 • March 2019 Information and liaison bulletin • 3 • in Rojava makes this information victims (Kurdistan-24, AFP). The Carboni, Director of the plausible. Thus on the 12th, when SDF continued their slow advance International Committee of the Red 27 parties close to the Movement in Baghuz and the camp where, Cross (ICRC) for the Middle East, for a Democratic Society (TEV- according to SDF estimates, there the SDF, which already handed over DEM), leading the Federation of were still about 5,000 people left. 150 Iraqi jihadists to the Iraqi the Syrian North, met on the 12th, On the 20th, the day they released authorities in February, is planning those belonging to the (opposi- 5 Yezidi women and 2 children to transfer 20,000 prisoners there, tion) Kurdish ENKS Committee, (WKI), they paused to consolidate including women and children. The close to the Iraqi KDP, declared their control of the conquered Iraqi government has indicated its they had not been invited, while ground, resuming the offensive on agreement (Rûdaw, Reuters). On the indicating that they would refuse the 22nd. 18th August, the Federation of to participate until their political Northern Syria, which has been prisoners were released. Jadan Ali, It was finally on the 23rd that the sounding the alarm for months ENKS representative in Erbil, told SDF officially announced in a about the overcrowding in Al-Hol Rûdaw that the lifting in January of communiqué the end of the camp, again asked the international the ban on some opposition par- “caliphate” proclaimed in 2014.