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Of Iraq's Kirkuk INSTITUT KURDDE PARIS E Information and liaison bulletin N° 392 NOVEMBER 2017 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° 392 November 2017 • ROJAVA: PREPARING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE • TURKEY: THE REPRESSION EXPANDS TO LIBER- AL CIRCLES; THE VIOLENCE IS INCREASING • IRAQI KURDISTAN: UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEMANDS FROM BAGHDAD, ARABISATION OF KIRKUK RESTARTED ROJAVA: PREPARING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE. broad the “World Day for beginning to return to Raqqa, liber- the 17th with a suicide attack on a Kobani” was celebrated ated on 17th October. Regarding checkpoint that caused at least 35 on 1st November largely Deir Ezzor, the SDF fighters from victims in the Northeast of Deir as a symbol of this Syrian the “Jezirah Storm” operation, Ezzor Province, between the hydro- A Kurdish town’s unremit- launched on 9th September, liberated carbon fields of Conoco and Jafra. It ting resistance to the attack 7 villages near the town and about was, nevertheless, not able to pre- launched by ISIS in 2014 with fifteen km from the Iraqi borders, vent the SDF from reaching the Iraqi Turkish connivance. In London it even discovering there a landmine border on the 28th. was celebrated o the 10th, attended workshop. On the 9th, they took by thousands were also attending control of the Khabur river, liberat- These remarkable advances were the funeral of the Kurdish film ing 25 villages, and on the 12th strained in mid-November by rising director Mehmet Aksoy, who was another 12 in the attack on the last doubts about the agreement that killed on 26th September in a jihadist ISIS enclave East of the Euphrates. had allowed the taking of Raqqa. attack on the SDF Press Centre near On the 13th they began fighting the While the coalition had received Raqqa, to which he had come to Jihadists near the Tanaq oil fields, assurances from the SDF that the work from England. repelling a counter-attack on the foreign jihadists would not be 14th before continuing their advance allowed to leave the city, the BBC In the field, the SDF continued to to the East of Mayadîn province, broadcast on the 13th testimony reduce the area controlled by ISIS as eliminating 34 jihadists. Unable to from several of the drivers of the a few hundreds of inhabitants were repel them, ISIS targeted civilians on evacuation convoy that several hun- • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 392 • November 2017 dreds of heavily armed fighters, created by the regime”, with reference ready to join a future Syrian Federal including foreigners, could have to parties claiming belonging to the Army (Rûdaw). It is true that the been able to go to Turkey. The latter, opposition created in Damascus Russians had already proposed a who consider the SDF as “terrorists” after 2011. Despite the creation of future Federal Syria and that on the claimed that this “very serious” de-escalation zones, the regime is 17th Ziyad Sabsabi, representing the news justified their warning to still besieging the East Damascus Foreign Relations Commission of Washington. Questioned about this, suburbs where some 400.000 civil- the Russian Senate, declared that, in the coalition’s spokesman, Colonel ians are trapped (on the 12th, the the event of conflict between the Ryan Dillon, stated that less than World Health Organisation demand- Damascus regime and the SDF, “300 of the 3,500 civilians having left ed a humanitarian access). Several Russia would remain neutral. Raqqa […] were identified as possibly meetings between leaders have However Vassili Nebenzia, the ISIS fighters” thus admitting that failed to make any progress: the Russian Ambassador to the United several hundreds of fighters might Trump-Putin meeting in Vietnam on Nations, still accused on the 29th the have been able to escape. the 14th during the Asia-Pacific sum- coalition of following a policy of mit, the Assad-Putin meeting in partitioning Syria because the SDF These doubts have arisen at a partic- Sochi on the 20th, then again at Sochi had set up a local government in ularly bad time for the SDF, when on the 22nd between the Russian, Raqqa without consulting the probable elimination of ISIS Iranian and Turkish Presidents. At Damascus… could mean the end of the US pres- least the last meeting resulted in an ence and of the coalition’s military agreement for Russia to organise on However the Russians have main- support. Indeed, on the 30th, the its own soil a “Syrian National tained continuous political contacts departure of 400 Marines was Dialogue Congress” (the date for with the SDF and their self-declared announced, and the passive which has yet to be decided) Federal Region, inviting the PYD to American attitude to the re-occupa- between the Syrian regime and the the Sochi Congress. Yet, partly tion by Iraq of the disputed territo- opposition, despite Ankara’s reser- because of Turkish opposition (the ries claimed by “its” Kurds was not vations about the presence of the Turkish President’s spokesman, a good omen for Rojava — especial- Kurdish militia. As for the Geneva Ibrahim Kalın, described this invita- ly as the Pentagon has always limit- discussions organised under the tion as “unacceptable”), the ed its support to the purely military aegis of UNO, its 8th session started Congress was continuously post- level, refusing any political commit- on the 28th without, once again, the poned: it was first announced for ment. Moreover, if SDF and the SDF being invited and so failed to the 18th, then “another date” Syrian government have been for produce any tangible results. remained to be chosen, after an ini- the last few years very busy fighting tial list of participants including the other more powerful enemies, they In this turning point phase PYD was removed on the 5th find now themselves face to face. Damascus and its Russian and November from the Russian Foreign While a compromise is not impossi- Iranian allies switched between con- affairs ministry website... For its part ble, a confrontation is to be feared — ciliatory and threatening words the rival Kurdish grouping, the especially over oil. However, faced towards the SDF and the “Federal Kurdish National Council with the expansion of Iranian influ- Region”. On the 7th Ali Akbar (Encumena Niştimaniya Kurd li Sûriyê, ence, the US might continue its sup- Velayati, Iran Supreme Guide’s ENKS) announced, on the 27th, it port of the SDF to deny Teheran adviser, declared that Damascus was taking part in the Geneva talks access to the Mediterranean corridor would take control of Raqqa from in an official communiqué from its that it started to establish … the SDF, adding that the Syrian president Ibrahim Biro. According Army also wanted to control the to Arab diplomatic sources (Al-Sharq The international negotiations on area East of the Euphrates … For Al-Awsat of the 29th), the United the future of Syria are still stalemat- their part, the SDF leaders were States unsuccessfully tried to secure ed. Damascus rejects any discussion clearly seeking a political compro- the participation of the SDF. involving the departure of al-Assad, mise: on the 17th a PYD cadre which was still required by the US declared: “In Syria only two forces in Another source of concern for the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, at the field remain that count — ourselves SDF is the growing tension between the end of October. The opposition, and the Syrian regime. Either there will it and the Turkish Army and the for its part makes this a precondi- be a clash between them and the result jihadist militia it supports round tion for discussion and its will be chaos or we start a dialogue aim- Afrin, where the Turkish Army is spokesman, Ahmed Ramadan, ing at a political solution. We prefer the gradually sending considerable accused the Russians, on 1st dialogue”. On the 26th Riad Darar, a quantities of heavy weaponry. After November, of “seeking to impose [in member of the Syrian Democratic several weeks of clashes, these the negotiations] opposition factions Council, declared that the SDF were “islamist” shelled the district of n° 392 • November 2017 Information and liaison bulletin • 3 • Sherava, then on the 7th Shera with SDF indicated that this was a On the 20th the SDF announced a heavy artillery. The YPD retaliated “Turkish special intelligence operation”, recent intensification of attacks, with light weapons. On the same since Mr. Sello had been subjected to which was confirmed by the jour- day other Turkish troops fired from blackmail regarding his children nalist Chris Thomson, who the South of Jerablous late in the who live in Turkey. described incessant shelling (Al- evening Sheyokh Tahtani, West of Masdar News): “With Turkish recon- Kobané (Hawar), some villages in Turkey has not given up either its naissance aircrafts observing the the Manbij region being also target- attempts to obtain the end of US region 24 hours a day the Turkish ed. Other fighting between the SDF support to the SDF. On the 24th the Army and its allied rebel groups and Turkish troops broke out on the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced bombed the villages held by the 12th, when the latter entered Syria that Mr.
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