INSTITUT KURD E DE PARIS Information and liaison bulletin N° 388 JULY 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° 388 July 2017 • ROJAVA: TURKISH THREATS ARE INCREASINGLY HEAVY • TURKEY: THE CYCLE IF REPRESSION AND VIOLENCE IS STILL GOING STRONG • EUROPE: VERBAL CONDEMNATIONS OF TURKEY — BUT AID CONTINUES… • KURDISTAN: MOSUL FALLS — SOME MOVES TOWARDS REACTIVATING PARLIAMENT • FRANCE: CHRIS KUTSCHERA, A GREAT AND KNOWLEDGABLE FRIEND OF THE KURDS HAS DEPARTED… ROJAVA: TURKISH THREATS ARE INCREASINGLY HEAVY urkish threats to Turks and the forces they con - 5th against these attacks on Rojava are increasing. trol, between Jerablous and brought together tens of thou - Having massed troops Azaz, Shahba forms a strategic sands of people while the YPG T opposite Kilis, on the corridor between Afrîn and described the Turkish deploy - Turkish side of the Kobanê, vital to the Turks as ment as a “declaration of war” border at the end of June and in well as the for Rojava. that was in danger of provoking July and between Jerablus and confrontations. The Turkish al-Bab on the Syrian side, Turkey The Dogan news agency Deputy Prime Minister, Numan has been shelling Afrin all week, describes the Turkish attacks as Kurtulmuş, replied that Turkey according to the Syrian Centre “retaliations” to shots fired had not declared war bit that it for Human Rights (SCHR), hit - against the Turks from Mount “would respond to any hostile ting a dozen villages, injuring a Parsa. While the YPG is calling moves by the YPG. On the dozen civilians. According to the on the international coalition to evening of 7 th the Turkish Air YPG a woman and her two chil - act and put an end to these Force bombed Rojava and Sinjar dren were killed and 7 young attacks, the Turks have (in Iraq ( Rûdaw ). More than ever teenagers wounded in the announced that they wish to there is Turkey is a world of dif - Shahba region. Recently promot - take control of Tell Rifaat, about ference between Turkey’s state - ed to Canton status by the 10 km South of Azaz and then to ments about “ preserving Syria’s Rojava authorities and just South besiege Afrin, 20 km to the West. territorial integrity ” and its own of the area controlled by the In Afrin, a demonstration on the invasion of Syrian soil… • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 388 • July 2017 The “war of words” is also authorities to let the Syrian in making 25m breaches in the waged by the pro-AKP daily Army enter it to stop the Turkish Rafiqah wall surrounding the Sabah , which announced that the attacks. The reply was that the city. Then, on 17 th , the SDF Ankara-backed Syrian rebels regime had been driven out of announced it had taken back were ready to carry out anti- Afrin 5 years earlier and that another quarter, Yarmouk, At the YPG operations and that the there was no reason for it to Southern limits of the town. Russians could ensure their air return… the reason for the According to the SCHR the SDF diver. On the 8 th , President changes in Turkish lines after do not yet control the whole of Erdogan who was chairing the their negotiations with the this quarter and held about 35% G20, declared that Turkey would Russians could be wither Turkey of the city. According to Nasrin never authorise the formation of being obliged to make the rebels Abdulla, Commander of the a Kurdish State in North Syria it armed it “swallow” the con - YPG on the 27 th , 45% of the city and would not hesitate about cessions it made there or else was freed, a figure confirmed by “using its right to self-defence ” if due to its obsessional distrust of the SCHR. However the next its security was threatened by the Kurds or that dissensions day one of the principal YPG “the support and arming of terrorist had appeared between the commanders, Sipan Hemo, stat - groups and by the setting up of ter - Turkish Army and the these ed that they might interrupt the rorist pockets near our borders ”. On back-up troops it supported. operations if the Turkish attacks the 17 th , the Anatolia news agen - Indeed, on the 6 th it was learnt against Rojava continued: cer - cy unhesitatingly published an that Ankara had disarmed a tain units like the Jaish al-Thuwar article entitled “ The USA is Kurdish militia that was coming from Shabha, had had to increasing its presence in by sup - opposed to the YPG and even abandon the protection of their porting the PKK/PYD in Syria ” in jailing its leader for 3 weeks. The own lands, threatened by the which it revealed the location of latter was accused by Ankara of Turks. several American and French having “ used the militia to increase Special Forces units, this putting its influence in the region ” These advances at Raqqa are tak - them in danger, according to the ing place in a civil war context, Pentagon. Confrontations between the SDF in which at Astana as in Geneva, and Turkish-backed rebels also the outside powers are negotiat - At the diplomatic level, since took place at the middle of the ing more and more openly the Turkey has failed to alter month in Aleppo Province, zones they influence, over the American support for the SDF where rebels of the Ahl al-Diyar heads of the Syrians whatever tried to negotiate with Russia an lost about 15 of their fighters. their tendencies. After two days agreement that would enable it Finally on the 31 st , some Turkish of virtually unsuccessful negoti - to attack Afrin. On the 2 nd , the militia crossed the border with ations, on the 4 th and 5 th at Turkish President met the bulldozers near Kobanê before Astana, a representative of the Russian Defence Minister, having to retreat following opposition considered that the Sergueï Shoïgou, at Istanbul, warning by the YPG. agreement on the “ de-escalation together with the head of his zones ” essentially represented Intelligence Service (MIT), Thus it is under the constant “the strengthening of the Hakan Fidan and General threat from the Turks that the Russian and Iranian influence in Hulusi Akar. This meeting Rojava Cantons and the SDF the field ( Reuters ). The US and aroused some concern in Rojava, have continued their fight Russia announced a cease fire fearing the possibility of a against the 2,500 jihadists who agreement for the South and Russo-Turkish “exchange” are anched in the town of Raqqa, Southwest of the country after should Moscow wish to secure which the SDF, for the first time, the Trump-Putin meeting at the the evacuation of rebels from entered from the South. Taking G20. Negotiated with the help of Idlib to areas in Syria that the al-Hal Market. On the 3 rd , Jordan, the agreement should Ankara already and could then the women’s units from Sinjar take effect on Sunday 9 th at mid - direct towards Tell Rifaat, a town (YJS) announced they were tak - day, Damascus time, controlled at present held by the YPG… ing part in the attack side by side by the Russian military police. with the YPJ “ to take part in the However it was only on the 26 th Was this the result of these con - liberation of the women (Yezidis) that the Russian Army tacts? On the 13 th Bahjat Abdo, kidnapped by ISIS ”. The next day announced it had deployed 4 who leads the defence of Afrin the US Command announced battalions of military police to stated on Kurdistan 24 that the that the SDF, this time attacking ensure security in the two “ de- Russians had asked the Canton’s from the East, having succeeded escalation zones ”. n° 388 • July 2017 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• Speaking at Geneva in the 11 th , Associated Press: “ Once Raqqa is 11 th the SDF women’s comman - to open 5 days of negotiations, won back from ISIS ” she declared, der, Rojda Shiya, announced the the Special UN Envoy for Syria, the United States should “ contin - formation of a battalion of Staffan de Mistura, pointed out ue its action in the country to guar - women recruited from Syrian that these cease fire agreements antee its stability until its policy Arab women throughout the would make help to civilians can be decided ”. She added that country. This worried the easier and might enable the sta - we cannot limit ourselves to jihadists, for whom nothing is bilisation of the country but fighting ISIS in the military field more terrifying than to fall in warned that they could only but, to avoid the reappearance of battle against women. It will also play a temporary role if one similar groups, we must build a worry Turkey who will see in wanted to avoid partition. De democratic system. In Ms this the spreading of the Rojava Mistura also stated in an inter - Ahmed’s opinion the civilian “terrorist centre ” to non-Kurdish view with Sputnik that the Councils set up by SDF in the women.