INSTITUT KURD E DE PARIS Information and liaison bulletin N° 398 MAY 2018 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° 398 May 2018 • AFRIN, MARTYRISED BY ISLAMIST MILITIA AND THE TURKISH OCCUPATION FORCES • TURKEY: A TOTALLY UNFAIR ELECTION CAMPAIGN • IRAQ: ACCUSATIONS 0F FRAUD AND CONFUSION FOLLOWING THE ELECTIONS • IRAN: PANAHI’S LIFE STILL ENDANGERED, STRIKE OF BAZAARS SUSPENDED AFTER PROMISE OF BORDER REOPENING • RECENT PUBLICATIONS AFRIN, MARTYRISED BY ISLAMIST MILITIA AND THE TURKISH OCCUPATION FORCES espite the closing of the Afrin. The Syrian centre for indicating indirectly Turkey and Afrin region, occupied Human Rights (SCHR) has also the Damascus regime as responsi - by Turkey, many wit - reported several meetings with ble: “Several parties to the conflict D nesses report abuses by Jihadist organisations, in particu - continue to hinder the movements the jihadists allied to lar the Al-Rahman unit, that could of displaced people, preventing the occupiers: kidnappings, rap - well be given the task the task of them (…) from returning to their ings and murders, particularly organising an Islamic Police and home regions” ( Rûdaw ). The aimed at Kurds and the Christian the setting up of Courts to try Rojava authorities have and Yezidi minorities. Turkey is cases on the basis of their version denounced Ankara’s breaches of following its policy of ethnic of the Sharia. If hundreds of resi - the rights of civil populations of cleansing together with rehousing dents displaced from Eastern Afrin in a letter sent among others of rebel fighters from Idlib of Ghouta have refused to be to UNO and the European Union Eastern Ghouta in the houses of rehoused in the houses of dis - at the beginning of May (NHA). Kurdish families prevented from placed Kurds, 700 fanilies of mem - Everything seems to show that the returning. It has also started set - bers of al-Rahman have arrived in tacit agreement between ting up permanent military bases the region, especially at Jandairis. Damascus and its Russian allies on Mount Nishan (Sarbeh) in the on the one hand and Ankara on Bish Baraq region, West of At the beginning of May UNO the other entails an ethnic cleaning Kakhara and in the Cindirêsê estimated there were 126,000 dis - allowing each of them to strength - (Jandairis) district, Southwest of placed men, women and children, en its control of its own territories: • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 398 • May 2018 Eastern Ghouta as well as Afrin… released by the FSA gave evidence had organised a general strike and that she had narrowly escaped a demonstration after some The Yezidis seem to be particular - being forcibly married to a jihadist Jihadists had stormed into the hos - ly targeted: Omar Memo Abo and that she had seen another pris - pital and killed members of the Hanna, a Yezidi from the town of oner decapitated ( Jin News ) — staff. The Turkish soldiers then Qibar, kidnapped by Jihadist prectices that evoke those of ISIS… reportedly opened fire on the groups on 10 th May, was found 3 demonstrators ( AfrinResist ). On the days later with a bullet in his Keeping up their resistance to the 11 th the Turkish Army targeted the chest. In reply to the kidnappings, occupation, the YPG announced on village of Ghazil (Girê Spî district) the Yezidi Centre of Jezirah and 4th May that they had eliminated at with a missile (that, fortunately, the Yezidi Union of Afrin pub - Afrin a Syrian charged with ethnic did not explode) and then lished a joint statement condemn - cleansing, Jamal al-Zakhlul. “ He launched a series of shots at vehi - ing the Turkish government for its forced Afrin residents to flee and cles and residents at Ali Shibar vil - “racist attitude and its anti-Kurdish placed terrorist and their families in lage, near Kobanî, though no casu - and anti-Yezidi chauvinism ” ( WKI ). their abandoned houses ” in coordina - alties were reported. Turkish On the 21 st the Jihadists destroyed tion with the Turkish Secret artillery fire on workers near the Yezidi Centre of Afrin and the Services. In the areas he controlled Kobanî and Qamishlo prevented next day the Yezidi temple and he imposed the Sharia… During the maintenance work on several cemetery of the village of Feqîra. the night of the 11 th to 12 th , the water supply piping. On the 26 th , The Yezidis displaced to Turkey YPG confronted the occupiers during the “Wold Day of action for by the war are not treated any bet - some 6 Km North of the town Afrin” organised by the Rojava ter. Those forcibly taken from the (SOHR) and the Turkish air force authorities, the inhabitants of refugee camp in Diyarbekir intervened ( Rûdaw ). The YPG Qamishlo and Shehba demonstrat - province to the AFAD camp in announced it had killed 15 occu - ed against the Turkish occupation. Mardin province denounce the pants in 2 weeks. incessant hate discourse they However the main thorn in receive from the staff and the On the 15 th May Ahrar Al-Sham Thurkey’s foot is still Manbij, a town camp managers as well as the dif - kidnapped 25 civilians from the defended by the fighters of a local ficult access to doctors, and the town of Kurzila, and, according to military Council affiliated to the medicines they have to pay for… a report by Rojava authorities, sev - SDF. Moreover there are US and eral women were kidnapped, some French troops stationed in the town. Amongst the people kidnapped is raped or tortured. On the 27 th the Ankara has been trying to apply a Kurdish journalist, missing for Syrian Women’s Council indicated pressure on the US for the last 4 over two weeks, Ahmed Shafi that 119 women had been months to secure the withdrawal of Bilal. A video in which he appears Kidnapped and been victims of the SDF. On the 9 th , however, the was briefly visible on his Facebook sexual abus and attacks (Jin News). Council confirmed the setting up of page, showing him apparently in A Yezidi man was also found mur - a new US base in the town. The the hands of the Mashaal Tamo dered in Afrin. The occupiers Turkish foreign Minister, Mevlut regiment. According to a source attacked villages, sometimes sever - Çavuşoğlu, announced the 17 th that who prefers to be anonymous he al times, injuring and killing civil - Ankara had obtained from the was obliged to record the video by ians. A 200 vehicle convoy that had Americans a “preliminary agree - his kidnappers ( Rûdaw ). Several come from Shehba and the North ment” regarding the town, but the other people have already been of Aleppo, bringing 1,500 displaced US State Department’s spokesper - made subject of a demand for rean - people wanting to move to Afrin, son, Heather Nauert, denied it on som in this way. A 23-year-old was blocked for 3 days before the 19 th . Meanwhile a US military Kurd from Afrin, Safkan Khalil, being attacked, near the village of delegayion met the town’s military released on payment, testified that Gilbara, by militia who kidnapped Council on the 18 th and the latter he had been imprisoned and tor - 50 civilians … was able to announce they had tured for 40 days ( WKI ). Others The Turkish danger also weighs on recruited 90 fresh fighters. This little were kidnapped because they were the rest of Rojava. On the 6 th the Turko-American game of announce - suspected of links with the Rojava Turkish President again repeated at ments and denials regarding Manbij administration or because they an election meeting his determina - has been going on since the 15 th were Yezidis… On the 20 th May, tion to wage new operations that February, the date of a 3-hour-long the whereabouts of 16 Kurds from could go as far as the Iraqi bor - meeting between Tillerson and Bulbul kidnapped without anyone der… The day before, the residents Erdoğan, without any official inter - knowing by which faction were of Al-Bab, a town controlled by preter, Çavuşoglu playing this role, still unknown. A woman of Afrin, Ankara and the Al-Hamza group, in which it was decided to set up a n° 398 • May 2017 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• working group on the town’s future. killed in the fighting or by the air Iraqi KRG, which had proposed to On the 26 th a joint communiqué strikes. On the 20 th there was fierce mediate between the ENKS and the announced the setting up of a “road fighting near Baghouz and the vil - former. Similar negotiations organ - map” to “ensurte the security and lage of Hajine, while the SDF ised in 2014 had issued in the cre - stability of Manbij”… Nevertheless advanced regularly on the ground ation of a Supreme Kurdish it increasingly appears that in their “thanks to the American and Council, but it never worked. The discussions with the Turks either the French artillery fire”, ater having ENKS was still waiting on the 23 rd Americans are trying to gain time or won, on the 19 th , “a hill overlook - for some softening up in the field that the Turks publish announce - ing Hajine and two neighbouring such as the release of its impris - ments for domestic use, or take their villages” (SCHR).