INSTITUT KURDDE PARIS E Information and liaison bulletin N° 409 APRIL 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° 409 April 2019 • ROJAVA: UNCERTAINTIES AFTER THE FALL OF ISIS • FRANCE: THE FRENCH PRESIDENT RECEIVES A SDF DELEGATION, PROVOKING ANKARA’S ANGER • TURKEY: AKP LOSES ANKARA AND ISTAN- BUL, ORGANISES “ELECTORAL HOLD-UP” AGAINST EIGHT HDP WINNERS IN THE EAST • IRAQ: STILL NO REGIONAL GOVERNMENT IN KURDISTAN, VOTERS GET IMPATIENT... • IRAN: BI-NATIONAL OR FOREIGN ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARRESTED IN KURDISTAN LITERALLY TAKEN HOSTAGES BY THE REGIME ROJAVA: UNCERTAINTIES AFTER THE FALL OF ISIS While the takeover by in an artillery fire exchange with Encûmena Niştimanî ya Kurdî li the Syrian Democratic the YPG. In addition, tension in Sûriyê), arrested on 31 March... Forces (SDF) of ISIS's the occupied area also increased last reduction in eastern following a new wave of abuses Kurdish clandestine groups con- W Syria does not mean the by jihadist militias holding the tinued their operations against the end of the jihadist organisation, it area, including kidnappings for occupiers. In particular, the “Afrîn should allow them to redeploy ransom and arbitrary arrests. Liberation Forces” (ALF) claimed their fighters to the West and Taking advantage of the interna- an anti-tank missile fire on 1st increase their pressure on the tional community's silence during April near Azaz against a minibus Afrin region. The SDF leaders and since the invasion, militias at carrying fighters of the al-Jabha al- warned: once ISIS is sufficiently the Turkish orders have arrested Shamiyya faction of the Free weakened, their main objective hundreds of people, including Syrian Army (FSA), resulting in will be the liberation of this leaders of the opposition to the one death and two injuries region, occupied by Turkey and its authorities of the North Syrian (AMN). In another operation, a local mercenaries for more than a Federation, such as Hussein Ibish, position of the same group was year now. Already on the 1st of the leader of the PDK-S (Democratic targeted by another guided mis- month, the Turkish Ministry of Party of Kurdistan – Syria) and sile, with 4 dead and 2 wounded... Defence announced the death on leader of the Kurdish National 31 March of a soldier near the city Council of Syria (ENKS, However, the SDF left the door • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 409 • April 2019 open for discussion if Turkey that Russia had lost all influence attacked a Turkish base west of this leaves Afrîn, as their commander- in the region (WKI)... and certainly town in northern Aleppo province. in-chief, Mazlum Kobanê, said on any SDF confidence. Abroad, sev- The Turkish Ministry of Defence 8 August in a speech celebrating eral dozen Kurds living in confirmed the death of at least one ISIS defeat. The other condition is Germany went on hunger strike soldier, as well as 3 wounded in an the end of threats against the outside the Turkish consulate in attack on a Turkish military con- Syrian North-East (Kurdistan 24, Cologne on the 23rd to protest voy. According to the Syrian Ahval). The alternative is “the lib- against the continued occupation Observatory for Human Rights eration of Afrîn”, whose “prepara- of Afrîn (Kurdistan 24). (SOHR), the gunfire continued for tion” Kobanê announced by the several hours before gradually sub- SDF (Rûdaw). On the 19th, members of an SDF siding (Al-Masdar News - AMN). delegation received by the French The situation in Afrîn seems to President stated that Emmanuel Despite its declared hostility and have convinced the majority of the Macron had pledged to maintain continued threats against the inhabitants of the north-eastern French forces alongside the SDF Syrian Northern Federation, Syrian Arab Republic that the same and to financially support recon- Turkey will not launch an attack fate awaits them if Turkey takes struction and public services in the as long as US military personnel control of their territories, even Federation. On 1st of April, the are present. On April 3, the State though Turkish propaganda once Head of French diplomacy, Jean- Department's published transcript again published on 15 January so- Yves Le Drian, announced €1 mil- of the meeting between Secretary called requests from “Kurdish, lion in humanitarian aid for the of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Arab and Turkmen tribes” in Syria camps for displaced people, Foreign Minister Mevlut for Turkish intervention to “drive including Al-Hol, where thou- Çavuşoğlu contained unusually out terrorists” (Daily Sabah). sands of foreign women and chil- strong language from Pompeo that Meanwhile, since the 7th, the dren who are members of ISIS are could be interpreted as a threat of Turkish military has begun to train packed (L'Orient-Le Jour). Turkey a US military response in the their Syrian auxiliaries, particularly immediately condemned this event of a Turkish attack on the for airborne operations using heli- meeting with “terrorists”. Syrian North: according to the copters, but also for urban com- transcript, Pompeo warned bat... (AMN) According to Al- On 27 July, the Federation authori- Çavuşoğlu of the “potentially dev- Monitor, the United States is still ties denounced in a statement astating consequences of a unilat- trying to persuade its SDF allies to Turkey's construction of a wall eral Turkish military action”in agree to a deployment of the south of Afrîn, isolating the occu- northeastern Syria... (Kurdistan Turkish army on its side of the bor- pied area from the rest of Syria, and 24) This is because the relationship der. Just as Turkey does not seem called on the United Nations to take to the SDF is not the only element ready to leave Afrîn, the SDF does a stand against this creeping annex- generating Turkish-American ten- not seem ready to let the Turkish ation in violation of international sions. Turkey's persistence in its army in... law: “The Turkish State continues to will to acquire the Russian S-400 legitimize invasions and territorial anti-aircraft system despite the On the evening of the 12th, the annexations, repeating the same risks that the Americans see in it Turkish army attacked YPG posi- scenarios as in Cyprus and for the secrets of their F-35 fight- tions near Tell Rifaat, in northern Iskanderun” (RojInfo). ers, which Turkey also wants to Aleppo province, with heavy acquire, is an equally, if not more artillery, provoking a response. On 28 September, Reuters reported serious, factor of tension. The US This attack came just 48 hours anti-SDF demonstrations in several Congress could even ban the sale after the withdrawal of the cities with a predominantly Arab of these fighter planes to Turkey... Russian Military Police from the population in Deir Ezzor province. (Russia immediately declared area (AMN). On the 18th, thou- The protests concerned among itself ready to sell its own fighter sands of displaced Afrin residents other things the use of local oil rev- to Turkey) demonstrated outside the Russian enues by Federation authorities “Reconciliation Centre” north of and the conscription they impose In addition, at the end of the Aleppo to protest Russian com- in these areas... Local Federation month, on the 25th, the Trump plicity in the Afrin invasion, and officials reported that they had administration's announcement of following rumours of an identical begun discussions with residents. the end of exemptions from sanc- Russian-Turkish “deal” for the Tell tions for foreign companies buying Rifaat region... YPG spokesman On the 30th, a violent artillery bat- Iranian oil further increased ten- Nuri Mahmud told Kurdistan 24 tle broke out near Azaz when YPG sions: with an oil pipeline crossing n° 409 • April 2019 Information and liaison bulletin • 3 • the border, Turkey is an important announcement on 23 March of the jihadists prisoners and their fami- customer of Iran (The Washington fall of Baghuz, the last village held lies, thousands of whom are in Post). But all the avenues for dia- by the jihadists, operations contin- SDF custody in several camps, logue are not broken yet, since at ued in eastern Syria: the SDF con- including Al-Hol, remains unre- the same time, the two partners tinue to hunt down jihadist fight- solved. On 5 April, the proposal of were continuing discussions to find ers while the Coalition continues the authorities of the Northern ways to conduct joint patrols in a its strikes in coordination with Syrian Federation to set up an “security zone” that seems increas- them. On 2 February, Mustefa Bali, international tribunal to try the ingly impossible to set up... More the SDF spokesman, said that crimes committed by ISIS received than ever, the United States seems jihadist groups were “hiding in strong support: that of the German to be torn between the need to pro- caves overlooking Baghuz” (Le Minister of the Interior, Horst tect its soldiers left behind and its Figaro). Dormant jihadist cells also Seehofer, who stated in Die Zeit links with its Turkish ally. Given continue to carry out attacks in the that he preferred this solution to the very small number of troops theoretically recovered areas. Thus repatriating jihadists to be tried in they would leave in north-eastern seven SDF fighters were killed on Germany.