This January, a Turkish court sentenced Sofya Alağaş, a Kurdish journalist and elected co-mayor of Siirt municipality, to six years and three months in prison on charges of membership in a terror organization. “I honestly don’t know how it will end,” Alağaş told Truthout. “The sentence was not a legal decision but a political one. If the Turkish state takes some steps towards democratization…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, March 3, 2025—Kurdistan security forces arrested four journalists from the new digital outlet Media21 on February 28 in the eastern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, confiscating their phones and taking them from their homes in the eastern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah on February 28.
The journalists were identified as Bashdar Bazyani, Dana Salih, Sardasht HamaSalih, and Nabaz Shekhani.
Security forces closed the outlet’s office in Sulaymaniyah on March 1, saying it lacked a license, confiscated several computers, and ordered staff not to return to work, according to two sources who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.
Three sources told CPJ that authorities released three of the journalists on bail on Sunday, March 2. Bazyani remained in custody as of Monday.
“Authorities’ arrest of four journalists and the forced closure of Media21’s office is a direct attack on press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Authorities must immediately release journalist Bashdar Bazyani, drop charges against all four journalists, and allow the outlet to resume operations.”
Two sources told CPJ that the arrests and shutdown are linked to a Media21 interview with the sister of a Kurdistan Regional Government official regarding a family dispute. The official filed a lawsuit after Bazyani messaged him about the interview ahead of publication.
Karwan Anwar, head of the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, told CPJ that the journalists were charged with defamation under Article 433 of the penal code, which provides for an unspecified prison term and/or a fine. “Harsher penalties” can be imposed on media outlets.
Media21, which launched on February 21, 2025, condemned the “unjust and illegal” arrests. “These individuals are key members of our investigative team and were arrested while carrying out their journalistic duties,” the statement said.
CPJ’s messages to the Kurdistan Regional Government official did not receive a reply. CPJ’s calls to Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, were unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Campaigners are calling on the UK government to block moves to sell Turkey 40 Eurofighters following the latest repression by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
In recent weeks, the Turkish state detained 282 people including lawyers, journalists, and LGBTQ+ campaigners. A range of organisations were targeted including members of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), Labor Party (EMEP), Socialist Refoundation Party (SYKP), Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and Green Left Party.
Negotiations are currently underway with Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain for Turkey’s acquisition of the Eurofighters in a deal reportedly worth approximately $5.6bn. France meanwhile has agreed to sell Turkey MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles for the fighters. In the UK, BAE Systems – who announced annual profits of £3bn last week – will be the main beneficiary.
This latest clampdown is part of ongoing repression against Kurdish and other opposition voices in Turkey. Since the local elections in 2024, Erdoğan has replaced ten mayors with trustees from his ruling AKP party. In Van, in the Kurdish majority southeast, this has led to widespread protests and repression that included detaining 40 people, including 5 children.
According to a Freedom House report published this week, Turkey is amongst the top 10 countries that has experienced a sharp decline in freedoms over the last decade.
Alongside this latest round of domestic repression, Erdoğan has continued his deadly assault in Rojava – the autonomous Kurdish-majority region of north east Syria. Between 2019 and 2024, Turkey carried out more than 100 airstrikes on oil fields, gas facilities and power stations, cutting off electricity to over one million people and violating International Humanitarian Law. Turkey is also carrying out regular airstrikes in Iraq, killing four civilians in January.
Campaign Against Arms Trade media spokesperson, Emily Apple, said
It is unconscionable that this Eurofighter deal is still being talked about. Not only is Turkey an authoritarian, human rights abusing regime domestically, it is committing war crimes in Rojava.
This deal is about lining the pockets of arms dealers while Kurdish communities across the region face bombardment and repression from Erdoğan’s fascistic regime.
We need to stand in solidarity with the Kurdish community and show that there’s massive public opposition to this deal now before it is too late.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
After decades of brutal repression at the hands of the war-criminal Turkish state, things suddenly seem to be looking more hopeful for occupied Kurdish communities. Because political prisoner Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has unilaterally called for an end to the group’s conflict with Turkey. Regional developments and some advances in Kurdish rights reportedly convinced him that armed resistance doesn’t make sense anymore and “therefore, the PKK should be dissolved”.
There are a number of possible reasons for Turkey’s sudden willingness to resume talks with Öcalan, including poor election results last year, a changeover in the US government and its priorities, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria (which has further increased tensions between Israel and Iran). In particular, negotiations could bring an end to Turkish war crimes against Kurdish-majority communities in northern Syria.
Other PKK leaders have previously insisted that they will respect Öcalan’s wishes. And Kurdish communities around Turkey and beyond have shown their excitement about the prospect of peace.
The Turkish government allowed the main pro-Kurdish Democracy and Equality of Peoples Party (DEM) to visit Öcalan several times in recent weeks, marking an apparent preparation for Öcalan’s statement. But only the coming days and weeks, following Öcalan’s call for peace, will reveal how committed Turkey is to really ending its hostility towards Kurdish communities.
Like Israel, Turkey is a key Western ally with a long record of ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation. And it has recently intensified efforts to force Kurdish-majority communities into submission. The Turkish army is NATO’s second-largest, and has committed numerous war crimes in recent years in an attempt to destroy the left-wing, Kurdish-led Rojava revolution in northern Syria that was key in defeating Daesh (Isis/Isil). And like Israel, Turkey has sought to justify its own campaign of terror by calling its enemies terrorists. The twist, however, is that Rojavan forces haven’t even attacked Turkey.
The Turkish regime’s problem with Rojava is that it drew its left-wing ideology from Öcalan, whose PKK began to fight a war of resistance against the Turkish state in the 1980s after decades of anti-Kurdish repression. Because Turkey claims the PKK are terrorists, its Western allies do too (though the PKK never attacked Western targets). Along with its allies in Rojava and elsewhere, the PKK has long condemned all attacks on civilians. And European courts have criticised the political weaponisation of the ‘terrorist’ designation.
In the 1990s, the PKK clarified that “we want to live within the borders of Turkey on our own land freely”. But centralised states like Turkey oppose this type of self-governance. And along with its military crimes, the Turkish regime has long repressed legal electoral groups at home that have sought to defend Kurdish rights, which it continues to do today. For this reason, there are still significant doubts about Turkey’s sincerity in resolving its longstanding Kurdish question. But because the country’s ruling party suffered a big blow in 2024’s local elections, a change in tactics (however disingenuous) is understandable.
Geopolitical manoeuvring in the region may well be a factor pushing Turkey to seek less hostile relations with Kurdish communities. Because with a highly controversial group with links to Al-Qaeda now ruling Syria, Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish people seem more ridiculous than ever. As former British diplomat Carne Ross recently told the Canary:
I don’t believe really in designating groups as terrorists, and therefore kind of putting them beyond the pale where you won’t talk to them or deal with them. The PKK represents something real which is the need for self-defence of the Kurdish people in Turkey.
Turkey has also faced some recent political opposition from within the US over its attacks on Rojava because Washington understands how important Rojava’s Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were in defeating Daesh, and maintains strategic relations with the SDF as a result. This is particularly relevant as Daesh has been “making a comeback” following the overthrow of the Assad regime. Meanwhile, the US is only tentatively suspending sanctions on Syria as the new ultra-conservative government tries to prove its servility to Western interests.
The Turkish regime, on the other hand, has ideological affinity with Syria’s extremist rulers and is looking to become a key player in the post-war order. The Syrian government has often excluded Rojava from talks amid tense ongoing negotiations, possibly as a result of Turkish interference. And Turkey may indeed have used this as a bargaining chip to encourage Öcalan’s call to dissolve the PKK.
Whether the current hopes of peace in occupied Kurdistan bloom into something lasting or not, new efforts to bring peace between Turkey and Kurdish communities in the region certainly seem to represent an important and necessary step in the right direction.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, February 13, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Kurdistan security forces’ assault on 12 news crews covering a February 9 protest by teachers and other public employees over unpaid salaries, which resulted in at least 22 journalists teargassed, two arrested, and a television station raided.
“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”
Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.
Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.
At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:
“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.
“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.
“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.
“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.
“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.
“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.
Raided and arrested
Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.
“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.
KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”
In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.
“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.
“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.
CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Istanbul, November 27, 2024—Turkish authorities should stop treating journalists like terrorists by raiding their homes and detaining them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
“Turkish authorities once more raided the homes of multiple journalists in the middle of the night, in order to portray them as dangerous criminals, and detained them without offering any justification. CPJ has monitored similar secretive operations in the past decade, and not one journalist has been proven to be involved with actual terrorism,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and stop this systematic harassment of the media.”
In a statement Tuesday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said police had conducted simultaneous operations in 30 cities and detained a total of 261 people who suspected of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or alleged offshoot organizations. At least 12 journalists are reported to be held in custody:
The reasons for the detentions are unknown, as there is a court order of secrecy on the investigation, preventing the detainees and their lawyers from being informed of the investigation’s details and possible charges, a common practice in such crackdowns.
CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry for comment but received no reply.
Separately, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), threatened the pro-opposition outlet Halk TV and its commentators for criticizing his party with a vow that the MHP will make them suffer.
“We are taking note, one by one, of the ignorant and arrogant commentators, especially Halk TV,” Bahçeli said Tuesday at a MHP meeting in Ankara. In October, he had told the outlet to “watch your step.”
Editor’s note: The alert was updated to correct the name of Ahmet Sümbül.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
Sulaymaniyah, November 8, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for full accountability in the attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq by two men, who stabbed him 21 times and hit him in the head with the butt of a gun, in his home near Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah city.
“We are appalled by the brutal attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq, which left him with severe injuries to his abdomen and head,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “The Kurdistan Regional Government and its Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs must deliver justice for this vicious assault.”
The attack took place on November 4, hours after Abdulkhaliq, a reporter for the online outlet Bwar Media, published a report on allegations that an official had blocked the implementation of a local electricity and water project, according to multiple news outlets and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ. The report said the unnamed official was part of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, which is the defense ministry in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.
Abdulkhaliq told CPJ and a news conference that he was in his orchard when the official’s nephew and bodyguard approached, and the bodyguard aimed a gun at him.
“I quickly grabbed his hand and pushed him back to prevent him from shooting. The nephew tried to shoot but misfired,” Abdulkhaliq told CPJ. “The nephew stabbed me deeply in the abdomen with a combat knife. Then the bodyguard prepared to shoot again but he [the nephew] stopped him, saying, ‘Let’s not shoot him; he’s already wounded and will die.’”
Bwar Media’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim Ali told CPJ that the assailants also punctured Abdulkhaliq’s tires. He said doctors told him that the journalist was stable after receiving 21 stitches in the hospital.
“Two assailants along with a military official have been arrested. We are committed to ensuring that justice is served,” Ramak Ramazan, mayor of Chamchamal District where the incident took place, told CPJ via phone, without providing further details.
CPJ’s calls to request comment from Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin were not answered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Journalist Rêbîn Bekir was driving near the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq on the morning of August 23, when a rocket slammed into his car. The vehicle immediately burst into flames. Bekir was lucky. He was thrown from the car by the explosion and survived with injuries. But Bekir’s colleagues, Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn, died instantly, their bodies burned beyond…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Sulaymaniyah, August 23, 2024—A suspected Turkish drone strike killed two journalists and injured another in the Said Sadiq district of Sulaymaniyah province on Friday.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic August 23 drone strike that killed two journalists and injured a third in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly investigate this attack and determine if the reporting team was targeted for their work.”
The attack killed Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Turkish journalist, and Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Iraqi video editor. All three journalists worked for Chatr Multimedia Production Company, which operates Sterk TV and Aryen TV, news channels funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.) Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group earlier this year.
Turkey has escalated its military operations in the Kurdistan Region, targeting the PKK, which has been engaged in a decades-long conflict with Turkey. On July 8, a Turkish strike in Sinjar, northern Iraq, led to the death of a Çira TV reporter.
Rebin Bakir, an Iraqi video editor and social media officer injured in the August 23 attack, is in stable condition after treatment at Shar Hospital in Sulaymaniyah for broken legs and hands, according to Hawzhin Shwan, a Sterk TV reporter and anchor, who spoke to CPJ.
The three were on a reporting mission in an unmarked car along the Sulaymaniyah-Halabja road near the village of Goptapa when they were hit, Kamal Hamaraza, head of Chatr Multimedia Production Company, told CPJ, adding that they were journalists “with no direct or indirect connection to politics or military activities.”
“We have faced ongoing threats from Turkish attacks due to our consistent coverage of their operations and violations in the Kurdistan region,” Hamaraza said.
Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, told CPJ that the agency “will publish publicly if they issue anything.”
CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Sulaymaniyah, August 20, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi security forces to explain the assault of two TV crews while they were covering protests in separate parts of the country.
“CPJ is deeply concerned by the attacks on the Zoom News TV crew in Sulaymaniyah and the Alsumaria TV crew in Baghdad,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “We call on Iraqi authorities to thoroughly investigate these incidents and ensure their security forces are properly trained to interact with journalists.”
On August 18, in Halabja, Sulaymaniyah province, Iraqi Kurdistan Asayish security forces attacked Zoom News TV reporter Avin Atta and cameraman Zhyar Kamli while they were reporting on a demonstration against the killing of a porter, known as a kolbar, by Iraqi border forces in the Hawraman area.
Atta told CPJ that an Asayish official twisted her arm behind her back, dislocating her shoulder and wrist, after she refused to hand over their camera and microphone. The security forces released Atta and Kamli after reviewing their footage for more than an hour.
CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment sent via messaging app to Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency.
Zoom News TV supports the newly formed People’s Front, a political party participating in Kurdistan’s October 20 parliamentary elections.
Separately, Iraqi SWAT forces assaulted Alsumaria TV reporter Amir Al-Khafaji and cameraman Omar Abbas while they were covering an August 19 Baghdad protest by medical school graduates demanding jobs.
Al-Khafaji told CPJ by phone that four SWAT officers beat him and confiscated their equipment and phones after he tried to stop them from attacking Abbas.
After taking the journalists to a police station in Baghdad’s Al-Rusafa district, the officers accused them of assaulting security forces and refused to release them until they signed a pledge not to attack security forces again. “We were shocked and denied the allegations,” said Al-Khafaji.
CPJ received no response to its call for comment from Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Miqdad Miri.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, July 29, 2024 — The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Iraqi Kurdish authorities to release Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed after the Duhok criminal court sentenced him to three years in prison on espionage charges on Monday.
“CPJ is alarmed by the sentencing of Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed, who has been detained for nine months,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities to release him without further delay and stop persecuting journalists for their work.”
Authorities charged Ahmed with espionage on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Ramazan Tartisi, one of Ahmed’s lawyers, who spoke to CPJ. Tartisi and Luqman Ahmed, another member of the legal team who has no relation to the journalist, told CPJ that the journalist denied the charges and plans to appeal.
The separatist PKK is designated a terrorist organization by several countries and institutions, including the U.S., Turkey, and the European Union. Iraq officially banned the group last week.
Ahmed is the Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews, based in Sulaymaniyah, a city in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. RojNews is pro-PKK and regularly reports on the organization’s activities.
The charges were “merely a means to retaliate against the journalist,” Luqman Ahmed told CPJ, saying that the court had no evidence for the conviction and the legal process was “very unfair,” adding that the lawyers were only allowed to attend the trial after pressure from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and foreign consulates.
Iraqi Kurdish authorities arrested Ahmed on October 25, 2023, when he re-entered Kurdistan after a family visit in Syria. The Security Directorate (Asayish), responsible for border security in Duhok Governorate, accused him of conducting “secret and illegal” work for the PKK.
CPJ’s call to Duhok Asayish Director Zeravan Baroshky for comment did not receive any reply.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Sulaymaniyah, July 23, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that the prominent Turkish Kurdish photojournalist Murat Yazar was held in an Iraqi Kurdish security forces prison for eight days before his release on Sunday evening and calls on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to stop arresting journalists.
“Iraqi Kurdish authorities have made a habit out of detaining and harassing journalists,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s Interim MENA Program Coordinator, in Washington D.C. “We are deeply concerned over the detention of prominent photojournalist Murat Yazar in the region for eight days and call on the authorities to immediately stop harassing members of the press and let them do their jobs freely.”
Iraqi Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, have detained, raided, and harassed dozens of journalists in the last three years.
Yazar, a Pulitzer Center grantee, had gone missing in the city of Zakho, in the Duhok province of Iraqi Kurdistan, on July 13. Iraqi Kurdish Asayish forces detained and interrogated him for what his family said was his unintentional entry into an area under restrictiondue to Turkish military operations against the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Yazar entered the area while working on a visual storytelling project about the Tigris River, according to a statement by the family, which CPJ reviewed. He was released without any charges, the statement said.
The officers confiscated Yazar’s passport, phone, and camera bag, according to the statement, and did not allow him to call his family or the Turkish consulate in Erbil.
After his release from Duhok Asayish prison, he crossed the border into Turkey around 1 a.m. on Monday, according to his brother, Baran, and two of his friends, Nil Delahaye, a human rights activist, and Paul Salopek, the founding executive director of the nonprofit Out of Eden Walk.
On Sunday, CPJ called Ahmed Ramazan, head of the Zakho police, and Ali Osman, an investigator at the Zakho Asayish office, who both stated that they had no information about the journalist.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, July 10, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish and Iraqi authorities to investigate after a suspected Turkish strike injured two Iraqi Kurdish reporters.
The two Çira TV reporters—Mydia Hussen and Murad Mirza—were with their driver Khalaf Khdir returning from covering the tenth anniversary of an ISIS attack on the southern village Tal al-Qasab, according to Argash Shingali, a board member of Germany-based satellite broadcaster Çira TV. Shingali said “the car lacked any media markings.”
The strike hit the journalists’ car in Sinjar (Shingal) District in northern Iraq on Monday, July 8, according to Shingali and Mehvan Hinji, head of Êzidxan Asayish forces, which is affiliated with the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi militia with ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group earlier this year.
A Monday statement by Cira TV and a report by pro-PKK media outlet Rojnews said the strike was carried out by Turkish forces, a claim repeated by Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in a Monday press release. Shingali told CPJ that the outlets confirmed it was a Turkish strike after speaking to Êzidxan Asayish forces.
Hinji told CPJ via messaging apps that they were still investigating whether the strike originated from Turkish forces.
Both reporters are currently being treated for head injuries at Sinjar Hospital in Sinjar city, Shingali said. The driver was also injured, he said.
“Iraqi and Turkish authorities must immediately and thoroughly investigate the car strike that injured two Çira TV reporters and their driver to determine its cause,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Local authorities must ensure journalists’ safety in northern Iraq as they report on crucial events.”
Sinjar is part of a disputed territory in northern Iraq and has been occupied by a succession of Iraqi and non-Iraqi sub-state actors. Turkey often conducts strikes in Sinjar, targeting YBS fighters.
CPJ’s repeated calls to Mohammed Al-Zahabi, the director of Iraqi national security forces in Shingal city, were unanswered.
In September 2019, local authorities banned Çira TV from operating in Duhok province.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Istanbul, June 25, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed an Istanbul court’s Tuesday acquittal of journalist Sezgin Kartal on the charge of being a member of a terrorist organization.
“We are pleased with the acquittal of journalist Sezgin Kartal, but let us not forget that the case against him was built on next to no evidence and should not have existed in the first place, let alone cost the journalist five months of his life in jail,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should not appeal the acquittal and ensure that members of the media are not prosecuted or so easily imprisoned without concrete evidence of wrongdoing.”
Authorities arrested Kartal in January 2023, and raided his home on the basis of his alleged resemblance to a man in a 2014 photograph of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey recognizes as a terrorist organization. He spent more than five months behind bars before being released pending trial.
Kartal is a freelance journalist who covers Alevi issues, human rights, corruption, and labor issues and hosts a news show for the independent outlet Özgün TV.
CPJ attended Tuesday’s trial at the 22nd Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes. Kartal, who wasn’t present, was represented by his lawyers, who emphasized the lack of evidence against their client in closing arguments.
The indictment said the journalist met with alleged terrorists in Syria on September 24, 2014, pointing to a three-hour window in Kartal’s phone records, during which his cellphone did not receive any signal from Turkish towers, according to CPJ’s review of the document.
Kartal’s lawyer, Oya Meriç Eyüpoğlu, said the journalist was in the Suruç district in Şanlıurfa Province at Turkey’s southeastern border with Syria on that date, covering the ongoing refugee crisis. However, Eyüpoğlu said there is no evidence or chance that Kartal could have illegally crossed to Syria, had his photograph taken with a group of armed men, and returned to Turkey within three hours without being noticed by Turkish border guards.
Eyüpoğlu cited a forensic report that determined the photograph was taken during the daytime at 1:13 p.m., while the three-hour window that Kartal’s phone was off was from 8-11 p.m. that night.
Berfin Karaşah, Kartal’s other lawyer, argued that even if her client was the man in the picture, that would provide grounds for charges regarding illegal arms and violating border security, not terrorist organization membership.
CPJ emailed the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Diyarbakır, July 11, 2023—In response to Tuesday’s opening of the trial of 17 Kurdish journalists and a media worker on terrorism charges in a court in Diyarbakır, Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
“Turkish authorities must immediately release the defendants and drop the terrorism charges, which are solely based on their journalistic work,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should also take necessary steps to ensure that pretrial arrest cannot be weaponized against the members of the press.”
The journalists and media worker were charged with membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They are employed by local ARİ, PEL, and PİYA production companies and produce Kurdish-focused shows and content, which the indictment alleged were propaganda for PKK. The government has designated PKK as a terrorist organization.
The defendants — 15 of whom have been under pretrial arrest for 13 months — have denied the charges and, if convicted, face up to 15 years imprisonment under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws.
Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. Of those, more than half were Kurdish journalists.
CPJ’s email to the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office did not receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The Turkish military assassinated Yusra Darwish, the co-chair of Qamişlo canton council in Northeast Syria, on 20th June. Missiles fired from a Turkish drone killed Yusra, who was also a prominent member of the Kurdish women’s movement.
A revolution has been underway in Rojava, Northeast Syria since 2012, based on the ideas of women’s freedom, grassroots democracy, and an ecological society. The Turkish state is opposed to this revolution, and has been trying to destroy it since it began.
The drone strike also killed , Yusra’s deputy co-chair, and the driver of the car, housands of people attended their funeral in Qamişlo.
Again, fascist Turkey attacks women who are politically active & at forefront of democracy & women's liberation in society.
This is the misogynist face of Turkey, which tries to intimidate women who are politically active in the Autonomous Administration in North & East Syria. pic.twitter.com/bG3i4Syg2a
— Kongra Star Women's Movement Rojava (@starrcongress) June 20, 2023
The enemy should know that the struggle started by comrade Rihan [Leyman] will continue at any cost.
This is by no means the first time the Turkish state has used assassination attacks against the Kurdish women’s movement. Zehra Berkel, Hebûn Mele Xelîl, and Emina Weysi were members of the Kongreya Star women’s federation. The Turkish military murdered them in another drone attack in 2020. Last year Nagîhan Akarsel, co-editor of Jineoloji magazine, was assassinated in an attack on her house in Suleimaniye in Iraqi Kurdistan. Jineoloji carries out decolonial dissemination of knowledge in the social sciences of, by, and for women. It is associated with the ideas of the Kurdish women’s movement. Kongreya Star wrote at the time:
the Turkish state has persistently tried to weaken the struggle. But the persistence, will and strength of the freedom-loving women will not be weakened or broken. Our answer will be the victory of the women’s revolution all over the world.
The Turkish state’s attacks on the revolutionary women of the Kurdish Freedom Movement are systematic and long-established. To read Kongra Star’s dossier on the assassinations of their comrades click here.
Kurdistan Solidarity Network (KSN) is a UK group which supports the revolutionary politics of the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Rojava revolution. KSN Jin, the autonomous women’s structure of the KSN, made the following statement:
KSN Jin went on to speak about Leyman Shiweish:
The statement continued:
The killings of Yusra, Leyman and Farat are part of a Turkish military campaign of drone strikes and shelling. Turkish drones have killed at least 21 people over the past weeks.
The European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E) have called for international solidarity against Turkish aggression. They said that the Turkish state wants to occupy and ethnically cleanse more of Northeast Syria:
It is necessary to see that the invading Turkish army has a very serious and clear goal of occupying and dekurdifying the region. It also replaces the Kurdish population by people from other places in the region.
KCDK-E called for people around the world to stand up against the Turkish attacks. People in Suleimaniye, Brussels, and Bern have already held demonstrations against the attacks. You can follow Kurdistan Solidarity Network to find out about solidarity events in the UK.
Featured image via Kongra Star
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Diyarbakır, Turkey, June 15, 2023—In response to a court in Diyarbakır on Thursday, June 15, ordering the release pending trial of Safiye Alagaş, news editor for the all-female pro-Kurdish news website JİNNEWS, after a year in pretrial detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
“Safiye Alagaş lost a year of her life, which cannot be compensated by any means, just like numerous other journalists in Turkey who were punished without a conviction by the common method of prolonged pretrial detention,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative, who attended the trial. “Turkish authorities must stop prosecuting Alagaş and other journalists for simply covering the news, and release all jailed members of the press.”
Authorities arrested Alagaş in June 2022 alongside 14 other journalists and charged her with being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the government has designated as a terrorist organization, according to the 383-page indictment reviewed by CPJ.
In court on Thursday, Alagaş denied the accusation, and the prosecution presented her outlet’s news articles, photos, social media posts, and other content as evidence. She is expected back in court on November 9, 2023. If convicted, she faces 7.5 to 15 years imprisonment.
CPJ’s email to the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor did not immediately receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
On Sunday 28 May, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won Turkey’s presidential run-offs. His victory came amid allegations of violent intimidation of Kurdish voters and electoral fraud.
Erdoğan has been in power for over 20 years. He took office as prime minister in 2003, and president in 2014. Since then, hungry for autocratic control, he has pushed for dictatorial powers for the presidency, built himself a $350m palace in Ankara, and replaced over 100 elected mayors in Bakur with state approved appointees. Bakur is the part of Kurdistan within the borders of Turkey. On top of this, Erdoğan has waged a constant war against Turkey’s Kurdish Freedom Movement, with at least 10,000 people currently imprisoned.
Internationally, Erdoğan has been an expansionist militarist; bombing Iraq and invading and occupying North and East Syria. He has used poison gas against Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) guerillas in Iraq, as well as both chemical and white phosphorous weapons against the people of Rojava. Erdoğan has allied with Daesh (ISIS), and created proxies in Syria such as the Turkish Free Syrian Army. Since the 2018 occupation, Turkey’s allies have plundered Afrin’s economy, and replaced Kurdish residents with pro-Turkish Arabic colonists.
It should come as no surprise then that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra), the right-wing Islamist group currently in control of the Syrian city of Idlib, extended congratulations to Erdoğan on the election result.
During the 2019 invasion of North and East Syria, Turkey and its proxies carried out assassinations, massacres, torture, and rapes. Sadly, now that Erdoğan has won another term a new invasion of North and East Syria is much more likely.
Erdoğan has also presided over militarist interventions in Libya, and provided military support to Azerbaijan for its conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh too. He has consistently ramped up militarist rhetoric against Greece, as well as using the ongoing refugee crisis and war in Ukraine to his benefit internationally.
Within Turkey, Erdoğan has played the conservative populist card. He has blamed LGBTQ+ people for the Covid-19 virus. Several of his election campaign statements were deeply homophobic. He is an outspoken misogynist too – in 2021 famously pulling out of the 2011 Istanbul Convention. The convention requires governments to adopt measures to prevent violence against women.
Before the 14 May 2023 election, members of the Green Left Party (YSP) in Colemêrg (Hakkari) told the Canary that they expected arrests and repression if Erdoğan won. One YSP member in Hakkari told us:
If AKP (Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party) wins, we will not be waking up in our beds, we will be waking up in prison.
YSP ran in the parliamentary election, gaining 63 seats. The party wants to completely change the face of Turkey. Their ambitions go beyond states and parliamentary democracy. They want to rewrite the Turkish constitution, and create radical peoples’ democracy at a grassroots-level across Turkey. YSP chose not to stand a presidential candidate. Instead they advised their supporters to make a tactical vote for the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the hope of finally unseating Erdoğan.
Kurdish voters faced violence and intimidation at polling booths for the second time in a month on May 28. Medya News wrote:
The Kurdish-majority regions witnessed significant support for opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the presidential run-off vote, just as in the first round of elections. However, reports have emerged of supporters and representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their extremist Islamist partner HÜDA-PAR interfering with voters and observers, particularly in areas where Kılıçdaroğlu had garnered significant support in the first round. The presence of an increased military mobilisation in the region further heightened tensions and uncertainty surrounding the elections.
Observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticised the election process. They said that there was an “unfair playing field” for both rounds of elections in May. They reported:
biased media coverage and the lack of a level playing field gave an unjustified advantage to the incumbent [Erdoğan].
Since 28 May’s run-off election, a wave of arrests of Kurdish Freedom Movement figures is already underway. On Monday 29 May, Special Operation Police carried out raids, kicking in doors, breaking windows, and assaulting people in Colemêrg in the far southeast. They kicked and punched detainees, and struck them with the butts of rifles.
Lawyers for Freedom reported that one detainee was tortured for two hours by the Special Operation Police. Police detained Mustafa Bor in Gever (Yüksekova in Turkish). The local hospital treated Mustafa for fractures, severe bruising, and bleeding later that day.
Meanwhile, in the city of Batman, police arrested 20 people for making a hand gesture associated with the Kurdish Freedom Movement during a victory parade for Erdoğan. They even arrested a journalist for reporting the incident.
The repression follows a wave of pre-election arrests across Bakur and Turkey. At least 180 people were arrested prior to 28 May’s run-off election, including many YSP members.
Vala Francis is an internationalist who has observed both elections as part of an international delegation called for by the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). After 28 May’s run-off election, she warned of more arrests to come:
Everyone expects masses of arrests to begin in the next months, especially for all the election work. But also a more general crackdown; literally thousands of people already have ongoing political cases. It’s really a critical time to think of ways to help people practically, on the ground.
But Vala still sees great hope in the spirit of the people. She wrote:
The war is deeply psychological. Maybe it doesn’t seem obvious from the outside, but people resist on every front. Some people seem to have a spring inside of them, like water that emerges from the ground. It doesn’t stop. It makes everything in its path clear and luscious for new possibilities. This spirit is still alive, even if by necessity it mostly exists in the shadows. All parts of Kurdistan are connected, and the strengths, and the struggles, and the weaknesses in one part feeds into and is substantiated by every other.
Vala’s faith in the spirit of the movement is borne out by her recent interview with Ceylan Akça of the YSP. Ceylan was elected to the Turkish parliament on 14 May. Responding to Erdoğan‘s victory, Ceylan said:
I don’t feel defeated. Of course people are digesting the results now, that maybe there’s another five years with Erdogan. It’s okay to feel sad, to feel discouraged. But just after we get through that feeling, that’s when its time to get back to work. We will work to strengthen our local offices. Everyone here has a court case – they have at least six years of prison sentence dangling over their heads, and yet they still come and work. And we will make sure that we will protect and defend everything that we have accomplished in the last two decades, and in the time before – we will hold onto this, defend this, and we will build on it.
She quipped:
This authoritarian system wasn’t built over night, so it wont take a single night to get rid of it. But we’re almost halfway done, if we keep on working on this and fighting for this.
One thing is clear, and that is the struggle for people’s democracy, and against Erdoğan‘s militaristic, dictatorial rule, is far from over. People will re-organise and renew the struggle on fresh fronts. The revolutionary movement that is challenging Turkish fascism is an internationalist one. Those of us who support the fight for radical democracy in Turkey need to be ready to stand with our comrades in whatever way we can, because the next months and years are going to be a hard fought struggle.
Featured image via Screenshot/YouTube
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Our team has noticed over the past year or so that when we cover global politics, particularly in relation to Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia, our coverage often elicits comments from self-proclaimed anti-imperialists. Recently, some of this criticism has intensified in relation to articles we’ve put out about Imran Khan and Kurdistan. We’re no strangers to criticism, but we’ve noticed a pattern to comments that crop up repeatedly. We’d like to respond as a team to this pattern of criticism, and make our position clear.
These claims centre around the apparent belief from a group of people that all our coverage of international politics should be doggedly anti-US with no exceptions. They believe such a position to be inherently anti-imperialist. The problem with this is that these anti-imperialists believe state actors like Putin and Erdoğan – vocal critics of US domination – should be supported in their efforts to dismantle US hegemony. This is in spite of the documented atrocities both have visited on ethnic minorities in their respective countries.
For example. one author has dedicated an entire article to claiming that the Canary is intentionally pushing “Anglo-American empire” propaganda with our coverage of both Khan and Turkey. On social media, we’ve been accused of taking “Qatari blood money” over this. The Canary has also been said to be “deliberately omitting” US imperialism from our Pakistan and Turkey coverage, and trying to shape a “US/West-friendly perspective”. We’ve also come in for repeated attacks, historically, for criticising Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.
At the Canary, we believe this to be a deeply dangerous set of beliefs that harms the people caught up in geopolitical battles. We are not oblivious to the fact that other emerging powers wish to exert their influence in Pakistan, Ukraine, Turkey, and other areas. However, criticism of populist figures is not an open invitation to Western war hawks to charge into countries that have already been ruined – and also formed, in the case of Pakistan – by genocidal powers. Our politics has always been, and will always be, guided by a commitment to reporting on the people caught up in these battles, not the states that wage them.
We’ll now respond more specifically to two instances where recent reporting has been criticised by so-called ‘anti-imperialists’.
We’re proud to support Kurdish people in their struggle for freedom, and we have a long history of doing so. Critics have claimed that supporting the revolution is tantamount to supporting the US. They say this is because the Kurds’ tactical coordination with the US in the struggle to defeat Daesh amounts to a “US-backed illegal occupation.” To call the autonomous administration an ‘occupation’ is a mind-bendingly warped take on the reality of revolutionary struggles in North and East Syria.
What would critics have done if they had been living in Kobanî during the Daesh siege? Would they have watched their community die, rather than accept the limited US support on offer? Military coordination with the US has been a survival tactic for the revolutionary forces of North and East Syria. The movement knows that US imperialism is opposed to their revolution, and only supports them militarily when it aligns with US interests. The coordination with the US remains a contradiction for Rojava’s radicals, but one they are all too aware of. One of the impressive things about the Kurdish Freedom Movement is its ability to remain true to its revolutionary spirit while sitting with the contradictions that arise from the practical reality of the struggle.
It is a grim reality that our critics – who claim they are steadfastly against US imperialism – ignore the bloody authoritarianism, colonialism, imperialism, and racism of Putin, Assad, Erdoğan, and the rest. It cannot be acceptable to align one’s politics with blood-soaked dictators at any cost – particularly when that cost is ignoring the struggles of oppressed communities fighting for their survival.
As radicals, we need to be allies to people struggling for freedom globally, not to states. We need to remember the spirit of revolutionary internationalism, and to do what we can to materially support our comrades who are fighting against imperialism around the world.
We have also received criticism of our coverage of Khan’s arrest in Pakistan. This criticism is from the same purported ‘anti-imperialist’ crowd mentioned above, who argue that by criticising Khan (who has nominally opposed US influence) we’re implicitly advocating for US influence and control in the region. Criticism in itself is not our issue, but such bad-faith analysis rankles.
If commenters cannot understand why articles written by Pakistani people living in Pakistan, and edited by Pakistani editors, are critical of Imran Khan beyond ‘you want to prop up Western neo-imperialism’, then we cannot help you.
Some criticism has also claimed that, in spite of writers and editors working from what they know and experience, our education in the West invalidates our reporting on Pakistan. We would argue that colonisers devalued or outright eradicated native centres of learning and processes of knowledge production. Colonisers created a hegemony of Western languages and epistemology, forcing Black and Brown people to speak their language and study in their systems in order to be heard. As a result, Black and Brown people had to become proficient with the colonisers’ tools in order to advocate for our humanity. So we jumped through all the hoops, only to be told by ‘anti-imperialists’ that their education makes us too privileged to speak for our own people.
Accusing us of lacking anti-imperialism is laughable, but more than that, it is dripping in colonial racism. The Canary is one of few politics-focused media outlets in the UK where people of colour make up the majority of its editorial team. The people of colour who work and write at the Canary routinely risk their safety and wellbeing in confronting and demonstrating the violence of settler colonial states like the UK and the US. It is not by being ‘pro-intervention’ that they ended up on no-fly lists and Prevent’s radar.
We will not allow such criticism to go unchecked, because it is exactly the kind of bad-faith reading which seeks to dismiss valid critique with misinformed and baseless accusations. At best, such analysis of our coverage is purposely obtuse. At worst, it’s blatantly racist, diminishing the right of people from the Global South to tell their own stories and be an authority on their own struggles. It disregards the working class and multiply-marginalised people caught up in these struggles across the world. Instead, it originates only from the contrarian interests of people untouched by colonialism and racism.
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Kurdish football team Amedspor will make a complaint to the Türkiye Football Federation and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) over a series of racist attacks by Turkish football supporters this week. Amedspor comes from the city of Diyarbakır (known as Amed in Kurdish), in Southeast Turkey.
On 4 March, fans of rival team Bursaspor – from the city of Bursa in Southwest Turkey – gathered outside the Kurdish team’s hotel and shouted racially motivated insults. Throughout the match between the two teams on 5 March, Busaspor fans hurled missiles, firecrackers – and even a knife – at the Amedspor players, and displayed racist banners.
Despite all this, the referees chose not to postpone the game.
13 clubs representing left-wing football fans across Turkey wrote an open letter about the incident. They said:
As fans who are searched for before the match, we know very well that it is not possible to bring even a plastic bottle into the stadium, let alone explosives and injurious and dangerous substances.
They continued:
To view what happened as the incompetence of a few officials and making a statement that ‘we have punished those who did not fulfill their duties’ is to cover up the incident.
The fans pointed out that the banners were explicitly anti-Kurdish:
Similarly, the banners opened in the stands are checked by the police every week and if found ‘appropriate’, they are allowed inside. It is a fascist threat to show the banners of a white Taurus and a hitman, symbolizing the unsolved murders committed in the ’90s, and to turn a blind eye to that.
The ‘white Taurus’ (or Toros) was the Renault car that became associated with JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism). JİTEM used the vehicles in the 1990s to abduct and murder people.
The Amed Bar Association made a statement in support of Amedspor. Association president Nahit Eren told a press conference:
We are aware of the message that is meant to be conveyed by the display of these symbols, which with all their darkness are embedded in the memory of Kurdish society, during a football match. These threats are meant to create an atmosphere of fear.
Nahit pointed out that, in the wake of the earthquake, Amedspor is a source of pride and inspiration in the city:
Amedspor inspires people in our city and in many parts of the country with its success and sportsmanship.
However, he said that this pride isn’t shared by the Turkish authorities:
Unfortunately, this feeling created by Amedspor is not resonating and supported by the authorities, especially in our city, and Amedspor’s already limited opportunities are being restricted, with penalties and exclusion being imposed. We cannot say that the events of the last two days are independent of this attitude of the public authorities towards Amedspor. However, everyone should know that Amedspor is not alone and that the entire institutional dynamics of our city and its supporters across the country will continue to support the team.
This is by no means the first time that Amedspor has borne the brunt of racist attacks. In fact, the Boycott Turkey campaign wrote in January:
Amedspor members and fans are not only targeted at home, but also by assassination attempts and attacks from far-right fans across the country. The team’s treatment by the state and the nationalist right-wing reflects the attitude towards Kurdish people and liberatory politics as a whole.
The Canary reported in January 2023 that:
One local player has received a lifetime ban from competing for expressing his political beliefs. While the Turkish military’s brutal repression against cities in Bakur was still ongoing in 2016, former Amedspor midfielder Deniz Naki received a 12-match ban for dedicating the team’s win against Bursaspor to the people who had been killed by Turkish state forces. He also had to pay a fine, and received a suspended prison sentence. He later received a lifetime ban for views he expressed on social media.
It’s clear that Amedspor is being targeted by both the Turkish state and the far-right, and that the displaying of banners alluding to the massacres of the 1990s was intended to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.
This attack is doubly shocking in the wake of Turkey’s devastating earthquake, which has caused disaster in Turkey’s Southeast. But what’s also clear is that Amedspor and their supporters refuse to be intimidated.
You can read more about the attacks on Amedspor here.
Campaigners are calling for a boycott of Turkey, including Turkish football. You can find out more here.
Featured image via Screenshot/247-Sports-HD4K
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is weaponising the triple earthquake disaster in south-eastern Turkey (north Kurdistan/Bakur) and north-eastern Syria (east Kurdistan/Rojava) against the Kurdish population by blocking and delaying emergency responses, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Canary guest writers Koçer Nurhak and Vala Francis bring us an exclusive report on the situation in Kurdish areas of Turkey after the recent earthquake.
On Monday 6 February, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Pazarcık in the Maraş region of north Kurdistan, south-east Turkey. It was followed by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Elbistan, in the same region, several hours later. Hundreds of aftershocks have continued to hit the area. At the time of writing (Monday 20 February), another two earthquakes registering 6.4 and 5.8 magnitudes struck Hatay, a badly damaged southern city on the border with Syria. They brought down many of the buildings still standing after the first two earthquakes, and trapped more people underneath collapsed buildings. Together, the earthquakes have killed over 46,000 people. Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for. Collapsed and severely damaged buildings have displaced millions more.
People have expressed widespread condemnation of the state amid the aftermath. This is directed at its misuse of billion of dollars in earthquake relief funds, as well as not ensuring buildings meet essential regulation requirements. There is also far-reaching anger at the delayed response by state aid agency AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency). On top of this, the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led Turkish government has arrested construction contractors as it seeks to recover a damaged reputation before elections in May.
However, the situation in Kurdish areas of Turkey is particularly dire. The Canary spoke to people on the ground in Kurdish villages in the area. One contact in the region told us that the government’s approach was not just “mismanagement” but “intentional murder on a mass scale”.
When discussing the recent earthquakes, there is important historical context. Elbistan, the epicentre of the second earthquake in south-eastern Anatolia, is geographically and culturally split. On one side are Turkish Sunni Muslims, and on the other are Kurdish Alevis, who follow a Zoroastrian faith. Both the town and surrounding villages are divided between east and west. Kurdish villages are spread through flat plains and the steep Nurhak mountain across the eastern side of the district. In higher altitude areas, snow remains all year round. The hard-to-reach mountain range is a strategic ally to decades of revolutionary groups.
Decades of religious and ethnic persecution by the Turkish state have led to massive displacement of the Kurdish Alevi population. Huge numbers have fled to Europe after violent massacres. In England and Scotland, up to 70% of the Kurdish diaspora is Alevi, with many families originating from Elbistan. The systematic underdevelopment of the Alevi areas in Elbistan is stark: the tarmac disappears when driving from one Turkish village off the central highway to a Kurdish Alevi village. Unsurfaced roads connect most such villages.
The trauma of the earthquake sits atop layers of painful history in Alevi areas. The Maraş massacre took place in 1978, and it stands in living memory as testament to the Turkish state’s genocidal policies. Far-right Islamic nationalists, including those connected to the paramilitary Grey Wolves of the MHP Party (Nationalist Movement Party), killed between 100 and 500 people. Neighbours killed their neighbours, with many victims knowing their attackers. Groups went house to house, raping and murdering Kurdish Alevi women and men with particular brutality. People cut unborn children out of their mothers and tortured the elderly.
The MHP party still rule as part of today’s coalition government, and the forced migration of Kurdish Alevi people in Elbistan and Pazarcık goes on.
Now, the state is using the earthquake as an opportunity to complete this policy. Every Kurdish Alevi person whose family is from Elbistan feels that their home is in Elbistan, even if they live on the other side of the continent. They feel like strangers elsewhere. Now, however, it’s unclear what they would return to.
The Canary spoke to a volunteer from another city in occupied North Kurdistan, situated within south-eastern Turkey. As voices critical of the government are met with serious retribution by the state, we have kept his details anonymous. After contacting AFAD and receiving no response, he contacted one of the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) crisis coordination centres four days after the earthquake. They sent him to Elbistan. He told us:
Kurdish people from all over Bakûr (north Kurdistan) have come to help, as well as a group from the diaspora in Europe.
The first day we arrived, we were really affected psychologically. We thought maybe a few houses had fallen, but actually in some streets, no buildings are still standing. At least 30,000 dead bodies haven’t been recovered from beneath the rubble in Elbistan. The families who haven’t found their loved ones bodies don’t want to leave the city without them.
State organisations across the region have responded slowly. Often, they aren’t even present.
The Turkish military has maintained its position of war against the Kurdish people throughout the relief efforts. Military and other state forces seized trucks filled with aid, or otherwise blocked them from reaching their destinations. They didn’t deploy for search-and-rescue operations during the first 72 hours, for example, which is the most critical period for finding living victims of an earthquake.
Nonetheless, unionised workers, students, activists, and people from across society are connected to civil structures in the Kurdish regions and across Turkey. And they have worked with the HDP to advance independent relief efforts. The volunteer told the Canary:
Clothes, food, women’s hygiene products, blankets, tents – all the aid that came to Elbistan is from the HDP crisis coordination centres, which exist in every city where HDP has a strong presence. They’re collecting the donations and resources from society, here and around the world.
Even Turkish Red Moon only has a few tents in the town centre, giving soup to the people. Some of the villages are very far, there’s no tarmac roads, and there is snow – we could reach them once or twice but not return because we don’t have suitable vehicles.
However, survivors of the earthquake and volunteers face harrowing conditions.
The volunteer told the Canary of a video from Elbistan that showed a woman’s body on the side of the street, frozen and covered in snow. While many people survived the initial earthquakes, they died before rescue because of a lack of machinery and resources. However, the state is now using heavy machinery to clear away the rubble – including bodies that rescuers could not reach. “No-one knows where they are taken,” the volunteer said.
He added:
There are very strong aftershocks in the night. A couple hours ago there was a 5.5 magnitude tremor. 90% of people here are staying in tents now, but they are returning to the damaged buildings to stay warm. At night the temperature goes down to -20C. We know that if we sleep in the damaged buildings, if it collapses, then we wont be rescued for days. So when we sleep, we wear several jackets, layers of socks, and blankets to keep ourselves warm.
Cholera and scabies transmission has already started. So we are not using tap water due to the cholera. The survivors need food and medicine.
The government announced a three-month state of emergency in the ten affected regions. This was allegedly to better respond to the disaster, and also to quell unrest and ‘looting’. People from Bakûr told the Canary that the government really made this decision to enable military control of society there, as it allows the government to make decisions without proper democratic procedure. It has made similar decrees close to previous elections, from the 1980 military coup to the 2018 election.
Previous local and general elections saw the HDP receiving numerous positions in local and national governance. In response, the state replaced its elected officials with so-called ‘trustees’ – kayyim – and stripped many HDP MPs of parliamentary immunity. People do not elect Kayyims as officials. Therefore, normal regulations do not hold them accountable. As a result, in south-east Turkey they have expropriated millions in funding. They are also used as a tool to eradicate the democratic process in regions they oversee.
Meanwhile, policies of arbitrary detention and military intimidation constrict life in north Kurdistan and across Turkey. Even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the state arrested left-wing and Kurdish journalists as part of its continuous crackdown on critical voices.
The volunteer told the Canary:
A big problem is that Pazarcık has had a kayyim installed on the 16 February.
Pazarcık is the central coordination point for the surrounding areas – including Elbistan. The volunteer said that the supply of food has now run dry, with:
only enough to feed volunteers remaining – there isn’t enough for all of the survivors.
They [the government] are seizing the aid that has already been accumulated by the crisis coordination and civil society structures to redistribute under their own [AKP’s] name. We don’t know who they will give it to, and we don’t trust that it will be given at the needed time, especially to Alevis. So we are hiding some vital resources, like food, in our own tents to redistribute.
The aid coming from different countries is getting AKP stickers and Erdogan’s face printed on them to give an impression that the state is organised and is helping the people. It’s a form of psychological warfare and manipulation.
HDP'nin Pazarcık'ta bulunan Koordinasyon Merkezi'ne kayyum atanmasına ilişkin HDK önünde yapılmak istenen açıklamaya polis saldırdı.
— Amed Dicle (@ameddicleT) February 16, 2023
The above tweet reads: The police attacked the statement that was intended to be made in front of the HDK (People’s Democratic Congress) office regarding the appointment of the kayyim to the HDP crisis coordination centre in Pazarcık. In the video, people are saying: (Women) “This murderous state will be held accountable. You killed our people”. (Police) “We know who killed the people. You cannot say the state is murderous. Shame on you”. (Crowd) “We resist and we win!”
The long-term consequences of the earthquake are bound up with the political suppression of society. Survivors have barely begun reconciling their unbearable grief. Yet they already have to face the state’s occupation within Turkey, and across the fragmented borders and political terrain of northern Syria, preventing resources from reaching those that need it. This is part of the government’s bare-faced and unaccountable corruption.
Nonetheless, volunteers are persistent in their efforts. The Canary‘s contact in Elbistan told us that, soon, he would go home to rest for three days. Then he will leave again, to wherever the HDP tell him help is needed. In his place, another group from another region of Kurdistan will come to help.
Organisation is the cornerstone of society in northern Kurdistan. It has persisted throughout devastating crises, mobilising networks of aid prior to and immediately after the earthquake. But the road to rebuilding homes and infrastructure, as well as autonomy in a social and political sense, is arduous. This is just the beginning.
The volunteer told the Canary:
In the town, when the Turkish people saw that we are calling each other “heval” [‘friend/comrade’ in Kurmanci], that we came from Botan [a south-eastern region], they started calling us ‘terrorists’. But we already agreed before hand that we would continue to support people regardless of the reactions against us for being Kurdish.
From Europe, send donations to Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Crescent) via PayPal here. This money will reach people on the ground in the most effective way possible. Financial support to on-the-ground groups are the most immediate need. However, after that, solidarity will be necessary. Kurdistan and the peoples of Turkey and Syria will require grassroots and institutional solidarity against the Turkish state’s militarism and fascism.
Featured image via T24 – YouTube
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Two weeks have passed since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria. Latest figures estimate that 41,020 citizens have died in south-east Turkey alone. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, 8.8 million people have been affected in Syria and more than 5,800 have been killed.
Many people remain under the rubble. This is because in president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascistic Turkey, this earthquake is highly political. A vast number of areas affected in the south-east of Turkey are Kurdish. And many regions have seen very little state help with rescue operations.
Turkey’s Kurdish population has been repressed since the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923. Authorities have murdered or disappeared thousands of Kurdish people over the decades. They’ve also burned down or decimated their villages and imprisoned many more thousands.
The Canary has previously reported on how critics of the Turkish government have placed responsibility for the number of earthquake deaths on Erdoğan. They have also criticised his government for both its handling of the rescue operation itself and the way it has allowed the construction of buildings that, because of their location, were susceptible to earthquakes. Since 1999, Turkey has imposed an earthquake tax on homeowners. It has pocketed billions of dollars which, seemingly, it hasn’t put to use at all.
The province of Hatay, with its majority-Arab population in a majority-Turkish country, was close to the epicentre of the earthquake. The state has neglected Hatay’s residents, too. In particular, those who live in the majority-Alevi Armutlu district said that they had been left to their own fate. On top of this, Erdoğan’s AKP government had previously revoked its decision to list six neighbourhoods of Hatay’s İskenderun district as ‘disaster risk areas‘. It had listed them in 2013, but removed them again in early 2022.
On Sunday 19 February, Turkey announced that rescue efforts had ended in all but two provinces: Kahramanmaras and Hatay. Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that in Antakya, authorities had banned people from entering their homes since the earthquake struck. They’re now telling residents to empty their houses before the buildings are demolished. But people are calling for their loved ones’ bodies to be recovered first.
In the city of Adıyaman alone, more than 200 buildings have collapsed and 11,000 people have lost their lives. JINHA women’s news agency reported that due to late search and rescue efforts, dead people – who could potentially have been found alive – are being brought out from the rubble. JINHA said:
Some buildings have been largely destroyed by the earthquakes; however, no measures have been taken for these buildings and they may collapse at any moment. These buildings pose a threat to the people living in the city. In order to prevent more people from dying, urgent measures must be taken for these buildings.
Meanwhile, in the city of Elbistan, citizens said that the state has largely forgotten them. It left survivors homeless, in freezing conditions, with no electricity or drinking water. A JINHA journalist interviewed a woman in the town:
The woman told us that no rescue team came to their district and many people froze to death under debris. “Our building also collapsed but no one was in it… Aids arrived here very late. No rescue team has come here. I lost 30 relatives. If rescue teams came earlier, many people would be alive now. What we experienced was a cataclysm.”
Residents said what gave them hope was the solidarity they experienced from people outside the area, who travelled from other regions to help them with rescue operations.
Immediately after the earthquake, Turkey blocked Twitter, which was essential to both survivors trapped under the rubble and those involved in the rescue operation. A government official said at the time:
This had to be done because in some accounts there were untrue claims, slander, insults and posts with fraudulent purposes.
But in Erdoğan’s Turkey, those who criticise the president, his AKP government, or its policies, can – and usually will – be investigated and arrested. This is particularly true if you happen to be Kurdish. The Canary has previously reported that:
Everyone is charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation”. But these are not terrorists. These are lawyers, journalists, MPs, co-op members, and human rights activists. Their crime is being Kurdish and supporting radical democracy in the face of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascistic regime.
Turkey is also known as the world’s largest prison for journalists. So it’s unsurprising that while people are still under the rubble, the Turkish state is busy arresting even more people – this time for spreading supposed disinformation on social media. On 20 February, Turkey’s General Directorate of Security announced that it was investigating hundreds of people and had made a number of arrests. JINHA reported:
The General Directorate of Security said in the statement that it had identified 775 people accused of making provocative posts, and legal proceedings had been initiated against 441, “The chief prosecutor had ordered the arrest of 24 of the 129 detained people.”
It’s also unsurprising that the US has used the opportunity to announce that it is giving a new $100m aid package to Turkey, its NATO ally. US secretary of state Antony Blinken is currently on a visit to Turkey. He is expected to talk about military deals – namely, the fact that fascistic Turkey wants to buy F16 fighter jets off the US.
But to those directly affected on the ground in Turkey and in Syria, it’s blatantly clear that money being donated for earthquake relief isn’t reaching them. The Canary recently reported on how areas of Syria aren’t getting aid. In Afrin, which is occupied by Turkey, the situation is especially dire. The Canary‘s Tom Anderson wrote:
The catastrophic impacts of the earthquake for people in Afrin will certainly be made worse by the effects of the five year long occupation of the region by the Turkish state backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
Meanwhile, Fikret Ebdelo, an official in Shahba canton in Aleppo, has stated that:
In Afrin, many people have been in rubble for more than a week and no humanitarian aid is allowed to be sent to the city. The Turkish state did not allow people to send humanitarian aid to the earthquake victims. It rejected the humanitarian aid sent by the Autonomous Administration [of Rojava] and did not allow the people to receive this humanitarian aid on time.
Ebdelo went on to say that the Syrian government has also blocked aid to the Shahba region. The area hosts thousands of people who have been displaced from Afrin due to the Turkish occupation. She said:
Shahba is also badly affected by the earthquake; many people have lost their lives and many houses have collapsed. Sovereign states always develop their policies according to their own interests. Since the first day of the earthquake, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria [Rojava] has been sending humanitarian aid and relief supplies to the Shahba canton affected by the earthquake; however, the Syrian government has been blocking the transfer of this aid.
Erdoğan will, no doubt, be using the earthquake to convince his country that he’s capable of uniting his nation. He will also use the disaster to improve his strained relations with his NATO allies. But for citizens who have been displaced, or whose loved ones have perished under buildings, this event is yet another example of just how dangerous Erdoğan and his government really are.
Of course, money is still desperately needed to help with the rescue operations in the region. Comrades are asking that you think carefully before donating to those mainstream organisations that are appealing for your cash. Instead, they ask you to donate to Heyva Sor – the Kurdish Red Crescent – which has spent years on the frontline of the Syrian civil war. You can donate here.
Featured image via JINHA women’s news agency
By Eliza Egret
This post was originally published on Canary.
Around a dozen Kurdish people launched a protest on Wednesday inside the European Parliament. 15 February is the anniversary of Turkey’s capture of Kurdistan Worker’s Party co-founder Abdullah .
Protesters halted the debate session for three hours. Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) left the chamber as banners were unfurled bearing ‘s image, and demonstrators shouted slogans critical of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
One MEP told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the protesters were on an upper deck above the Strasbourg chamber, some sitting on a balustrade and dangling their legs above the parliament’s floor.
Demonstrations for the Freedom of were in held in Rojava in northeast Syria and in Kirkuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Protests were also held all over Europe, including in Rome, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris and Greece.
A freedom for conference was held in London, at the House of Lords. Over 120 people also took part in an annual long march for his freedom. This year marchers walked from Switzerland to France.
Six Basque trade unions released a manifesto demanding release. They underlined his vital role in peace negotiations:
The current Turkish government run by Erdoğan held negotiations with Öcalan for two and a half years, during which the Kurdish leader proposed a gradual plan to achieve peace, from confidence-building measures, through a disarmament process under international surveillance, to a permanent political solution to the Kurdish question. Although the negotiations broke down in 2011, Öcalan’s proposals, included in his “Road Map”, continue to be of the utmost importance to address and seek a negotiated solution to the so-called ‘Kurdish question’
The statement continued:
The demand for Öcalan’s freedom is vital to break the military logic of the conflict and thus divert attention towards peaceful negotiations and towards a democratic resolution of the Kurdish conflict
Ocalan was arrested in Kenya by Turkish agents on February 15, 1999 and sentenced to death in June of the same year. Now 73, his sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2002 and supporters continue to demand his release. His capture involved collaboration between the Turkish state and several other states. The Kurdistan Freedom Movement calls it the international ‘conspiracy’.
According to the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan—Peace in Kurdistan!”:
On 15 February 1999, a new phase in the war against the Kurds and other communities raised its head with the NATO-led abduction of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan from Nairobi, Kenya. A series of actors in Europe and in the Middle East as well as the US were behind this operation.
The statement continued:
The US and Europe, who led this operation against the Kurdish people’s leader, continue to legitimize the colonization and occupation of Kurdistan and condemn any resistance to it as terrorism, and are the ones that brewed this genocidal fascist regime. This is because the Turkish state paves the path for them to further ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism in the region. The indigenous peoples’ existence is a resistance to these.
is currently imprisoned on the island of has written at least 12 books in prison. His ideas inspired the Rojava revolution, ongoing in northeast Syria since 2012
Internationalists released a video statement to commemorate the anniversary. The international volunteers had joined the revolutionary struggle in Rojava.
The life and philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan inspired millions of people to fight for democracy, ecology and women’s liberation. As Internationalists, we came to join the Rojava Revolution because we found inspiration within the revolution that is based on Öcalans philosophy. As internationalist members of YPG/YPJ [peoples’ protection units], we condemn the conspiracy. But however they try to attack our longing for freedom, they will never be able to take what we found here: hope.
Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas continue to ignite hopes for revolution and freedom, despite nearly two and a half decades in prison. His supporters see his liberation as essential for bringing an end to Turkish fascism, and achieving peace in Kurdistan.
You can find out more about the UK Freedom for Öcalan campaign by clicking here.
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
Featured image via Screenshot/ANF Firat
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Turkish dictator President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is using the earthquake disaster as a weapon in his ongoing war on the Kurdish people, according to Zerebar Karimi.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
A large march took place in Paris, on January 7, to demand justice for three Kurdish female activists assassinated by a Turkish gunman in that city 10 years ago. Peter Boyle spoke to Kurdish solidarity activist and writer Sarah Glynn who participated in the march.
This post was originally published on Green Left.