autonomy

Syria

Podcast: Free Syria and the Kurdish question

Amid jubilation following the overthrow of long-ruling dictator Bashar Assad, the only fightingin Syria is now between Arabs and Kurds—as the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) expels the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the town of Manbij. Ankara’s design is clearly to expunge the Kurdish autonomous zone in the northeast region of Rojava. Yet there are also positive signs of an accommodation between the Rojava Kurds and the new revolutionary administration in Damascus. In Episode 255 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the new political landscape in Syria and tries to identify a way forward—past the threat of ethnic war and toward a multicultural democracy. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Rudaw)

Syria

Threat of Arab-Kurdish war in new battle for Syria

With the Syrian city of Aleppo now mostly in rebel hands following a surprise offensive, the danger emerges that Kurdish forces could be drawn into the conflict on the side of Assad dictatorship. Kurdish militias have for years controlled their own enclave within the city, the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsood. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are now trying to open an evacuation corridor between Sheikh Maqsood and the Kurdish-held town of Tal Rifaat to the north. An evacuation of Tal Rifaat itself to Kurdish-held areas to the east is also being prepared. This effort is being blocked by one of the rebel militias, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), with clashes between the two forces reported. The SNA has been repeatedly implicated in abuses against the Kurdish population in areas it took from SDF-aligned forces in a 2019 offensive. This offensive drove the SDF into a tactical alliance with the Assad regime—although this alliance has repeatedly broken down over the regime’s rejection of the SDF’s principal demand of Kurdish autonomy. (Map: Google)

East Asia

Hong Kong: 45 activists sentenced for ‘subversion’

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance sentenced 45 defendants for conspiracy to commit “subversion” under the National Security Law, with prison terms ranging from 50 to 120 months, depending on their alleged roles in an unauthorized primary election staged by pro-democracy groups in 2020. The case stems from activists’ efforts in 2020 to gain a majority in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The LegCo election was ultimately suspended, ostensibly as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Image: HKDC)

The Andes

Bolivia: Evo supporters take soldiers hostage

Supporters of Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales took more than 200 soldiers hostage after occupying three military facilities in his home region of Chapare, where he has taken refuge. The protests have been ongoing for weeks, since Bolivian prosecutors started an investigation into Morales for human trafficking and statutory rape, and his subsequent refusal to testify in court. Since reports of a possible warrant for his arrest, Morales has been hiding in a rural area of Chapare. His supporters have demanded the closure of the cases against Morales, and threatened to take over police and military barracks in the event of an attempt to arrest him. (Photo: Radio Kausachun Coca via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Turkey strikes Syria, Iraq after Ankara attack

Turkey launched air-strikes on supposed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in Syria’s Rojava autonomous enclave and Iraq’s Kurdistan region in retaliation for an attack on the headquarters of a defense contractor in Ankara. Five were killed and two attackers reported “neutralized” in the explosion and armed assault at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facility in Ankara’s Kahramankazan district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish authorities quickly blamed the PKK. Strikes were reported on the Rojava towns of Qamishli, Derik, Kobane, Tal Rifaat, and Manbij. Rojava’s autonomous authorities said that at least four civilians were killed, including a five-year-old child, and 15 people injured. (Image: Pixabay)

South Asia

Pakistan: Pashtun rights movement faces repression

The government of Pakistan has placed a ban on the activities of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, a grassroots organization that advocates for the rights of the Pashtun minority, which has been subjected to decades of abuse. The government officially listed the PTM as a “proscribed organization,” essentially labelling it a terrorist group. The order came days before the PTM was slated to hold a large demonstration. Amnesty International described the action as “part of a systematic and relentless clampdown by the Pakistani authorities on peaceful protests and assemblies by dissenting groups.” (Photo: Osama Ahmad/TNH)

Africa

Sudan: Fur leaders reject RSF-backed ’emirate’

Leaders and activists from the Fur people in Sudan’s Central Darfur state voiced their rejection of the Rapid Support Forces’ establishment of a new “emirate” in the ethnicity’s traditional territory for an Arab group that has migrated from the neighboring Central African Republic. They warned of an agenda of demographic change and the empowerment of outside groups at the expense of the indigenous population. The response came after platforms affiliated with the RSF published a video of a celebration held by a group called “Awlad Baraka & Mubarak,” marking the establishment of the “emirate.” RSF Brig. Gen. Mohamed Adam Bangoz addressed the event. (Map via Radio Tamazuj)

Syria

HRW protests child recruitment by Syrian Kurdish militia

Human Rights Watch (HRW) raised concerns over the forcible recruitment of children into a youth group associated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), through which they are directed into armed activity. HRW interviewed multiple families whose children were taken by the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Syria. The report revealed that in the vast majority of cases, the families’ teenaged son or daughter “simply left home one day, and never returned.” Investigations revealed that members of the SDF often recruited children via social media or phone. Typically, recruitment took place by promising youth educational, cultural or vocational opportunities, constituting “covert recruitment.” (Photo: January 2022 protest against child recruitment in Qamishli. Credit: IKHRW)

Oceania

New Zealand: plan to redefine founding document advances

The New Zealand government revealed its plans to move forward with drafting a controversial bill that would redefine the nation’s founding document, te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi, despite official advice from the Ministry of Justice opposing the policy. If enacted, the Treaty Principles Bill would replace the existing principles of the Treaty, first established by New Zealand’s parliament in the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. Te Tiriti o Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and Māori indigenous people, extended to the Crown a limited power of kāwanatanga (governance) over New Zealand’s quickly expanding British settler population while guaranteeing the Māori tino rangatiratanga (ultimate power and authority) over their lands, their villages and all their treasured possessions. Scholar Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown charges that the Treaty Principles Bill “will radically change the legal and constitutional status of te Tiriti o Waitangi, essentially erasing it.” (Photo: Waitangi Day celebrations, Feb. 6, 2006, at Waitangi, Paihia. Via Wikimedia Commons)

Syria

Syria: Rojava Kurds clash with Assadist forces

Clashes broke out between Syrian regime forces and militia of the Kurdish-led Rojava autonomous administration near the Euphrates River in eastern Deir ez-Zor governorate. The fighting began after regime forces west of the Euphrates launched surface-to-surface attacks on Kurdish-held towns across the river. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the principal Kurdish-led military formation, said in a statement that an operation against regime positions was carried out “in retaliation for the blood of the martyrs” killed “by artillery shelling from the Syrian regime.” The violence erupted three days after US troops were targeted in a drone attack on a position they share with the SDF at Rumalyn Landing Zone in al-Hasakah governorate to the north. The current fighting is close to al-Omar oil field, which is protected by a joint force of SDF fighters and US troops. (Map: PCL)

Central Asia

Russia: indigenous rights groups designated ‘extremist’

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders released a statement urging Russia to refrain from designating groups advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities as “extremist organizations.” The statement follows a decision by Russian authorities a week earlier to thusly classify 55 such organizations. The Ministry of Justice cited a June ruling by Russia’s Supreme Court banning “structural divisions” of the so-called “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement,” which was defined as an “international public movement to destroy the multinational unity and territorial integrity of Russia.” Involvement in the movement may result in a sentence of up to six years in prison—despite the fact that no such movement formally exists. (Photo of Itelmen people in the Kamchatka Peninsula via Wikipedia)

Syria

Syria: Kurdish zone enacts amnesty law

Amnesty International responded favorably to enactment of Amnesty Law No. 10 in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North & East Syria (AANES). The rights group commended the new law, which calls for a review of convictions under the regional administration’s expansive counter-terrorism laws. Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East, said: “The general amnesty law could reduce the sentences of Syrians convicted after unfair trials in the People’s Defence Courts, or, in some cases, offer them the chance to be free and resume their lives. Detainees were denied access to a lawyer and in many cases were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment to extract forced confessions.” Majzoub called on AANES authorities to expand the scope of the law to include Iraqi nationals convicted of collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS). (Photo: SOHR)