Kurdistan

Syria

Syria: did Kurdish militia fire on protesters?

A disturbing report from the Assyrian Policy Institute provides details on an incident in the northern Syrian town of Qamishli in which Kurdish militia fighters supposedly opened fire during a protest by local Assyrian Christians. The incident began when militia forces attempted to carry out an order by Rojava regional authorities to close Assyrian parochial schools in the town following their refusal to accept a new curriculum that school administrators said emphasized Kurdish nationalism. It ended when militiamen fired in the air to disperse the protesters who gathered at the scene. (Image: Assyrian Policy Institute)

Iraq

Turkey bombs Yazidi territory in Iraq

Authorities in Ezidikhan, the self-declared Yazidi autonomous homeland in northern Iraq, issued a statement protesting a Turkish air-raid on their territory. The attack was apparently a targeted assassination of Yazidi leader Zeki ?engali, who is a representative of the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), the international body in the political orbit of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Four members of the Yazidi territorial militia, the Sinjar Protection Units (YBS), were also killed in the attack, and a home destroyed. The raid actually took place as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was on an official trip to Turkey, sparking outrage from some Iraqi officials. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

Syria

Afrin and Raqqa: fearful symmetry

Reports of rights abuses in the north Syrian enclave of Afrin, taken by Turkish forces and rebel allies from Kurdish defenders in March, continue to mount. Amnesty International charges that Afrin residents have been arbitrarily detained and tortured, with houses and businesses looted and confiscated, and schools destroyed or taken over by militia forces. Meanwhile the Syrian opposition cited sources on the ground accusing the Kurdish militia that was driven out of Afrin, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of press-ganging youth for compulsory military service in Raqqa. Afrin is a formerly Kurdish-majority city where displacement of Kurds and an influx of Arabs under Turkish occupation is affecting a demographic shift. Raqqa is an Arab-majority city which has been under occupation by Kurdish-led forces since it was liberated from ISIS last October. This situation obviously further heightens the risk of Kurdish-Arab ethnic war in northern Syria. (Photo: SDF)

Syria

Propaganda and the accounting of death in Syria

The US State Department harshly condemned the Syrian regime over thousands of death notices it has released in recent weeks, saying they confirm suspicions of mass detentions, torture and murder. The State Department said that over 117,000 are believed to have been detained or forcibly disappeared in Syria since the conflict began in 2011, “the vast majority” by the regime. Amnesty International meanwhile issued a statement protesting the US-led Coalition’s “flurry of responses” rejecting the findings of its recent report on devastation wrought by the aerial bombardment of Raqqa last year, revealing “how deeply in denial the Coalition leadership is about its failure to protect civilians caught in conflict.” (Photo: SDF)

Syria

Book review: Impossible Revolution

This book is a necessary corrective to the dominant perception—left, right and center—that the opposition in Syria are all jihadists and dictator Bashar Assad the best bet for “stability.” Long a left-wing dissident in Assad’s Syria, Saleh is a veteran of the dictator’s prisons. Here, he traces the origins of the Syrian revolution to agony caused by the regime’s “economic liberalization” (socialist phrases aside), describes the initially unarmed opposition’s popular-democratic nature, and discusses the struggle to keep the Free Syrian Army accountable to this grassroots base after it became clear a military dimension to the revolution was necessary. He makes the case that the Assad regime can be termed “fascist” even by the most rigorous definition, and has been making good on its pledge to “burn the country” before ceding power. (Image: Haymarket Books)

Iraq

Yazidis reject hand-over of Sinjar to KRG control

The Provisional Government of Ezidikhan—the self-declared autonomous homeland of the Yazidi people in northern Iraq, centered around the town of Sinjar—issued a statement flatly rejecting a political deal cut between Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Irbil to hand control over the enclave to the Kurdistan Regional Government. Said Ezidikhan Prime Minister Waheed Mandoo Hammo: "The Yezidi people reject the Iraq government’s attempt to install the Kurdish Regional Government as the military and political authority over the nation of Ezidikhan without our consent. The Ezidikhan Provisional Government is the sole, legitimate government representing the peoples of Ezidikhan. No decisions regarding the political, economic or strategic actions [of] the nation of Ezidikhan can legitimately be made without our free, prior and informed consent." (Map: Ezidikhan.net)

Syria

Syria endgame: Rojava seeks deal with Assad

Representatives of the US-backed Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces are holding talks in Damascus with the Assad regime, apparently with an eye toward regime recognition of the Kurdish autonomous zone in exchange for unity against further Turkish expansion in northern Syria. The SDF controls more than 27% of Syrian territory. In effect, that means this region is under the Rojava autonomous administration, which is the real political force behind the SDF. The Rojava leadership’s cooperation in a Syrian carve-up deal may be the price of survival for their autonomous zone. But it would certainly vindicate the long-standing accusations of Kurdish collaboration with Assad—despite Assad’s previous refusal to recognize the autonomous zone. It would also yet further heighten the risk of Kurdish-Arab ethnic war in northern Syria. (Photo of Kurdish fighters in Rojava via Rudaw)

Syria

Syria endgame: whither Idlib?

With the fall of Syria’s southern province of Daraa to Assad regime forces, only Idlib in the north remains as a last pocket of opposition control. The besieged rebel forces there are anticipating a final offensive by Assad and his Russian backers. But a complicating factor is that Turkey is occupying areas of Idlib, which means an offensive there threatens international escalation. Speaking to reporters before heading for a summit of emerging market countries in South Africa, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would speak there with Vladimir Putin about how to resolve “the issue of Idlib.” This points to a possible carve-up deal, in which the bulk of Syria falls under Assad with Russian protection, Idlib remains under rebel control with Turkish protection, and the northeastern Rojava region will remain a Kurdish autonomous zone under US protection. (Photo: Syria News)

Greater Middle East

Turkish ‘election’ heralds Erdogan dictatorship

The elections that handed a victory to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were carried out under a state of emergency that has been in place since the attempted coup of 2016, with some 160,000 political opponents imprisoned—including party leaders. The hegemonic state media outlets overwhelmingly devoted their election coverage to Erdogan’s campaign, while access to social media was intermittently restricted by decree. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Erdogan had benefited from this excessive coverage, and raised questions about the transparency of the vote. It did not challenge the results, however. Erdogan will re-enter office with sweeping new powers following a narrowly-won constitutional referendum last year. Opposition leader Muharrem Ince conceded defeat, but warned that Turkey is headed toward “one-man rule.” (Map: CIA)

Central America

Podcast: Syria, Nicaragua, revolutionary parallels

In Episode 11 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg compares the legacies of revolutionary struggle in Nicaragua and Syria. The Somoza and Assad regimes were both hereditary family dictatorships. The Sandinistas and Syrian revolutionaries alike have roots in anarchism. Yet Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, again Nicaragua's president, is today himself facing a militant opposition movement, and has betrayed the Syrian revolutionaries in the interests of playing for Russian support in the Great Power game. In Syria, meanwhile, the secular, pro-democratic civil resistance continues to exist in spite of everything, and still governs areas of the country under a model of council-based popular democracy. The Kurdish autonomous zone in Syria is also informed by an anarchist ethic of direct democracy. Yet the Kurds and Arab-led civil resistance have been pitted against each other by Great Power intrigues. How can activists in New York and the United States move past global divide-and-rule stratagems and build solidarity with Syria's Arab and Kurdish opposition alike, as well as the campesinos and grassroots-democratic forces in Nicaragua? Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. (Photo composition: Today Nicaragua, Waging Nonviolence)

Syria

Raqqa ‘annihilation’ reveals Kurdish contradiction

A new Amnesty International report accuses the US of “war crimes” in the bombardment of Raqqa, and the virtual “annihilation” of the city. The fact that the US-led bombardment was in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their campaign to take the city from ISIS has contributed to pitting Kurd against Arab and brought northern Syria closer to ethnic war. Ironically (if predictably), now that the Syrian Kurds have served their purpose in defeating ISIS, Washington is about to kick them overboard—just as Assad and Erdogan alike are preparing offensives against them. (Photo: SDF)

Syria

White Helmets vow to soldier on after aid cut-off

Two months after it was first reported that Trump had issued an order to freeze over $200 million in “reconstruction aid” to what media accounts called “US-backed rebels” in Syria, details finally emerge on which groups have had their aid cut. And the first to be mentioned isn’t a “rebel” group at all, but the White Helmets—the volunteer unarmed civil defense force that operates in areas under bombardment by the Assad regime and its Russian backers. The US State Department, which is said to provide about a third of the White Helmets’ budget, acknowledged that funding for the group is “under active review.” But White Helmets leader Raed Saleh pledged to persevere: “Our volunteers are still operating on the ground.” You can donate to the White Helmets through their website. (Photo: White Helmets)