NEWS
1. Provocations in Turkey as Kurdish peace process gets serious
2. Turkey’s imprisoned Kurdish leader Ocalan to release message on Sept 1
3. Turkey seeks direct talks with Kurdish PKK rebels: deputy PM
4. ‘Everywhere Around Is the Islamic State’: On the Road in Iraq with YPG Fighters
5. ‘Terrorists’ help U.S. in battle against Islamic State in Iraq
6. Female Warriors and U.S. Airstrikes Help Kurds Take Back Crucial Iraqi Dam
7. Up to 3,000 women and girls kidnapped by Islamic State jihadis in Iraq in just a fortnight – and hundreds of men who refuse to convert have been shot dead
8. Isis: a portrait of the menace that is sweeping my homeland
9. Strange bedfellows: terror groups, Kurdish factions unite against ISIS
10. How the U.S.-favored Kurds Abandoned the Yazidis when ISIS Attacked
11. Iraq’s Yazidis vow to fight IS with Syrian, not Iraqi Kurds
12. Islamic State Commander Says Turkey Instrumental in ‘Success’
13. WATCH: Every tent holds a horror story
14. UNHCR in major new humanitarian aid push into Iraq’s Kurdistan
15. Kurds rally in London against ISIS, call on UK to help protect Iraqi minorities
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
16. The opportunism of taking the PKK off the terrorist organizations list now
17. Kurdish Fighters Aren’t Terrorists
18. LISTEN: The PKK’s Refugee Camp in Turkey
19. ISIS and the Kurdish question
20. The Yazidis: Finding new friends
21. Kurdish women in Turkey move away from independence
22. Turkey: An economy at a crossroads
23. WATCH: The Rise of ISIS: US Invasion of Iraq, Foreign Backing of Syrian Rebels Helped Fuel Jihadis’ Advance
24. In Turkey, a late crackdown on Islamist fighters
25. To Aid Kurdistan, Look Beyond Iraq
26. How Kurdish Militias Have Successfully Fought Off the Islamic State
27. Interview with YPG Spokesman Polat Can about Yezidi People in Sinjar
28. Islamic State, Iraq, America: a new front
STATEMENTS
29. Statement by the Joint Diplomatic Committee of Kurdistan Organisations: An Urgent Appeal to the International Community
30. KNK Statement: ISIS continues massacres in Kurdistan: In Koco village nearly 600 civilians were shot and buried
31. Assembly of Armenians in Europe: We Call upon the United Nations and the International Community to Condemn and take effective action against Turkey’s Covert Logistical support of ISIS
REPORTS
32. Syria: Voices in crisis: A monthly insight into the human rights crisis in Syria
ACTIONS
33. White House Petition: Remove the PKK from the list of terrorism organisations
NEWS
1. Provocations in Turkey as Kurdish peace process gets serious
21 August 2014 / Al Monitor
What course will the Kurdish peace process take after President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan moves to Cankaya Palace? This is Turkey’s most critical question these days. Both the government and the Kurdish side have made encouraging statements to dispel the uncertainty, but the process, swayed by constant ups and downs, is certainly not immune to incidents that may cause its derailment. Take for instance the killing of three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants — despite the cease-fire — in two separate incidents in Van province. According to media reports, the first incident on Aug. 7 was the result of soldiers “firing at PKK members who defied warnings to stop.” Yet, Kurdish sources told Al-Monitor that it involved a sniper assassinating a regional PKK commander.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/turkey-iraq-kurds-peace-process-provocation.html#ixzz3B8miLxyX
2. Turkey’s imprisoned Kurdish leader Ocalan to release message on Sept 1
22 August 2014 /
The imprisoned Kurdish leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who is serving a life sentence, will release a message about the ongoing peace process on Sept 1, including the issues of ‘the PKK’s giving up use of arms against Turkey’. The jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to release a new message on World Peace Day, which Turkey marks on Sept. 1, a leading executive of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said.
“Ocalan will have a message for Sept. 1, World Peace Day. The message will be conveyed to us through the Justice Ministry in the coming days,” HDP Deputy Parliamentary Group Cahir Pervin Buldan said Thursday, as she also noted Ocalan did not inform their delegation about the content of the message during their latest meeting, which took place Aug. 15.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/8/turkey5085.htm
Turkey reassures jailed PKK leader Ocalan on Kurdish peace in secret meeting: report
20 August 2014 / eKurd
Turkey’s spy chief assured the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a secret meeting last week that the Turkish state will press ahead with the peace process to end 30 years of conflict, media reports said Wednesday.
The head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), Hakan Fidan, met on Friday with PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan in his island prison, media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay as saying.The meeting came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the August 10 presidential election — and was aimed at ending any uncertainty over the fate of peace process between Turkey and Kurdish militants under his presidency, the reports said.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/8/turkey5083.htm
3. Turkey seeks direct talks with Kurdish PKK rebels: deputy PM
19 August 2014 / eKurd
Turkey wants to hold direct talks with Kurdish rebels based in Iraqi Kurdistan to help revive stalled peace talks, a senior Turkish official said Tuesday. The military headquarters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — which has waged a 30-year insurgency against the Turkish authorities for self-rule — is in the Qandil mountains of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Turkey’s negotiating team with the Kurds would be expanded to hold talks for the first time with the PKK rebels. So far, negotiations have been largely conducted with jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on the Imrali prison island off Istanbul.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/8/turkey5082.htm
4. ‘Everywhere Around Is the Islamic State’: On the Road in Iraq with YPG Fighters
16 August 2014 / Vice
The Syrian Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) gathered behind a berm of hard brown sand as they prepared to cross the border — smoking and discussing the route among themselves. From the Iraqi side, trucks loaded with Yazidi refugees streamed through in plumes of fine dust, met by Syrian volunteers handing them cartons of fruit juice, biscuits, and cigarettes.
https://news.vice.com/article/everywhere-around-is-the-islamic-state-on-the-road-in-iraq-with-ypg-fighters <https://news.vice.com/article/everywhere-around-is-the-islamic-state-on-the-road-in-iraq-with-ypg-fighters>
5. ‘Terrorists’ help U.S. in battle against Islamic State in Iraq
21 August 2014 / Reuters
Washington has acquired an unlikely ally in its battle against Islamic State militants in Iraq – a group of fighters it formally classifies as terrorists.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), condemned for its three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, says it played a decisive role in blunting the militants’ sweep through Iraq, which triggered U.S. air strikes to halt their advance.
“This war will continue until we finish off the Islamic State,” said Rojhat, a PKK fighter speaking from a hospital bed in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in Iraq.
The involvement of the PKK has consequences not only for rival Kurdish factions who failed to stop the Islamic State’s advance, but also for Turkey and the international community, which is being lobbied by the PKK to drop the terrorist tag.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/21/us-iraq-security-pkk-insight-idUSKBN0GL1H420140821
6. Female Warriors and U.S. Airstrikes Help Kurds Take Back Crucial Iraqi Dam
18 August 2014 / The Wire
A consortium of Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by American airstrikes, captured the Mosul Dam back from the ISIL on Monday, delivering the biggest blow to the radical Sunni group yet. From the AP:
Alarmed by the militants advance, the U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes pounded the area in the past two days. The U.S. military said U.S. forces conducted nine strikes on Saturday and another 16 on Sunday in efforts to help the Iraqis retake the dam.”
As we noted earlier, a pitched campaign delivered control of part of the dam to Kurdish forces earlier this weekend before the entirety of what’s been called “the most dangerous dam in the world” was seized on Monday.
http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/female-warriors-and-us-airstrikes-help-kurds-take-back-crucial-iraqi-dam/378664/
7. Up to 3,000 women and girls kidnapped by Islamic State jihadis in Iraq in just a fortnight – and hundreds of men who refuse to convert have been shot dead
17 August 2014 / Daily Mail
These are the faces of six of the thousands of innocent Yazidi children who have suffered harrowing ordeals in Iraq this month.
Up to 3,000 women and girls have been kidnapped by Islamic State jihadis in the north of the country in just a fortnight – and hundreds of men who refuse to convert have been shot dead. The kidnappings appear to have happened in villages where residents took up arms against IS – and the women are being held separately from the men in IS-controlled Tal Afar, east of Mount Sinjar.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727165/Up-3-000-women-girls-kidnapped-Islamic-State-jihadis-Iraq-just-fortnight.html <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727165/Up-3-000-women-girls-kidnapped-Islamic-State-jihadis-Iraq-just-fortnight.html>
8. Isis: a portrait of the menace that is sweeping my homeland
16 August 2014 / Guardian
Abu al-Mutasim, 18, from a Syrian border town in the province of Deir Ezzor, joined the rebellion against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in early 2012. He left his family home in Bahrain, where his parents worked, and fought for the Free Syrian Army for a few months before joining the hardline group Ahrar al-Sham. Around the end of the year, disillusioned, he went to visit his family. His parents banned him from travelling back to Syria. But last summer he returned to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), now renamed the Islamic State.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/isis-salafi-menace-jihadist-homeland-syria <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/isis-salafi-menace-jihadist-homeland-syria>
9. Strange bedfellows: terror groups, Kurdish factions unite against ISIS
15 August 2014 / France 24
They were first spotted in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil on August 8, just as US President Barack Obama announced he had authorised airstrikes in northern Iraq against ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria) targets.
In their distinctive khaki-grey uniforms, their ranks including battle-hardened female fighters – a rarity in most parts of the Middle East – they took up positions in and around Erbil, including the Sami Abdulrahman Park, a sprawling green expanse in the heart of the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
http://www.france24.com/en/20140815-kurds-isis-pkk-terror-group-iraq-turkey-usa/ <http://www.france24.com/en/20140815-kurds-isis-pkk-terror-group-iraq-turkey-usa/>
10. How the U.S.-favored Kurds Abandoned the Yazidis when ISIS Attacked
17 August 2014 / Daily Beast
Not the least of the cruelties inflicted by the so-called Islamic State that has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq is the suspense suffered by its victims before they are shot or beheaded, raped or imprisoned. When the IS fighters arrived in the village of Kucho in northern Iraq a week ago, they told the locals, most of whom are members of the Yazidi sect who follow an ancient faith, that they had 48 hours to decide whether to convert to Islam or die. When the 48 hours passed, the villagers were given another five hours, and that was extended to three days. Then, on Friday, time ran out. At noon — at what would have been the call to prayer for Muslim worshippers — the cell phones that villagers had used to stay in touch with relatives went silent.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/17/how-the-u-s-favored-kurds-abandoned-the-yazidis-when-isis-attacked.html <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/17/how-the-u-s-favored-kurds-abandoned-the-yazidis-when-isis-attacked.html>
11. Iraq’s Yazidis vow to fight IS with Syrian, not Iraqi Kurds
14 August 2014 / Middle East Eye
At the Fishkabour crossing, a tattered boat leaves behind the bright sun emblazoned on the Iraqi Kurdistan Region flag and makes its way towards Syria’s Kurdish region. On the other side, members of the Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the official armed wing of the Kurdish Supreme Committee of Syrian Kurdistan – guard the shore.
Approximately 60km from the border, next to the Kurdish city of Al-Malikiyah (Derik in Kurdish), a desolate camp – originally set up to house Syria’s internally displaced persons – is now home to an estimated 15,000 Yazidi refugees from Iraq’s Sinjar province.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/why-yazidis-want-fight-syrian-not-iraqi-kurds-2067567199#sthash.w8XcldS8.dpuf
12. Islamic State Commander Says Turkey Instrumental in ‘Success’
15 August 2014 / Asbarez
A senior commander of the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham) has told the Washington Post that Turkey’s support was instrumental in the success of his organization, which now controls great swathes of Syria and Iraq.
In an interview with the Washington Post on Aug. 12, the 27-year-old commander identifying himself as Abu Yusef explained that the Islamic State received most of its supplies from Turkey and had many of its fighters from Syria treated at Turkish hospitals. Abu Yusef, speaking to the Washington Post in the southeaster Turkish town of Reyhanli near the Syrian border, says much of that has changed as the Turkish government has begun cracking down on IS operations.
http://asbarez.com/125972/islamic-state-commander-says-turkey-instrumental-in-‘success’/ <http://asbarez.com/125972/islamic-state-commander-says-turkey-instrumental-in-%D4success%D5/>
13. WATCH: Every tent holds a horror story
15 August 2014 / CNN
Ivan Watson visits a refugee camp in Derik, Syria that is filled with Yazidi refugees who have fled from ISIS.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/08/16/pkg-watson-syria-refugee-camp.cnn.html <http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/08/16/pkg-watson-syria-refugee-camp.cnn.html>
14. UNHCR in major new humanitarian aid push into Iraq’s Kurdistan
20 August 2014 / ANF
As it prepares to ramp up its response to the population displacement in northern Iraq, the UN refugee agency is working closely with the authorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan region to meet the immense challenges of helping the tens of thousands who have sought shelter there. Some 200,000 people have made their way to Iraqi Kurdistan since early August, when the city of Sinjar and neighbouring areas were seized by armed groups. “The number of displaced people flowing [from Syria] into Duhok [province] across the Peshkabour border has slowed in the past week from thousands per day to a few hundred,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said at a press briefing in Geneva. “All still require our support,” he added.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/unhcr-in-major-new-humanitarian-aid-push-into-iraq-s-kurdistan.htm
15. Kurds rally in London against ISIS, call on UK to help protect Iraqi minorities
16 August 2014 / Asharq Al-Awsat
Several hundred demonstrators marched in London on Saturday to call on the international community to help protect Iraq’s minorities against the advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Kurds from a coalition of organizations demanded the UK government and international community provide greater support for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting against ISIS in northern Iraq and western Syria.
The vast majority of protestors were British Kurds rallying in solidarity with their kin, the ethnically Kurdish Yazidi community that has suffered recent atrocities at the hands of ISIS.
http://www.aawsat.net/2014/08/article55335530 <http://www.aawsat.net/2014/08/article55335530>
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
16. The opportunism of taking the PKK off the terrorist organizations list now
15 August 2014 / Kurdish Matters
Frederike Geerdink: The US army has started arming the Kurds in Iraq to fight Islamic State, who have been making huge advances in the country. The weapons will be provided to the peshmerga forces of the semi-independent Kurdistan region. They are fighting IS alongside forces of the PKK, the group that is on the list of terrorist organizations of both the US and the EU. There are voices now to take the PKK off that list. However necessary such a step is, it would also be very opportunist now.
http://kurdishmatters.com/2014/08/15/the-opportunism-of-taking-the-pkk-off-the-terrorist-organizations-list-now/
17. Kurdish Fighters Aren’t Terrorists
20 August 2014 / Bloomberg View
In Iraq, the U.S. is fighting in a de facto alliance with one group on its list of terrorist organizations — the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK — against another, Islamic State. This odd situation reveals an emerging truth about the Kurdish group: Its terrorist status is falling out of date. At this point it has to be recognized for the constructive role it can play in Iraq and the wider region.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-20/kurdish-fighters-aren-t-terrorists <http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-20/kurdish-fighters-aren-t-terrorists>
18. LISTEN: The PKK’s Refugee Camp in Turkey
19 August 2014 /TurkeyWonk
After the uptick in fighting in Iraqi Kurdistan, thousands of Ezidis have fled their homes after the Islamic State overran the Peshmerga in numerous villages on the far western border of Kurdistan. What is Turkey’s policy towards these new refugees? Why is the PKK running a refugee camp in Turkey? What are the conditions like on Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Syria in the predominantly Kurdish southeast? How do those conditions differ from other border areas in Turkey? How do local people view the PYD’s YPG, as compared to the Peshmerga? And what does all of this mean for the current AKP led peace talks with the PKK?
Today, Aaron and Noah discuss these issues in the Turkey Wonk podcast.
19. ISIS and the Kurdish question
21 August 2014 / Todays Zaman
Many dramatic things are happening in Iraq now. No day passes without seeing disturbing images of the savage actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) there. Yazidis are still living in fear of perishing or being massacred. This brutal force continues it’s atrocities at full speed. We all witnessed the blood-chilling barbarity of the beheading of an American journalist the other day. There is no way to find anything good in these disturbing developments. However, they may also present some new perspectives through which Turkey can take much bolder steps to solve its Kurdish question. ISIS brought almost all Kurds in the Middle East together. Historical rifts and tensions between Iraqi Kurdistan and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Rojava in Syria vanished overnight when PYD forces helped peshmerga forces reclaim the Mahmur camp and other places. There is an almost absolute unity amongst all Kurds in the region against the common enemy.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/isis-and-the-kurdish-question_356362.html
20. The Yazidis: Finding new friends
23 August 2013 / The Economist
A CENTURY ago, the Yazidis of Sinjar saved hundreds of Armenians and Assyrian Christians as they were being slaughtered by the forces of the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish proxies in what a growing body of scholars considers the 20th century’s first genocide. “They built a colony for these people, with houses, a church and a clinic,” says David Gaunt, a British historian. In 1918 the Ottomans retaliated by sending a small army to Sinjar, destroying the buildings and capturing a revered Yazidi leader, Hamo Sharro, who was sentenced to five years of hard labour.
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21613350-their-desperate-search-sanctuary-iraqs-yazidis-ask-turkey
21. Kurdish women in Turkey move away from independence
16 August 2014 / BBC News
Iraq’s Kurds are battling an invasion from the militant group Islamic State (IS). Together with the Kurds of Iran, Syria and Turkey, they make up the world’s biggest nation without a state. But while Kurds in northern Iraq are planning a referendum that may create an independent state, Kurdish rebels in Turkey are holding peace talks.
Despite decades of repression, the relative stability has enabled women, in particular, to challenge restrictions on Kurdish rights and the region’s patriarchal society.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28785802 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28785802>
22. Turkey: An economy at a crossroads
16 August 2014 / Al Jazeera
Turkey, the strategically-located $800bn economy which straddles East and West, has elected a new president. In the presidential poll, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan won outright with 52 percent of the vote. But his success is rooted in past economic good times and economists reckon Turkey’s economic future under an Erdogan presidency is far from clear. Turkey’s economy remains among the 20 biggest in the world but the IMF says it is not built on a sustainable model. Back in 2013, Turkey was included in a group labelled the ‘Fragile Five,’ economies which – according to Morgan Stanley – were too hooked on foreign cash injections.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2014/08/turkey-an-economy-at-crossroads-20148161343937947.html <http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2014/08/turkey-an-economy-at-crossroads-20148161343937947.html>
23. WATCH: The Rise of ISIS: US Invasion of Iraq, Foreign Backing of Syrian Rebels Helped Fuel Jihadis’ Advance
13 August 2014 / Democracy Now
The United States is sending 130 more troops to Iraq amidst a bombing campaign against ISIS militants in the north and a political crisis gripping Baghdad. We are joined by veteran Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn, author of the new book, “The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising.” Cockburn addresses the power struggle in Baghdad, Hillary Clinton’s claim that President Obama’s “failure” to support Syrian rebels helped fuel ISIS’s advance, the role of oil in the current U.S. airstrikes, and his fears that Iraq is entering a “new, more explosive era far worse than anything we’ve seen over the last 10 years.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/13/the_rise_of_isis_us_invasion
24. In Turkey, a late crackdown on Islamist fighters
12 August 2014 / Washington Post
Before their blitz into Iraq earned them the title of the Middle East’s most feared insurgency, the jihadists of the Islamic State treated this Turkish town near the Syrian border as their own personal shopping mall.
And eager to aid any and all enemies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey rolled out the red carpet. In dusty market stalls, among the baklava shops and kebab stands, locals talk of Islamist fighters openly stocking up on uniforms and the latest Samsung smartphones. Wounded jihadists from the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front — an al-Qaeda offshoot also fighting the Syrian government — were treated at Turkish hospitals. Most important, the Turks winked as Reyhanli and other Turkish towns became way stations for moving foreign fighters and arms across the border.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/how-turkey-became-the-shopping-mall-for-the-islamic-state/2014/08/12/5eff70bf-a38a-4334-9aa9-ae3fc1714c4b_story.html <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/how-turkey-became-the-shopping-mall-for-the-islamic-state/2014/08/12/5eff70bf-a38a-4334-9aa9-ae3fc1714c4b_story.html>
25. To Aid Kurdistan, Look Beyond Iraq
18 August 2014 / New York Times
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has forced America to return to the battlefield in Iraq. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama ordered airstrikes against ISIS fighters nearing Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, while insisting that he wouldn’t allow the United States to be “dragged” back into Iraq. If Mr. Obama really wants to ensure no boots on the ground, he will have to rethink America’s policy toward Kurdish nationalism, and recognize the Kurds, and not only Iraqi ones, are his main ally against ISIS.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/opinion/to-aid-kurdistan-look-beyond-iraq.html <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/opinion/to-aid-kurdistan-look-beyond-iraq.html>
26. How Kurdish Militias Have Successfully Fought Off the Islamic State
14 August 2014 / Vice
As the Islamic State has continued its shocking military advances throughout Syria and Iraq recently, much has been written about its seemingly unstoppable battle capabilities. But there’s one force that has scored a number of successes against its forces: the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
Though originally linked to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the most powerful Kurdish political party in Syria, the YPG is now seen as the armed force of all of Syrian Kurdistan. The PYD is also affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, a group classified as terrorists by the US, the EU and Turkey, among others.
https://news.vice.com/article/how-kurdish-militias-have-successfully-fought-off-the-islamic-state <https://news.vice.com/article/how-kurdish-militias-have-successfully-fought-off-the-islamic-state>
27. Interview with YPG Spokesman Polat Can about Yezidi People in Sinjar
18 August 2014 / Civiroglu
Mr. Can, what are the conditions like in Şengal? What happened to the Yezidis that were left behind?
The latest situation in Sinjar is as you know it, and the clashes taking place in the Rabia area are continuing. Up to this point we did not allow ISIS to capture Rabia. The real aim of the fight we’ve put up in Sinjar , Rabia and Sinun is to defend the people that are trapped in the Sinjar area, and to protect and rescue them of course.
We are putting up a great resistance in Rabia and Sinun, these two areas are two important central points.
http://civiroglu.net/2014/08/18/p_can_sinjar/ <http://civiroglu.net/2014/08/18/p_can_sinjar/>
28. Islamic State, Iraq, America: a new front
14 August 2014 / Open Democracy
The crisis in Iraq is evolving rapidly, two months after the rapid advance of ISIL (now Islamic State) forces from across the border in Syria enabled them to capture the city of Mosul and link the territories under their control.
Most current concern is with the displacement of religious minorities, especially the Yazidis, and the threat to the Kurdish capital of Irbil. The plight of these displaced and vulnerable people has led voices on both sides of the Atlantic to call for more direct military intervention against the Islamic State (see Michelle Tan. “Top U.S. officer in Iraq: ‘We must neutralize this enemy’”, Army Times, 7 August 2014).
https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/islamic-state-iraq-america-new-front <https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/islamic-state-iraq-america-new-front>
STATEMENTS
29. Statement by the Joint Diplomatic Committee of Kurdistan Organisations:
An Urgent Appeal to the International Community, 18 August 2014. http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/08/21/an-urgent-appeal-to-the-international-community/ <http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2014/08/21/an-urgent-appeal-to-the-international-community/>
30. KNK Statement: ISIS continues massacres in Kurdistan: In Koco village nearly 600 civilians were shot and buried, 18 August 2014. http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/resources/kurdish-national-congress-knk/isis-continues-massacres-in-kurdistan-in-koco-village-nearly-600-civilians-were-shot-and-buried/ <http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/resources/kurdish-national-congress-knk/isis-continues-massacres-in-kurdistan-in-koco-village-nearly-600-civilians-were-shot-and-buried/>
31. Assembly of Armenians in Europe: We Call upon the United Nations and the International Community to Condemn and take effective action against Turkey’s Covert Logistical support of ISIS, 20 August 2014. http://armenpress.am/eng/news/773178/assembly-of-armenians-of-europe-calls-un-to-condemn-turkey.html
REPORTS
32. Syria: Voices in crisis: A monthly insight into the human rights crisis in Syria, 22 August 2014. By Amnesty International. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE24/036/2014/en
ACTIONS
33. White House Petition: Remove the PKK from the list of terrorism organisations
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-kurdistan-workers-party-pkk-list-international-terrorist-organizations/pxgNYqFD
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: [email protected]
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, Conor Murphy MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas, Nick Hildyar
