On December 18, 2023 local elections were held in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces to appoint provincial councils. In the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan Region, they will be held at a later date.
Voting took place without major incident or passion. Turnout was 41%, according to the Independent High Electoral Commission, with Kirkuk province recording the highest turnout at 66%. The southern provinces, including the large Baghdad electoral district, saw a low turnout, no doubt due to the call for a boycott by the Shiite religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who has several million supporters across the country. A disillusioned section of the electorate did not see fit to go to the polls.
The last provincial elections were held 10 years ago, in 2014. The war against ISIS prevented them from being held in the provinces of Mosul and Kirkuk. Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters scored well in Shiite-majority provinces, notably Baghdad. In 2023, it was the pro-Iran Shiite parties, grouped together in electoral coalitions (State of Law, Nabni, Patriotic Forces) that competed for the top spots.
In Baghdad, former Prime Minister Nouri el-Maliki's State of Law and Hadi al-Ameri's Nabni (We Build), a senior commander of the Shiite militia Hachd al-Chaabi, came out on top with 9 of the 52 seats each, followed by Taqadom (Progress), led by the Sunni former Speaker of Parliament Mohamed al-Halboussi. The latter came first in his Sunni-majority province of al-Anbar.
In 2005, Kurdish parties had formed a single "Brotherhood" list and won 26 of the 41 seats on the Provincial Council. The head of the list, Dr Najmaldin Karim, of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was elected governor of the province, a post he held until his dismissal by the Baghdad government in October 2017 for having organized the referendum for Kurdish self-determination in his province. Voters in his multi-ethnic province voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. The "yes" to independence achieved a historic score of 92.7% in Kurdistan as a whole. Following the massive wave of repression that followed the referendum, forcing tens of thousands of Kurds to leave the province of Kirkuk, and the occupation of the city by Shiite militias and the Iraqi army, the ethnic composition of the population changed considerably, to the detriment of the Kurds. One of the two main Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), was only able to return a few weeks before the December 18 elections.
For this election, the Kurdish parties, divided, participated under their own colors. This division demobilized part of the Kurdish electorate and obviously had a negative impact on the results announced by the electoral commission on December 18.
The PUK obtained 157,649 votes and 5 seats (out of 16).
The PDK obtained 52,278 votes and 2 seats.
The Arab coalition 102,558 votes and 3 seats.
Turkmen Front of Iraq 75,169 votes and 2 seats.
Uruba (Arab) 49,919 votes and 1 seat.
Siyade (Arab) 61,612 votes and 2 seats.
The two Kurdish Islamic parties (Yekgirtu and Komel), which had presented a joint "Kirkuk Flame Coalition" list, obtained 24,620 votes and no seats, while the "New Kurdish Generation" list obtained 24,620 votes and no seats.
The dispersion of the lists meant that the Kurds lost around 50,000 votes and one seat. Despite demographic changes to the detriment of the Kurds since 2017, and despite a new electoral law introduced in March 2023, unfavorable to the Kurds, reducing the number of seats on the Provincial Council from 41 to 16, the united Kurds would have obtained at least 8, perhaps 9 seats, i.e. a majority of the Provincial Council. Together with a number of Arab and Turkmen councillors, they are expected to form a coalition to run the province. But Turkey, which supports and finances the Turkmen Front as well as the Sunni Arab parties, is seeking to encourage the formation of an Arab-Turkmen coalition with a 9-vote majority, where the post of governor could be held in turn by an Arab and a Turkmen in order to marginalize the Kurds.
In Mosul province, the KDP obtained 141,052 votes and 4 seats, nipping at the heels of the Arab Ninova Latiha list, which came first with 148,769 votes and 5 seats. The Ehil Ninova coalition, which includes the PUK, obtained 50,606 votes and 2 seats, the Taqadom lists of al-Haboussi (74,188 votes), Siyada (75,074 votes), Hadba (61,662 votes), Hasm (61,662 votes) and Watanai Huwwiye (54,791 votes) each won 2 seats, while the National Party (87,391 votes) won 3 seats, and the Azil (46,543 votes) and Watani Litadjdeed (43,657 votes) lists each secured 1 seat. A Council thus fragmented will undoubtedly take time to form a majority capable of governing this province devastated by the ISIS occupation and the war against ISIS.
Established after the fall of Saddam Hussain's highly centralized regime, to introduce a measure of decentralization and local democracy, provincial councils enjoy important prerogatives: election of the provincial governor, allocation of health, transport and education budgets.
In addition, the Iraqi government has agreed to release 700 billion dinars in the form of a "loan" to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Under an agreement between Erbil and Baghdad, the amount of the loan will be deducted from the KRG's dues. KRG Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab signed three contracts with Iraqi banks to guarantee loans to cover the salaries of civil servants in Iraqi Kurdistan for September, October and November. Despite the agreement in principle between the KRG and the Iraqi government, an Iranian-backed Iraqi MP threatened to lodge a complaint with the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court against the banks granting loans to the KRG. The Federal Supreme Court has always ruled in favor of Iranian interests and against those of Iraqi Kurdistan.
On December 14, the US Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024. The NDAA now awaits the President's signature and includes air defense systems for Iraqi Kurdistan and training for Peshmerga forces. The decision to deploy air defense systems follows dozens of attacks by Iran-backed militias against US troops and Kurdish targets in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2018. The NDAA (Article 1266) also stipulates that the US will train and equip Iraqi security forces to defend against missile, rocket and drone attacks.
Iranian-backed militias have resumed their attacks on US facilities in Iraq, launching five stray munitions at US installations located inside Erbil International Airport. According to the Rudaw website, debris from four drones was discovered on December 8 near a residential area, one of which hit a vacant residential building. A US defense system shot down the fifth drone. Pro-Iranian militias also fired rockets at the US embassy in Baghdad on December 8, and launched several drones at Al Asad airbase in Anbar province on December 11. Subsequently, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Soudani and discussed Iraq's obligation to protect "U.S. diplomatic personnel and coalition advisors and facilities". Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Region Security Council denounced the attacks and demanded that the Iraqi government assume responsibility for "putting an end to outlaw groups".
On December 25, drone strikes against a facility housing US forces at Erbil International Airport (EIA) wounded three servicemen. In retaliation, three US airstrikes targeted Kataib Hezbollah facilities, resulting in the death of one terrorist and the wounding of more than a dozen others. In addition, three other one-way drones targeting EIA were successfully intercepted by the US defense system on several occasions. On December 31, Iranian-backed militias also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Peshmerga base near Pirmam, northeast of Erbil. Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barznani condemned the "outlaws" and urged the Iraqi government to respond with "appropriate measures".
Turkish drones hit Kurdish villages near the Agjalar sub-district between Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk. The head of the Agjalar sub-district told Rudaw that the air strikes had spread fear and led to expulsions among the villagers, denying the presence of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) elements, a pretext used by Turkey. At the same time, Turkish military aircraft and drones targeted several areas of Dohuk province.
On December 5, a Turkish air strike killed a Kurdish civilian near the Bamarni sub-district. According to Rudaw, the victim, Ali Jamil, was a father of four serving in the ranks of the Peshmerga forces. The final civilian casualty count is unclear, as some reports suggest the possibility of another victim. Since 2015, Turkish forces have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan.
On December 12, the European Parliament in Strasbourg posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize to Jîna Mahsa Amini, whose name has become "a symbol of freedom". Her family, invited to the ceremony, were turned away at Teheran airport, even though they had previously informed the Iranian authorities of the invitation. Initially, the Iranian authorities raised no objections and authorized Jîna Amini's father and mother to obtain passports. It was only when they arrived at the airport with their tickets, passports and Schengen visas that the police prevented them from boarding, without giving the slightest reason. This totally arbitrary and cruel act provoked a wave of indignation not only in Iran, but also in the European Parliament, where over a hundred MEPs appealed to the Iranian government to allow the Amini family to travel to Strasbourg (AFP, December 11). The appeal went unheeded. Only the family's lawyer, veteran human rights defender Saleh Nikbacht, was able to travel to France to represent them.
In her acceptance speech for the Sakharov Prize, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, praised "the courage and resilience of Iranian women in their struggle for justice, freedom and human rights. Their voices cannot be silenced", she hammered home to a packed and emotional room, where the family's lawyer read a letter in Kurdish from Mrs Mojgane Eftekhari, Jîna Amini's mother:
In my heart, there is only her
In my body, in my soul, in my veins and in my sange, there is only her
What to do with unbelief or faith
When my existence has no reason to exist without her.
(Roumi, Masnavi)
You are the perfume of spring essence
The scent of roses brought back by the field breeze
The scent of mud roofs after the rain
My beloved
Through the crack of my misty window
My eyes watch for the girl of lights
Among all the songs that time sings
I listen to the murmur of the pebbles of the pure spring.
(Sware Ilxanzadeh, Kurdish poet)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would have liked to be personally present at your esteemed assembly to represent all the women of my country. I would have liked to be able to express my gratitude. Thank you for dedicating this precious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to my daughter and to the struggle of the women of my country. Unfortunately, contrary to all legal and human standards, we were denied this opportunity. Our defense lawyer, Mr Saleh Nikbakht, and Mrs Soheila Ghaderi, here present, will convey my message to you.
We are here in the land of Joan of Arc to honor the memory of Jîna. The coming together of these two inspirational daughters of history is both wonderful and significant. Across the centuries, the death of these two young girls transcends borders, inspires history and puts the aspiration of human emancipation and freedom back on the agenda.
Jîna is the expression of life and the desire to live. Her name has become a code name for freedom. It allows her dream of freedom to spread from her native Kurdistan to the whole of Iran, the Middle East and beyond to the whole world, mobilizing millions of oppressed women and men who nourish the hope of reaching the horizon of freedom and eternal salvation.
Her life was unjustly taken from her by those who thought that, by taking her life, she would cease to be and become. Like Joan of Arc, whose oppressors thought that by burning her body, her dreams would go up in smoke. They didn't know, and others still don't, that from the ashes of Joan of Arc and Jîna, like a phoenix, an indomitable and inspiring spirit will be born, the spirit of the age.
After so many long centuries, these two spirits have come together to announce the promise of the realization of the highest values, crystallized in the progressive slogan "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi". Values that transcend borders and lie beyond time and space. They are justice, freedom, peace, coexistence and equality between all human beings.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of the world,
I am in mourning for Jîna, and the pain of her passing will remain forever engraved in my heart. I have no doubt that she will remain eternal in the eyes of the world's citizens, and her name, alongside that of Joan of Arc, will remain a symbol of freedom.
From the birthplace of Jîna l'éternelle, I would like to express once again my infinite gratitude and that of my family. I hope you will remain steadfast in your resolve. I hope that no voice will be afraid to utter the word "freedom".
Mojgane Eftekhari,
Mother of the immortal Jîna Amini
Saqqez- Iranian Kurdistan
(To see the ceremony, click here)
During his short stay in Paris, Me Nikbakht visited the Institute, and was then received by the Conseil de l'Ordre des Avocats and the Paris Bar Association, who expressed their solidarity with him. Having been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for giving interviews to the media on the death of Jîna Amini, the lawyer wanted to return to Iran, where he is determined to continue his peaceful fight for human rights. On arrival at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on December 22, he was taken to the security room, where his passport, cell phone and Sakharov Prize plaque were seized. He is now forbidden to leave Iran. His sentence having been confirmed on appeal, his case is now on the desk of the execution judge, who must decide on the date and place of his incarceration (see Le Monde, 26.12.2023).
Detained in Teheran's Evin prison, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nargès Mohammadi was also unable to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10. A leading figure in the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, the Iranian activist and journalist decided to mark the event by observing a hunger strike. She was represented at the ceremony by her two children, who live with their father in Paris. On this occasion, she sent a long message which Le Monde published in full in its December 10 edition (see pp.18-20). On December 19, she refused to appear before a "Revolutionary Court", which she described as a slaughterhouse because it had ordered the execution of several young Iranians. "I will not set foot in this slaughterhouse. I refuse to give the slightest credibility or authority to judges subservient to the secret services and to courts organizing mock trials", she declared (Challenge, AFP, 19.12).
Iranian courts continue to impose heavy sentences on real, potential or supposed opponents on implausible pretexts. On December 29, 4 Kurdish political prisoners were hanged in Ourmia prison "for collaborating with the Zionist regime". These Kurdish activists, Vafa Hanareh, Aram Ouari, Rahman Parhazo and Nasim Namazi, had previously been tried for "war against God" and "corruption on earth", i.e. activity against the Islamic regime. The December 25 assassination in Syria by Israeli missile fire of Brigadier General Razi Moussavi, the highest-ranking member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, earned them the vengeful accusation of "collaborating with the Zionist regime". In the official Iranian discourse, all those who fight for the Kurdish people's right to autonomy or independence want to "create a second Israel" and are allied with the Zionist regime.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has sentenced Kurdish language teacher Seyvan Ebrahimi to eleven years in prison. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) claimed that Ebrahimi had been charged with "propaganda" and "forming groups against national security". The regime also executed a Kurd, Ayoub Karimi, for "enmity against God" and ignored calls from international organizations to halt the execution because Karimi had not received a fair trial. Iranian security forces also continued to pressure the families of other Kurds condemned to death to remain silent, and warned them that if they did not obey, the bodies of their loved ones would be retained by the state. According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the regime executed 122 Iranians in November. Meanwhile, the regime's courts sentenced a Kurdish imam from Senna, Hussein Alimuradi, to 16 months in prison and a former protester from Piranshahr to five years and six months in prison. The regime's courts also sentenced a Kurdish lawyer from Mashhad, Khasro Alikurdi, to one year in prison and banned him from practicing law for two years. At the same time, six Kurds from Shinno were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to three years. Finally, the Iranian authorities arrested two Kurdish imams in Bokan and a Kurd in Naqadeh.
The Islamic Revolutionary Courts sentenced a Kurd from Mahabad, Iskhan Fahim, to seven and a half years in prison, a trade union activist from Teheran, Fuad Fathi, to four years in prison, a demonstrator from Bokan, Sadullah Rasolpour, Ayoub Jwanebpour was sentenced to four years in prison, and a Bokan activist, Hassan Mardani, was sentenced to three years in prison for "belonging to a political party". In addition, the Hengaw Organization reported that four Kurdish imams from Piranshahr had been sentenced to between two and four years for supporting anti-government protests.
On November 30, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5961, a bill banning the financing of Iranian terrorism, by 307 votes to 119. 217 of the "yes" votes came from Republicans. H.R. 5961 calls on the President to impose sanctions on anyone who facilitates the transfer of the $6 billion in Iranian assets that were to be released in exchange for the release of five American hostages. An amendment to H.R. 5961, H.Amdt.821, passed by 231 votes to 198, prohibits the President from exercising the sanctions waiver authority granted by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 and the Iranian Freedom and Counterproliferation Act of 2012. That said, the bill must still be passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden before it can take effect.
Turkey's most notorious political prisoner, Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chairman of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and former candidate for the presidency of the Republic in 2014, where he won over 13% of the vote against Erdogan, was able, after 7 years and 2 months in detention, to appear in court and present his defense.
It was a defense that broke new ground, both for public opinion and for history, because, as he has said on several occasions, he gives no credence to a politicized Turkish justice system at the behest of those in power. A power that has ignored a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which found his detention arbitrary and without legal basis, and ordered his release, just as it has ignored a ruling by the same Court ordering the release of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, or a recent verdict by the Turkish Constitutional Court ordering the release of Turkish MP Can Atalay.
More than a prisoner, Demirtas sees himself as a "political hostage". He claims that he is being held, like his other colleagues, because he is Kurdish, because he demands the cultural and political rights of the Kurdish people, because he speaks of Kurdistan, his homeland, and that he advocates a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey, while the Turkish government has been squandering the country's human and economic resources for 50 years in an endless war "until the last terrorists are exterminated", a devastating and deadly war that has claimed more than 50. 000 dead and over two million displaced. Its latest victims are the 12 Turkish soldiers killed on December 23 and 24 during a Turkish military operation in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Demirtas' defense began on December 25. It was expected to last several days. In this trial, he is accused of the deaths of 37 civilians killed during demonstrations against ISIS's war on the Kurdish town of Kobane, and against Turkey's inaction. The Turkish authorities blame Demirtas and his co-defendants for having called for demonstrations via tweets, and accuse them of being responsible for the heavy human toll of this protest demonstration, where the Turkish police and army intervened with extreme brutality, killing 37 Kurdish civilians. It's not the murderers who are being prosecuted, but the politicians who called for the demonstration.
In his defense, Demirtas lays bare the inner workings of this judicial machination and asserts that he will not be impressed or subjugated by Turkish justice's threats of death or 37 life sentences.
Here are excerpts from the first part of Demirtas' defense.
Although we've been detained for 7 years, this is the first time I've defended myself, the first time I've had the opportunity to respond to the charges. Because the defenses made up to now were either a review of the detention, or a response to the accusations. We've been judged in public squares, we've been judged on television, we've been judged in Parliament. Each of us, individually, was presented as a "terrorist" or a "barbarian". Today, we are still insulted at funerals, we are still presented as "terrorists", but for the first time in 7 years, I had the right to defend myself directly (....).
I'm not presenting my defense to your court, I'm presenting it to our people. Because you are also part of this case. As politicians who have undertaken an honorable mission, we have spoken and will speak to our people about our self-criticism. I don't know how long my defense will last. But 42 separate summaries of proceedings have been merged with this 19th ACM file. There are 42 separate charges. Here too, there are thousands of charges under the name of the Kobanî Affair. I don't know how many days it will take me to respond to the conspiracy you've been leading for 9 years. A table full of thousands of defense documents, that's what I've been preparing for 7 years. We haven't had a chance to defend ourselves until now. We will answer all charges unless the court takes away my right to defend myself. But if your court says that this defense is sufficient, that we don't allow other rights of defense, then you have the microphone and I'm done. I'm going to reveal the links in the case. Everyone needs to know that all the charges against me are speeches I've made. I'm not accused of any secret work or activity. I don't have a single piece of evidence in my file other than the speeches at rallies I gave 8 years ago and 15 years ago. The same goes for all my friends. I'm speaking in the singular because I'm defending myself. My friends have already spoken about it.
This is political revenge. We are politicians taken hostage for political ends (...). Because the prosecutor is not accusing me and cannot accuse me of anything else. As all my political activities are legal and take place in public, the speeches have been included in the file. Today, the country's children are losing their lives in conflicts, and we are devastated because we have not been able to prevent these deaths. Yet the government and the state join hands and imprison those who, like us, want peace and hope for help from the politics of war. This is total hypocrisy. It is hypocrites who today shed crocodile tears instead of sharing the pain. This war must end now, the weapons must be completely deactivated. The way to do this is to bring politics to the fore. This means ending isolation and returning to methods of dialogue. Those who avoid negotiation and dialogue are responsible for these deaths. Any politician who relies on arms and war for his own political success is a hypocrite. Those who create a place for themselves in power on the basis of the blood of the people's children are unscrupulous people with no sense of morality. Today, Turkish society, including Turks and Kurds, must raise its voice for peace. Those who excite you with the exaltation of nationalism do not hesitate to send your children to war with their hands full.
The only people who can stop this trend are the poor. If the Turks and the Kurds join hands and say "we are against the war", it will be much easier to live together and fraternally. It would be much easier to maintain peace and expand democracy. We are politicians who want peace and who believe in a democratic solution. Even though we have been held hostage for years because we wanted to, we continue to demand peace from within. Those who govern the country make war decisions every day from their cozy seats. The Turkish people must see this hypocrisy now. He must understand who wants war and who wants peace. If it is not hypocrisy to imprison and isolate those who want peace in their own country while advocating peace in Palestine, what is?
We will continue to act according to principles and defend peace in all circumstances. If Turkey mourns its children today, it is time to turn around and hold politicians accountable. Those who blamed the Kurdish question on the young people they sent to undergo a military operation at -20 degrees while deciding on an operation from their hot seats must be held accountable. As we experience the pain of buried young children aged 20-22, all those who are pro-government and accuse us of terrorism and murder are the ones who feed on this blood. Some parliamentarians have served five terms without ever uttering the word "peace" in their lives. They are the richest MPs in Türkiye.
Have those who accuse our deputies today spent a minute ensuring peace in this country? Most of them are big businessmen. They have big investments. They live on luxurious farms. There is no shortage of luxury cars. Are your children standing guard in Xakurk (valley of Iraqi Kurdistan) and Zap while you decide to go to war? Send your children. Send your children, send them and see if you can be a warmonger that easily. Our hearts are burning. I have said it many times. The 12 soldiers buried yesterday (killed in military operations against the PKK on December 23 and 24 in Iraqi Kurdistan) are my brothers. They are the children of the poor in this country. I would like us to make peace so they can live. The responsibility lies with us. We consider ourselves morally responsible. We do not accept it.
Those in this room, our representatives in Parliament, are ready to do whatever is necessary for peace. Whoever opens his mouth talks about the massacre until the last terrorist remains. These litanies have been going on for 50 years. A relative of a martyr shouted yesterday “enough is enough”. He's right, that's enough, who are we kidding? They will be responsible for the lives of these young people and they will brazenly turn around to blame the Democratic Party (DEM). You are the ones responsible, you are the ones who send him to operations. What has the Democratic Party (DEM) been proposing for days? He says we shouldn't send 20-year-olds into the mountains to kill. He says there is an easy, simple, least expensive and most honorable way, and he walks in the public squares. But the police sprayed him with tear gas, beat him with batons and arrested him (…).
No one should blame us. I appeal to Turkish society, I appeal to those who have even an iota of moral value. In a speech in Aydın and Manisa, I said this in response to what I was accused of: "We tried to live together. We tried to silence the guns, we tried to prevent the bloodshed in this country. We were imprisoned here for 7 years for this, and we continue to call for peace. Our friends' parents and siblings died, they traveled for an hour to express their condolences, and they felt their pain in the cell. You left us to die during the pandemic. We experienced the pain of the earthquake here. You did all this. Our families had an accident and my mother was disabled. My mother is disabled at the moment, she is in a wheelchair and cannot come here. How many families have had accidents on the prison roads? What have you not put us through? we say? We say peace, like all our friends who spoke after 7 years. You are laughing at me ? Are those who say this, those who say that we will crush the terrorists and finish them off, patriots?
You kept us in prison longer than the execution of the crime you claim. Even before the end of the trial, you decided that we were members of the PKK organization. I hear it here in prison, we are not allowed to contact anyone, but we hear it. People from the community who were tried and sentenced to 6 years and 3 months for belonging to the organization finished their sentence 2 years ago and were released. They have finished serving their sentence for belonging to the organization, we have been detained for 7 years.
You deliberately did this by filing false evidence and adding false witnesses, all the while knowing that we were innocent. Those who accuse us in the squares and chant slogans about the death penalty are unscrupulous people who have no sense of humanity. As for us, we continue to represent the highest moral values and honor for 7 years, with a clear conscience and the certainty of our innocence. We are now at the stage of the verdict on the conspiracy of the case, we know that you are eager to announce the decision, but whatever decision you announce, it will not be in the conscience of the history of our people. You will not be able to subjugate us in this battle of will (…)
I will not give you the opportunity to read your verdict in front of me. You will read it yourself. This is the will that I make to my wife, my family, my daughters and all my people: When the verdict is announced, you must welcome it with joy and enthusiasm, because this is how we will welcome here. We would rather die than compromise and live in dishonor (…).
The main reason we are being judged is because we are Kurdish politicians. Non-Kurds also stand in solidarity with the Kurds. We are judged by the Turkish state for racist and nationalist purposes simply because we are Kurds. We are judged because we do not submit to Turkish racist ideology and theses. We are being judged for saying that Kurdistan is our homeland, that you cannot invade or destroy Kurdistan. In this room, they want to condemn the reality of the Kurds and Kurdistan in our person. Furthermore, their political goal is to win referendums and elections and keep us in prison to legitimize one-man rule. I am Kurdish, my homeland is Kurdistan, my two identities are honored, no one can judge these values.
The Kurdish people have the right to live with their own language and their own identity like other peoples in their homeland, Kurdistan. The fact that this right was taken away by weapons, destruction and denial is called the Kurdish problem. The method we recommend to resolve this problem is negotiation (…)
All Kurdish political parties with a perspective of a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem are parties to the solution and are interlocutors. The place where the problem will be discussed and resolved in an open and transparent manner is parliament. All parties are involved in the solution of the Kurdish problem. For these reasons, I support and defend the meeting of the Turkish state with Mr. Öcalan to peacefully end the latest Kurdish rebellion. I defend the right of the DEM party to represent the people and its legitimate address. I don't know anyone who doesn't accept the DEM party. I do not recognize anyone who does not recognize my will and my right to represent the people. My will is mine. We too have serious contributions to make to the solution of the Kurdish problem. We are ready to do our best for this, we will do it as much as we can, our goal is to live together as equals. Respect for this principle is essential to the radical democracy for which we fight. I say this to those who try to ignore me, destroy me and liquidate me with false conspiracies; I am the friend and supporter of all those who defend democracy and peace. I openly declare that I will not recognize those who do not accept it. I direct all my defense to the public because we do not have before us an impartial and independent judicial panel. Unfortunately, this does not exist.
Where are things? The file prepared by the Ministry of Interior on the instructions of the Presidential Palace and MİT (Turkish intelligence services) is before you as a criminal file. If you had done that, if you had said, "There will be no such case, trial or accusation, we will not be the instrument of this open conspiracy," you would have changed the course of history in Turkey. If you had defended even a little legal and ethical values, you would have said: "We would consider it an insult to judge the co-presidents of a party, the members of parliament, the members of the central executive council with 37 aggravated life sentences and prison terms of up to thousands of years" for two tweets calling for demonstrations and speeches with political content in Turkey. You would change the destiny of the country. You detained us for 7 years without interruption in a case for which you should not have even agreed to open an investigation, let alone prepare an indictment. We do not know how the instructions came, but we saw that they were given openly on television and in rallies (…).
If you count the wealth of each of us, from the money in our pockets to our assets, there is not one percent of the wealth of a single AKP MP. Or a member of the İyi Party or the MHP. We co-chaired 102 municipalities, including 3 metropolitan municipalities and 10 provincial municipalities. Sebahat Tuncel does not have a house, the mayor of Diyarbakir Gültan Kisanak bought one with a loan. I bought one on credit. Not a single one of our loved ones has benefited from calls for tenders from our municipalities and cannot. We are such politicians. You must feel in your conscience the pain and cruelty inflicted on us. We were good people, we're not bragging, but we are good people. We didn't hurt anyone, but you did. My parents had an accident while crossing 100 meters from the prison. They almost died, they stayed in the hospital for days, they were disabled, they were allowed to talk on the phone for 10 minutes. They are still hurt. If they had not put me in Edirne (a town in Thrace, located 1700 km from Diyarbaki), if they had put me in Ankara, we would not have had to take these roads. But what have you done? The Ottoman tradition exiled Kurdish lords to Crete, to Sino, to the plateaus of central Anatolia, to Edirne, to Imralı. Now they are taking them to Edirne and Kandira. Edirne is a place of exile, not a prison. The message given to us is: “We will send the Kurds into exile”. Because here we are not only in prison, we are also in exile.
You have, through this affair, contributed to the construction of the one-man regime in Turkey. You did it knowingly and voluntarily (…). You paved the way for the country to be dragged into an economic crisis and corruption and looting to become normal. You have caused the collapse of the moral values of a people. What is strange is that the Islamists and nationalists did this. Like many things in this country, nationalism and religiosity are false. However, while Turkish nationalism preaches that "one Turk is worth the world", they are morally destroying their own nation and all its values. The hostility towards the Kurds has so darkened their eyes and the hostility towards those who are not like them has darkened them so much that they do not hesitate to devastate the Turkish nation.
This is what Turkish nationalists call survival, the survival of their dirty riches. Turkish nationalists don't care if a mafia murderer turned drug dealer insults Turkish police. On the contrary, the Turkish police are responsible for escorting the scoundrels of the mafia. Those who made this appointment are not ashamed at all, they don't care as long as the Kurds remain in prison and administrators are appointed to run their municipalities. It is your justice which is the cause. You have destroyed a society and a state with the illegal decisions you have made. You can be proud of your work! Do not accuse us of abolishing the State, the government and the Constitution, because you did it yourself. There is no longer a State, there is no longer a constitutional order that we can abolish. You have led a nation to moral collapse.
So, what are the foundations of Turkish nationalism and the official thesis of Turkism that judge us in this matter? Why do we get goosebumps when we talk about Kurds or Kurdistan? For example, if you say Turkistan, will you get goosebumps? Does Turk, Turkmen or Öztürk bother anyone, but when we mention Kurdistan, Kurdish, goosebumps arise. For what ? The border between Turkey and Iran officially borders the Kurdistan province. The province of Iranian Kurdistan is the official neighbor of Kurdistan. The other side, beyond Khabour, is the federated region of Kurdistan, according to the Iraqi Constitution. When I hear this, I get goosebumps. The errors made during the creation of the Republic are at the origin of all the problems that arise today. If we take into account the cooperation achieved during the War of Independence, what is happening today can be avoided. Most of the statements that have caused me to be judged are the ones I have said on this subject.
As the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the rise of a European-centric determinism in the world and the formation of a nation based on race as a hugely popular political vision were placed on the agenda of the Committee of Union and Progress in Turkey (…) When Mustafa Kemal went to Anatolia, the most lively and undispersed force behind him was the armies of the East. Mustafa Kemal does not go to Datça, Muğla or Edirne, (in the west of the country) he does not think about it. The place he went to was Erzurum. The letters he wrote are addressed to the Kurds and the lords of Kurdistan. Mustafa Kemal says neither “you are not Kurd” nor “there are no Kurds”. He has the support of the Kurds. The only place where the armies of the War of Independence did not fight is the geography of Kurdistan because the people fought there. It is Karayilan who fights in Antep. What did he say: “O Kurdish lords, Kurdish sheikhs…” He is in contact with both Seyyed Rıza and Sheikh Said. He did not say: “Dear Kurdish sheikhs and gentlemen, we will abolish the caliphate.” The power he supports is not secularism, nor the Republic of Turkey, but the power of Islam. It was not Sheikh Said who betrayed the contract, it was the Ankara administration. They lie, they read books on the history of the revolution and follow the professor. They do it now, and they have the children recite these stories. They lie. Why is the Sheikh rebelling? You promised us, the first thing you do when you succeed is to abolish the caliphate. “You ban Kurdish,” he said. It was not Sheikh Said who betrayed. There is no information indicating that Sheikh Said cooperated with the British. Turkish intellectuals should read a little and be enlightened. Yes, there is a rebellion, but Sheikh Said is not a traitor. If anyone loves me, let them know that I am one of Sheikh Said's grandchildren. Kurdish socialists and Islamists know what Sheikh Said is.
Commemorating Sheikh Said is a “betrayal”. So, how does it feel to commemorate Topal Osman (leader of a Turkish armed band during the War of Independence)? I ask Meral Akşener (President of IYI Parti). There is no rebellion that Topal Osman has not committed, no murder that he has not committed. Topal Osman is among those accused of the assassination of Mustafa Kemal. We live in a common homeland, you remember Topal Osman. Who is this hero? They commemorate General Mustafa Muğlalı, an officer who graduated from the military academy. It was he who executed 33 people (Kurds) in the Özalp district, with their hands tied, without trial, on July 30, 1943. Among them, Mustafa Muğlalı was tried and convicted. Just enter Google, Mustafa Muğlalı Street is everywhere. Although it is right to commemorate Muğlalı in this country and name a street after him. “The 33 Balls”, a poem by Ahmet Arif, was written about them. There is no problem in commemorating Muğlalı, but during the commemoration of Sheikh Said, all hell breaks loose. For example, Abdullah Alpdoğan (Turkish general) can be mentioned everywhere; he massacred thousands of Alevi Kurds from Dersim. Let me tell you the most famous ones(…): Sabiha Gökçen is the person who piloted the plane that bombed Dersim. While the Kurds do not speak out when they are mentioned, why does all hell break loose when they talk about Sheikh Said? Take the famous case of Kenan Evren. He was tried for coup plotting. There is still Kenan Evren Boulevard, the mosque and the street. Kenan Evren while the guy is a putschist. He said (a Turkish MP): “Come on, go and talk at home” because 3 words of Syriac were spoken. The IYI party deputies say so. It was one of the richest MPs who said that. While your ancestors and your 7 dynasties were not yet on this earth, the Assyrians were on this earth, they are the most ancient people of this earth.(..)
To “avenge” the death of 12 soldiers killed on December 23 and 24 in clashes with the PKK guerrillas, Turkey launched massive aerial bombardments against several localities in Rojava including Qamishlo, Kobanî, Amûdê and Tirbe Sipiyê. Nine civilians were killed and the material damage was considerable. Basic civilian infrastructure such as power plants were devastated, depriving several hundred thousand people of electricity, a printing press, grain silos, a cotton factory and a mill were destroyed. In total, around fifteen civilian infrastructures providing basic services to a population already very affected by a dozen years of war were seriously damaged.
On December 26, General Mazloum Kobani, Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, launched a solemn appeal to the international war coalition against Daesh and to the international community to intervene to stop Turkey's incessant aggressions. He called on it to resolve its domestic problems within its borders and not to seek external outlets. The international community must intervene to ensure the security and stability of the civilian population of Rojava.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Turkey's strategy is to terrorize the population of Rojava and push them to flee the country, into exile in Europe. The demographic change carried out vigorously in the Syrian Kurdish territories under Turkish occupation must be complemented by the exodus towards Europe or Iraqi Kurdistan of the Kurds from Rojava. Turkey also plans to invade the whole of Syrian Kurdistan as soon as the American withdrawal occurs to “eliminate the existential threat” posed to them by the presence of a Kurdish political entity that it describes as “terrorist” on its borders.
Neither the UN, nor even the main Western countries, have reacted to this umpteenth Turkish aggression against Rojava.
According to SDF statistics for 2023, Turkey launched 798 attacks against the AANES, resulting in the deaths of 39 civilians, including eleven children, and 83 civilian injuries. The SDF reported that 173 of its soldiers were killed by Turkey, Islamic State (ISIS) and the Syrian regime in 2023.
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) claimed to have assassinated a Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Sherwan Hassan, on December 5 in eastern Deir ez Zor. Hassan was killed when an IED hit his vehicle. The SDF praised Sherwan Hassan for his sacrifices during the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) and called his death a “cowardly terrorist operation.”
On December 28, the SDF announced the death of a dangerous Daesh leader in the Al Hol camp, with the support of the US-led global coalition. The terrorist, known as Abu Obaida al Iraqi, refused to surrender during a raid on the camp and attempted to detonate his suicide vest before security forces shot him. The deceased terrorist was accused of killing women and children inside the camp, orchestrating attacks on security forces and smuggling so-called "Cubs of the Caliphate" out of the camp . The SDF claimed responsibility for 73 anti-Daesh operations in 2023, resulting in the arrest of 352 terrorists with US support.
Furthermore, at least three civilians were killed during exchanges of bombings between the Syrian regime and Turkish mercenaries in two villages near the Sherwa district occupied by the Turks. The exchanges of fire between the Syrian regime and Turkish mercenaries caused civilian casualties, mainly Kurds. In occupied Afrin canton, Turkey and its Syrian mercenaries killed 68 civilians in 2023.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) highlighted the cost of the growing conflict between the United States and Iranian-backed militias in Syria. The OSDH recorded the deaths of 44 Iranian-backed militiamen in Syria in November, about half of whom were killed by US airstrikes. The other half were killed by the Islamic State (Daesh) or by Israeli airstrikes. The OSDH also documented 29 attacks on facilities hosting U.S. personnel by Tehran-backed militias and four rounds of retaliatory strikes targeting militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in November. Finally, the OSDH reported that Iranian-backed militias are strengthening their presence in the Homs governorate and training for a confrontation with American forces.
On December 8, Iranian-backed militias targeted four US bases with multiple rocket barrages and errant munitions launched from Iraq into Syria. A pro-Iranian militia called “The Islamic Resistance” issued a statement taking credit for attacks on the Al Omar, Conoco, Kharab al Jir and al Shadadi oil fields based in Al Hasakah governorate.
The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly (13-84) on December 7 against a motion to refer S.J.Res.51 from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. S.J.Res.51 was introduced by Senator Rand Paul and would have required the withdrawal of all U.S. personnel from Syria whose presence had not been approved by Congress within 30 days if it had passed the House and the Senate and signed into law by the President. Senator Paul argued that the lack of a formal declaration of war by Congress made the U.S. mission in Syria illegal and claimed that the recent series of Iranian attacks on U.S. bases in Syria proved that U.S. personnel were subject to unnecessary risks. The overwhelming bipartisan vote against advancing S.J.Res.51 makes it clear that ending the U.S. mission in Syria, however, does not enjoy broad support on Capitol Hill. The US presence in Syria is vital to deter future Turkish invasions of northeast Syria and to continue the fight against ISIS.
For its part, the US-led global coalition to defeat the Islamic State issued a statement saying that more than 4,400 ISIS fighters and their relatives have been repatriated to their home countries from camps in the north. eastern Syria in 2023. The statement also praised the work of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) for facilitating the transfer of these people and recognized the value of repatriation stating: “Approximately 47,000 people from more than 60 countries remain in IDP camps, 60% of whom are children, including almost 5,000 under the age of five. Repatriation is the only lasting solution.” AANES and the Coalition highlighted that camps like al Hol are hotbeds of insecurity and deprivation that Daesh exploits to recruit militants and carry out terrorist attacks. Calls for repatriation launched by AANES often go unanswered because many countries are hesitant to address the security concerns raised by the repatriation of individuals linked to ISIS.
Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan celebrated Christmas in peace and serenity. The many streets of the region were crowded to celebrate this major event in the Christian calendar. Many Muslim Kurds came as neighbors to join in these celebrations. The President and Prime Minister of Kurdistan sent messages of congratulation to the Christian community which numbers around 120,000 people and expressed wishes for the new year.
In Turkish Kurdistan, since the 1915 genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, there are hardly any Christians left. In Diyarbakir, the Kurdish political-cultural capital, where Armenian and Syriac Christians formed a good third of the population at the start of the 20th century, there remain only around twenty Syriacs, a few dozen Armenians and a handful of Chaldeans. They all gathered in the more than thousand-year-old church of Mother Mary (Meryem Ana) where mass was celebrated by the Syriac priest Behman Samary. Christian Kurds, Yazidis and Muslims attended this mass where hymns in Aramaic, the language of Christ, resonated under the magnificent vault of this church testifying, with many other Armenian and Syriac churches in the city, to the presence since the very beginnings of Christianity, Christians in these lands where according to the biblical story an emigrant named Abraham stayed for some time in Harran (located some 150 km from Diyarbakir) where he met a native Sarah whom he married.
Living for centuries in almost symbiosis with Christians of various faiths, the Kurds, notably the Alevi Kurds of Dersim, Sivas and Erzingan, celebrate during this same period a festival called Gaxan. Overshadowed by the repressive and standardizing regime of the Turkish Republic for a century, this festival has moved beyond family circles in recent years. Thus, the municipality of Dersim organized a public celebration of Gaxan on December 29 with dances in traditional costumes and music and strong popular participation. In Paris, on December 23, a celebration of Gaxan took place at the Kurdish Institute to familiarize the new generation with this centuries-old tradition.
In Dersim, the month of December is called the month of Gaxan (Asma Gaxanî).
Gaxan is celebrated at the end of December. According to information collected from elders, Gaxan was celebrated on the last Wednesday of December according to the Julian calendar.
This holiday season is considered the greatest and most sacred because it is dedicated to Zoroaster.
During these end-of-year days, the young people of the village dress up. One disguises himself as an “old man” with a beard. A second disguises himself as the “old man’s” young bride. Two other young people disguise themselves as two of the “old man’s” guards. Together, accompanied by young people and adolescents from the village, they visit all the houses and ask for gifts. The villagers give them, among other gifts, flour, butter, yogurt, buttermilk, garlic, etc. With all these ingredients the young people prepare Sir or Zerfet, two specialties from Dersim that they will all eat together.
It is said that symbolically the “old man” represents the past year and the “young bride” represents the new year.
