On August 15, Turkey announced the signing of an enhanced military cooperation agreement following a closed-door meeting in Ankara between its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.
“We will take our cooperation to the highest level thanks to the joint command and training centers included in our agreement,” said the Turkish minister, who affirmed that a ‘joint security coordination center is being set up in Baghdad’ and that, in parallel, ‘a joint training and cooperation center is being formed in Bashiqa’ near Mosul.
At a joint press conference, Hakan Fidan hailed “a historic agreement” and noted “growing Iraqi awareness of the PKK”.
For Iraqi Minister Fuad Hussein, “the presence of PKK elements in Qandil, Mahmur and Sinjar is a danger for the Kurdistan region and other Iraqi cities. It also threatens Iraqi society. For this reason, the Iraqi government has decided to add the PKK to the list of banned parties.” He added that ‘the Bashiqa camp will be transformed into an Iraqi training camp, under the responsibility of the Iraqi armed forces, and a permanent joint commission will be set up in Turkey’. For the Iraqi minister, the “security” notion also covers issues such as water, trade, energy, transport and agriculture, while the use of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which both have their source in Kurdistan in Turkey, has been a recurring source of tension between the two countries for years.
The agreement on “enhanced” military cooperation remains unclear as to the conditions under which the Turkish army will be “authorized” to carry out ground and air operations against PKK camps. It also remains to be seen whether, beyond the creation of new joint command structures, this cooperation, in which Iraq's role could only be minor, will have any real impact on the war against a PKK firmly entrenched on the Turkish-Iraqi-Iranian borders, with the discreet but constant support of Iran.
August's news in Turkey was also marked by the Turkish president's recurrent rodomontades against his best enemy Netanyahu, accused of being “worse than Hitler”, against Western countries described as “accomplices in the Gaza genocide”, and against Muslim countries which, through their guilty silence, are failing in their duty of solidarity with the Palestinians.
All means are used to distract the attention of a population plagued by high living costs, unemployment and ever-increasing misery: For example, in a village in Diyarbakir, an 8-year-old girl, Narin, was reported missing after leaving a Koranic school. The police and gendarmerie deployed considerable resources, including helicopters, to search for the little victim. It's a search that's being broadcast on all the TV channels, and commented on like a summer soap opera. This in a country where the justice system has made no effort to find the perpetrators of some 17,000 Kurdish civilians killed in ‘unidentified killings’ perpetrated by Turkish gendarmerie death squads (JITEM). Those who criticize this manipulation of opinion are branded by the authorities and their media as “terrorists”, condemned and imprisoned. One such prisoner of conscience is lawyer Can Atalay, a member of the Workers' Party of Turkey, who was stripped of his parliamentary mandate last January and sentenced to life imprisonment for taking part in the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013. He is accused of seeking to overthrow the government by taking part in these demonstrations organized by environmentalists, many of them young Istanbulites. The Constitutional Court has twice ordered his release, but the Court of Cassation, controlled by the far-right, has opposed it. Parliament convened on August 17 to hear the Constitutional Court's ruling, which is final in law. AKP MPs vehemently opposed the ruling, provoking a violent brawl in which at least two opposition MPs, one from the Republican People's Party (CHP), and one from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, were injured. The images of the brawl during a parliamentary session broadcast live on television shocked Turkish public opinion, which is accustomed to all forms of violence in society and on the streets (Libération, August 17, AFP).
Anti-Kurdish repression has seen no summer truce. On August 1, the French daily Le Monde reported that, in parallel with its military operations against the PKK, “in recent weeks the Turkish police have been particularly zealous in arresting dozens of Kurds accused of singing pro-PKK songs”. On July 27, 18 people were arrested in police operations in several districts of Istanbul “for sharing a song favorable to the PKK on social networks”. Eleven were remanded in custody. At the end of July, “police raids took place on the sidelines of traditional Kurdish weddings celebrated in the east of the country, in the towns of Agri and Siirt in particular”, says Le Monde's correspondent, who adds: “over the last ten years, repression against the Kurdish minority, estimated at around 20 million out of a total population of 85 million, has increased considerably, affecting above all those who demand political and cultural rights. There are countless prosecutions, convictions and bans against journalists, politicians, mayors, lawyers, directors and singers who are stigmatized for their opinions, writings or words”.
For her part, the spokeswoman for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, Aysegul Dogan, condemned the arrests as “acts of intolerance against Kurdish identity and culture. Noting an upsurge in such police operations against Kurdish weddings across Turkey in recent months, she declared:” The current government no longer hides its hostility towards the Kurds. It is trying to subject even Kurdish marriages to the approval of the civil authorities. This coincides with other hate crimes in the Kurdish provinces of Van and Diyarbakir, where unidentified individuals vandalized road signs written in Kurdish, replacing them with the slogan 'Turkey is Turkish and will remain Turkish’.
The Turkish president continues to seek to silence all critical voices, particularly in Kurdistan.
The tenth anniversary of the genocide of the Yezidis by the hordes of ISIS, in August 2014, was commemorated in Kurdistan as well as in several cities in Europe.
One of the most important of these commemorations took place on August 3 in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Several hundred Kurdish personalities, victims' families and diplomats attended a meeting organized by the Kurdistan Presidency in the main auditorium of the Kurdistan University. “The Yezidi genocide is a turning point in the history of Iraq and Kurdistan”, declared Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani in his speech. This tragedy has also shocked the universal conscience. “The destruction of Shingal and its surroundings, and the displacement of several hundred thousand inhabitants of Shingal and its region, remain raw wounds,” stressed the President, who regretted that the agreement signed in 2020 between Baghdad and Erbil to normalize the situation in the region and ensure the return of displaced Yezidis to their homes had not yet been implemented. “Serving the people of Shingal and the Yezidi community should be a priority for all of us”. This is still a wish, because 10 years after the tragedy Shingal (Sinjar) is still in ruins, and for lack of infrastructure and security several hundred thousand Yezidis are still living in camps. Tens of thousands have emigrated to Europe, particularly Germany. Of the 6417 Yezidis abducted by ISIS in 2014 the fate of 2596 remains unknown. The men were summarily executed on the spot by the jihadists.
On August 3, a commemorative meeting organized by the Federation of Yezidi Associations, with the support of the Kurdish Institute, was held in Paris, at the City Hall of the 10th arrondissement. Yezidi religious dignitaries from Kurdistan and leading figures from the Kurdish diaspora in several European countries, including Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, took part in the meeting, where witnesses spoke of the Yezidi tragedy and its consequences for the survival of the community. Numerous elected representatives, including the Mayor of the 10th arrondissement and Paris Senator Rémi Féraud, were also present. The Yezidi speakers called on France to recognize the Yezidi genocide, recalling that the German Parliament had, in January 2023, recognized as genocide the atrocities committed by ISIS against the Yezidi community.
On August 4, another commemoration took place in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, attended by several German MPs, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Kurdistan's Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed. Several hundred Yezidis and Kurds of all origins and faiths, as well as Germans, took part in the meeting.
The speakers called on Germany and the European Union to forsee a funding program for the reconstruction of Shingal and other Yezidi settlements destroyed by ISIS. Germany has already taken in almost 200,000 Yezidi refugees.
In August, Kurdistan suffered from drought and heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40-44°C. The water shortage was felt even in the capital, Erbil. The latent water war between Iraq and its two neighbors, who control the flow of the rivers running through the country, fuels constant negotiations and haggling. Turkey, which controls the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their source in northern Kurdistan, is using the weapon of water and its dominant commercial position to obtain security and political concessions from Baghdad. The strategy is paying off, as Iraq has given in to all Turkish demands, banning the activities of the PKK and parties and organizations suspected of being affiliated to it. The Judicial Elections Authority banned the Yezidi Freedom and Democracy Party, the Democratic Struggle Front Party and the Freedom Movement (Tevgera Azadi).
In principle, Turkish military operations in Kurdistan should continue in consultation with Iraq, but Turkey, which until recently invoked a verbal “agreement” with Saddam Hussein's regime on the right of pursuit up to 5 km inside Iraqi territory, is now invoking the “right to self-defence” enshrined in the UN Charter to act as it pleases, occupying the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan to depths of up to 30 km in places. Its aircraft bomb targets as far away as Suleimanieh province, more than 150 km from the Turkish border. On August 23, for example, a Turkish drone strike against a vehicle in the Sayid Sadegh district killed two female journalists and wounded one man. The victims' alleged links with the PKK or affiliated media entities have been denied by officials in Iraq, reports AFP. The journalists worked for the Kurdish media production company CHATR, based in Suleimanieh. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Turkish authorities to “urgently” investigate the killing. The victims have been identified. They are Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Kurdish journalist from Turkey, and Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Kurdish video editor from Iraq. The third journalist, Rebin Bakir, an Iraqi Kurd, was seriously injured.
On August 29, a Turkish drone ventured into Kirkuk airspace, where it was shot down by Iraqi air defense. Turkey protested, and Baghdad hushed up the affair, claiming that the Iraqi army was unaware that it was a Turkish drone! (AFP, August 29). Ankara pays little heed either to Iraq's formal protests or to Washington's occasional appeals to “avoid civilian casualties”.
Eight months after the provincial elections were held, the President of the Republic of Iraq issued a decree confirming the appointment of Kurdish candidate Rebwar Taha as governor. A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, this Kurdish candidate had been chosen at a meeting in Baghdad of the majority of elected members of the Kirkuk Provincial Council. No councillors from the KDP, the Turkmen Front or the Arab Alliance took part in the meeting, the legality of which they dispute. The new governor promised to “work with all components of the mixed population of Kirkuk to improve services, develop economic infrastructure to achieve security and living standards for the people of Kirkuk”.
This is the first time since the crisis following the Kurdistan self-determination referendum in September 2017 and Baghdad's sidelining of the elected, legitimate and popular Kurdish governor, Dr. Najmaldin Karim, that a Kurd has been appointed to the post of governor of this iconic city.
In the rest of Iraq, the news was dominated by the debate over the legalization of marriages for young girls and the “hold-up” of the century, in which a few companies close to the previous government were able to embezzle several billion dollars - between 3 and 7 billion, according to initial estimates.
On August 3, some fifteen female Iraqi MPs announced the formation of a bloc to fight a proposed amendment to the Personal Status Code which, among other regressions, would authorize child marriage. This amendment is defended by Shiite MPs, including women, who justify it in terms of Sharia law and the tradition of the polygamous Prophet Mohammed, who married his last wife, Aisha, when she was barely 9 years old!
It should also be noted that Iraq is delaying the repatriation of Iraqi jihadists and their relatives held in the Al-Hol camp in Rojava. Five years after the defeat of ISIS, there are still some 22,000 Iraqis detained at Al-Hol, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Minister, Ali Abbas, quoted by Rudaw on August 4. Most of them are under the age of 20 and are considered “time bombs” by Baghdad, which only agreed to repatriate 150 families in July.
Throughout August, Iraq was hit by attacks perpetrated by both pro-Iranian militias and ISIS.
On August 5, Iranian-backed militias launched a rocket attack on the Ain al-Assad airbase, which is home to US military personnel, marking a resumption of hostilities after a hiatus of several months. The Joint Operations Command has obtained intelligence on the attackers, and the White House has pledged to respond to any aggression against US personnel “in the manner and place” of its choosing. Meanwhile, Rudaw reported the redeployment of a small number of US soldiers to Kirkuk, after a seven-year absence. Iranian-backed militias have already targeted US troops and diplomatic missions, including in Kurdistan.
On August 18, Iraqi border guards near the Hawraman region killed a local kolbar (cross-border porter) attempting to cross the border between Iran and Iraq. Angry locals protested the violence by setting fire to a border post. A spokesman for the Iraqi border guards told Rudaw that a member of their staff had been injured during the protest. The victim, 26-year-old Sazgar Salah, was the sole provider for his siblings after the death of their parents. In March 2023, Iraq and Iran signed a security agreement that provided for the disarmament of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in Iraqi Kurdistan and the crackdown on Kurdish kolbars as part of their border security measures.
Two members of the Kurdish Asayish security forces were killed in a shootout by ISIS in the Qaradagh district of Suleimanieh province. The incident took place in the Qopi Qaradagh valley, known for its archaeological sites. The area is close to disputed territories, where the terrorist group has reorganized.
Barely a few weeks after the election of its new “reformist” president, who advocates dialogue and appeasement, the Iranian regime has launched a new wave of executions and all-out repression.
On August 6, Kurdish activist Gholamreza Rasaei, 34, was executed in Kermanshah prison, Kurdistan. He was accused of murdering a Revolutionary Guards colonel in November 2022, according to the Iranian justice news agency Mizan Online. He was executed in secret without his family or lawyer being informed, according to Amnesty International. His family was forced to bury his body in a remote area, far from his home.
The death sentence, Amnesty points out, was handed down “after a manifestly unfair trial based on forced confessions obtained under torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence”, For its part, the Norwegian-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that Rasaei himself had told the court that his confession had been obtained under torture, which the judge decided to ignore, as did two expert testimonies exonerating him, including a forensic report.
The execution of this figure of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, of which the Kurdish province of Kermanshah was one of the epicenters, provoked a wave of indignation and condemnation both in Iran and abroad. France “condemns in the strongest possible terms the execution of Gholamreza Rasaei, sentenced to death for his participation in the demonstrations of autumn 2022”, declared the French Foreign Ministry in a press release on August 7, adding: “France reiterates its constant opposition to the death penalty in all places and circumstances, and its commitment to the universal abolition of this unjust and inhuman punishment”.
Several human rights NGOs have also denounced an inhumane and archaic execution used by the Iranian authorities as a tool of political repression. “This execution highlights the Islamic Republic's determination to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to spread fear among the population,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa (AFP, August 7).
Rasaei is the tenth man to be hanged by the Iranian authorities in the wake of the protests following the death of the young Kurdish student Jina Mahsa Amini, according to an AFP count. More than 500 people were killed and nearly 20,000 arrested during the protests, which Tehran described as “riots orchestrated by Western countries”.
On August 7, the Iranian regime hanged 29 people, including 26 in a collective execution in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, near Tehran, and three others in another prison in that city, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).
Other human rights NGOs, such as Human Rights Activists New Agency (HRANA) and the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), confirmed this collective execution, unprecedented since 2009.
The defendants were accused of murder, drug trafficking, theft and other common crimes, the merits of which are still questionable in Iran.
According to Amnesty International, Iran executes more people a year than any other country in the world, with the exception of China.
At a press briefing in Geneva on August 9, a spokeswoman said that “the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk is extremely concerned by reports” of an “alarming number of executions in such a short period of time”.
The High Commission has “verified” that 38 people were executed in Iran in July, “bringing the number of executions to at least 345 this year, including 15 women”, said the spokeswoman.
She recalled that “the imposition of the death penalty for offences not involving intentional homicide is incompatible with international human rights standards”.
The High Commissioner “is also concerned by the lack of due process and fair trial”, added spokeswoman Ms. Throsell, while “in many cases several executions have taken place without the prisoner's family or lawyer being informed” (AFP, August 9).
The UN has repeatedly called on Iran to impose a moratorium on executions with a view to eventually abolishing the death penalty. The Mullahs' regime, which swears by its bloodthirsty version of Sharia law, has hardly been perturbed by these unsuccessful appeals.
This wave of executions, described as “state killings” by the NGO Human Rights Watch (see p. 64), has also sparked major protests in Iranian prisons. In Teheran's notorious Evin prison, on August 6, women gathered in the courtyard to protest against the secret execution of Gholam Reza Rasaei, a leading figure in the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, They also called for the death sentences of two Kurdish activists, Sharifeh Mohammadi and journalist Pakhshan Azizi, to be overturned for “belonging to a banned organization”. The prison administration then gave the order to forcibly disperse the gathering, attacking the women, particularly those at the forefront of the protests, who were violently beaten. Among them was Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi Modi, 52, who was severely punched in the chest and injured. She is said to be suffering from chest pains and respiratory failure (AFP August 9, Libération August 19).
The crackdown on Kurdish cross-border carriers continued, with border guards killing 25-year-old Asad Afranjeh near Marivan in August, bringing to six the number of kolbars killed since July. In Mahabad, police shot dead the father of a young Kurd following an altercation between his son and Basiji militias.
Iranian security forces arrested two Kurds in Piranshahr, eight Kurdish environmental activists in Kermanshah, an activist in Paveh, a religious activist and a woman in Bokan, and three Kurds in Mahabad, including a child. In addition, several activists were sentenced to long prison terms, including eight years for the father of an executed protester and three years and six months for a civilian activist in Senna. Meanwhile, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported the torture of four Kurdish border porters (kolbar) by Iranian border guards, who were then shot dead with pellet guns. Two other kolbars were killed by the Iranian authorities in Urmia and Baneh.
The Gaza conflict, in which Turkey has adopted a pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas stance, seems to favor the normalization process of Ankara's relations with Damascus following its spectacular rapprochement with Cairo. Faced with the common Israeli enemy, Turkish President Erdoğan and his Syrian counterpart made new gestures of openness in August, making the normalization of their relations likely in the coming months. Active mediation by Moscow and Baghdad continues. For the first time, the Syrian president no longer sets prerequisites, such as the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria, for an official resumption of dialogue with Turkey. Recent exchanges between Turkish and Syrian services are multiplying to identify points of discord and ways to address them before a potential meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers.
Another common enemy of the two regimes is the Kurdish Autonomous Administration (AANES), which they aim to dismantle whenever possible. To achieve this, Ankara is counting on Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. elections, while Syria hopes that its Iranian ally will use its influence in Baghdad to expedite the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, which would also imply their exit from Syria.
In the meantime, Kurdish forces continue to fight against ISIS and the regime's forces in the mixed and strategic province of Deir Ez-Zor. They are making gestures toward Arab tribes with uncertain loyalty to ensure, if not their support, at least their neutrality. To this end, they released 82 families of detained jihadists in August, mostly women and children, handed over to tribal leaders as part of a new amnesty.
On August 2, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the international coalition led by the United States, arrested an ISIS cell in al-Karamah, east of Raqqa. The cell, responsible for attacks against security forces and civilian institutions, was neutralized following a raid on its hideout.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch criticized Turkey for hosting and publicly celebrating two Syrian National Army (SNA) faction leaders accused of serious human rights violations, including unlawful killings, torture, and sexual violence. The HRW report notes that the meeting, which included Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli and a convicted mafia boss, highlights Turkey’s failure to address or curb atrocities committed by its backed groups in northern Syria, fostering an environment of impunity and undermining efforts for accountability in the region. Meanwhile, Turkish-backed factions in occupied Afrin recently arrested four Kurdish civilians for ransom, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). In other areas occupied by Turkey, protests have erupted against Turkey’s plan to normalize relations with the Assad regime, a move that protesters fear could jeopardize the security of millions of Syrians living in rebel-held areas. On August 12, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a “large-scale” retaliatory operation against the Syrian regime and its militias in Deir Ezzor, targeting regime forces on the west bank of the Euphrates River. The action follows an August 7 artillery bombardment by regime forces that killed eleven people, including four children, an infant, and two women. The SDF also reported losing two members, and eight others were wounded. In response, the SDF said it carried out raids on three villages used as launching points for attacks on the villages of al-Dahalah and Jadeed Bakara. During these operations, 18 Syrian soldiers and two pro-regime militiamen were killed. Clashes between the SDF and pro-regime forces are frequent in this province bordering Iraq, where there are important oil fields such as Omar and Conoco, controlled by the SDF with the support of the International Coalition.
In addition, the United States has reaffirmed its presence in Syria for the "lasting defeat of ISIS," according to Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder. "The SDF has been a good partner in this fight, a critical partner in this fight, and that continues to be the basis of our relationship and cooperation with the SDF," said Major General Ryder. Recently, the SDF announced the elimination of several terrorists and the arrest of five others.
The demographic changes underway in the Kurdish city of Afrin continue under Turkish occupation. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the Pakistani organization “Flood Relief”, in collaboration with the Turkish Diyanet Foundation, established a new residential complex called “Al-Madinah Village” in the village of Kar Roum in Afrin. The project, facilitated by the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad Brigade militiamen, involved the clearing of forested land and includes 84 housing units, as well as mosques and schools, to accommodate the families of the militiamen of the pro-Turkey Homs faction. On March 25, the Turkish organization “White Hands” unveiled another complex of 80 apartments in the village of Shaderah, in the occupied part of Afrin.
On August 27, a journalist working for several media outlets including Agence France-Presse, Bakir Al-Kassem, who investigated the situation in the territories under Turkish occupation, was arrested in the city of Al-bab near the Turkish border.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the journalist was beaten during his arrest by the military police and the Turkish intelligence service, and his computer and phone were confiscated. Contacted by AFP, the head of the puppet Syrian “interim government” set up by the Turkish occupier to administer this occupied region, Abdurrahman Mustafa, said “he was not aware of this arrest”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on August 28 for the “immediate” release of Bakr Al-Kassem “We are deeply concerned that factions of the Syrian opposition have detained journalist Bakr Al-Kassem without explanation and transferred him to Turkish intelligence services,” CPJ said (Le Figaro, August 28). For RSF, “the harassment of journalists must stop in this country, which is one of the most dangerous in the world for news professionals.”
In Syria, in the rebel province of Idlib, held by the Islamists of the former al-Nasra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, with the support of Turkey, dozens of local journalists gathered in the city of Idlib to denounce the arrest of their colleague according to an AFP correspondent who reports that some of them wore bulletproof vests and brandished placards or portraits of Bakr Al-Kassem with the slogan "journalism is not a crime" (AFP, August 28). Opposition to the Turkish occupation, which is still strong in Kurdish-majority areas such as Afrin, Serê Kaniyê and Girêspî, is now also manifesting itself in the Arab-majority region: On August 27, a truck bomb exploded at a checkpoint in the occupied town of Azaz, held by the Turkish-backed military police, killing 10 people, including five pro-Turkish militiamen. In July, violent anti-Turkish protests had rocked the region (AFP, August 7).
