Category: Report

Four family members killed in Turkish bombardment against northeast Syria village

Four members of the same family were killed during a Turkish bombardment near the northern Syrian town of Ain Issa this week, the Iraqi Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported late on Thursday. Early on Wednesday, Turkish forces bombed a Christian house in Safawiyah village near Ain Issa. The attack left Zidan Khalaf al-Issa and his three children […]

Al Monitor reveals crimes of Turkish mercenaries against the women of Afrin

Al-Monitor reports on women from Afrin, imprisoned by Turkish mercenaries, and who have witnessed torture, rape and harassment every day.

Iraq’s Kurdish region is not a model for free speech

The continuing crackdown on press freedom in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is threatening its democratic future.

KDPI militia admits violating Children’s Rights by flaunting its child soldiers publicly

IKHRW calls on the international community to break the silence, and report on violations of human rights and child recruitment in Kurdistan. Institutes can contact IKHRW for extensive reports, equipped with testimonies, proof and images that are not fit to show online.

Kurdish children continue to die in the fruitless war between the PKK and Turkey / This episode: Abdullah Ismaili

Apparently, the sad story of Kurdish children in the Middle East is not over yet… Underdevelopment, Kolberi [cross-border smuggling], civil wars, and four decades of fruitless war between Turkey and the PKK, have become the leading causes of death for Kurdish children. Thousands of Kurdish children have been recruited, abducted, or deceived by the PKK […]

If Iraqi Kurdistan leaders are serious about transparency, publish tax returns

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani likes to promise transparency. In a December 2019 speech marking his first hundred days in office, he declared, “Kurdistan is stronger, more transparent and more secure today than it was when I spoke to you at my inauguration. Dear citizens, first of all, a government that serves the people […]

The Turkish justice system is overwhelmed with thousands in prison for such dubious crimes as texting about weddings.

Amberin Zaman Justice remains elusive for Metin Kilicaslan, a wedding singer from the mainly Kurdish province of Siirt in southeast Turkey who’s been languishing in a Turkish prison since 2015 on charges of membership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He tracks his days spent in jail by his daughter’s birthdays. She was newly […]

Stockholm’s failure to recognize SDF links to YPG, PKK

BY KLAUS JURGENS What makes highly experienced politicians who travel and know the world think terrorists are freedom fighters? How come after decades in the business of politics members of banned terrorist gangs and their offshoots continuously manage to fool them? What happened to political due diligence? Or could it be that certain holders of public […]

Iraq: New UN report shines light on ‘deeply worrying’ pattern of restrictions in Kurdistan

Over the past year, freedom of expression in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has been increasingly curtailed, according to a UN report issued on Wednesday. Criticizing the authorities publicly has led to intimidation, movement restrictions and arbitrary arrests, while some citizens there have been charged with defamation and others prosecuted under national security laws. From […]

PKK Abducts Six Civilians, Forces Families to Speak Against Their Children

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has abducted six civilians in the Qandil area of Kurdistan Region and now forces their families to speak against the abductees. PKK-affiliated media outlets have published statements from several people who commend the PKK for abducting their children on alleged spy charges. In the statements, a woman, said to be […]