Kurdish parliament condemns violence and orders reforms

Erbil, Feb. 24 (AKnews) – In an extraordinary session to discuss the recent demonstrations and unrest in Sulaimaniyah city that turned into violent clashes leaving many casualties, the parliament of Kurdistan Region has condemned the use of violent force against the protesters as well as attacks on partisan or government offices. After long hours of discussion between the parliamentary factions on Wednesday evening which lasted until 1 am Thursday, the parliament of Kurdistan Region came up with a 17 points conclusion. It called for grassroots reforms and improved living conditions for the people, social justice, and a broadening of freedoms. The Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister, the Peshmarga Minister and the Interior Minister will be summoned to attend parliament for interrogation over the incidents in Sulaimaniyah. During the discussion, all MPs agreed that the use of force against demonstrators or party and government buildings were to be condemned. In the Sulaimaniyah protests which lasted 5 days, at least 3 people were killed and more than 100 protesters were injured when the peaceful rally turned violent with demonstrators pelting the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarters in the city with stones. The KDP headquarters security personnel in turn fired at the demonstrators in "self-defense". There were also reports that some of the protesters were armed and forced their way to the headquarters. Demonstrators were protesting against corruption, poor living conditions, unemployment and social injustice. The agreed conclusion also states that all the detained protesters who participated in the demonstrations be released immediately except for those who committed "crimes" and who should be handed over to the court. And from now on, protesters can not be, by any means, arrested for taking part in demonstrations without a court order. Some 70 people were arrested in the Sulaimaniyah protests. The Police said earlier that they had released them. The government would also compensate financially and morally the demonstrators, parties, offices and forces hurt by the violent clashes in the demonstrations. The conclusion also provides for the appointment of a member of the Appellate Court to head the investigation committee formed to look into the causes of the violent clashes and also to disclose the findings to the public. Also the security and police forces accused of not carrying out their duties professionally during the protests are to be subject to accountability. Some of the local newspapers and media outlets close to the KDP had earlier accused Iran of standing behind the unrest in Sulaimaniyah, and a leader in the party did not rule out the investigation looking into Iran's role in the demonstrations. A local weekly newspaper in Kurdistan, Rwber, which claims independence wrote in its Feb. 22 issue that Iran's Quds army was behind the unrest in Sulaimaniyah city "in revenge" for the January stoning of Iran's consulate in Erbil by demonstrators in protest against the execution of Kurdish activists in Iran. On January 29, angry demonstrators in Erbil city pelted the Iranian consulate over the execution of Kurdish activists in Iran. According to figures, in 2011 alone, Iran has executed more than 20 Kurdish activists, and some 16 others are currently awaiting execution by hanging. The Peyamner news outlet, close to the KDP, reported that the leader of the Gorran, Nawshirwan Mustafa, had meetings with Iranian officials near the, suggesting an Iranian hand behind the protesters' recent attack on the KDP headquarters. Moreover, the parliament emphasized again the need for permission from the authorities before protesters can stage a demonstration. The current demonstrations law requires prior permission from the authorities for any demonstration. The five day demonstrations in Sulaimaniyah were not permitted by the authorities, except for the first day where one teenager was killed and more than 57 were injured. In the following days, enraged demonstrators did not care about obtaining permits. The law had already sparked a row in December last year when parliament passed it, and the opposition forces still call for reforms to it. They want to change the obtaining of permission for demonstrations to simply "informing" the authorities of planned demos instead. The authorities said the law was to ensure national security and to give the authorities the time to assign police and security forces to provide security for the demonstrations. The opposition says the law restricts the right of the freedom to demonstrate because it gives the authorities the power to deny permission to public protests. Another point agreed on by parliament was not mobilizing troops from one city to another to contain the demonstrations except in the case of a national security threat from an external party. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s Ministry of Peshmarga had sent Zeravani forces, Kurdish defense forces, to the suburbs of Sulaimaniyah city from Erbil in a move to control the demos in case they developed into a threat on government offices. The parliament also stressed on freedom of the press by condemning the attacks on a private TV station, Nalia Radio and TV, NRT, and the Gorran TV station, with urging for the immediate accountability of the assailants. NRT started airing on Feb. 17 but after only 3 days was stormed by some 50 gunmen early at dawn who destroyed the equipment in the premises with bullets before setting everything on fire. The General Manager of the TV channel Twana Othman says they are receiving ongoing threats from anonymous sources of repeated attacks. The NRT said on Feb. 22 that it planned to resume broadcasting but was threatened with repeated attacks, therefore suspended indefinitely their transmissions. Raber Younis Aziz (AKnews) Thursday, February 24th 2011 10:54 AM

Sulaimaniyah: Street protests continue for fourth day

Sulaimaniyah, Feb. 20 (AKnews) – Demonstrations in Sulaimaniyah city continued for the fourth day on Sunday after thousands of protesters took to the streets despite efforts to defuse tensions.   In the protests on Sunday over alleged corruption and injustice in the region, a rally estimated at thousands of people flooded the streets of Sulaimaniyah paralyzing normal life in the city. Security forces were widely seen in the streets trying to prevent the demonstration from developing into a violent one.   AKnews reporter Dilshad Saifaddin reported from the scene of the demonstrations that the rally was split into two groups, one group heading towards the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarters in the city where a teenager was killed by guards on Thursday after the demonstrators pelted it with stones. While the other group held onto the Sara Square in the center of the city.   Security forces reportedly fired into the air to disperse those demonstrators trying to access the KDP headquarters. The protestors, following the Thursday clashes between the demonstrators and the KDP security personnel, have tried repeatedly to access the KDP headquarters.   Most of the shops and markets have been closed, and there were reports that a group of demonstrators attacked journalists covering the protests, and broke their equipment. The headquarters of the newly established Kurdish TV channel Nalia were torched on Sunday morning just three days after its launch. The channel's management has blamed government forces for the pre-dawn attack. The TV channel reported during its 08:30 news bulletin on Sunday that it had been threatened over the phone to stop broadcasting.   The demo has also prompted the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate (KJS) to postpone indefinitely a conference set to take place on Feb. 22 through 24.   "Today, it was decided by the KJS board that the conference be postponed because the situation in this area is instable, and once the situation goes back to normal, the conference will be held," KJS secretary Hamid Mohammed told AKnews.   There were calls from several parties to help cool down the anger of the demonstrators to prevent further development of the situation.   Faruq Rafiq, a prominent intellectual who was leading the protest following the Thursday clashes, called on the protesters to end the demonstrations and go home. He also urged the crowd not to attack the KDP headquarters again.   Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)'s deputy Kosrat Rasul Ali said there will be a meeting between the KDP, PUK, and other opposition groups as soon as possible to find ways to solve the problems through dialogue.   "I urge you to end this situation from a feeling of national responsibility" he said.   In a move to defuse the tensions, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s Minster of Peshmarga Sheikh Jaafar said in a press conference in Sulaimaniyah city that a reserve force that had been stationed near Sulaimaniyah city for emergency has started to pull back after protesters railed against the mobilization of the forces. The pullback of the force was part of 9-point communiqué handed on Saturday to the authorities by the protesters.   The force had been sent by the ministry from Erbil to Sulaimaniyah city in case the violent clashes in Sulaimaniyah on Thursday developed into a vandalous attack on government offices.   "The security forces have been actively attempting to control the situation in the city, therefore I have ordered the force to pull back as of today."   Also, Sulaimaniyah police said on Sunday that all the arrested protestors were released today.   On Saturday, 14 people were wounded in clashes between police forces and the demonstrators and some 15 others were arrested by the security forces.   Dilshad Saifaddin, Ardalan Mohammed, and Omar Sadiq contributed to this story, Written by Raber Y. Aziz Ka/AKnews   Sunday, February 20th 2011 5:12 PM

Thursday demo gives clerics chance to call for “justice” after “calm”

Erbil, Feb. 19 (AKnews) – Preachers in their Friday sermons urged the government to enforce justice and equality following demonstrations in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's second largest city, which left one killed and dozens injured.   On Thursday, dozens of people took to the streets to show solidarity with the Tunisian and Egyptian peoples but the peaceful demo turned into a violent clash with the security personnel of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarter in the city when the protesters showered it with stones.   There were also reports that some of the protesters were armed and fired at the headquarters. Two of the building's guards were reportedly injured by the gunfire.   The protesters accused the government and the two ruling parties of corruption. Immediately after the clashes, the ruling parties said there was a hand behind what they termed "riots" in Sulaimaniyah, implicating the opposition group - Gorran.   Following the Sulaimaniyah clashes, the headquarters of Gorran in Erbil and the Soran district were set on fire by supporters of the KDP.   Gorran issued a statement on January 29 which called for the reformation of the government prompting security forces go on alert for any attack on government buildings. Observers say the statement has had great impact on destabilizing the region.   The preachers stressed in their Friday sermons that the people of Kurdistan have been able only after long years of suffering atrocities to establish the current government and assure security in the region, and therefore, all such acts that would annul the achievements and destabilizes the region should be avoided.   Mullah Mazhar, Imam of Qadir Bla mosque in Erbil, likened the situation, which he believed would destabilize the region, to a folk story where a man standing on the branch of a tree cuts the branch, falls and breaks his own back.   The preacher called on the people of Kurdistan to maintain order.   Mullah Idris, the Imam of the Rahma Mosque in Erbil, said the Kurdish region had many enemies and "we should not do what would impose a threat on the achievements."   But he also stressed that calm should be accompanied by "justice". "The Kurdistan Regional Government should take serious steps to fight oppression, enforce justice and provide services to the public."   On Friday the deputy leader of the KDP Nechirvan Barzani appeared in a press conference trying to calm down the situation saying they will not accuse any political actor of attacking the KDP headquarters.   He also voiced resentment for the attacks on the headquarters of Gorran and called them "evil" acts that would mar the reputation of the region. Mr Barzani also criticized the police and security forces of Sulaimaniyah for not upholding their duties. Reported by Saiwan Ali Ry/Ka/AKnews Saturday, February 19th 2011 1:06 PM

Turkey: PKK to take decisive stance in March

Erbil, Feb. 19 (AKnews) –Kurdish armed group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) says it will discuss and assume a decisive stance late in March as to whether to extend the current ceasefire or resume its military activities if the Turkish state continues to show no sign of wanting to peacefully resolve the country's Kurdish issue. The outlawed PKK which has been locked in a combat with the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed some 45,000 lives, most of them Kurds, announced a ceasefire last year as a show of good will towards a peaceful solution to Turkey's Kurdish issue. Although the PKK have declared unilateral amnesty seven times over the past 17 years, Turkey has never officially recognized them. The PKK's latest ceasefire announced on November 1, 2010 has been extended three times. "The leadership is obliged to discuss the inactive attitude of the PKK in late March, because we have found out that the Turkish state is preparing for a military attack on the bases and headquarters of the PKK," said Roj Welat, media official for the PKK's People's Confederation of Kurdistan (KCK). The KCK is generally known as the urban wing of the PKK. "Everybody knows that the KCK has extended its ceasefire three times, but this has not prompted any positive reactions from the Turkish state" Mr. Welat said, "in fact, the oppression and detention of Kurdish activists has worsened." The Kurdish issue in Turkey comes down primarily to the Kurds not being recognized in the Turkish constitution as a nation. On September 12, Turkey voted on a package of constitutional reforms, but those reforms did not contain any reference to the identity of the Kurds and subsequently was boycotted by the majority of the ethnic group. The reforms were approved by a 58 percent victory. The Kurds constitute around 20% of Turkey's population of 71 million. The KCK official accused the Turkish state of deceiving the Kurds under the cover of initiative, the "Democratic Opening" which was declared by Prime Minister Recep Teyip Erdogan to show intentions of solving the Kurdish issue. Mr. Welat believes that Turkey can no longer "deceive" Kurdish politicians with "new stories" under the name of democratic opening in the country, "because the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is practicing an occupier-occupation policy in Kurdish cities." The ruling AKP is trying to cover up "inhumane" crimes against the Kurds in the Kurdish cities of Turkey by the Turkish state, he said. "But the mass graves are evidence of those crimes." On Feb. 9, some 20 bodies were recovered in two mass graves discovered in the predominantly Kurdish city of Bitlis in southeast Turkey, believed to be victims of the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK. At the height of the conflict in the 1990s, thousands of people disappeared and their families' struggle to find out what happened to their loved ones has always been met with silence. The chiefs of staff of the Turkish army said the remains belonged to the outlawed PKK fighters who were killed in the 1999 clashes. Arsene Sonmazler, the head of the Free Thought and Educational Rights Assembly, believes that there are about 100 mass graves in the city and hundreds of them in Kurdish areas. Reported by Karzan Karim, edited by Raber Y. Aziz Ry/Ka/AKnews Saturday, February 19th 2011 11:09 AM

Raber Y. Aziz: Newsagents boycott newspaper for 'blasphemy'

Raber Y. Aziz: Newsagents boycott newspaper for 'blasphemy': "Sulaimaniyah, Feb. 10 (AKnews) – A boycott against a Kurdish newspaper in Erbil imposed by newsagents saying it contains “bla..."