URGENT APPEAL to the Norwegian Government to stop the deportation of Kurdish activist Abdulkarim Hossain to Syria

According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, the Human Rights Organization in Syria – MAF  and other organisations report that the Norwegian authorities have arrested the Kurdish citizen, Abdulkarim Hossain born 1959, from Aleppo, and will send him back to Syria tomorrow, 19th August 2010 at 4pm.

The Kurdish activist, who also is active in SOS Racism [ http://sos-rasisme.no/sentralt/view/13940], was given his final refusal of permission to remain in Norway, despite the extremely high risk that he will be arrested and tortured on return to Syria. He applied in Norway for asylum in 2006. Abdulkarim Hossain will be in danger of losing his life in Syria. The Syrian authorities know that he is a human rights activist and Vice Chairperson of the Association of Syrian Kurds in Norway. Read more

Turkey detains freelance journalist for alleged ties to Kurdish rebels

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) — Turkish authorities have detained American activist and freelance journalist Jake Hess in the southeastern, predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

At a court appearance Sunday, a prosecutor charged Hess with “taking orders from a terrorist organization” and called for his immediate deportation from Turkey, witnesses said.

Turkish officialdom regularly refers to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as a terrorist organization.

U.S. diplomats say Hess rejected their offer of assistance after he was taken into custody. Read more

Mustafa Abdo is the sixth conscripted Kurdish soldiers killed during this year

According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD and Media Institute of West Kurdistan Society, the family of Kurdish conscript Mustafa Abdo, born in 1982,  from Marja village in the Deyrick area, received the body of their son on Thursday, 12 August 2010. He was doing his military service in the Syrian army in a military unit stationed in the province of Homs.

Read more

Turkey Accused of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK

By Daniel Steinvorth and Yassin Musharbash.

German experts have confirmed the authenticity of photographs that purport to show PKK fighters killed by chemical weapons. The evidence puts increasing pressure on the Turkish government, which has long been suspected of using such weapons against Kurdish rebels. German politicians are demanding an investigation.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009. Read more

Turkey: Date of next hearing set in Ferhat Tunç’s case

The date for the next hearing in the case against musician and Freemuse Award winner Ferhat Tunç has been set to 30 September 2010//

also Court sentences band members to 10 months imprisonment for Kurdish song

The Diyarbakir Criminal Court oversaw the first hearing on 28 July and has announced that it will proceed the case against Ferhat Tunç on 30 September.

In the latest of a number of cases against the musician, he will be tried for his public remarks made at a concert during a Nature, Culture and Arts Festival held in the eastern city of Siirt on 15 August 2009. Read more

The Right of Nations to Determine Their Own Future and the Kurds

The Kurdish or Kurdistan question is the most important issue that Turkey faces today. What shapes Turkey’s foreign, domestic and economic policies is the Kurdish question. President Abdullah Gul in the summer of 2009 emphasized that the Kurdish question is Turkey’s most pressing question and that before properly focusing on other issues, a solution to the Kurdish question needs to be developed.

It is evident that today the ruling AK Party is looking at the Kurdish question more closely, and more seriously than previous governments. It is attempting to develop a new policy under the rubric of Kurdish opening or democratic opening. The government is making an effort to solve the Kurdish question. Read more

Turkish Embassy rejects Archbishop Tutu’s letter calling for a negotiated settlment of the Kurdish question

Cape Town and the Chair of ‘The Elders’ (a group of former world leaders which aims to tackle some of the world’s most intractable problems) called on the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the political head of Turkey, to use his office and his influence to bring a lasting end to the conflict in Turkey with regards to the Kurdish question.

The Archbishop complimented Mr. Erdogan and his government for the support given to the people of Palestine, saying “We regard your pronouncements as the right ones and a declaration that matters of conflicts between nations can be settled only through peaceful negotiated talks amongst apposing groups.” Read more

Syria: ‘Your son is not here’: Disappearances from Syria’s Saydnaya Military Prison: Campaign digest

At least 52 prisoners have been reported missing since 5 July 2008, when disturbances in Saydnaya Military Prison led to the deaths of at least 17 prisoners and five military police. The families of the missing men have spent two long years trying to find out what happened to their relatives. Amnesty International has established that 18 of the prisoners are victims of enforced disappearance, as defined by international law, and is stepping up its campaign to uncover the truth about all of Saydnaya’s missing prisoners.

“A father can never forget his son; I live on the hope of seeing him”
The father of a prisoner missing since July 2008

Your son is not here – Amnesty International report July 2010

Where is my brother Tahsein Mamo?

Aiysha Mamo has asked International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS for assistance to discover the circumstances and whereabouts of her brother Tahsein Mamo who has disappeared in the Syrian prison system. Aiysha who lives in Germany said, ‘I would do anything to find my brother. I think about him every day, I miss him so much’.

Tahsein’s cousin, Yaseen Mamo has also expressed his deep concern about what may have happened, and spoke of how their lives had been affected by his disappearance.

Tahsein, born 1980 in Afrin is married with one son. He lives in Aleppo.  He was arrested with four other people at the end of January 2007 during a raid by a patrol of military security officers, and they were taken to the branch of military security in Aleppo, and then on to the Investigation Branch of the military security in Damascus. Read more

Mohammed Saadoun – hearing schedules for 24 August 2010

The individual military judge in Qamishli has set a date for the trial of Mohammed Saadoun, member of the Political Committee of the Kurdish Azadi Party in Syria. The trial will take place on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 in Qamishli, case number 4928/2010. Read more

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