Friday 25 March 2016

PYD News Briefing: (19 Mar – 25 Mar 2016):

1. Turkish army wounds a Rojava woman at border: Hawar News Agency, 19/03/2016 The Turkish Army shot a Rojava woman, Shehnaz Shêx Dawud, who was working in a field near the border between Rojava and North Kurdistan. Shehnaz is 55-year-old and from Dirbêsiyê. In order to collect some herbs from the field, she and her neighbors today went to an area near the border where the Turkish soldiers attacked them. http://en.hawarnews.com/turkish-army-wounds-a-rojava-woman-at-border/

2. Newroz celebrations throughout Rojava: Hawar News Agency, 21/03/2016 People have rushed to Newroz areas to celebrate the holiday in Dêrik, Girkê Legê, Tirbespiyê, Qami?lo, Amudê, Dirbêsiyê, Serêkaniyê, Til Temir and Hesekê cities of Rojava, West Kurdistan. People in the Cizîr Canton will celebrate Newroz 2016 in six centers with the motto ‘From Free Rojava to Democratic Federalism’, “Leader Apo’s Freedom is the Freedom of Peoples” and “Resistance is honor”. Kurdish people have started making their way to the areas that celebrations will be held in. http://en.hawarnews.com/newroz-celebrations-throughout-rojava/

 

3. The story of Newroz and Kawayê Hesinkar: Hawar News Agency, 21/03/2016
The legend of Kawayê Hesinkar (Kawa the Blacksmith) and Newroz has been told in many ways. We publish here the legend as written by Mark Campbell.
A long time ago in between the two great rivers Euphrates and Tigris there was a land called Mesopotamia. Above a small town and tucked into the side of the Zagros Mountains, there was an enormous stone castle with tall turrets and dark high walls. The castle was cut out of the mountain rock. The castle gates were made from the wood of the cedar tree and carved into the shapes of winged warriors. Deep inside the castle lived a cruel Assyrian king called Dehak. His armies terrorized all the people of the land. All had been well before Dehak”s rule in Mesopotamia.
http://en.hawarnews.com/the-story-of-newroz-and-kawaye-hesinkar/

4. Rojava Coordination condemns ISIS attacks in Brussels: Hawar News Agency, 23/03/2016
Rojava Coordination of Cantons of Cezîre, Kobanî and Efrîn condemned ISIS’s attack in Brussels capital of Belgium.
The coordination released a written statement regarding the attack and offered Rojava people’s condolences to people of Belgium.
http://en.hawarnews.com/rojava-coordination-condemns-isis-attacks-in-brussels/

5. Moscow Insists on Kurdish Involvement in Syria Settlement. Sputnik News, 24/03/2016
Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kurds must be represented not only at the current talks on Syrian reconciliation in Geneva, but also at all other international-format negotiations on Syrian settlement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Kurds must be represented not only at the current talks on Syrian reconciliation in Geneva, but also at all other international-format negotiations on Syrian settlement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160324/1036902827/kurds-syria-settlement.html#ixzz43pV3ZYjK

6. Turkey must stop targeting Syrian Kurds, shift focus to the war on ISIS: UK Foreign Affairs: Committee.Aran News, 25/03/2016
The United Kingdom must press Turkey to refrain from taking any further action against Kurdish YPG forces in Syria, and play a constructive role in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), said the House of Commons Foreign Affairs committee in a report on Thursday.
“President Erdo?an’s increasingly shameful domestic priorities and repressive policies have driven the PYD (Syria’s main Kurdish party/grouping) and its associated YPG militia into the arms of the Syrian regime and Russia,” the report said.
“Since Syrian Kurdish forces have proved effective allies in the fight against ISIL [ISIS], this is working directly against shared international priorities,” the report added.
http://aranews.net/2016/03/turkey-must-stop-targeting-syrian-kurds-shift-focus-war-isis-uk-foreign-affairs-committee/

7. Moscow in Constant Contact With Syrian Kurds, Coordinating Common Interests. Comment, Opinion and Analysis: Sputnik News, 25/03/2016
Moscow maintains contacts with Syrian Kurds and helps them coordinate their positions regarding the national settlement, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia is in constant contact with different factions of Syrian Kurds, coordinating their approaches to conflict settlement in the country, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Friday.
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160325/1036967788/russia-syria-kurds.html#ixzz43vG0V3aO

8. Will Syrian Kurd self-rule trigger Turkish action? Al Monitor, 24/03/2016
The recent declaration of a federal structure in northern Syria by the local Kurdish administration and its Arab and Assyrian allies is likely to put the Syrian Kurds further at odds with neighboring Turkey, as it will pose serious challenges to Ankara amid renewed conflict with its own Kurds.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/syria-kurds-federalism-turkey-reaction.html

9. Isis is committing genocide. It is indefensible for Britain not to say so.
The Guardian, 21/03/2016
Yazidis and others have endured unspeakable horrors. We better our chances of helping them by recognising what they have faced.
The word genocide should never be invoked too readily. For most the term will be forever associated with the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps and the deliberate effort to exterminate Jews. The horrors were so unspeakable that the language to describe that carefully orchestrated attempt at annihilation has to remain undiluted.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/21/isis-genocide-britain-yazidis

10. Power-Sharing in Syria.
The Huffington Post, 20/03/2016
The root cause of Syria’s conflict is the concentration of power by a minority-led Alawite administration. Decentralization can contribute to peace and political transition.
Syria’s future governance should consider constitutional arrangements, which enshrine power-sharing. There is no standard power-sharing formula. It differs from case to case. As a rule, however, constitutional power-sharing serves as the basis for the rule of law. It distributes governance responsibilities, defining the relationship of individuals and groups to one another and the state.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-l-phillips/power-sharing-in-syria_b_9513278.html

11. TERRA INCOGNITA: America’s hypocritical failure to support Kurdish rights.
The Jerusalem Post, 20/03/2016
Taj Kordsh, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces which is allied to the PYD, told Al-Jazeera that the Kurds were angered they had been excluded from Syrian peace talks in Geneva.
“Federalism should be the future not only for northern Syria or for the Kurdish regions but for Syria in general because under federalism democracy and equality will be guaranteed,” Idris Nassan, a Syrian Kurdish official from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) told reporters last week.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/TERRA-INCOGNITA-Americas-hypocritical-failure-to-support-Kurdish-rights-448596

12. The Kurds’ Push for Self-Rule in Syria.
The New York Times, 21/03/2016
One important political outcome of the Syrian war could be a decision by Syrian Kurds to establish a semiautonomous region in the northern part of the country. The move entails risks and has been condemned by Turkey and even some Kurds, but could offer a model for decentralized governance in a federated Syria.
The Kurds have taken advantage of the five-year war to consolidate control over three noncontiguous areas in northern Syria. Last week, Kurdish parties, including the Democratic Union Party, or P.Y.D., announced they were putting together a plan to unite areas controlled by Kurdish forces in a semiautonomous entity within a federal system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/opinion/the-kurds-push-for-self-rule-in-syria.html?_r=1

13. How the Kurds Will Save Syria.
Alter Net, 24/03/2016
As the Russian aircraft began their partial withdrawal from Syria, the Syrian Kurds declared their ambitions for what they call Rojava. Given the deeply fragmented nature of Syria during this five-year war, the Syrian Kurds suggested that the country adopt federalism as its organizational principle. Syria’s partition was off the table, as was the re-creation of a strong central government. Instead, the Syrian Kurds proposed that a unity of relatively autonomous states within Syria would be the model. The Kurds, it was said, have shown in practice what might be part of the post-conflict agreement.
http://www.alternet.org/world/how-kurds-will-save-syria

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Guardian:  Turkish journalists face secret trial for revealing arms deliveries to Syria