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Iran
- The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) confirmed two of its Peshmerga, Hadi Shexi and Ayob Sultani, were killed in clashes with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near Mehabad and Piranshahr. The KDPI has deployed its Peshmerga to cities and villages in Iranian Kurdistan on multiple occasions since it resumed armed resistance and “civil society struggle” against the Iranian regime in March 2016.
- The Iranian regime continued its ongoing campaign against Kurdish political rights last week, with an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mehabad sentencing a Kurdish activist named Saed Husseini to 40 years in prison for “rebellion.” At the same time, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported Sanandaj’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurdish environmental activist named Khabat Mafakhery to four years in prison for “membership in the Kurdish Free Life Party.” Moreover, the Iranian regime charged two Kurdish labor activists, Osman Ismaeli and Mahmud Salihi, with “propaganda against the state” for organizing activities on International Workers’ Day. Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) then began investigating Kawa Hakimi, the initiator of a petition calling for the end of proceedings against Ismaeli and Salihi that was signed by at least 500 workers and activists. Lastly, Iranian security forces arrested a Kurdish man named Logman Nickzad in Marivan.
- On Wednesday, Iranian border guards killed a Kurdish border porter (Kolbar) named Qubad Rahmani near Kermanshah’s Sarpol Zahao and wounded another named Mahmud Rahmani near Baneh. At the same time, Iranian border guards assaulted several detained Kolbars who confessed to transporting cargo near Nowsud and Hawraman.
Iraq
- Turkey continued its ongoing military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, which have killed dozens of civilians, displaced thousands, and caused numerous school closures, by striking several locations in the region’s northern areas, including Avashin, Batifa, and Kani Masi. Turkish forces also engaged in intense combat with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants near Avashin. Concurrently, recently released photos and videos of Turkish personnel cutting down thousands of trees in Iraqi Kurdistan aroused public anger and were denounced by Kurdish lawmakers. Further reporting from Kurdish media sources claimed Turkey was taking approximately 450 tons of trees per day from Iraqi Kurdistan and selling them in Turkish markets. Likewise, Turkey intends to establish a new road connecting its Kurdish province of Şırnak with Duhok Governorate’s Amedi District.
- Kirkuk’s security forces found several 122mm rockets prepped for launch between Kirkuk Governorate’s Hasar and Darman villages. ISIS (Da’esh) and Iranian-backed militias remain the likely suspects regarding the attempted attack, as both have carried out an increasing number of attacks on Kurds and Peshmerga positions in Iraq’s “Disputed Territories,” which have been controlled by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias since October 16, 2017.
- The Kurdish-owned oil company Kar plans to resume operations at Kirkuk Governorate’s Havana and Bai Hassan oil fields. Kar’s operations were previously hindered when Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias seized Kirkuk Governorate in October 2017, and since then, it has been limited to transporting a portion of the governorate’s oil to Turkey in collaboration with the Russian company Rosneft. On another note, a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation arrived in Baghdad to hold talks with several officials from the Government of Iraq (GOI), including Minister of Finance Ali Allawi, regarding the implementation of the country’s recently passed 2021 budget law.
- Da’esh terrorists executed a kidnapped Kurdish police officer named Jalal Baban near Qara Tapa last week. Baban and his cousin were abducted nearly 20 months ago, though the cousin was later released after a ransom was paid.
Syria
- The Afrin Activists Network (AAN) released a monthly report detailing human rights abuses perpetrated by Turkey and its Islamist proxies in and around Afrin during May. Among other things, the report cited the deaths of several local Kurdish residents, including an elderly Kurdish woman tortured to death by Turkish-backed Islamists and the suspicious death of a Kurdish child. The report also elaborated on the construction of settlements for non-Kurds funded by Turkey, Qatar, and Kuwait. Afrin’s Kurdish population has dropped from 96 to 25 percent since the 2018 Turkish invasion.
- A motorcycle explosion killed one civilian and injured three more in eastern al Hasakah city on Monday. Suspected Da’esh militants also assassinated a man in Raqqa Governorate’s Kasrat al Faraj on Sunday. That said, Kurdish-led local security forces (Asayesh), backed by the US-led coalition, arrested five militants in Deir Ez Zor Governorate.
- Turkish proxies clashed with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-affiliated Tal Tamer Military Council (TMC) in the Christian town’s suburbs. Turkish proxies also bombarded eastern Manbij, which has been the scene of ongoing tensions between the SDF and Turkey since its 2016 liberation from Da’esh, on Monday. Turkey continues to support Sunni extremists as a means of undermining the authority structures established by Kurds in northeastern Syria.
- Turkey’s ongoing interdiction of northeastern Syria’s water supplies from the Euphrates River has damaged farmlands and resulted in shortages of drinking water and electricity that have affected millions. Local Kurds describe Turkey’s actions as a “blockade” on the region.
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported an Iranian cultural center in al Mayadin city is now offering a free Persian language course for children and a prize of one million Syrian pounds to anyone passing the course’s Persian language test with a grade of excellent. Iran has also relocated hundreds of Iraqi and Afghan Shiite militants and their families to the town since the defeat of Da’esh and has accelerated efforts to bolster its influence throughout Syria during the Syrian Civil War.
Turkey
- Exiled Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker released a video detailing the Turkish government’s use of a company named Sadat to transfer weapons and drones to al Qaeda affiliates in Syria last week. Senior lawmakers of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) responded to Peker’s latest revelations by officially requesting the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the company, which was founded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s former chief military advisor Adnan Tanriverdi.
- The 25th Heavy Penal Court of Ankara sentenced jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas to two and a half years in prison for “insulting” a prosecutor named Yüksel Kocaman on Friday. Kocaman, who has personal ties to President Erdogan, filed a defamation case against Demirtas for remarks the latter made during his defense. Meanwhile, the Turkish government extended a ban initially implemented in 2016 on public activities for another two weeks, and Turkish police in Van arrested six members of the Kurdish solidarity association MEBYA-DER that supports the families of those killed in Turkey’s ongoing conflict with the Kurds.
- The Turkish military launched an operation targeting alleged PKK militants in Bitlis Province’s Hizan town. The Turkish military typically carries out several operations in the nation’s Kurdish region per year and often implements curfews and restrictions to facilitate them.
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To mark gay pride, the world’s biggest companies are ‘bravely’ flying the rainbow flag. Just not in places like Saudi Arabia…
June 2, 2021 | 8:22 am Written by:They/Them THE SPECTATOR
It’s June and the biggest corporations on the planet want you to know that they are celebrating gay Pride — unless you live somewhere like Saudi Arabia in which case they couldn’t care less. On their main Twitter page, Procter & Gamble have put a Pride flag in their banner and in their pinned Tweet they proudly proclaim: ‘We strive to be a champion of #LGBTQVisibility year-round, using our voice to drive acceptance, inclusion and a love for humanity.’
I guess there are no gay people in Saudi Arabia to champion, which must be why P&G’s Saudi Twitter handle has not a single rainbow flag in sight and a pinned tweet simply wishing people a blessed Ramadan.
But that is the beauty of corporate wokewashing.
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Happy corporate wokewash month!
To mark gay pride, the world’s biggest companies are ‘bravely’ flying the rainbow flag. Just not in places like Saudi Arabia…
June 2, 2021 | 8:22 am – pride wokewashing corporate -Written by: They/Them THE SPECTATOR
It’s June and the biggest corporations on the planet want you to know that they are celebrating gay Pride — unless you live somewhere like Saudi Arabia in which case they couldn’t care less. On their main Twitter page, Procter & Gamble have put a Pride flag in their banner and in their pinned Tweet they proudly proclaim: ‘We strive to be a champion of #LGBTQVisibility year-round, using our voice to drive acceptance, inclusion and a love for humanity.’
I guess there are no gay people in Saudi Arabia to champion, which must be why P&G’s Saudi Twitter handle has not a single rainbow flag in sight and a pinned tweet simply wishing people a blessed Ramadan.
But that is the beauty of corporate wokewashing. It allows companies like YouTube to continue to make billions of dollars from users in progressive western democracies while also respecting cultural sensitivities in places like Saudi where gays can expect to be whipped, chemically castrated and killed.
Over the years Pride has become the biggest wokewashing event on the planet. In many ways this is a testament to the success of the LGBT+ rights movement. It is now so uncontroversial to be queer that the worst corporations on the planet are summoning their courage and jumping on the bandwagon with barely a thought for their bottom line. So #BRAVE!
I’m sure the LGBT+ community are #grateful that when companies like Mercedes-Benz aren’t gassing us all to death by cheating on emissions tests, they’re changing their Twitter banner to the rainbow flag and totally not minding bum sex at all. Unless, that is, you’re in the Middle East in which case they will be gassing you to death in the most heterosexual way possible.
BMW did something similar:
Harvey Milk would be proud. Back in the 70s when gays were persecuted across the western world, companies like Unilever stayed silent. But in 2021, now that the majority of their western customer base accept and even celebrate Pride, the company is bravely celebrating right along with them. Unless of course, you’re in Saudi Arabia, where the company might just wait another 50 years.
The list goes on. On their Twitter handle Microsoft tweeted out a #PRIDE gif with a rainbow Windows logo. But on their @microsoftgulf handle, it’s less windows and more closets. There’s not a single mention of Pride month. Corporations these days really are on the right side of history.
Thank God for the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s though who have not only changed their logo to the rainbow flag but have gone so far as to create an entire website where they break down their commitment to wokeness in numbers. They tell us that ‘5,000 colleagues attended 43 Pride events across the UK last year’ and that ‘172,000 colleagues were invited to wear an “Embrace the Difference” badge to demonstrate their support for diversity and inclusion.’ Maybe Sainsbury’s could ask their biggest shareholder Qatar how many people are currently in prison there for the crime of being gay. That might be a fun stat for their diversity and inclusion page!
Wokeyleaks is a regular column by an anonymous whistle-blower operating deep within the heart of the Social Justice Movement. To protect their identity, they will go under the code-name ‘They/Them’. Wokeyleaks is a confidential news leak organization for anyone who wishes to divulge classified information (and hilarious anecdotes) about woke culture without fear of getting canceled. To any would-be Edward Snowflakes out there: leak your woke-culture war crimes to wokeyleaks@protonmail.com. We promise to protect our sources. Or follow @wearewokeyleaks on Twitter.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz will meet with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “It will be a good investment for the American people,” says US Senator Lindsey Graham.
By Lilach Shoval , AP and ILH Staff ISRAEL HAYOM – Published on 06-02-2021 07:38
US Secretary of Dense Lloyd Austin with Defense Minister Benny Gantz at Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, April 11, 2021 | File photo: Gideon Markowicz
Defense Minister Benny Gantz will arrive in Washington on Thursday to ask for $1 billion in defense aid, US Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox and Friends on Tuesday.
Gantz will meet with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
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Seit der Grünen-Vorsitzende Robert Habeck bei seinem Besuch in der Ukraine die Position vertreten hat, Deutschland solle der Ukraine mindestens Defensivwaffen liefern, um sich gegen russische Aggressionen zu verteidigen, reißt die Diskussion über dieses Thema nicht ab. Der ukrainische Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj hat in einem Interview noch einmal bekräftigt, dass die Ukraine interessiert ist, diverse Rüstungsgüter von deutschen Unternehmen zu kaufen. Worauf der sozialdemokratische Außenminister Heiko Maas am Dienstag mit einem klaren Nein reagiert hat.
Ein Nein, das sich seit 2014 nicht geändert hat, als die Ukraine von Russland angegriffen wurde und zum ersten Mal in Berlin um militärische Hilfsgüter anfragte. Seitdem hat Moskau die ukrainische Krim annektiert und führt mithilfe lokaler Milizen einen Krieg in der Ostukraine, der seit sieben Jahren anhält und in dem fast jede Woche ukrainische Soldaten sterben. Und Deutschland weigert sich dennoch weiter, einer jungen, nach Europa strebenden Demokratie zu helfen, sich gegen eine aggressive Diktatur zu verteidigen. Warum eigentlich?
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by Simon Henderson – Policy Alert – June 1, 2021
News of apparent enrichment setbacks has been offset somewhat by troubling developments in other aspects of the program, not to mention sharp Israeli warnings, diplomatic uncertainty in Vienna, and a pair of sobering nuclear anniversaries.
Although the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest quarterly monitoring report on Iran will not be presented to the organization’s board of governors until later this week, copies have been shared with journalists, so news of its findings is already trickling out. This trickle may soon grow to a stream because the IAEA’s deliberations coincide with several significant dates and developments.
In Israel, June 1 marks the retirement of Mossad intelligence chief Yossi Cohen, who recently warned, “Activity against the Iranian regime must be stepped up so that it understands that crossing lines will cost immense damage.” His replacement—David Barnea, a Mossad veteran who has reportedly played a central role in operations against Iran—struck a similar tone when taking up his new post, stating, “With lies and concealments, Iran is making constant progress toward a weapons of mass destruction program.”
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THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW TRUMP ‘KEPT THE OIL’ IN SYRIA AND LOST
by Kenneth R. Rosen – Daily Beast – May 31, 2021
The ambitious plan would have seen Delta Crescent, a tiny Delaware company, try to bring peace and stability to the war-ravaged northeast, but local corruption, a lack of U.S. commitment, and other complications doomed the idea.
When former President Donald Trump said U.S. troops would remain in Syria to “keep the oil” at the end of 2019, the Pentagon scrambled to deny it. American forces only stayed in Syria to comprehensively defeat ISIS, a spokesman explained; any military presence around the oil fields was purely part of the mission to overcome the so-called Islamic State.
Two years later, the remnants of ISIS are diminished, but American troops are still on the ground, still helping to protect that oil. The official stance of the White House, the State Department and the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was then—and remains now—that keeping the oil is not the reason American men and women are still stationed in one of the world’s most treacherous conflicts. U.S. forces and the coalition more broadly “does not provide assistance to any private companies, employees or agents in seeking to develop oil resources [in] NE Syria,” a spokesperson said in March.
But that is not the full story.
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On the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the region, Mideast experts say America is misreading the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and using smoke and mirrors as it works to appease Iran and placate Israel.
BY ISRAEL KASNETT jewish news syndicate – (June 1, 2021 / JNS) If body language is any indicator, then last week’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not go as well as they intended during their joint press conference. While they openly discussed issues pertaining to Gaza and the Palestinians, it is without a doubt that in their earlier private meeting, they discussed the issue of Iran as well.
Blinken’s remarks signal that the scolding and finger-wagging of the Obama administration is back after a four-year hiatus during the Trump administration.
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TURKISH SPIES ALLEGEDLY KIDNAPPED a nephew of dissident cleric Fethullah Gülen in Kenya and forcibly transported him to Turkey, according to reports in Turkish media. Citing “government sources”, Turkey’s state-owned news agency, Anadolu, said this week that Selahaddin Gülen had been “forcibly repatriated” to Turkey from abroad by officers of the National Intelligence Organization, known as MİT. But it did not specify when or where the alleged operation took place.
Subsequent reports suggested that Selahaddin Gülen’s wife, Serriye Gülen, posted a video on social media, in which she said the couple lived in Nairobi, Kenya, and that her husband, who worked as a school teacher, had disappeared on May 3. It was also reported that Gülen’s alleged kidnapping was soon afterwards confirmed by media outlets connected to the Gülen movement.
The Gülen movement consists of supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who runs a global network of schools, charities and businesses from his home in the United States. The government of Turkey has designated Gülen’s group a terrorist organization and claims it was behind the failed 2016 coup against Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Ever since the failed coup, Erdoğan’s government has fired or imprisoned over 200,000 government employees, which it accuses of being “Gülenists”. The cleric, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania, denies Erdoğan’s accusations.
It is not clear whether Gülen’s nephew was kidnapped in a cover operation, or whether he was delivered to the MİT by the Kenyan authorities. Since the failed 2016 coup, the Turkish government has pressured numerous countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa to arrest and extradite alleged Gülenists. Kenya has so far refused to take action against individuals and institutions that Ankara claims are connected to the Gülen movement.
It is worth noting that in 1999 the MİT carried out a controversial covert operation in Kenya, which resulted in the kidnapping of Kurdish separatist militant Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan, 74, is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey and several other countries have designated a terrorist organization. He remains imprisoned to this day. |
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The EU has long played an active role in seeking an end to Israeli-Palestinian hostilities. Why has it lost this role?
Shada Islam@shada_islam – Nazlan Ertan@NazlanEr – AL MONITOR – May 27, 2021
BRUSSELS — The European Union was once viewed as an important and credible actor in the Middle East, even a potential counterweight to the United States. No longer. During the recent upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence, the 27-member bloc has come across as little more than a passive bystander, distracted by deepening internal divisions and out of touch with both the changed power dynamics in the region and an emerging rights-focused policy discourse in Washington.
With a cease-fire in place since May 20, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell pointed to the need to move away from “crisis management mode” and solve the “underlying conflict” through “a true political and negotiated solution.” A newly appointed EU special representative for the Middle East, Dutch diplomat Sven Koopmans, will soon travel to the region to meet “key actors” from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the United States.
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