In Dergatschi in der russischen Region Saratow haben Hunderte aufgehetzte Kasachen und Aserbaidschaner eine kurdische Siedlung angegriffen. Der in Russland lebende kurdische Politiker Ferman Garzan spricht von einer lebensbedrohlichen Situation.Play
- BÊRÎTAN SARYA REDAKTION ANF (PKK AGENTUR) Dienstag, 27 Okt 2020, 17:31
In Dergatschi in der russischen Region Saratow hat eine Gruppe von 300 bis 400 Kasachen und Aserbaidschanern Kurden angegriffen. Der Vorfall ereignete sich bereits am 24. Oktober in einem Dorf rund fünfzig Kilometer entfernt von der Grenze nach Kasachstan. Nach Angaben örtlicher Quellen handelte es sich um einen geplanten Angriff, das Dorf wird seitdem polizeilich geschützt.
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Silo Dirboyan, Ko-Vorsitzender des Kurdistan-Komitees in Eriwan, beleuchtet den Hintergrund des Krieges zwischen Aserbaidschan und Armenien
- ANF (PKK AGENTUR) ERIWAN – Mittwoch, 14 Okt 2020, 20:08 Silo Dirboyan ist Ko-Vorsitzender des Kurdistan-Komitees in Eriwan und hat sich gegenüber ANF zu dem Krieg zwischen Aserbaidschan und Armenien geäußert. „Mit der Auflösung der Sowjetunion haben maßgebliche Veränderungen in der Region stattgefunden“, sagt Dirboyan und hält fest:
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Dunkle Zeit : Winter in Frankreich – „Marseillaise“ mancherorts von lauten Pfiffen begleitet
Ein Kommentar von Jürg Altwegg FAZ 28.10.2020-10:06 – Der Winter der Pandemie kommt erst noch, doch in Frankreich ist bereits eine düstere Zeit angebrochen. Der Islamismus bringt die Werte der Republik ins Wanken.
Seit dem Ende der Sommerzeit bricht die Nacht eine Stunde früher über das Land herein. Kaum ist sie angebrochen, schlägt den Restaurants und der Kultur, für die es keine „kulturelle Ausnahme“ mehr gibt, die Sperrstunde. Selbst die Straßenlampen werden gelöscht. Die Epidemie des Terrors und das Virus stürzen Frankreich in eine düstere Zeit.
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OCTOBER 28, 2020 BY JOSEPH FITSANAKIS intel org
THE ISRAELI EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE agency, the Mossad, has allegedly secured a Chinese-produced vaccine against the coronavirus, according to reports on Israeli television. The report came as the Israeli government confirmed over the weekend that “several diplomatic efforts are occurring behind the scenes” to acquire various vaccines against COVID-19.
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Iran
- Iranian security forces continued to serve as the main instrument of the regime’s crackdown on Kurdish political activity by arresting a Kurdish man named Hassan Qadir Nazhad in Saqqez on Wednesday. Iranian security forces also detained a female Kurdish activist from Ilam named Somaia Kargarian in Tehran on Friday and confiscated her electronic devices. At the same time, several human rights organizations released reports detailing the continued unlawful detention of numerous Kurdish activists, including Farshad Fatahi, who has been detained for over a month, and Khabit Mafakhary, who has been detained for 55 days. Finally, the Kurdish political prisoner Shaker Behrouz was charged with “killing a member of the IRGC.” Behrouz was previously sentenced to death for “carrying arms against the state” in August and remains in the custody of Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at).
- In the latest chapter of the Iranian regime’s ongoing campaign against the Kurdish border porters known as Kolbars, Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh) personnel seized 200 cattle in the Hawraman region and, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK), wounded two of the livestock owners who attempted to flee during the raid. Simultaneously, Iranian authorities shot and wounded a Kolbar named Hamid Ahmadi in Piranshahr on Saturday. Lastly, Iranian border guards wounded a Kolbar from Baneh named Baset Mohammadi on Sunday near the Iran-Iraq border in Hangazhal.
Iraq
- The Council of Representatives of Iraq (CRI) held two separate sessions on Saturday and Monday that resulted in the passage of a new election law, though Kirkuk Governorate was left out due to a failure to reach an agreement on its status. The new election law does away with the previous system, which treated each governorate as an electoral constituency, and establishes electoral constituencies across the entire country. The CRI is set to hold a final vote on Kirkuk Governorate’s election law on Wednesday, which has been held up by the governorate’s Kurdish, Arab, and Turkomans each pushing for different boundary lines regarding the new electoral constituencies.
- ISIS (Da’esh) terrorists released photographs and details of their murder of three Kurdish civilians in Kirkuk’s Shwan District that occurred over a week ago. That said, Peshmerga scouts launched a 24-hour operation to clear Da’esh from the area on Saturday. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition launched several airstrikes near Makhmour on Monday that neutralized four Da’esh terrorists. Concurrently, security forces arrested two Da’esh operatives in Kirkuk Governate’s Hawija District’s Riyad sub-district and detained two more in Kirkuk city. The region, known as the “Disputed Territories,” has remained blighted by a deteriorating security situation since Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias seized control and removed the Peshmerga on October 16, 2017.
- The head of the North Axis Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU), Abu Raza an Najar, announced the formation of a new 500-man PMU brigade in Kirkuk on Sunday. The PMU brigade will be named after the former head of the PMUs, Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, who was killed alongside Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani by a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.
Syria
- Turkish forces and their Islamist proxies launched several attacks on villages near Ain Essa and the M4 Motorway last week. Though the attacks were intended to target the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), they damaged civilian homes. Prior Turkish artillery attacks in Ain Essa resulted in the death of a child on October 16. That said, the SDF announced it repelled attacks from the “Turkish occupation army mercenaries” in al Saida village near Ain Essa and killed “10” of the attackers on Friday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s continuing threats have raised fears of a new Turkish invasion among northeastern Syria’s Kurds, and Turkish forces and their jihadist allies have violated the ceasefire agreed upon after their October 2019 invasion of the region over 800 times.
- Dozens of Turkish-backed jihadists in the Turkish-occupied town of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) raised Da’esh flags and burned the French flag in support of President Erdogan’s vocal attacks on French President Emmanuel Macron. SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi responded by expressing support for President Macron and said, “French President Emmanuel Macron helped protect Muslims from the Islamic State and played a major role in defeating the organization and protecting human values.” Abdi also described Erdogan as an individual “who supports Da’esh and uses “Islam for his personal interests.”
Turkey
- The Grand National Assembly of Turkey sent stripping of parliamentary immunity cases against ten more pro-Kurdish legislators from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to its justice committee for review last week. 20 members of the HDP have been stripped of parliamentary immunity since 2016, and 11 of those stripped have been jailed, including former leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
- The Turkish government continued its campaign of mass arrests intended to stifle Kurdish political activity by arresting numerous HDP members and Kurdish activists. On Wednesday, Turkish authorities raided the homes of 12 HDP members in Kahramanmaras (Maraş) Province’s Nurhak and Ekinözü districts and detained them. In Antalya, a court sentenced council member Nihat Akkaya to 10 months in prison for adding “Mr” to Abdullah Ocalan’s name during a speech in 2019. Turkish police also detained the HDP provincial co-chairs Abdullah Ekelik and Gönül Öztürk in Ağrı Province’s Doğubayazıt District. Moreover, Turkish authorities arrested a number of HDP youth after a gathering to prevent an anti-government protest in Istanbul’s Kadıköy District on Sunday. Simultaneously, a court in Siirt sentenced deposed Kurdish co-mayor Tuncer Bakirha to 10 years, 10 months, and 11 days in prison for “being a member of a terrorist organization.” Finally, Turkish police arrested former Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmaker Ibrahim Binci and HDP assembly member Mesut Bağcık.
- HDP Co-Chair Mithat Sancar held a meeting with the Kurdish parties’ alliance of 2019 named “Kurdistan Alliance” and expressed his view the Kurdish alliance is beyond elections in saying, “We have already mentioned this step several times since the local elections in March 2019. But now, for the first time, we were able to discuss openly and concretely our goals to exist permanently as an alliance.” The “Kurdistan Alliance” consists of the HDP and several other nationalist parties.
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Bottom Line Up Front: 28 Oct 2020 – TEHRAN FAVORS JOE BIDEN !
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- The Iranian government is using cyber operations to try to deny President Trump re-election.
- Iran’s attempts to influence U.S. voters demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of U.S. politics than Iran has previously displayed.
- Tehran’s leaders have decided against escalation in the Middle East, judging that doing so could increase U.S. support for President Trump.
- The U.S. election system itself is secure from Iran’s attacks, but the Trump administration’s responses to Iran’s meddling will not deter Iran from continuing them.
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| On October 21, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated that U.S. intelligence had determined that Iran attempted to interfere in the November 2020 U.S. election by sending spoofed email messages to U.S. voters in several states. According to Ratcliffe, Iran, as well as Russia, had also succeeded in obtaining some publicly available U.S. voter registration information. The Iranian operation outlined by Ratcliffe consisted primarily of emails, purporting to emanate from a U.S. right-wing group, the Proud Boys, physically threatening the targeted voters unless they vote for President Trump. The Iranian cyber operation sought to trigger a political backlash against President Trump by associating his campaign with domestic fringe groups and voter intimidation efforts. The operation seemed to represent a level of sophistication in Tehran’s understanding of U.S politics that Iran has not previously demonstrated. In exposing the Iranian operations, U.S officials sought to reassure the public that U.S. intelligence could quickly uncover and thwart foreign election interference attempts, including by more capable cyber adversaries such as Russia. U.S. officials stressed that neither Iran nor Russia would be able to infiltrate U.S. election systems by altering voter rolls, votes cast, or vote tabulations.
Tehran’s intent in interfering in the U.S. vote is clear – to try to oust President Trump in order to relieve the effects of the Administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran. In contrast to President Trump, former Vice President Joseph Biden has stated that, if elected, he will change Iran policy by seeking to re-enter the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear deal that entailed significant easing of U.S. economic sanctions. Iran also seeks to avenge the Trump administration’s strike that killed IRGC-Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani in January. Iran also shares the overall goals of Russia in seeking to sew political dissension inside the United States and weaken U.S. global influence, more generally.
Iran’s cyber interference in the U.S. election reflects a calculation by Tehran that alternative policies would not necessarily yield desired results. Many experts expected that Iran might conduct armed operations in the region designed to contradict President Trump’s assertions that his administration has improved stability and security in the region. Such actions could have included a repeat of Iran’s 2019 missile attack on Saudi oil installations and attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, or attacks by Iranian allies and proxies such as the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen or Iraqi Shia militias. However, a new escalation by Iran risks provoking a U.S. military response that might – contrary to Tehran’s wishes – cause the American public to rally around the incumbent. This prevailing assessment by Tehran appears to account for the relative quiescence of Iran’s forces and regional allies during in the past several months, although Iran’s allies in Iraq have kept up their steady stream of attacks on facilities that host U.S. forces. At the same time, Iran’s leaders have assessed that engaging the Administration in new nuclear negotiations would boost President Trump’s re-election prospects. Iran’s leaders have refused talks unless and until the Administration abandons its maximum pressure sanctions policy. Iran undoubtedly knows that President Trump would be unlikely to undertake such softening of his Iran policy because it is designed to appear as tough on Iran’s anti-U.S. regime as possible.
Although U.S. election systems are apparently secure, the U.S. responses to Tehran’ cyber operations are unlikely to force Iran to discontinue its efforts. On October 22, the Treasury Department sanctioned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the IRGC-Qods Force, and three Iranian institutes and media outlets for ‘us[ing] false narratives and other misleading content to attempt to influence U.S. elections.’ However, the penalties levied on these organizations involve blocking their U.S.-based assets and sanctioning foreign banks that conduct transactions with them. These Iranian organizations are not known to have any U.S. assets or to transact any business with U.S. firms or major international banks, rendering the U.S. penalties largely moot. The U.S. response demonstrates the limitations of relying on U.S. sanctions against Iran and will almost certainly fail to deter Tehran from continuing its efforts to foster President Trump’s defeat on November 3. |
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SAUDI ARABIA | Special Dispatch No. 8993 MEMRI 27 Oct 2020
‘As the U.S. presidential election approaches, and in light of the polls indicating a lead for Democratic candidate Vice President Joe Biden, the Saudi press is publishing numerous articles about the election and each candidate’s chance of winning. Most Saudi journalists hope for the reelection of the incumbent President Donald Trump, inter alia because of his aggressive position vis-à-vis Iran. Many of the writers expressed negative views regarding the era of President Obama, when Biden was vice president; they condemn that administration’s policies, including the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran that Obama promoted and what they said was the Democrats’ support for the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and warned that these policies could be revived under a Biden presidency.
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Oct 27, 2020 – Ezgi Yazici, Isabel Ivanescu – By Isabel Ivanescu and Ezgi Yazici – ISW – INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR
Key Takeaway: Competition between Russia and Turkey continued to escalate in 2020. The parties redoubled their commitments to opposing sides in Syria and Libya, and Turkey opened a new theater of competition in the Caucasus. Each of these conflicts is unique and discrete but must be understood within the cross-theater dynamics of Russia-Turkey competition.
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Iran’s nuclear work goes forward at 2 covert sites – opposition
Oct 25, 2020 @ DEBKA FILES ISRAEL – Nuclear work continued surreptitiously at two undisclosed nuclear weapons development sites operated by the Revolutionary Guards after Iran signed a nuclear accord (JCPOA) with six world powers in 2015. Both sites are operated by the Revolutionary Guards. The revelations came from the US office of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in a special briefing this week.
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Von Milosz Matuschek. – 27 Okt achgut achse
Was haben ausgeladene Kabarettisten und diffamierte Künstler mit der Diskussionskultur in der Covid-Krise gemeinsam? Bei ersteren geht es ja bekanntlich um Political Correctness. Und in der Corona-Diskussion? Ebenso. Das Phänomen Cancel Culture ist nur der sichtbarste Teil des Eisbergs, auf den wir gerade zusteuern. Aber sicher nicht der größte.
Das Phänomen Political Correctness hat eine erschreckend steile Karriere hinter sich. Spätestens seit der Erhebung dieses Phänomens zum Machtinstrument unter Stalin gibt es zwei Arten von Aussagen: solche, die tatsächlich faktisch richtig sind – und solche, die zwar falsch, aber politisch doch so opportun sind, dass sie machtpolitisch eben „korrekt“ sind. Wenn letztere Ansichten propagandistisch so aufgeladen werden, dass sie zur Doktrin erklärt werden, kollabiert das Informationsökosystem.
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