DE PARIS KURDE - Information and liaison bulletin N 430 - Institut kurde de Paris
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KURDE
INSTITUT
DE PARIS
Information and liaison bulletin
N°430
JANUARY 2021
The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy
from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture & City of Paris
______________
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E-mail: bulletin@fikp.org
Information and liaison bulletin
Kurdish Institute of Paris
Bulletin N° 430 January 2021
• TURKEY: DISASTROUS TRACK RECORD
FOR 2020; THE GOVERNMENT IS NOW
TRYING TO CONTROL THE UNIVERSI-
TIES
• IRAN: MASSIVE CAMPAIGN OF ANTI-
KURDISH ARRESTS, MORE THAN A HUN-
DRED PEOPLE IMPRISONED
• ROJAVA: RENEWED TENSION WITH THE
DAMASCUS REGIME, CLASHES AT
QAMISHLO
• IRAQ: THE ADOPTION OF THE 2021 BUD-
GET IS OVERDUE, JIHADIST AND TURK-
ISH ATTACKS CONTINUE
TURKEY:
DISASTROUS TRACK RECORD FOR 2020; THE GOVERNMENT
IS NOW TRYING TO CONTROL THE UNIVERSITIES
ith the New Year, press of its management ( Duvar ). the pandemic [by the President]
W organs, international
agencies and Turkish
civil society organisa-
tions have submitted
their 2020 assessments for
Turkey. Although different, all
Ankara’s official contamination
counts were completely discred-
ited when it was revealed that
they did not take into account
asymptomatic cases... Doubt had
arisen just before, when the CHP
has placed the country barely
above North Korea”, CHP
deputy Çetin Osman Budak
could not help but ironically
said...
these reports agree on one point: (Kemalist opposition) municipal- Nor is there any transparency for
2020 has been a black year in all ity of Istanbul started publishing the economy: at the end of
respects. Regarding the COVID- figures for the city that were December, the statistical institute
19 pandemic, the country is higher than those of the Ministry TürkStat announced an average
ranked 97th out of 100 countries of Health for the whole country! annual inflation rate of 14.6% for
in the world for the transparency “The personal management of 2020, with services reaching
• 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 430 • January 2021
28.12% and the food and non- that country, and 2020 has been increasingly unfavourable. Even
alcoholic drinks group 21.12%. no exception. On 13 January, the the outgoing Secretary of State of
But the figures of the ENAG Ankara branch of the Human the Trump administration, Mike
inflation research group, pub- Rights Association İHD pub- Pompeo, on 3rd December during
lished later, once again cast lished its report on rights viola- the NATO ministerial meeting,
doubt on this: according to the tions in 18 prisons in Central denounced to everyone’s surprise
academics who created it, the Anatolia during the last three Turkey’s “fait accompli” policy,
average inflation rate for 2020 is months of the year: at least 24 enjoining Mr. Erdogan to “return
actually 36.72%, with a monthly prisoners were tortured and/or to the behaviour of an ally”, while
inflation rate of 4.08% (Bianet). ill-treated, and 9 others lost their the American Congress imposed
Similarly for unemployment, lives, 4 of them to coronavirus sanctions on Turkey for its pur-
economists predict real figures and 2 to suicide... (Bianet) chase of the Russian S-400 anti-
twice as high as the official fig- aircraft missile system. And on 20
ures. Turks have lost 41% of their In addition, the 2020 balance January, Antony Blinken, who
purchasing power in recent sheet of repression is particularly succeeds Pompeo in the Biden
years (Le Monde). heavy for the left-wing and “pro- administration, made statements
Kurdish” opposition party HDP, before the Foreign Relations
As for human rights, there are so with 16,000 of its members Committee of the American
many reports on their situation arrested or imprisoned, and out Senate that can only cause the
in Turkey for 2020 that it is of 65 candidates elected in 2019 Turkish regime great concern:
impossible to quote them all. We to municipalities in Kurdistan of calling Turkey a “so-called strate-
will only mention the one of the Turkey, only 5 are still in office at gic partner” that is “unaccept-
Dicle Firat Journalists’ the end of December. Of these 5 ably” on the Russian line, he
Association (DFG), made public “survivors”, Adalet Fidan, added: “Turkey is an ally that in
at a press conference held at the Silopi’s co-mayor, told the many ways is not acting as an ally
association’s headquarters in Guardian she expected to be should [...]. I think we need to
Diyarbakir on 4 January arrested every morning... look at the impact of existing
(https://bianet.org/english/hu sanctions and decide whether we
man-rights/237467-21-prisoners- In this context, the MAK company need to do more”... ( Bianet )
live-in-a-ward-for-7): 79 journal- published on 28 January the Another appointment that does
ists arrested, 24 imprisoned, and results of a survey carried out not bode well for Ankara’s rela-
19 assaulted. The Co-President of between 14 and 26 January among tions with Washington is that of
DFG, Dicle Müftüoğlu, called for 2,850 people in 51 Turkish Brett McGurk as the National
the case of Kurdish journalists to provinces, and they must alarm Security Council’s coordinator for
be considered separately: “In the AKP and its ultra-nationalist the Middle East and North Africa.
Turkey, the Kurdish press is fac- ally MHP, who are currently shar- Formerly Presidential special
ing serious obstacles which are ing power: if general elections envoy to the international anti-
intensifying”. She cited as an were held now, AKP and MHP ISIS coalition, McGurk was in this
example the situation of the four would get only 44.1% of the votes, capacity responsible for relations
journalists of the Mezopotamia which would not allow to elect a with the Syrian Democratic Forces
agency arrested on 10 October president... The same poll shows (SDF), dominated by the Kurds in
for “denigrating the State” after that neither the MHP nor the the YPG. After President Donald
they reported on the case of the HDP would obtain the 10% of Trump’s sudden decision to with-
two villagers of Van thrown votes needed to be present in draw US troops from Syria and
from a helicopter by the military Parliament ( Bianet ). Thus, the abandon their Kurdish allies, he
(Rojinfo). Turkey remained the year 2021 appears, in the words of tendered his resignation. And
world’s leading jailer of journal- the newspaper Le Monde, to be when the United States eliminated
ists in 2020, with a third of the “ the year of all dangers for the ISIS leader in Idlib province, he
world total. Sexual assaults and Erdoğan”: the Turkish president pointed out in the Washington
murders of women (and some- finds himself “at an impasse, con- Post that Baghdadi was hiding...
times Kurdish women by the fronted internally with his politi- near a major Turkish military base,
military) also deserve a separate cal decline”, while the external adding that Ankara owed the
report... military adventures he has United States “some explana-
launched, precisely to halt this tions”... (CNN)
The situation in Turkish prisons internal decline, have “isolated
has long been a measure of the him in the international arena”. On the EU side, relations are just
violence of political repression in Abroad, indeed, the winds are as tense, despite the willingness
n° 430 • January 2021 Information and liaison bulletin • 3 •
expressed on 9 January by the partly elective post immediately 108 Kurdish political figures for
President and various Turkish provoked numerous protests, their participation in the Kobanê
officials to open “a new page in starting with those of the stu- demonstrations of October 2014.
relations”. On 22 December, the dents, who refused a “ kayyum On the 8th, the court accepted this
European Court of Human Rights rektor” - a “rector administrator”, document, drawn up six years
(ECHR) had reiterated its demand in reference to the administrators after the events in question. For
for the immediate release of undemocratically appointed to charges including “undermining
Selahattin Demirtaş. On 21 replace elected mayors in the the unity and territorial integrity
January, the European Parliament Kurdish provinces... Within hours of the state”, “37 counts of mur-
took up this demand in a resolu- of Bulu’s appointment, several der”, “31 counts of attempted
tion adopted by 590 votes to 16 examples of his writings, where murder”, 38 aggravated life sen-
with 75 abstentions. MEPs entire paragraphs plagiarize tences are required for each
expressed their “concern” at “the “word for word” the work of accused, including Selahattin
continuing decline in the indepen- other academics, appeared on Demirtaş.
dence of the judiciary and its dis- social media.
regard for the judgments of the On the 6 t h , the Ministry of
ECHR”, adding that respecting These events bring us back to the Defence notified the MP of
those judgments would be a start denunciations by several experts Kocaeli Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu
to demonstrating the sincerity of and academics of the deteriora- (HDP) of its refusal to answer the
the 9 January statements tion of the quality of Turkish parliamentary question he had
( European Parliament ). But, on higher education that occurred submitted on 4 November about
the same day l’ Humanité during the mandate of Erdoğan, the UN report on war crimes com-
remarked that Turkey still has the with the rise among students and mitted in Syria by the “Syrian
means to put pressure on UE academics of plagiarism and National Army” in the service of
through the four million Syrian other unethical practices. Since Turkey. Gergerlioğlu had among
refugees it is holding on its soil, 2019, many Turkish institutions other questions asked Minister
and there is no question of NATO have disappeared from interna- Hulusi Akar whether a report was
letting the Turkish ally get closer tional rankings... The serious ero- being prepared on crimes against
to Russia... The daily concludes as sion of academic freedom since women. The reason given for the
follows: “Luxembourg’s Foreign 2016 is also denounced: more than lack of response was “the pres-
Minister, Jean Asselborn, may 6,000 academics have been dis- ence of personal opinions in the
well say that “no one has any missed, not counting those illegal- questions” (Bianet). On the 7th, the
intention of letting Turkey off the ly deprived of foreign travel – a mayor of Batman Mehmet Demir
hook ” [in French: “passer right yet guaranteed by the con- finally refused to present his
l’éponge”], but that’s what seems stitution. The situation has led the defence in Kurdish before the
to be happening”... European Union to cut several Court that was judging him after
hundred million euros in aid and three interpreters successively
But the Turkish government con- support programmes for Turkish stated that they could not trans-
tinues its constant policy of higher education ( Duvar ), a late his words that they could not
extending its control to more and reduction in resources that has set understand “because he spoke in
more sectors of society. The latest off a worrying vicious circle... academic Kurdish” (Bianet). On
attack to date was against the Bar the 8 th , the journalist of the
Associations, with the creation of Besides, ordinary repression con- Mesopotamia agency Mehmet
competing pro-AKP bars. On 1st tinued in the whole country. In Aslan, imprisoned on the 5th dur-
January, it was the academic Diyarbakir, the administrator ing a police raid on his home, was
world that was targeted, with the appointed to replace the mayor, jailed for “terrorism”. Then on the
appointment by presidential Münir Karaloğlu, dismissed 84 11th and 12th , the police made sev-
decree of Melih Bulu, an AKP municipal employees. In Bursa, eral arrests in Mardin and
member, as rector of the presti- the HDP office was burnt down Diyarbakir, and prevented the
gious University of Boğaziçi in (WKI). While a court in Ankara Party of Democratic Regions
Istanbul. Founded in 1863, refused to consider the ECHR rul- (DBP) and the HDP from holding
Boğaziçi is the first American uni- ing submitted by the lawyers of a press conference in Van on
versity established outside the Demirtaş (pretext: it had not been “Kurdish national unity”.
United States. The outright issued in Turkish!), the arrests of
appointment of a political execu- Kurds and HDP members contin- At the same time, Kurdish politi-
tive without any particular acade- ued, and the Ankara prosecutor’s cal prisoners continued their
mic qualities to a hitherto at least office issued requisitions against hunger strike by turns to protest
• 4 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 430 • January 2021
against the detention conditions of her death, Candar described arrests among members of the
violating their rights and the iso- her in his tweet as “the angel with HDP, whose Istanbul office was
lation of Abdullah Öcalan at the most beautiful smile in Gezi, surrounded by police, who arrest-
İmralı. On the 14th, several human who warmed our hearts”. The ed eight people who had held a
rights organisations held a joint Court issued an arrest warrant for press conference to protest
press conference on this issue. Candar, who was exiled to against the isolation of Öcalan at
Turkey Medical Association Sweden (Rûdaw). İmralı. In Diyarbakir, there were
(TTB), the Human Rights at least 20 arrests, including for-
Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), the Devlet Bahçeli, the chairman of mer HDP MP Hatice Kocaman
Human Rights Association (İHD), the far-right MHP party, in power and two leaders of the party’s
the Lawyers’ Association for in alliance with the AKP, has youth organisation. Then, in the
Freedom (ÖHD) and the again sadly distinguished himself last week of the month, six people
Progressive Lawyers’ Association during the month by issuing were arrested in Van in police
(ÇHD) marked the 49 th day of threat after threat against the raids at their homes, and two
hunger strikes in 107 prisons at HDP, whose closure he keeps call- other HDP leaders were arrested
İHD in Ankara. Concerning the ing for, against several editorial- in Istanbul for putting up posters
prisoners of İmralı, the organisa- ists described as “false journal- denouncing the isolation of
tions denounced the long-term ists”, as well as against former Abdullah Öcalan. On the 29th, a
isolation in contradiction with the Prime Minister AKP and founder public meeting in Batman was
UN “Mandela Rules”, the recom- of the “Future Party” Ahmet broken up by police who detained
mendations of the [European] Davutoğlu. The MHP leader 30 people, seven of whom were
Committee for the Prevention of launched his threats as the vice- held in custody for publications
Torture (CPT) and the Turkish president of the Future Party, on social networks dating back to
Law No. 5275 on criminal execu- Selçuk Özdağ, and the representa- 2015.
tions (Bianet). tive of the newspaper Yeniçağ in
Ankara, Orhan Uğuroğlu, had Turkish operations outside the
In Diyarbakir, former president of just been attacked the same day in country have somewhat over-
the Bar Mehmet Emin Aktar was front of their respective home in shadowed the existence of mili-
sentenced to 75 months in prison Ankara... In his verbal attack tary activities inside the country.
for “propaganda for a terrorist against Davutoğlu, Bahçeli called However, on the 9 t h , a gen-
organisation”. In Istanbul, the him in Kurdish “Serok Ahmet”, a darmerie officer was killed and
first hearing of the case of journal- way of accusing him of links with two gendarmes injured in a clash
ist Cengiz Candar was held on the the PKK! On the 22nd, six Turkish with the PKK near Lice
20th, accused in absentia of “apol- human rights organisations con- (Diyarbakir). On the 12 t h , the
ogy for crime and a criminal” for demned Bahceli’s statements in a office of the governor of Bitlis
a 2017 tweet about a YPG fighter joint communiqué. On the 28th, he decreed a curfew of unlimited
killed in Raqqa in the fight against denied any involvement of the duration on 10 villages in the cen-
ISIS. Member of the MLKP, Ayşe MHP in the recent attacks on jour- tral district of the province
Deniz Karacagil had been active nalists (Bianet). because of the presence of mem-
during the demonstrations in bers of the “separatist terrorist
Gezi Park in 2013. After learning The week of the 18th saw further organisation” (Bianet).
IRAN:
MASSIVE CAMPAIGN OF ANTI-KURDISH ARRESTS, MORE THAN
A HUNDRED PEOPLE IMPRISONED
n 5 January, a first case dropped below 100 for the first demic: as of 31 December, there
O of the British variant of
COVID-19 was detected
in Iran, a news that was
enough to cause con-
sternation when, according to
official figures just published,
time in more than six months (Le
Figaro).
While the regime has tried every-
thing to minimise the epidemic,
even according to official figures,
were 6,389 new cases and 128
deaths, for a total of 55,223 deaths
since the beginning of the epidem-
ic. However, the Minister of
Health himself, Said Namaki, has
had to admit that this figure is
the number of daily deaths due Iran remains the Middle East grossly underestimated. On the
to the virus, with 98, had just country most affected by the epi- same date, the opposition in exile
n° 430 • January 2021 Information and liaison bulletin • 5 •
published figures almost four 57,959... But in the meantime, on by border guards near Baneh
times higher: the People’s the 25th, the Iranian health agency (WKI). On the 25th, the bodies of
Mojahedin Organization of Iran had approved the Russian five kolbars that had been missing
(PMOI), drawing up its own fig- Sputnik-V vaccine. The Foreign in Bradost for a week were finally
ures by consolidating various Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, found under the snow near the vil-
provincial public data, had declared the next day from lage of Kuran, a place otherwise
reached more than 195,000 deaths Moscow that Iran hoped to start infamous for the large number of
in 478 cities throughout the coun- buying but also, following the porters murdered there by both
try, including 7,868 in Lorestan, Russian strategy, manufacturing Iranian and Turkish border
7,263 in Western Azerbaijan and the product locally “in the near guards. They had been caught in
4,084 in Kermanchah (NCRI). On future”. On the 30 th , the official an avalanche on the Turkish side
the 12 t h , the same source agency Irna announced that the while reportedly carrying ciga-
announced that the 200,000 deaths first doses of Sputnik would arrive rettes (Rûdaw). It was the villagers
due to the COVID were exceeded, in the country by 4 February, with who found the bodies, despite the
questioning the “criminal” policy a second and third batch to be border guards’ attempts to prevent
of the regime. And with some rea- delivered by 18 and 28 respective- them from searching (WKI).
son, since beyond the conceal- ly (AFP). Nevertheless, the negli-
ment, a few days earlier, the gence and irresponsibility of Despite the danger, more and
Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei had Iranian politicians will go down in more young Kurds have no choice
announced on the 8th the ban on history. but to become kolbars because of
imports of vaccines from Pfizer- the dramatic economic situation in
BioNTech, Moderna and With the arrival of 2021, the 2020 Iranian Kurdistan. This is largely
AstraZeneca-Oxford. He went so assessments began to be pub- due to the discriminatory econom-
far as to declare on television that lished, and among them that of the ic policy of the regime, which has
“sometimes these vaccines are assassinations of the kolbars, the deliberately denied investment to
used to contaminate people”. On cross-border Kurdish porters, by the area for decades, making it one
the 11th, the head of the judiciary, the repressive forces of the regime. of the poorest regions in the coun-
Ebrahim Raisi, went even further According to the Kolbarnews ini- try. The latest economic crisis and
along the same line: “The Iranian tiative, a minimum of 67 kolbars the epidemic have yet more aggra-
people must not be the laboratory were killed in 2020 on the Iran- vated the difficulties of families.
for American and British vac- Turkish border and 163 others And then permanent political
cines”, he told. injured. There are certainly a large repression is added to this eco-
number of other victims, but as nomic slump. Tens of thousands of
These delirious statements their fate has neither been record- political prisoners are in Iranian
angered health workers, who had ed by the police nor reported in prisons for daring to defend
just written to Raisi that buying the media, they cannot be counted democracy or women’s or work-
vaccines abroad should be a priori- more precisely. Among the dead, ers’ rights. By 2019, according to
ty because mass production of the 53 were shot by the Pasdaran the Kurdish Human Rights
Iranian vaccine, still in the testing (Revolutionary Guards) and six by Network (KHRN), at least 2,000
phase, would still take months. A the Turkish border guards. The people had been arrested for join-
large number of Iranians also others died in accidents or from ing Kurdish armed groups or sim-
expressed their dissatisfaction on cold. As for the injured kolbars, ply for activism. Similarly, at least
social networks. Indeed, the 130 were victims of bombard- 400 people were arrested in 2020.
speeches of those in charge had ments by Iranian or Turkish secu- For its part, the Hengaw Human
lost all credibility: they are now rity forces. Five kolbars were tor- Rights Organisation calculated that
announcing a ban after having tured after their capture by Iranian in 2020 the regime had imprisoned
denounced for months the border guards (RojInfo). 437 Kurdish activists, including
American embargo, which, minors (WKI).
according to them, prevented the The New Year did not interrupt
purchase of vaccines abroad! the murders of porters. Four kol- Not only did the anti-Kurdish
bars were injured only in the first repression not stop in 2021, but it
On the 22nd, PMOI counted more week of January, one by a fall in was particularly intense this
than 205,000 deaths, a number that Hawraman, two by border guard month, reaching more than 100
rose to more than 206,800 on the fire in Nowsud, and a third in arrests at the end of January.
26th. By the 31st, the number had Salas-e Babajani. Also in Nowsud, Earlier this month, two Kurds
risen to more than 208,700, com- two others were injured on the 12th from Piranshahr were sentenced to
pared to the official figure of only and 14th, and another was killed five years in prison for “coopera-
• 6 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 430 • January 2021
tion with a Kurdish opposition demonstrations, and three other urged human rights organisations
party”, and a former member of activists from Marivan began their such as Amnesty International to
the KDPI, Sobhan Ahmadi, was 5-year prison sentences for “mem- investigate the mass arrests. The
given a year in Saqqez. A trade bership of a Kurdish opposition number had risen to at least 70
unionist was also arrested in party” ( WKI ). By the 15 t h , the arrests by 26 January, with reports
Kermanshah on the 2nd. According number of people arrested had that a number of members of the
to the Kurdistan Human Rights risen to 26, including arrests in Yarsan (or Ahl-e Haqq, “Faithful
Association (KMMK), five Kurds Sarvabad, Bokan and Sanandadj, to Truth”, a pre-Islamic Kurdish
were also arrested in Baneh. It was and it was learned that the arrests religion) faith in Kermanshah were
also learned on 5 December that had been carried out by Etelaat among those arrested on the 23rd.
the secretary of the Iranian (Security) agents who operated
Writers’ Union (IWA), Arash without showing a warrant and It was only on the 23rd that it was
Ganji, had been sentenced on 30 sometimes brutalised those arrest- learned that on the 11th, the young
December in Tehran to 11 years in ed and ransacked their homes. Kurdish poetess from Baneh,
prison for “spreading anti-govern- Charges against those arrested Taraneh Mohammadi, who is
ment propaganda”: while in have not been announced ( Iran very popular among young peo-
prison, he had translated from Human Rights Monitor / IHRM). ple in Kurdistan, had been kid-
English into Persian a collective On the 18th, the KHRN announced napped by security agents, after
book on the Kurdish revolution in that three of the Kurdish women being threatened anonymously by
Syria entitled A small key can arrested the previous week, Asrin telephone on several occasions.
open a large door: the Rojava revo- Mohammadi, Darya Talabani and Taken out of town by car with a
lution . According to his lawyer, Azima Naseri, had been trans- bag over her head, she was threat-
Ganji will appeal (VOA). ferred to the al-Mahdi detention ened by one of the agents who
centre of the Pasdaran in Urumieh threatened to cut out her tongue if
On the 13th, the CSDHI announced ( Rudaw ). On the 19 t h , the she continued to write poems.
a wave of arrests in various cities Washington Kurdish Institute These threats began after she
in Western Azerbaijan. At least 15 (WKI) announced that the number declared during a live exchange
civilian activists, students and of arrests in the previous two on Instagram that she considered
environmental activists were weeks now stood at 35 people. The herself to belong to Kurdistan
detained between the 9th and 11th Cooperation Centre set up among rather than Iran ( Kurdistan au
in Marivan, Karaj, Mahabad and Kurdish parties reported mass Féminin).
Rabat over the weekend, some arrests of Kurds motivated by fear
arrested on their return from Iraqi of anti-regime protests. In By the end of the month, the arrest
Kurdistan. According to the Sanandaj, a couple who participat- campaign had resulted in more
KMMK, seven Kurdish students ed in the November 2019 demon- than 100 arrests by Etelaat and the
from Kharazmi University in strations were sentenced to two security forces, covering the cities
Tehran were also arrested in a raid years in prison for “propaganda of Oshnavieh, Bokan, Marivan and
on their dormitories, which were against the state” and “disturbing Mahabad, where a cultural activist
ransacked. At the same time, a national security”. At least 53 was arrested. Among those
Kurdish activist from Saqqez arrests were made on the 21 st , detained was the renowned
received 18 months in prison for most of them incommunicado, and Kurdish writer Mustafa
participating in anti-government on social media, Iranian Kurds Alikhandaza, arrested in Bokan.
ROJAVA:
RENEWED TENSION WITH THE DAMASCUS REGIME,
CLASHES AT QAMISHLO
At the beginning of thousands of inhabitants to flee to try to force them to cede the
A January, the situation
was still tense around
the town of Ayn Issa,
mostly controlled by
the Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF), but coveted by the jihadist
from the surrounding villages.
According to the leaders of the
Autonomous Administration of
North-East Syria (AANES), dom-
inated by the Kurds of the PYD,
the Russians, unwavering sup-
city and its region to the regime –
so far without success. “When
we refused the last Russian
request to withdraw from Ayn
Issa, the situation worsened with
Turkey and its Syrian auxiliaries
factions in the service of Turkey. porters of Damascus, are taking attacking us daily”, an SDF offi-
The incessant clashes had caused advantage of the Turkish threat cial told Voice of America (VOA)
n° 430 • January 2021 Information and liaison bulletin • 7 •
on 5 May. Should the city, locat- Damascus-controlled territory to remaining 457 people remaining
ed on the strategic M4 motorway the south and Turkish-occupied unknown; of 70 women and
linking East and West Rojava, territory to the north. Tall Rifaat eight children arrested, only 18
fell into the hands of pro-Turkish fighters retaliated by mortar women and four children have
mercenaries, the whole North of bombing the positions of pro- been released (Kurdistan-24).
AANES, and in particular the Turkish mercenaries (Kurdistan-
cities of Manbij and Kobanê, 24). Is this an answer to the question
would also be in danger. about the fate of these women?
At the end of the month, new In early January, Turkey was
However, after weeks of clashes, shots were fired at Ayn Issa, in accused of having transferred
the situation rather evolved dur- what Kurdish officials increas- Kurdish women abducted from
ing the second week of January ingly suspect to be a coordinated Afrin to Libya to serve as sex
into a period of relative calm, campaign between Damascus slaves for the pro-Turkish fight-
after the SDF repelled several and Ankara to drive out the ers it sent there. It was HDP MP
Turkish attacks that killed five AANES... (WKI) Tulay Hatimogullari who, after
civilians and seven fighters collecting testimonies, sounded
( WKI ). The pressure shifted The same pro-Turkish groups the alarm and called on the
again towards the Allouk pump- continue their incessant exac- Turkish Parliament to investi-
ing station near Serê Kaniyê (Ras tions in Afrin. On the 27 t h , gate, demanding that Foreign
al-Ayn), controlled since October according to the OSDH, 16 Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu shed
2019 by pro-Turkish groups. On Kurds living in the village of full light on the fate of these
the 18th, the latter once again cut Kakhara were abducted from women. In Washington, the rep-
off drinking water to nearly half their homes and tortured by resentative of the Syrian
a million inhabitants of North- members of the al-Amshat Democratic Council, Sinem
Eastern Syria, particularly in the group, belonging to the Free Mohamed, denounced on 6
city of Hasakah. Both the Syrian Syrian Army, on the pretext that January actions that “are no dif-
Observatory for Human Rights they had burnt the vehicle of a ferent from those of [ISIS]” and
(SOHR) and the Syrian pro-gov- security official. In fact, accord- called on the United States and
ernment agency Sana reported ing to the Afrin Human Rights the European Union to partici-
that pro-Turkish militias have Organisation, the fire was the pate in an international commis-
been preventing employees from result of conflicts among pro- sion of enquiry to ensure that
accessing the station since the Turkish factions. Most of the vic- “ war criminals are punished ”
16th (Kurdistan-24). At the same tims were later released, but two (RFI).
time, the Turkish army and its of them are in a coma (Rûdaw).
auxiliaries began bombing the According to the same organisa- In addition, two car bombs hit the
Manbij region, while concentrat- tion, since the beginning of Turkish-occupied areas of Rojava
ing forces in front of Ayn Issa, January, nearly 100 people have on 2 January; one near a market
hence the fear of a new attack on been arrested, including women in Ras al-Ayn (Serê Kaniyê) killed
the town... (WKI) and children. The same week, five people, including two chil-
another organisation, “Syrians dren, according to the OSDH, and
On the 22nd, the M4 motorway for Truth and Justice" (STJ) pub- the other in Jindires (Afrin) killed
was again bombed near Ayn lished a frightening 2020 report a civilian and injured nine others,
Issa. Further west, south of on the abuses of these groups in including two children. The
Kobanê, a Kurdish civilian was Afrin, documenting arrests, Turkish Ministry of Defence
wounded at home by a Turkish detentions and forced disappear- accused the YPG (AFP).
drone ( WKI ). The next day, ances (https://stj-
Ankara mercenaries also sy.org/en/877-arrested-and- The ISIS jihadists, despite the
attacked the enclave of Tall forcibly-disappeared-across- loss of their territory in March
Rifaat, where their artillery fire afrin-region-in-2020/): at least 2019, are still active, particularly
killed a woman and two children 877 civilians have been arrested in the region of Deir Ezzor; they
and wounded six other civilians. by these militias or Turkish intel- are even taking advantage of the
This small area north of Aleppo, ligence, which, according to the context of violence and disorder
still controlled by the SDF, serves authors, “is also complicit in to increase their activities.
as a refuge for around 170,000 some of these arrests”. At the According to sources close to the
residents of Afrin displaced by time of publication of the report, Syrian opposition, on 30
the Turkish invasion of March only 420 of those arrested had December they launched a major
2018, but is isolated between been released, the fate of the attack against Syrian military
• 8 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 430 • January 2021
buses on the Deir Ezzor- Hol, and Ahmed reiterated these checkpoint. The Asayish
Damascus highway, killing 37 warnings: “ISIS has created an returned fire and deployed rein-
soldiers including eight officers Islamic state in al-Hol”, he said, forcements in the area, a local
and injuring many, some seri- explaining that ISIS has estab- source told VOA. The clashes
ously. Sources close to the lished its own courts and “its stopped, but the situation
regime also described attacks on own forces inside the camp, remained tense. On the 31 st , a
civilian buses that left 28 people [which] kill people [...] The inter- pro-regime demonstration in
dead and 13 injured ( Al- national community, Iraq and Hasakah degenerated when the
Monitor ). On 23 January, two the coalition must give more Asayish opened fire on the par-
women belonging to a local support to control the situation ticipants and “left one dead and
AANES council in Deir Ezzor, in the camp” (Kurdistan-24). three injured among the demon-
Hind Latif Al Khadir and Sa’da strators”, according to the
Faysal Al Hermas, were abduct- In an attempt to ease the pres- OSDH, which said that the dead
ed from their homes and found sure on Al-Hol, AANES contin- person was a policeman of the
beheaded a few hours later. ues to allow Syrian families to regime. But according to Kurdish
According to the OSDH, at least leave the place, a policy initiated sources, it was the (pro-regime)
234 people have been killed by last October, initially under the “National Defence” militia that
ISIS sleeper cells in North- guarantee of tribal chiefs, but initiated the clashes by attacking
Eastern Syria since June 2018 now on simple registration of the Asayish in the Marsho dis-
(Middle-East Eye). The SDF for their names. Only those who trict of Hasakah, leaving two
their part announced the arrest have not committed a crime are dead and several injured, includ-
of five ISIS members. concerned. During the week of ing civilians.
11 January, 31 families, counting
Furthermore, the AANES is still 99 people, were able to leave
struggling to manage and secure (WKI). But in a fortnight, more According to Ivan Hasib, a jour-
without sufficient international murders were committed in the nalist based in Qamishli, ten-
aid the Al-Hol camp, where camp, so that on the 21st, with sions began with the arrests of
65,000 people of 54 nationalities, twelve dead, the UN issued a officials from both sides: “A few
including tens of thousands of statement expressing alarm: weeks ago [he told VOA ], the
women affiliated to ISIS, and “These worrying events indicate Asayish arrested a senior Syrian
their children, are crammed. an increasingly untenable securi- government intelligence official
According to local data, at least ty environment in Al-Hol. [...] and his son on their way to
33 people were killed in the The “recent increase in violence” Qamishli from the town of
camp in 2020. On the 8th, a mem- in the camp “undermines the Hasakah. Government troops
ber of the Asayish (Kurdish secu- ability of the UN and humanitar- responded by arresting several
rity) died when a suspected ISIS ian partners to continue safely members of the Kurdish security
fighter blew himself up in the providing essential humanitari- forces. The Russians then report-
camp. The incident occurred as an assistance” (AFP). edly played the role of mediators
the Asayish were responding to to calm the situation, but the
the killing of two Iraqi refugees, Finally, this month has seen a renewed clashes show that ten-
also in the camp. Sheikhmous resurgence of tension between sions have remained ( VOA ).
Ahmed, head of the AANES the AANES and the Damascus Then, other factors, rather eco-
Office for Displaced Persons and regime, particularly in Qamishli nomic, seem to have come into
Refugees, told Kurdistan-24 that / Qamishlo, where the regime’s play: each of the two camps
the international community forces control some districts and accuses the other of levying
should do more to secure the administrative buildings in the unacceptable taxes on the trans-
camp. He added that, to improve south of the city, as well as the fer of goods from one territory to
the security and humanitarian international airport. After clash- the other. This is what the gov-
situation in the camp, Iraqi es between pro-Damascus militi- ernment forces are doing,
refugees and Syrian displaced amen and Kurdish Asayish, the according to the SOHR, in some
persons should return to their two sides reached an agreement areas of Aleppo province (AFP).
homes: “Only foreign families on the 13 t h to release their Conversely, according to the
[from ISIS] should stay, and the respective prisoners (WKI). But pro-regime agency Sana, the
European Union should support according to local media reports, Kurds prevent the supply of the
us to ensure security”. AANES new fighting broke out on the regime’s bakeries in Hasakah.
has been sounding the alarm for 23rd after a pro-government mili- Moreover, the commander of the
months about the situation in al- tia opened fire on an Asayish SDF, Mazloum Abdi said thatn° 430 • January 2021 Information and liaison bulletin • 9 •
the siege imposed on the with an Israeli air raid on the 13th Finally, Mazloum Abdi said at
regime’s security forces in against Iranian settlements in the the end of the month that discus-
Hasakah and Qamishli was a East of the country. There were sions would resume between
response to the siege imposed 18 strikes in all, resulting in 57 AANES and the opposition
for several weeks by the regime victims, including 14 Syrian sol- Kurdish National Congress
on the Shahba region and diers. According to an anony- (ENKS). It is to be hoped that
Kurdish neighbourhoods of mous American intelligence they will be more successful than
Aleppo such as Sheikh Maqsood source, the strikes targeted in the Syrian Constitutional
(ANHA). particular transit sites for com- Commission, which met again
ponents destined for the Iranian on the 26 th and 27 th under the
This upsurge in violence comes nuclear programme (Le Monde). aegis of the United Nations, and
in a very tense Syrian context, still seem to be treading water …
IRAQ:
THE ADOPTION OF THE 2021 BUDGET IS OVERDUE; JIHADIST
AND TURKISH ATTACKS CONTINUE
elations between the order to be able to pay its civil Erbil’s share (Bas News). At the
R Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) and
the Federal Government
in Baghdad are still
marked by the question of the
budget for the year 2021, and
servants their salaries for the last
quarter of 2020, Baghdad has
had to borrow from its central
bank, but Erbil, a simple
province, cannot do the same.
Since Baghdad did not forward
same time, the Finance
Committee announced its inten-
tion to request amendments to
the budget law (Shafaq News).
The KRG obviously followed the
discussions closely, all the more
therefore the share allocated to 12.67% of its loan to Kurdistan, so as their outcome was condi-
the Region. On 22 December, the Erbil has been unable to pay its tional on Baghdad sending the
KRG Deputy Prime Minister own civil servants. funds needed to pay its own
Qubad Talabani announced an salaries... At the same time, some
agreement between both govern- In Kurdistan, the KRG met on Kurdish MPs questioned the per-
ments which, according to him, the 7th to prepare its own budget. centage of 12.67%, that is accord-
opened the way to a vote by the At the end of the meeting, KRG ing to them lower than the pro-
Baghdad parliament: “This draft spokesman Jutyar Adil said that portion of the population of the
budget law preserves the com- the budget law aimed to estab- Region in relation to the country
mon interest of all the Iraqi peo- lish transparency towards the as a whole, estimated at 5.45 mil-
ple, including that of the people. The budget is still being lion (data from the Iraqi Ministry
Kurdistan Region”, he said. “The prepared and on the same day, of Planning) out of 40.8 (UN
share of the Region in the budget KRG Deputy Planning Minister data). A fair share would then be
has been clearly specified", he Zagros Fatah said on Rudaw TV closer to 13 to 14% ( Rûdaw ).
added, regretting however: “[It that it would depend on how the Finally, the second reading only
is] lower than what we expected agreement with Baghdad would ended on the 16 th , before the
and deserve” (Rûdaw). be implemented. This in turn examination of the 150 or so
depends on the content of the amendments submitted by the
The agreement sets, as for 2020, budget law adopted by the MPs began... ( WKI ) While the
the KRG’s share of the total bud- Baghdad parliament, while sev- vote on the budget law was final-
get at 12.67%, and provides that eral Iranian-backed Shi’a parties ly announced only for the first
in exchange it must pay Baghdad have expressed their opposition week of February, the KRG dele-
the revenue from the sale of to the Baghdad-GRK agreement. gations continued their regular
250,000 barrels of oil per day and visits to Baghdad: one arrived in
50% of the revenue from the bor- Parliament held its first reading the Iraqi capital on the 24 t h ,
der crossings ( WKI ). The fact of the federal budget on 9 another was due for the 31st…
that both governments are strug- January. Before the second read-
gling with the financial crisis ing scheduled for the 11 t h , Moreover, a new parameter
caused by the collapse of oil Kurdish MP Viyan Sabri said came into play when the
prices and the economic impact that the Kurdish blocs would Parliament’s Finance Committee
of the COVID-19 pandemic com- meet in the meantime to try to announced on the 30th a general
plicated the negotiations. In form a united front to secure reduction of the budget in order• 10 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 430 • January 2021
to limit the deficit: with the KRG disputed territories during the same day. Turkish Defence
percentage remaining constant, three previous weeks, and rein- Minister Hulusi Akar, on his
this will imply a reduction of its forced their presence with way back from Baghdad where
budget in the same proportions... recruits from Syria. Moreover, he had met the Iraqi Prime
the attacks on the Diyala power Minister, before stopping in Erbil
While the protests that marked stations have reduced by more to meet the President of the
Kurdistan in December subsided than 60% the amount of electrici- Kurdistan Region on the 18th,
this month, new violence has ty received by the governorates for his part announced the “neu-
again hit the rest of Iraq, particu- of Diyala, Kirkuk and Ninewa. tralisation” of four PKK mem-
larly in Nasiriyah, where demon- On the 2nd, the jihadists launched bers in Gara (Dohuk) and three
strations have gone off the rails. an attack against the Iraqi mili- others in Hakurk, near the Iran-
Caused by numerous arrests and tary in Jawala (Diyala) that left Iraqi border. At the same time,
above all the murder of an one dead and seven wounded. the Turkish President reiterated
activist in his home, they left one Near Seid Sadiq (Suleimaniyeh), his threats to invade the Yezidi
dead (a policeman) and dozens two members of the Asayish town of Shingal (Sinjar) under
injured when the security forces (Kurdish Security) were injured the pretext of joint anti-PKK
opened fire on the protesters while removing a booby-trapped operations with Iraqi and/or
(Kurdistan-24). ISIS flag, and in Hawija (Kirkuk), KRG forces. But despite regular
an improvised explosive device declarations of “neutralisation”,
The COVID-19 pandemic experi- killed three Iraqi soldiers, includ- Turkish military operations in
enced a relative slowdown dur- ing an officer (WKI). In Baghdad, Kurdistan have above all result-
ing this month. On 12 January, a clothing market was hit on the ed in dozens of civilian victims
there were five deaths for the 21 st by a double suicide bomb and thousands of displaced per-
whole country, but none in claimed by ISIS, killing 32 people sons .
Kurdistan or Baghdad, while the and wounding 110 civilians. A
number of daily contaminations second jihadist exploded in the In Kirkuk, members of the pro-
dropped drastically, with 810 middle of the crowd gathered to Iranian Hashd al-Shaabi militia
new cases on the 12th, compared help the victims of the first chose a Kurdish neighbourhood
to 4,000 at the height of the epi- explosion. It was the deadliest to hold an anti-American rally
demic. In total, according to the attack in three years in the Iraqi commemorating the Iranian
Iraqi Ministry of Health, since capital (Le Monde). On the 23rd, commander of the Al-Quds force
the appearance of COVID-19 in eleven members of the Hashd al- Qassem Soleimani and the Iraqi
Iraq in February 2020, 603,739 Shaabi militia were killed and leader of the Hashd Abu Mahdi
people have been contaminated, ten others wounded in a night al-Muhandis, who were elimi-
of whom 12,906 died and 558,777 ambush north of Baghdad – nated at the same time by an
healed. These figures are proba- unclaimed, but largely attributed American drone strike in
bly much underestimated, as the to ISIS (AFP). Finally, the anti- January 2020 in Baghdad. The
many patients who prefer to try ISIS coalition eliminated seven event also aimed to protest
and treat themselves at home are jihadists in an air raid on the against the American sanctions
not recorded. The Iraqi authori- Qara Chokh Mountains imposed on the 8th against the
ties have announced forthcom- (Kirkuk), which has remained a new leader of Hashd Faleh al
ing purchases of Pfizer vaccines, sanctuary for jihadists since the Fayyad. As one might think, the
without giving a date for a vacci- fall of their “emirate” (WKI). Kurdish inhabitants of the neigh-
nation campaign. Unfortunately, bourhood were not happy with
there is no guarantee that the lull Another danger threatening this choice... It should be noted
in the situation will last (AFP). civilians in Kurdistan is the that, according to French intelli-
Turkish strikes and operations, gence information unveiled at
As for the ISIS jihadists, still pre- which remain incessant. At least the end of the month, because of
sent, they continue to exploit the three sites were bombed on the persistent rocket fire against
security vacuum in the disputed 22nd, injuring two brothers aged their military bases in Iraq, the
territories, but have also 10 and 15 in the province of United States is considering
resumed attacks in urban cen- Dohuk. Rûdaw , who reported more and more seriously moving
tres, which is very worrying. An the information, also cited local a large part of its forces to
official of the Peshmergas sources indicating that the Kurdistan.
Ministry told Rûdaw at the end attacks also killed hundreds of
of the month that jihadists had sheep. Two villages near the Finally, let us end this column on
launched fifteen attacks in the Iranian border were hit on the a project that brings hope for then° 430 • January 2021 Information and liaison bulletin • 11 •
environment of the Kurdistan been transplanted on the slopes public transport to reduce the
Region of Iraq, a long-standing of the Kurdish mountains. 80,000 use of the two million cars – for
victim of the conflicts that have more are expected to join them five million inhabitants – in the
followed one another for next autumn. Kurds from Iraq,
Region. Above all, the popula-
decades: a young Kurdish from the diaspora and even for-
woman from Rawandiz, eign expatriates are participating tion needs to be educated:
Delband Rawanduzi, a 26-year- through donations. “People here love to go out-
old hiker, has launched a project doors, every weekend they go on
to plant a million oak trees in the Asked by AFP about the project, picnics and they all have a house
Kurdistan Region. By autumn the former head of the Kurdistan in the mountains, yet most of
2020, already 2,000 saplings from Environmental Awareness
them do not realise the impor-
acorns brought in by volunteers Authority, Ahmed Mohammed,
and planted in her two green- said the Kurdistan Region tance of nature and the climate
houses built with the help of a should also review its climate disasters to come”, he regretted
private university in Erbil had policy, notably by developing (AFP).Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
02 janvier 2021
Par Krikor Amirzayan
Disparition d’Aziz Tamoyan (83 ans) le leader
de la communauté Yézidie d’Arménie
aid Avdalyan le prési- nationale des Yézidis, le lea-
S dent de l’association
des jeunes Yézidis d’Ar-
ménie a annoncé la disparition
der de la communauté Yézi-
die. Il a voué toute sa vie à la
défense de l’identité Yézidie,
d’Aziz Tamoyan à l’âge de 83 et du renforcement des rela-
ans, du leader emblématique tions arméno-yézidies » a écrit
de la communauté Yézidie Said Avdalyan. Citoyens armé-
d’Arménie. Les Yézidis consi- niens à part entière, les Yézi-
dérés à tort comme Kurdes, dis forment une communauté
sont la première minorité na- intégrée et aux droits protégés
tionale d’Arménie avec près de en Arménie.
40 000 membres. « Aziz Ta-
moyan, le président de l’union
02 janvier, 2021
Six morts dans deux attaques
à la voiture piégée en Syrie
Le ministère turc de la Défense impute l'une des attaques aux Unités de
protection du peuple (YPG), principale milice kurde en Syrie.
ix personnes ont été
S tuées samedi dans l'ex-
plosion de deux voitures
piégées dans des régions dis-
tinctes du nord-est de la Syrie
sous contrôle turc, a rapporté
une ONG.
La première explosion, qui a
eu lieu près d'un marché de lé-
gumes de la ville frontalière de
Ras al-Aïn, a fait cinq morts
dont deux enfants, selon l'Ob-
servatoire syrien des droits de Une voiture en feu à la suite de l'explosion d'une voiture piégée dans la zone industrielle de la ville de Tal Abyad,
dans le nord de la Syrie, à la frontière avec la Turquie, le 23 novembre 2019. Photo d'archives AFP
l'Homme (OSDH). Au moins
trois des personnes tuées
étaient des civils a précisé sant neuf autres personnes taque aux Unités de protection fait 40.000 morts.
l'ONG, ajoutant que quatre dont deux enfants. du peuple (YPG), principale
personnes ont également été milice kurde en Syrie, qu'An- Ras al-Aïn est contrôlée par
blessées, dont certaines sont Le ministère turc de la Dé- kara accuse d'entretenir des les forces turques et leurs sup-
dans un état grave. Plus tard, fense a lui fait état de la mort liens avec le parti des travail- plétifs syriens depuis une of-
une voiture piégée a explosé à de deux enfants dans l'explo- leurs du Kurdistan (PKK) qui fensive lancée par Ankara
Jindires, dans la région sion à Ras al-Aïn et de deux livre une sanglante guérilla sur dans le nord de la Syrie en oc-
d'Afrine, tuant un civil et bles- civils blessés. Il a imputé l'at- le sol turc depuis 1984 ayant tobre 2019 pour en chasser
Bulletin n°430 - Janvier / January 2021 1Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
les YPG. L'offensive d'Ankara de 300 km à l'ouest. quentes dans les régions de un marché de légumes de la
lui a permis de prendre le Ras al-Aïn et Afrine. Le 10 dé- ville.
contrôle à sa frontière d'une Qualifiés de "terroristes" par cembre, 16 personnes, dont
bande de territoire de 120 km Ankara, les combattants deux civils et trois soldats La guerre en Syrie a fait plus
de long et d'une trentaine de kurdes ont été le fer de lance turcs, avaient été tuées dans de 387.000 morts et des mil-
kilomètres de large, allant des de la lutte contre le groupe une explosion similaire à un lions de réfugiés depuis son
villes de Tal Abyad à Ras al- Etat islamique (EI) en Syrie, point de contrôle à Ras al-Aïn. déclenchement en 2011 avec
Aïn. Forces turques et supplé- aidés par une coalition inter- En juillet, au moins huit per- la répression brutale de mani-
tifs syriens avaient déjà pris, nationale emmenée par Wash- sonnes, dont six civils, avaient festations contre le gouverne-
début 2018, le contrôle de la ington. Depuis l'offensive également péri dans l'explo- ment.
région d'Afrine, située à plus turque, les attaques sont fré- sion d'une moto piégée dans
January 04, 2021
By K. Murat Yildiz
Rector appointment to Boğaziçi University
shows politicization and collapse of higher
education in Turkey
President Erdoğan’s latest politically-motivated rector appointment to Tur-
key's highly prestigious Boğaziçi University has raised eyebrows as some
see it as part of the overall decline in quality of Turkey's higher education
system during Erdoğan's tenure.
resident Recep Tayyip and 2020, not one Turkish
P Erdoğan on Jan. 2 ap-
pointed new rectors to
five universities. One appoint-
state university was listed
among the top 500 universities
of the Times Higher Education
ment raised eyebrows espe- University Ranking Index.
cially: the appointment of a
party member and parliamen- As the number of universities
tary candidate from the ruling grows to around 200 in the
Justice and Development country, the number of acade-
Party (AKP), with a not very im- mics is not increasing at the
pressive academic record, to same speed - a ratio that is a
Boğaziçi University; one of the major contributor to the decline
country’s most prestigious ins- of the quality of higher educa-
titutions of higher learning. tion. According to the Council
of Higher Education (YÖK), the cation due to increasing demo- rism and other unethical prac-
Since 2002, establishing a uni- number of students per acade- cratic backsliding in the coun- tices have become widespread
versity in every city of Turkey mic has risen from 20 to 24 try. among students and acade-
has been a primary goal of since 2015, while access to a mics, so much so that it even
President Erdoğan, which he professor per student is more Similarly, as a direct result of found their way even into Wiki-
has been vocal about for than 150 to 1, according to re- the sharp decline of the lira Leaks. According to internatio-
years. However, experts have ports. against foreign currencies, pri- nal sources, Turkey ranks third
argued that the quality of hi- vate universities can no longer in academic plagiarism glo-
gher education has declined Decline in academic freedom afford to hire competent foreign bally.
during Erdoğan's time in office: academic personnel.
Reportedly around one hun- Moreover, due to the deteriora- Just a few hours after the ap-
dred faculties from 20 universi- tion of rights and the waning The number of patents and in- pointment of the new Boğaziçi
ties don't have a single academic freedom in the coun- ternationally recognized aca- University rector, several
registered student. try for qualified foreign acade- demic publications by Turkish examples of his work where
mics, Turkey is no longer an universities and academics entire paragraphs were lifted
Prestigious Turkish universities ideal country to work in. The has also dropped over the "word for word" from other aca-
have started not being inclu- European Union has cut hun- years, putting the country fur- demics’ papers surfaced on so-
ded in internationally-recogni- dreds of millions of Euros of aid ther behind lesser developed cial media, painting a vivid
zed ranking systems. In 2019 and support packages for edu- nations. Additionally, plagia- picture of the politicization of
2 Bulletin n°430 - Janvier / January 2021You can also read
