Iraq

On 7 October 2020, an armed and unidentified group abducted Sherwan Sherwani in his home. Since he was abducted, Sherwani’s family has yet to receive any information on his location.

On 20 August 2020, Turkish soldiers from one of their military bases in Gar and Xalat opened fire on Shapan village in the sub-district of Mergasor, located in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. As a result, 33-year-old Nawzad Rasheed was wounded from the gunfire.

In November 2019, Niyaz Abdullah organized a gathering of Kurdish journalists promoting freedom of the press. The journalists present acknowledged experiencing political oppression for seeking to tell the truth. They called for an end to the government's distortion of the law that allows it to threaten journalists and undermine press freedom. "We are strong," Niyaz Abdullah said, "but we need to be stronger. And we are much stronger together."

CPT calls on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to protect citizens’ rights to safety, access to a fair trial, and protection from coercion and ill-treatment in detention in Iraqi Kurdistan. CPT also calls upon the United Nations, NATO, and the international community to pressure the Turkish government to respect the lives of civilians, cease all military operations inside Iraqi Kurdistan that have continued for more than three decades, and ultimately initiate a peaceful resolution between Turkey and armed groups to solve their long-term conflicts.

On September 6, Turkey’s Defense Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the end of Operation Claw-Tiger, the Turkish military ground campaign in the Haftanin area of the Kurdistan Region’s northern border with Turkey.

To be a jet pilot is to be my enemy. To be the defender of a nation, means to be the bomber of my community, the amputator of my friend Saman’s nine-month-old legs.

On 25 June 2020, Peyman Talib with her son Hezhwan, daughter Hamisha and her husband Kaiwan Kawa were in their grocery store in Kuna Masi. Kuna Masi is hometown to dozens of families, a tree-lined river,  and a picnic area that hundreds of families visit during weekends.

During a press conference on 15 July 2020, Hakan Karacay, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in Erbil, responded to a question about the ongoing Turkish military operation in Iraqi Kurdistan by saying, “We have never targeted any civilians.”

An Australian friend told me the other day that a strong case of nostalgia is floating about at the moment. As the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown continue, it seems many of us here in Australia are forced to reflect on our lives—one of the casualties of time alone.