EC Meeting July 2022

Like everything else, media organisations in Iraqi Kurdistan are owned almost wholly by the ruling Barzani and Talibani families with those that are critical of the government regularly targeted by the state and shut down or blocked. This was the case during the 2020 anti-government protests with NRT TV was shut down and its right to broadcast revoked. It is frequently targeted by the authorities. In 2011 its offices were burned down and the station’s owner Shaswar Abdulwahid Qadir survived an assassination attempt in 2013. Last December its website was targeted by millions of cyber attacks after it broadcast an interview with US-based journalist Jack Kopplin who had reported on alleged corruption by the Barzano family. The Rudaw and Kurdistan 24 channels are however particularly reviled. During both the 2020 anti-government protests and the 2021 student demonstrations, they were jeered and met with chants of “oil channel.” Press freedom is a major issue, and again will be dealt with in more detail outside of this report, but it is an important part of the story as is the internal repression in Iraqi Kurdistan which allows Turkey and the KDP to act with impunity while those that try to hold them to account are marginalised or jailed. CONCLUSION We have to say from the very outset that Turkey has committed a string of war crimes in Iraqi Kurdistan. From the bombing of refugee camps to the targeting of hospitals and residential areas. The alleged use of chemical weapons is an area that warrants further investigation. As the evidence continues to mount it is simply untenable for bodies such as the OPCW, the UN and Nato to maintain silence. I am not a chemical expert, nor are those who claim to be the victims of such attacks. But firm action has been taken by world powers on less evidence. The Kurds are once again victims of the politicisation of the institutes of imperialism. The world looked away when Saddam gassed the Kurds in Halabja. We must not allow this to happen again.

It is clear that the target is not the PKK. It is the system of self-administration and the Kurdish people as a whole. But the designation of the PKK as a terrorist organisation is a problem. It is used as cover for Turkey’s genocidal campaign against Kurds and legitimises its war crimes under the guide of “fighting terrorism.” In a way Kurds are prisoners of their own geography and have been subjected to more than a century of manipulation and subjugation by imperialist powers. We should not fall into the trap however of thinking that Turkey acts as an independent power. It has long-been a US client state and was an important bulwark against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It is strongly believed the US was involved in the military coups that have plagued Turkey and the crushing of left groups, Kurds, Alevi’s and other minorities, most notably using far-right paramilitary groups such as the Grey Wolves as part of Operation Gladio. Similarly today it is providing both political and military support to Turkey, something underlined in recent remarks made by the US Ambassador Jeffrey Flake who described Ankara as “an indispensable ally of the United States. “Turkey, as a 70-year NATO member, is a critical country at a very important time for us. “This is extremely important for us, for regional and world security ... Turkey is increasingly taking its place on the world stage as a bigger player.” More worryingly the United States is accused of facilitating the resurgence of Isis both in Iraq and Syria. While those claims have been made by Damascus and various groups in Iraq, of Washington denies such allegations. But its nurturing of such groups via Operation Timber Sycamore and the radicalisation of jihadists - including the two former leaders of Isis - cannot simply be ignored. Nor can the claims made to me by at least three credible sources in Kurdistan where the US support for jihadist groups is one of the worst kept secrets. The truth in this regard is however unlikely to ever come to light with a media tightly controlled by the world imperialist powers and those that get close to exposing

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