Today, Sunday, in a televised press conference in the Kurdistan Parliament in Erbil, twelve lawmakers of the Kurdistan Parliament, MPs from all parties except the KDP and PUK announced their resignation. Abdulstar Majid, a Justice Group lawmaker, spoke on behalf of the leaving MPs to protest the extension of the parliament.

On October, 9 the Kurdistan Parliament voted to extend its life by a year, as the parties had not agreed on a date to hold election, which would have left the parliament in legal vacuum.

In the briefing Majid said, "we candidly expressed our opposition to the extension of the parliament’s expired term and have made our position clear before." The MPs vetoed the postponement during the assembly’s session to prolong its legal life.

"Just as the parliament’s term is over, the government, presidency, governorate councils, and electoral commission’s terms are over as well, and this makes all governing institutions illegitimate," Majid added in the statement.

Remaining parliament factions have planned to replace the outgoing MPs with the candidates that had less votes than the winning candidates in the previous election. 

There are five extensions since the establishment of the Kurdistan Parliament in 1992, and a total of the Parliament has extended its life on more than one occasion. The second term of Parliament was supposed to end on June 4, 2009, but the political parties agreed to extend it for over two months. Parliament’s third term was to expire legally on August 20, 2013, but the political parties opened it for seventy days.  The current term of the parliament would have ended on November 6, 2022.

On Saturday, Turkish Ministry of Interior reported that 2,106 irregular migrants were deported across the country between October 28 and November 3.

Between the same dates, the ministry stated that security forces detained 5,317 “illegal” migrants, including 1982 from Afghanistan, 141 from Pakistan, and 3,194 from other nationalities entered the country illegally. Turkey has built a wall on the Iran-Turkey border that aims to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants coming from the east.

According to Turkish media a total of 2,106 illegal migrants, 979 from Afghanistan, 116 from Pakistan and 1011 from other nationalities, were deported. Turkish papers reported that 98,932 migrants have been deported since the beginning of the year, per government figures.

Turkey has become the main transit route for the region’s crisis-hit countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and others. The scale of the issue has pushed it to the top of Turkish political debates, as Erdogan usually touches the issue to push his agenda.

Villagers in Penjwen, Kurdistan region, where in winters temperature drops to minus, with prolonged snowfall blocking traffic, find it difficult to heat their homes as energy prices has skyrocketed.

Khala Mustafa, a Penjwen villager logs trees to prepare for the coming winter said, “I don’t want to cut down trees, but I have no other option, because our country is beautiful with its trees.” Mustafa also complains, “We can’t pay for kerosene [Iraqi government’s subsidized kerosene priced at 100,000 Iraqi Dinars IQD] and that forces us out cut down our tress which we don’t want to, while we seat on large reserves of oil, and they know that Penjwen is a cold place but still they charge us very high, they only subsidize one barrel of kerosene [220 liters] which is not enough to get us through the winter.” 

A barrel of government subsidized white kerosene costs 39,000 IQD in 2021, but now its upped to 103,000 IDQ a threefold increase.

Logging has become the most significant threat to Penjwen’s environment. Hundreds of villagers in the harsh geographies of Penjwen has took to the forests to heat their homes. Many say that the drive for turning to logging is high energy prices. “The reason is the price, a man cannot pay 103,000 IQD for a barrel, and you need at least four barrels until April, we also don’t want to cut down trees, but there is no other way,” a villager told KurdSat English.

Villagers storing logs to heat their homes in the winter 

Penjwen inhabitants refused to purchase government subsidized Kerosene at 103,000 IQD, leading many to call for protecting Penjwen forests. “Some cut them down for their own use, while others log for business, because a load of logs costs around 700,00 IQD, and the tree are cut down randomly,” an activist told KurdSat English.

Penjwen Mayor explained that the government has not replied to their request to give Pnejwen, kerosene at a discount, and says that lack of energy is a big threat to the forests in Penjwen. “Our environment is a valuable national wealth, there are trees aged over hundreds of years but of course if there is no heat, people would be obliged to cut them down.” On protecting the forests, the mayor said, “we would not allow logging, only dead trees and branches of trees are up for grab, however if many people have no option we may not be able to prevent logging, as Penjwen is a large geography that not easy to cover.”

Government distribution of fuels prioritizes colder, mountainous areas like Penjwen, and according to instructions fuel subsidized for winter must be passed out in the previous summer but almost always its withheld until the beginning of winter, leading demand to outpace supply and increase its price. The government’s set price for kerosene is considered a large burden on most families, as per capita income is relatively lower in the agrarian based economies of places like Penjwen.

The Kurdistan region environment faces many challenges, among them water scarcity and degradation, the current high energy crisis adds up to the list, while nothing is done to protect the region’s vegetation.

A forest in Penjwen, Kurdistan region

According to Hengaw Human Rights Organization, 60 people, including 11 children and six women, have been killed in demonstrations in East Iran or Rojhelat, four people have died under torture with 4,000 put behind bars. The last protester died under torture was an Iranian Kurd detained in Tehran protests on October 29.

Fifteen Iranian security officers have been killed in the unrest, and 38 cities and 10 universities of Rojhelat have joined the demonstrations, per reports from Iranian human rights groups.

Molavi Abdulhamid Ismaeelza, a top Iranian Sunni cleric and a preacher in Zahedan, the capital of the restive Sistan and Baluchestan province, said "security forces were using excessive violence against protesters, killing 16 people and injuring dozens in Khash on Friday alone. In his Friday Prayers sermon on November 4 in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, Ismaeelzah asked the Qom seminary and the country's authorities to listen to the voices of the people who have been protesting for the past 50 days.

The cleric, regarded as a spiritual leader for Iran’s Sunni Muslim population, is the director of main Sunni seminary in Iran. He is a vocal critic of the Iranian government and has been under pressure for his comments against the Islamic republic.

Shakar Mardan, a lawyer defending Daquq land grabs, told KurdSat English, “through Iraqi legal and judicial means, and through Daquq district administration, plots of land were returned to their Kurdish owners.

He added that "a Daquq court gave back of  close to 1,300 acres of land to the Kurds in the area, and Rusafa Court in Baghdad restored 837 acres to their owners."

The lawyer also noted that the Iraqi Supreme Court approved the rulings to return the lands were, and reversing the decision would be impossible.

Kurdish, Turkmen, and Arab farmers dispute over 300 hectares of farmlands in Kirkuk’s southern Laylan subdistrict. Most of which remain unsettled, and is a source of contention between the different minority groups.

The Iraqi security forces took over the disputed regions following the Kurdistan region 2017 independence referendum; Iraqi security forces have begun enacting policies that make the lives of the Kurdish people in the disputed territories more difficult. In Kirkuk and other towns of the disputed territories, the authorities have banned posters and billboards in Kurdish, and security forces stop farmers from watering their crops. They were denied working on their farms and told to leave. 

Iranian security forces detained a Kurd in Tehran protests and died on Saturday, October 29, after “brutal torture” by Iran security forces, the Hengaw human rights watchdog reported on Tuesday. Iranian Kurdish cities have seen most of the unrest, and according to Amnesty International, most of the victims in the protest crackdowns are Kurds. 

Only last week, 16 Kurds were killed by Iranian security forces, while hundreds were jailed.

“Iran has arrested at least 51 journalists since the start of protests in mid-September following the death of a 22-year-old woman, [Zhina] Mahsa Amini,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote. The group also called for sending home journalists put behind bars since the start of the countrywide unrest. “Iranian authorities should free all detained journalists immediately and unconditionally,” CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg said. 

Protests in Iran and East Kurdistan have been going on for nearly two months, with young people facing repression from the authorities. Iran security forces in Piranshahr killed a Sixteen-year-old teenager in the protests.

A yacht with 70 passengers, mostly Iraqi Kurds, capsized in Greek territorial waters. Greek Media reported that Greek authorities launched a search and rescue mission for the missing.

Greek-based reporter Ranj Pishdari told KurdSat that a yacht with 70 passengers, mostly Iraqi Kurds, was heading to Greece two days ago, they were then trapped near an island and called for help, but their yacht overturned. The boat had set sail from the Turkish coastal city of Izmir. 

A video published by KurdSat English shows the passengers crying for help at night. The boat capsized on Monday night between Evia and Andros islands.

Most of the passengers were women and children, and only nine migrants had been rescued by the Turkish navy so far, Pishdari added. The Greek coastguard said on Tuesday that nine men had been found on an uninhabited rocky islet in the Kafirea Straits between the two islands, which lie east of Athens.

More than 1,300 migrants have died in the Mediterranean and Northwest Africa since the beginning of 2022, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). 

The majority of yachts that overturn are due to the smuggler’s negligence of the yacht’s load capacity; the smugglers usually overload the boats, as they charge the passengers per person, according to people that cross to Europe via the route. Also, the uneven load distribution on the boat leaves even a good boat vulnerable to sinking.

"Our intelligence services have data indicating that British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a group of journalists.

Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of attacking Nord Stream 1 and 2. Putin claimed Washington attacked to cut off Europe's access to cheap energy and sell its gas at higher prices, calling the move an "act of international terrorism" that "undermines the energy security of the entire continent."

Peskov also pointed out that "the Russian intelligence services have evidence indicating that the attack was supervised and coordinated by British military experts."

In addition, he stressed that "these actions cannot be left without a response, saying, "We will think about the measures that will be taken." He also denounced what he described as the "unacceptable silence of European capitals."

The Russian Defense, in turn, announced last week that "representatives of a British naval unit in planning and logistics participated in carrying out the terrorist act in the Baltic Sea on September 26 to sabotage the work of the two gas pipelines," without providing public evidence for this accusation.

The British Defense Ministry denied the accusation in a tweet. It said Russia seeks to cast a shadow on its failures in Ukraine by accusing the UK of sabotage. 

Four major leaks were detected on February 26 in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines off the Danish Island of Bornholm, two in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone, and two in Denmark waters. Preliminary investigations under the sea supported the sabotage hypothesis since explosions preceded the leak.

The Nord Stream gas pipeline has been Russia's way to bypass or mitigate European sanctions. The two pipelines linking Russia and Germany have been at the center of geopolitical tensions after Moscow decided to cut gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions imposed on it, for the military operation it launched on its western neighbor on February 24.

The CTG said in a statement released Tuesday, "An Iraqi counter-terrorism delegation led by Colonel Ihab Jalil Ali, commander of the Iraqi counter-terrorism battalion in Kirkuk, visited CTG headquarter in Qarahanjir."

The counter-terror groups discussed peace and security, fighting against remnants of ISIS, further joining forces to defeat and eliminate ISIS, and emphasising expanding intelligence sharing to apprehend wanted and fugitives by the Iraqi and Kurdistan courts on terrorism charges.

"The forces agreed to a seat for the CTG in the Military Joint Operations Room in Kirkuk to fight terrorism better," the CTG said in a statement. 

The groups also discussed ways to fill the security vacuum in the areas between the Kurdistan region and Iraq. The sites have become a safe haven for ISIS remnants, using them as bases to launch attacks on Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces, which take a large toll on the security forces and people of the region. 

Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Group commander in Qarahanjir greeting Colonel Ihab Jalil Ali, commander of the Iraqi counter-terrorism battalion in Kirkuk

The HPG revealed in a statement today, Tuesday, the identity of two of its fallen commanders, killed in a "fierce battle" in Osmaniye. 

The HPG Media and Press Center released the statement that two PKK commanders, Agid Rojhelat and Armanj Nasimi, were killed in a hard battle with the Turkish Army near the village of Kulu in the central province of Osmaniye in "North Kurdistan."

The PKK commanders Rojhelat and Nasimi were killed on May 24, 2022, in the Amanos mountains region of Osmaniye in Turkey, per the HPG website that publishes biographies of its fallen guerrillas. The martyr profiles usually reveal the fallen guerrillas' legal name and their adopted names. 

Most of the PKK fights against the Turkey army are in the Kurdistan region, though the PKK statement reveals the group's presence deep within Turkish territory. 

 

The fallen PKK commander Egid Rojhelat (right) seen with PKK leader Murad Karayilan

 

 

Speaking to KurdSat English, head of the Iraqi Federation of Refugees Amanj Abdullah said, 75,000 people have left Iraq since the beginning of this year, 35,000 of which are Kurdistan region residents.

“Most of them leave to Europe through dangerous maritime routes, and the number of those leaving has increased since the last year,” Abdullah noted.

The IFIR also said that “the Iraqi and the Kurdistan region governments are have no plans for the youth, resulting in a significant increase of refugees.”

Significant migration is one of Iraq’s new challenges that upsets its demography. Most of those leaving are young males that leave their female counterparts, leading to increased polygamy in Iraq and the Kurdistan region.

Unemployment, lack of basic services, and a deeper integration into an “attractive” European life style through the internet has led many to leave Iraq for the EU.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey will continue its efforts for the deal to export grain through the Black Sea, despite Russia's reluctance, after Moscow suspended its participation on Sunday.

"Even if Russia acted hesitantly because it did not get the same benefits, we will decisively continue our efforts to serve humanity," Erdogan added in the speech.

"Although Russia is reluctant because it does not get the same facilities (as Ukraine), we are determined to continue efforts in the service of humanity," said the Turkish president as one of the mediators of the July 19 grain export agreement in Istanbul.

Separately, a UN spokesman said the first of Monday's planned inspections of 40 ships had been completed in Istanbul waters by only a UN and Turkish team, rather than previous teams that also included Russians and Ukrainians before Moscow suspended its role in the deal.

Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said 12 ships had moved out of Ukrainian ports today, Monday, under the Black Sea grain initiative, after a United Nations spokesman for the initiative told Reuters that teams from Turkey and the United Nations had resumed inspection of ships under the agreement.

Russia suspended its participation in the agreement to export Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports on Saturday "indefinitely" due to what it described as its inability to "guarantee the safety of civilian ships" sailing under the agreement after its Black Sea fleet was attacked, in a drone attack on Crimea. Russia said, Ukraine manipulated to the deal to attack Russia as demilitarized space in the ports were used for the attack.

"Today 12 ships left Ukrainian ports, the UN and Turkey delegations submitted 10 inspection teams to inspect 40 ships with the aim of fulfilling obligations under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Ukrainian delegation accepted this inspection plan, the Russian delegation was informed," Kubrakov wrote on Twitter.

The United Nations said it had agreed with Ukraine and Turkey on a plan for the movement of 16 ships today, Monday, 12 of which will exit from Ukrainian ports and four will enter it, and also intends to inspect 40 ships during the day that will move out and are now anchored near Istanbul.