#Afrin related roundup: “474 detained last week in Turkey for ‘promoting PYD/PKK on social media’…

In 2014 Salih Müslim was invited to Turkey officially…

Former Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Salih Muslim, who was added to the “most wanted terrorists” list by the Turkish Interior Ministry on Feb. 12, is expected to hold a press conference in the Belgian capital of Brussels on Feb. 14.
The Pentagon on Feb. 12 requested $300 million to train and equip the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and wants nearly as much to build a “border security force” with them in Syria.

474 detained last week in Turkey for ‘promoting PYD/PKK on social media’

A total of 474 suspects were detained across Turkey last week for “promoting” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) on social media, the Interior Ministry stated on Feb. 12.
The Ministry of the Interior has announced that 474 people who have made social media posts on the Olive Branch offensive and 192 people who have participated in protests against the offensive have been detained.
The military operation into Afrin against People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants intensified on Feb. 11, one day after the deadliest attack since “Operation Olive Branch” began, as the Turkish Chief of General Staff paid a visit to the southern province of Hatay to inspect troops taking part in the operation.
Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, in Istanbul on Feb. 11

Tillerson’s Mideast Trip Was Already Daunting. Then Israel and Iran Collided.

Israel’s strikes in Syrian territory give even greater urgency to a top priority: managing the aftermath of the expected final defeat of the Islamic State in Syria.

Why #DefendAfrin? Confronting authoritarian populism with radical democracy

The war in Afrin starkly highlights how the dynamics of power and resource grabs by the US,  Russia, and their regional alliances, have shaped contemporary struggles for life and democracy.

A demonstration in the city of Afrin, Syria in support of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) against the Turkish military operation against the Afrin Region. 19 January 2018. Voice of America Kurdish. Some rights reserved.This is the third article in a series on ‘confronting authoritarian populism and the rural world’, linked to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). The article opening the series can be read here.

Science – Feb. 9 – Feb 9, 12:41 PM

ISTANBUL, TURKEY— Serkan Golge, a Turkish-American research scientist at NASA in Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 7.5 years in a Turkish prison Thursday on terrorism charges. The verdict, which has been condemned by the U.S. government, has

The New York Times traveled with two U.S. generals to a northern Syria city where armed conflict between the Americans and Turks is now a possibility.
Harlem Désir, the Organization for Security and co-Operation in Europe(OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media, has criticized the Turkish government over the detention of hundreds of social media users for criticism the ongoing Afrin operation in Syria.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama “lied to Turkey” on the issue of Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Manbij region and current U.S. President Donald Trump “follows the same path,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.
The Independent – Feb 7, 7:13 AM

Turkey is recruiting and retraining Isis fighters to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-Isis source. “Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the YPG [People’s Protection Units

 

Al-Monitor – kjenson – Feb 6, 10:57 PM

It is customary for the leaders of Turkey’s political parties represented in the parliament to address their members and rant about the burning issues of the day. In that way, yesterday was no exception — but it was extraordinary. Recep

 

The opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) elected Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli on Feb. 11 as its new co-leaders in the party’s third ordinary convention held in the absence of former HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş and six other lawmakers, who are under arrest.

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