The Turkish military has reportedly crossed the border into northern Iraq on Thursday morning and engaged PKK forces, in an escalation of sustained Turkish cross-border military operations, bombardments and air raids since October last year.

According to KHRP sources, Turkish troops and military vehicles have entered northern Iraq in order to conduct military operations against the PKK.  It has been reported that heavy fighting between the Turkish military and PKK have taken place in various areas, especially in the neighbouring Zap and Zagros regions, Kurdistan Regional Governate.  The PKK has already claimed they have killed over 20 members of the Turkish army.  Both the Turkish authorities and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have confirmed that the incursion and subsequent armed clashes have taken place, although neither has confirmed nor denied if any casualties have resulted.  KRG President Massoud Barzani is said to have visited the regions where the clashes are occurring.

Kurdish Human Rights Project has just received information that former Kurdish politician Osman Mihemed Silêman Hecî, who had served as a Syrian MP between 1991 and 2007 died in hospital yesterday following several months of torture and ill treatment in prison.

Mr Hecî was arrested on 27 November 2007 and had been in prison ever since, suffering torture and ill treatment at the hands of Syrian police. On 22 January 2008 he was taken to El Kindi Hospital by Syrian officials and registered with the name of Eli Ehmed to hide his real identity. He died of his injuries there yesterday.

Mr Hecî is one of countless Syrian Kurds who suffer arbitrary detention and torture at the hands of Syrian officials. Syria’s Kurdish region is kept deliberately economically isolated both from the rest of Syria, and other Kurdish-inhabited regions. Around a million Kurds have been stripped of citizenship and therefore unable to travel or access basic services. Arrests and violence in Syria’s Kurdish regions have been particularly common in recent months due to Syrian Kurdish opposition to Turkey’s military operations in Kurdistan Iraq, operations which Syria vocally supported.

In response to today’s news KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yildiz stated: “Kurds are disenfranchised, arbitrarily arrested, tortured and killed with a shocking degree of impunity in Syria. That even a long-serving and respected member of parliament such as Mr Hecî can suffer such a fate demonstrates that Syria cares little even to hide such outrageous conduct.  KHRP calls on the international community to unreservedly condemn this killing and to put the necessary pressure on Syria to enfranchise its Kurdish population and to respect the human rights of all its citizens”.

KHRP is pleased to announce two specialist voluntary internship positions in its Research and Resources & Communications departments.

For its Resource Centre Development Project the KHRP Resources and Communications department is seeking an ambitious, assertive and forward-thinking intern with a background in database and website technology and/or library science to aid the department in the development and organisation of a fully searchable catalogue of its printed and electronic resources. This is an exciting opportunity for a recent graduate of Computer Science or Library science to gain hands-on and meaningful experience in an ambitious institutional development project.

For its Culture and Language Rights Project KHRP requires a research intern with demonstrable knowledge of the issues surrounding culture and language rights to lead the development of a new publication. This is a unique opportunity for someone familiar with this aspect of human rights, to develop their research and analytical skills and direct the preparation of this important project.

Please click ‘Resources and Communications Internships’ and ‘Research Internships’ on the KHRP website’s Voluntary Work page for full internship descriptions, person specifications and to download an application form.

Please note: You must be registered and logged in to the KHRP website to download application forms for voluntary positions. To register/ log in please the ‘register link’ on the right of this page.

The Kurdish Human Rights Project today welcomes the formal acquittal of Ahmet Önal, the Kurdish publisher charged with the dissemination of separatist propaganda, during proceedings at Istanbul Heavy Criminal Court Number 11.

A KHRP delegation today observed the trial of Mr. Önal in which he was accused of showing demonstrable support of an “armed terror organisation”, for his publication in 2005 of The Diaspora Kurds by Hejare Samil.

In defence of Mr. Önal , his lawyers referred to his right to free expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is, it was asserted, Mr. Önal’s right as a publisher to ‘receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority’.