• The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) released three reports claiming the Iranian regime is attempting to change the demography of Iranian Kurdistan. Among other things, the reports outlined the resettlement of dozens of Turkish families in Mehabad. At the same time, the KDP-I reported Azeris have recently purchased large amounts of agricultural land from Kurds for above-market prices in Bokan and Piranshahr, which raised fears among residents of a regime-funded project to dilute the area’s Kurdish majority. 
• Iranian security forces arrested several Kurdish activists and citizens last week, including 66-year-old Abdullah Shadab in Shinno (Oshnavieh), a labor activist named Osman Ismaeli in Saqqez, a female activist named Marim Sadeqi in Sanandaj, and two Kurds from Piranshahr and Bokan named Salah Alizadeh and Diako Lutfi. Moreover, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported the fate of a female Kurd named Metra Taqi and her four-year-old son, Mehirsam Rasouli, remains unknown after they were arrested one month ago after returning to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. Lastly, Sanandaj’s Islamic Revolutionary Court imposed a suspended sentence of two years in prison on a female activist named Roya Jalali for “membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).”
• Three Kurdish border porters (kolbars) were killed, and three were injured when their vehicle flipped over between Nowdeshah and Marivan on Saturday. Separately, two mines from the Iran-Iraq War injured two Kurdish civilians outside of Mehabad and Harsin. Many of the mines from that conflict were planted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who, unlike the Iranian Army (Artesh), made little effort to recover the mines or record their locations.  

• Iraq’s Iranian-backed parties continued to dispute the election results announced by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and held protests in Baghdad and several other governorates last week. On Sunday, Iraqi security forces prevented hundreds of pro-Iran protesters from assaulting the Green Zone. Concomitantly, the Iranian-backed Fatah Coalition, along with former prime ministers Haider al Abadi and Noori al Maliki, Shi’a cleric Ammar al Hakim, and former head of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Falih al Fayyad, formed the Coordination Framework to organize efforts to dispute the election results and plan future political campaigns. Maliki, who sided with the Iranian-backed parties because his chances of becoming prime minister again are very small, hosted a meeting of the Framework’s members at his home on Sunday. That said, the meeting was not attended by any of Iraq’s Kurdish parties, and disputes remain between the Kurdish parties, primarily the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP), and the Iraqi government regarding who will serve as Iraq’s president and governor of Kirkuk. 
• Turkey claimed its National Intelligence Organization (MIT) assassinated three Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members in Kirkuk. Moreover, the PKK accused Turkey of using chemical weapons 323 times during the past six months of its incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish airstrikes also struck several locations near Peshmerga positions in Erbil Governorate’s Soran District. 
• US Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a concurrent resolution commemorating the 30th anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort, which implemented a no-fly zone in 1991 that protected Iraq’s Kurds from Saddam Hussein’s regime. The resolution reaffirms “the strong partnership between the United States and the Iraqi Kurds” and “the enduring respect and support of Congress for America’s Kurdish friends.”
• Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi gave in to pressure from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and annulled a plan to establish an Iraqi military base on a site used by the former regime to massacre Kurds in Kirkuk Governorate’s Tobzawa. Iraq’s Ba’athist government held 55,000 Kurdish detainees at the Tobzawa camp who were later killed or buried alive in mass graves in southern Iraq. 

• The latest round of talks aimed at drafting a new Syrian constitution failed after four days of negotiations between the Assad regime and the Turkish-backed opposition in Geneva. The UN’s chief mediator and Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, described the most recent round of talks as a “big disappointment.“ The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) was excluded from the latest round of talks and prior summits due to Turkey’s veto. 
• Turkish forces acted on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most recent threats to initiate a new military campaign in northeastern Syria by launching several probing attacks on AANES-controlled territories. Simultaneously, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a Turkish drone strike killed three SDF personnel, Huzan Qamishli, Kali Halab, and Amed Afrin, who were returning to Sarin from Kobani after receiving medical treatment on Saturday for wounds suffered in previous clashes with Turkish forces. The SDF also rejected Turkey’s claim it killed nine SDF personnel near Afrin. That said, Turkish proxies shelled two Christian villages northwest of al Hasakah and an area near Tal Rifaat. Finally, Kurdish activists in Amuda protested Russia’s ongoing failure to enforce a ceasefire it agreed to with Turkey in northeastern Syria. 
• The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Turkish proxies imposed new taxes on residents in occupied Afrin’s Kurdish-majority Soho District. The “new levies” are for protection and will be imposed on local farmers and every vehicle that passes through the town. Meanwhile, another SOHR report claimed at least one fighter from the Turkish-backed al Sham Corps was killed in clashes with another Turkish-backed group known as the al Sharqia faction. 

• On Thursday, the Turkish police arrested 17 Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) members in Izmer for criticizing the government in social media posts. The Turkish government continues to put immense pressure on the HDP and its supporters, resulting in thousands of arrests alone in 2021. 
• After the demand of ten embassies in Turkey to release the Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala from prison, President Erdogan bashed the appeal and declared the ambassadors as persona non grata. On Monday, the US embassy in Ankara said “the United States notes that it maintains compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations,” a sign of withdrawing their appeal in regards to Kavala’s case. Erdogan’s reaction was criticized by the HDP leaders Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar. “For a country that conflicts with all its neighboring states, whose currency is constantly losing value, whose foreign debt has exceeded 400 billion, and an important part of whose resources goes to war and armaments, new enemies are what it least needs.” read the HDP statement. Further, the European Commission also released a report about Turkey’s “democratic backsliding” and “very worrying” situation in the Kurdish region. The report criticized the government for jailing 4,000 HDP members and the crackdown on the elected mayors. Additionally, the report covered Turkey’s domestic issues, including corruption, which the government failed to counter, and civil society’s challenges.