Disputes, arrests over school curriculum in northeastern Syria
Kurdish students attend class at a school in Qamishli, Syria, March 11, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Issam Abdallah)
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The arrest of a number of teachers last week who were privately teaching the official curriculum of the Syrian government highlights the complex situation in northeastern Syria where Damascus and the local self-ruled administration compete over what is taught to the youth who live there.
On Jan. 19, Kurdish-led Internal Security Forces (ISF), also known as Asayesh, arrested seven teachers for secretly teaching the Syrian regime curriculum in the Kurdish border town of Darbasiya. On the following day, students and their relatives protested the detentions.
877 civilians arrested in Syria’s Afrin by Turkish-backed forces in 2020: Rights group 2021/01/29 06:49
Kidnapped Kurdish women were discovered in a prison during clashes between rival groups in Afrin, Syria in May 2020. (Photo: Social Media)
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - According to a report released earlier this week by a human rights organization, at least 877 civilians throughout 2020 were arrested by Turkish-backed militias and Turkish intelligence in the Afrin region of northern Syria.
This comes despite promises by the Syrian opposition to investigate and stop abuses by Turkish-backed groups in areas occupied by Turkey and its proxy militias, such as Afrin, Tal Abyad, and Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye).
Shelling by Turkish-backed groups killed three civilians in northern Aleppo on Saturday (Photo: social media)
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey-aligned groups on Saturday bombarded central Tal Rifaat city, an enclave still controlled by Kurdish-backed fighters and surrounded by Ankara-backed rebel militias and Syrian regime forces. The shelling killed at least three civilians and wounded six others.
Those killed were one woman and two children. The victims were, according to the Syria-based Rojava Information Center (RIC), Majid Yasser Sikran, 5, Abdelmuhsen Sikran, 12, both from Tal Rifaat, and Nazliye Mihemed Mustafa, 55, from Afrin.
2 children and one woman were killed as result of the shelling:
Majid Yasser Sikran (5) from Til Rifaat
The checkpoint is located in Qamishlo’s Hilko neighborhood.
“Today, tensions between the Regime and the forces of the Autonomous Administration increased as fighting broke out between Difaa Al Watani (NDF), a mercenary group with links to the Assad regime, and the internal security forces (also known as Asayish),” Charles Flynn, a Syria-based researcher at the Rojava Information Centre (RIC), told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday.
“So far, it s been confirmed one of the mercenaries was killed, and others were injured,” Flynn added. “This is not an isolated incident as the past months have been marked by frequent clashes.”
According to Mohammad Ibrahim, a local researcher and analyst focuses on northeast Syria, it’s been nearly a month that tensions remain in place between the Asayish and the pro-regime NDF forces.