Kurdish communities in cities across Europe held protests Oct. 19, demanding action on claims that the Turkish military has repeatedly used chemical weapons in its ongoing intermittent air-strikes against strongholds of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. The Nobel-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) said it found evidence of chlorine and other "improvised chemical agents" during an investigative mission to Iraq. The IPPNW urged international bodies including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to launch formal investigations. The PKK has released the names of 17 guerrillas it says were killed by Turkish chemical attacks in Southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) over the past year. The pro-Kurdish Fırat News Agency (ANF) published a video that has been circulating on social media, showing two PKK fighters apparently suffering under influence of a chemical agent.

The national uprising in Iran continued to spread over the past week, with petrochemical workers walking off the job at the major Asalouyeh plant on the Persian Gulf coast of Bushehr province—shortly followed by a similar wildcat strike at Abadan refinery in the neighboring restive province of Khuzestan. Videos posted to social media show workers at the Asalouyeh complex chanting "This year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali Khamenei is done!" and "Down with the dictator!"—both references to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. (Iran International) Security forces fired on protesters in Sanandaj, capital of Kordestan, another traditionally restive province, killing at least five. (BBC News) Lawyers in Tehran gathered in front of the Iranian Central Bar Association to protest the repression, and were themselves dispersed by tear-gas.  (Jurist) In scenes across the country, schoolgirls held protests in which they removed their hijabs in defiance of authorities. In the southern city of Shiraz, Fars province, dozens of schoolgirls blocked traffic on a main road while waving their headscarves in the air and shouting "Death to the dictator!"  (BBC News)

At least 13 people were reported killed in Iranian missile and drone strikes on the Kurdish region of northern Iraq Sept. 28. UNICEF said a pregnant woman was killed and two children were among those injured as one missile struck a school in the refugee settlement of Koya. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had struck Kurdish "separatist terrorists" who backed "riots," referring to the anti-government protests that have swept the country over the past two weeks. The IRGC named the targeted groups as Komala, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK). Komala confirmed that 10 drones targeted buildings in the Zargwez area, PAK said its headquarters in Sherawa was hit, and the PDKI said its bases in Koy Sanjaq were struck. (TNH, BBC News)

An Iranian government entity enforcing Islamic rules says the Intelligence Ministry has arrested 300 anti-hijab activist "ringleaders" working "for the enemy." A spokesman of the Enjoining Good & Forbidding Evil Headquarters said Sept. 11 that the activists were arrested in accordance with the new Hijab & Chastity Regulations, which officially extend the mandatory hijab to social media posts. This is to be monitored by the government's facial recognition software that was previously used during the pandemic to track if people were wearing face masks.

A Turkish drone strike on July 22 targeted three members of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who were driving in a vehicle near the northeast Syrian town of Qamishli. All three women were killed, and several passers-by injured by shrapnel. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said that it was the second drone strike on territory of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North & East Syria (AANES) in the past 48 hours. The YPJ is the women's wing of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the territorial defense force of the autonomous zone, in the region known to the Kurds as Rojava. Turkey has carried out repeated drone strikes on targets within AANES territory this year, amid apparent preparations for a new military incursion into the autonomous zone.

In Episode 132 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg expounds on the legacy of anarchist heroism in the Spanish Civil War and Spanish Revolution, which both began on July 19, 1936. Interestingly, that same date also marks the victory of the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979 and the beginning of the Rojava Revolution in Syria in 2012. There was an anarchist element to all these revolutions—but it was strongest by far in Spain. The betrayal of the Spanish anarchists holds lessons for these later struggles, as a counter-revolutionary dictatorship is established in Nicaragua, and the Kurdish revolutionaries of Rojava face growing contradictions in the context of Syria's ongoing civil war. 

At the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif expressed concern June 21 over the increase in human rights violations occurring in Islamic Republic of Iran. In accordance with Resolution 76/178 of the UN General Assembly, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was required to prepare an interim report on the human rights situation in Iran and submit it to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council.

Turkish officials formally arrested and jailed 16 Kurdish journalists on June 16 after detaining 21 journalists for eight days without charges. Five of the original 21 were released. According to Turkey's Media & Law Studies Association (MLSA), the 21 journalists were originally detained on suspicion of "terrorism." The MLSA's Mehmet Ali Birand dismissed the validity of the charges, saying: "Most of these colleagues were working in media organs such as DİHA [news agency] and Özgür Gündem [newspaper]... None of these journalists participated in terrorist activities. None of these journalists carried a gun, pulled a trigger, or killed anyone." Turkish officials claimed the arrests were part of an investigation into the "press committee" of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).