Azad Deewanee - Online Profiles and Publications ☑️ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/azad-deewane… ORCID: orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=000… Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=…

Turkish bases are thinning Kurdistan's border woodland, satellite data show, but far less than claimed Videos of trucks carrying timber to Turkish military bases have sparked a major controversy in Iraq's Kurdistan Region in recent days, over whether Turkey is systematically cutting the region's border forests. The issue has gone viral across Kurdish media. Rudaw, Kurdistan24 and opposition outlets each offer a different version of events, each fitting its own agenda. To test the claims independently, The National Context analysed 25 years of satellite imagery covering every district of the Kurdistan Region. Satellite data is the most independent way to check what is happening on the ground. Here is what the findings show: Woodland in areas of Turkish military activity, especially Amedi district in Duhok province, is being lost at about twice the rate of comparable woodland elsewhere. The loss is modest in scale, however, and concentrated where Turkey has built networks of new roads and outposts, including cleared hilltops consistent with helicopter landing sites. Each year's loss is small. But it recurs every year and falls on the region's highest oak woodland, so the cumulative damage is significant enough to cause concern. The long-term record shows no collapse of the region's forests. It does show a slow decline in the border belt relative to the rest of the region. The border belt is defined here as the woodland within 25 km of Turkey in Amedi, Zakho and Mergasur - all mapped. That pattern points to loss in specific patches. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery shows where those patches are. Between 2017/18 and 2024/25, 5.6% of Amedi's woodland showed a marked drop in greenness, the highest share of any district. Zakho followed at 4.8% and Mergasur at 3.8%. Elsewhere the share was 2.8% in Akre, 2.5% in Soran, 2.1% in Penjwen on the Iranian border, 2.0% in Duhok and 1.7% in Pshdar, also on the Iranian border. Several indicators contradict the opposition's allegation that the cutting is systematic and commercial, feeding furniture production inside Turkey: Commercial logging usually spreads across any forest that trucks can reach. The border belt doesn't fit that pattern. If you split its woodland into 1 km squares, nearly 90% of the loss is packed into just one in ten squares, and about four in five squares show no loss at all. Moreover, the loss follows the newly built roads. In the Metina mountains, a main target of Turkey's 2021 operation, 29% of woodland within 250 m of a new road showed a marked drop, against about 10% further away. The losses came in 2023 and 2024, the years a switchback road and then a ridge-crest road were built. More importantly, the scale is limited. Across the border belt, about 36 km² of roughly 1,300 km² of woodland has shown a marked drop since 2017. About 20 km² of that is more than comparable woodland lost elsewhere, and 12 km² of the extra loss is in Amedi. That is 0.34% to 0.5% of the belt's woodland a year. By comparison, woodland in the region without Turkish military activity loses about 0.2% a year, Iran's Zagros oak forests about 0.16%, and forests worldwide about 0.25% - that is gross loss. Also for context, other war zones have suffered far heavier losses. Syria's coastal forests lost 24% of their cover between 2010 and 2020, and western Syria 19% between 2010 and 2019. More than half of Afrin's forest cover was reported lost within about three years of Turkey's takeover. On Ukraine's front lines, 5% to 16% of forest was damaged in a single season. The figures also strongly contradict any timber trade. Assume every affected hectare were dense, mature woodland at the top of published estimates, about 76 tonnes per hectare. The extra loss would then yield at most about 20,000 tonnes of wood a year, and all of the marked drop about 35,000 tonnes. Real yields are likely far lower. Moreover, most of this woodland is scrub oak, cut back repeatedly over generations. It is firewood grade and of little use to furniture makers. Even the theoretical maximum would be about a 0.1% of Turkey's annual industrial wood harvest. Small-scale sales, such as surplus firewood sold in Sirnak or Hakkari or the felling of individual walnut and plane trees, cannot be ruled out, but a trade on the scale alleged can. The full analysis, with the methodology and detailed results: thenationalcontext.com/turki…

🚨🇪🇺🇹🇷 The EU has mobilized over €12.4 billion since 2011 to support Turkey in hosting millions of Syrian refugees. Critics allege that Turkey diverted some EU funds intended for humanitarian programs to prop up political Islam and Jihadist groups instead.

Your friend Tom Barrack hides this because he receives bribes from Turks & Qataris. They are also paying you to lobby on behalf of the jihadist Al Jawlani, Mr Wilson. Under gullible @realDonaldTrump American foreign policy & international security have become a complete joke.

Must be a peshmerga cat

Turkish regime, via its paid-for man Tom Barrack, fooled gullible Trump and some Western leaders into believing al Sharaa would confront Hezbollah and pro Iranian militias. Then, Turkish regime made a quick move to facilitate Sharaa-Hezbollah anti-Israel collaboration talks.

Kurds, actions speak louder than words. The time has come to launch a full scale offensive military operation against Iran to liberate Kurdistan from Iranian occupation.💯

The success of Syria’s transition matters greatly to Europe. The EU is using its political and economic tools to help Syria on the path to an inclusive and peaceful transition. EU-Syria relations have come a long way since Assad's fall. We want Syria to take its rightful place in the international family, and we are ready to help turn this into lasting progress. My press remarks in Damascus with Foreign Minister al-Shaibani ↓

Today in New York, al Jawlani was asked important questions about 9/11 and his leadership role in al Qaeda. He showed no remorse for his past, but rather appeared to reflect pride in it. Thanks to @realDonaldTrump & his personal business broker, Barrack. youtube.com/watch?v=JgFcoW9f…

Syrian Kurdish forces were pressured by @realDonaldTrump envoy Tom Barrack to integrate into the HTS led Jihadist forces. Now brave Kurdish fighters are exposed to ISIS. Today, brave fighter E. Eziz Faysal, who previously guarded American positions, was killed by ISIS.

Ms. Jihan Hessam is the city manager (mayor) for Qamişlo. Her city in northeastern Syria has appx. 1 million pop. and is a hub for commerce and culture. She is the first-ever female city manager in the new Syrian government. We discussed her plans to improve the health, safety, social cohesion and pride among the city’s multicultural, multireligious denizens. Follow: @_JehanHassam See article by: @hawarhebo99 The big projects include opening an international airport (previously occupied by Russian military), opening a border crossing with Turkiye, and renovations to schools and a dialysis clinic. An amusement park in the city-center also needs funding. 💡Qamişlo is a great candidate for the @SisterCitiesInt program. It was an honor and privilege to meet Mayor Jihan. Thanks to my talented trilingual interpreter Ms. Beritan for facilitating the discussion. —- Birêz Cîhan Hesam Rêvebera Bajarê Qamişlo ye li Bakur Rojhilatê Sûriyê, ev bajar weke navendek bazirganî û çandî ye û nêzî miliyon kes lê dijî. Birêz Cîhan yekem jin li ser asta Sûriyê vê erkê digre, me bi hev re planên wê yên balkêş niqaş kirin yên ku bi armanca pêşxistina beşê tendurustî, ewlehî û hevgirtina civakî dê pêk werin, û ji bo xurtkirina hestên şanazî û serbilindiyê di nava gelê bajar de yên ku ji netew û olên cuda ne. Di nav planan de, vekirina Belafirgeha navdewletî ya bajar, mezinkirin û vekirina deriyê sînor bi Turkiyê re û nûkirina dibistanan û navenda Diyalîzê. Qamişlo pêşiniyarek guncawe ji bo projeya girêdana bi bajarên derve re. Hevdîtina min bi birêz Cîhan re cihê kêfxweşî û şanaziyê ye. —- تشغل السيدة جيهان هسام منصب مديرة المنطقة (العمدة) في القامشلي. وتُعد مدينتها، الواقعة في شمال شرق سوريا، مركزاً تجارياً وثقافياً بتعداد سكاني نحو مليون نسمة. وهي أول امرأة تتولى منصب إدارة المنطقة في سوريا. وقد ناقشنا خططها اللافتة والقابلة للتنفيذ الرامية إلى تحسين قطاعات الصحة والأمن والتماسك الاجتماعي، وتعزيز شعور الفخر والاعتزاز لدى سكان المدينة الذين ينتمون إلى خلفيات ثقافية ودينية متنوعة. وتشمل المشاريع الكبرى افتتاح المطار الدولي، وتوسيع وفتح معبر حدودي مع تركيا، وتجديد للمدارس وعيادة غسيل الكلى. تُعد مدينة قامشلو خياراً ممتازاً لبرنامج "أخوة المدن". لقد كان لي شرف كبير بلقاء العمدة جيهان.

🔴Suriye geçici hükümetinin Eğitim Bakanlığı tarafından Kürtçe eğitimin haftada 3 dersle sınırlandırılması kararı, öğrenciler ve halk tarafından protesto edilmeye devam ediyor Video: Doğan Cihan ilketv.com.tr/rojavada-kurtc…

Il y a quatre ans ce jour Mahsa Amini était tuée par la police des mœurs du régime iranien. Tuée à 22 ans pour un voile mal ajusté. Pour avoir voulu vivre libre. Sa mort a fait surgir un cri qui a traversé l’Iran et le monde : Femme, Vie, Liberté Un cri que la répression sanglante du régime iranien ne parviendra pas à éteindre. La France n’oublie pas Mahsa Amini. Elle se tient aux côtés des Iraniennes et des Iraniens qui aspirent légitimement à la justice et à la dignité. Ils doivent pouvoir décider librement de leur avenir. Leurs droits fondamentaux doivent être respectés. Femme, Vie, Liberté زن، زندگی، آزادی

Turkey is a NATO ally on paper but we are concerned about Turkey’s close relationship with Russia and Iran, about its harboring of Hamas leadership, about Erdogan’s calls for the destruction of Israel and illegal occupation of Cyprus military flights above Greek islands. ekathimerini.com/politics/fo…

For Federal Turkey in Federal EU

Syrian Kurds aim to preserve Kurdish schooling as Damascus reasserts authority reut.rs/4raIjim reut.rs/4raIjim

The Turkish military is continuing its buildup in Syria: reports indicate that Ankara is establishing a new base near the Al-Oktan prison in Barka, in coordination with the Syrian Ministry of Defense. This brings the total number of Turkish bases in the country to nine. While Al-Julani speaks of "sovereignty," Turkey is solidifying its presence on the ground deploying troops, equipment, and bases and gradually transforming Syria into a Turkish protectorate.

Trump admin is zeroing out the $61M KURDISH Peshmerga budget — Iraq's most reliable check on Iran's militias — at the exact moment those same Iran-backed militias launched drone strikes from Iraqi soil on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, forcing Riyadh to shut it down. Defunding the Peshmerga now doesn't weaken Iran — it weakens Iraq, right when Baghdad can least afford it

In Aichi Graveyard in Kurdistan, headscarves were raised aloft and “Jin-Jiyan,-Azadî” echoed through the air. There, the mourning for Jina, drawing on decades of women’s struggle and Kurdistan’s historic resistance, grew into an uprising that transformed women from objects of patriarchal laws into agents of change and altered the course of Iran’s history.

This is how al Jawlani’s associates remember 9/11. Al Sheikh al-Dhahabi, also known as Hani Dahab, an Egyptian jihadist who joined al Nusra under al Jawlani & served as a Sharia judge, marked the anniversary by talking about obesity, and eating sweets. @StateDept_NEA @tedcruz

Update from Kobani: I am told HTS-affiliated Syrian security forces from outside the region remain with at least 12 vehicles and are harassing residents and making arrests. The U.S. and intl community must press them to leave to protect residents and allow funeral processions.