Al-Monitor: Armenian diaspora spread over 70 countries symbolizes survival rather than victimhood

April 18, 2015 By administrator

By Pinar Tremblay
Al-Monitor

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu delivered a heartwarming message Feb. 15: “[The] Armenian diaspora is not an enemy diaspora, it is ours. We will keep reaching out to them.” Yet on March 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called upon the Armenian diaspora, saying, “Come let’s go over the archives. We can assign experts to evaluate all documents, bring your documents. It is not ethical to go traveling around different countries, distributing money, establishing lobbies to carry anti-Turkish propaganda.”

The Armenian diaspora has become the scapegoat for the Turkish-Armenian conflict. As the commemoration of the Armenian genocide centennial approaches, the Turkish government keeps sending mixed messages.

For example, on March 24, disturbing graffiti appeared on the wall of an Armenian church in Bakirkoy district of Istanbul. It read: “Who cares if you are all Armenians [referring to the liberal groups standing with the minorities with the slogan ‘We are all Armenians’], one of us being Ogun Samast [the murderer of prominent Armenian Turkish author Hrant Dink] is sufficient.” The graffiti, which caused an uproar on social media, was promptly cleaned up. Another one appeared the next day reading: “Holy Year 1915.”

The existence of the diaspora itself poses the most difficult question: How did the Armenian population decline to 60,000 from 2.5 million at the end of the 19th century in Anatolia? While Turkish views on the Armenian issue are divided, there seems to be a general conviction in Turkey that the Armenian diaspora is now strong enough to affect Turkey’s international politics.

In a piece for the Armenian Weekly, columnist Raffi Bedrosyan expressed the popular perception among Turks about the “evil” Armenian diaspora.

Bedrosyan lives in Canada, as a pianist and engineer working diligently to save the Armenian properties all around Anatolia. In September 2012, he gave the first Armenian piano concert since 1915 in the Surp Giragos church of Diyarbakir. He was also active in the reconstruction of the church.

Bedrosyan told Al-Monitor, “Erdogan, AKP [Justice and Development Party] and generally the Turkish state and state-controlled media misguidedly portray Armenians as three distinct groups: the good, the bad and the poor. The small Armenian community in Istanbul is regarded as the good — obedient, agreeable and easy to manipulate. The diaspora is regarded as the bad — the hateful enemy obsessed with genocide recognition, compensation and reparations. The Armenians in Armenia are regarded as the poor — completely desperate, dependent in every way on the Russians or the diaspora finances. [The] Turkish state and Erdogan fail to see that all three groups share a common pain since 1915 and a common goal for a just resolution. Yes, perhaps the diaspora is the most vocal among the three in pushing for acknowledgment and justice; however, Turkey has completely shut out any attempt for reconciliation with all three groups — closed borders with Armenia and no dialogue with any Armenian entity from neither diaspora nor Armenia regarding 1915. I am a minority within the Armenian diaspora advocating direct dialogue with Turkey, instead of pressuring Turkey through third states, but after several attempts for dialogue, encouraged by Davutoglu’s statements such as ‘Armenian diaspora is also our diaspora,’ I have become disillusioned at the fake attempts by government officials and academia. I see absolutely no willingness at state level to acknowledge historical facts and truths.”

Indeed, Al-Monitor interviewed over 20 prominent Armenian academics, journalists, artists, pundits and pastors from Australia, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Syria and Lebanon, as well as different parts of the United States, and all agreed with Armenians’ demand for Turkey to officially recognize the genocide.

Kevork Oskanian, a research fellow at the Center for Russian, Eurasian and European Studies at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, told Al-Monitor that beyond the shared wish of an official recognition of genocide, “there are actually a great number of different ideas [among the diaspora]. Some believe the matter should stop there; others go so far as to advocate the resurrection of the Sevres Treaty and Wilson’s arbitral award. The overwhelming majority are somewhere in between these two extremes, demanding, say, symbolic acts, or more concrete — financial — forms of compensation.”

Asked about the Armenians of the Levant, he said, “They have a special status in the diaspora partly because they are the oldest and best developed postgenocide communities; the ancestors of many people in France, the USA … passed through Lebanon or Syria before heading West, and, of course, 1915’s ‘killing fields’ were situated mostly in Syria, giving the place an added significance to Armenians worldwide. In that sense, the Syrian civil war has done immense damage to the Syrian Armenian community, which used to be one of the most dynamic in the region, and is considered the ‘mother community’ by many in the diaspora.”

Scout Tufankjian, a photojournalist and author of the upcoming book “There Is Only the Earth: Images from the Armenian Diaspora Project” that documents contemporary Armenian communities in more than 20 countries, told Al-Monitor, “Beyond [the recognition of genocide] views [of the diaspora] really vary — from those who would be satisfied with recognition to others who would push for reparations to others who would want to re-establish Western Armenia in our historic homeland.” A New York resident now, Tufankjian has just returned from a year in Istanbul.

“Views on modern Turkey also really vary,” she added. “Some people hold that the responsibility for recognition lies with every Turkish citizen; others see this more as a governmental issue. Some people have no issue with traveling to eastern Turkey to tour the villages of their ancestors; others would never step foot in a Turkey that does not acknowledge the genocide. Even the attitude that people take toward the Kurdish apology [for their role in the genocide] has varied. Many have accepted it warmly and wholeheartedly and look for opportunities to work together; others distrust it.”

Nigol Bezjian, a filmmaker in Beirut, told Al-Monitor, “Armenians in the Levant may have more pragmatic and practical approach to deal with the past in this modern time due to the proximity to their homeland.” Bezjian, born in Aleppo, Syria, has directed the movie “I Left My Shoes in Istanbul” documenting the travels of a Lebanese Armenian to Istanbul in 2012.

Armen Georgian, a political analyst for France 24, is more pessimistic about the relations between the diaspora and Turkish government and the impact of Syrian civil war. “I see the stalemate continuing,” he told Al-Monitor. “Last year, Erdogan made a statement on the Armenians that would have been unthinkable for a Turkish leader 20 years ago, but it fell far short of the unequivocal apology that the diaspora has been demanding for a century. This year Erdogan has taken a harder line, trying to make sure that the Gallipoli centenary overshadows the centenary commemorations in Yerevan. So I think the rift between him and the diaspora has widened. In addition, some members of the diaspora hold the Turkish government indirectly responsible for the destruction of Armenian heritage in Syria by the Islamic State.”

When asked whether the diaspora’s actions benefits Armenians in Turkey, Georgian said, “I think that international awareness of the genocide centenary makes it difficult for the Turkish government to take measures against Armenians — back in March 2010 the prime minister threatened to deport 100,000 Armenian migrants — but I would not rule out a further spike in tensions after April 24 that could make both Armenian migrants and Turkish citizens of Armenian origin feel uncomfortable.”

An Australian Armenian, Ashley Kalagian Blunt, told Al-Monitor about the position of the Armenian community in Australia, “The battle at Gallipoli, which began April 25, 1915, was a significant aspect in the formation of Australian national identity. While Australian Armenians are keen to stand up and commemorate the genocide as a community this April, they wish for official recognition from Australia and, of course, official recognition from Turkey.”

One of the biggest diaspora groups is in Southern California, Harut Sassounian, the publisher of the California Courier, expressed concerns about the reactions of rest of the world as well, wondering, “Is it sufficient to criticize Turkey for genocide denial, while ignoring world leaders who attend the Gallipoli ceremonies?”

Whatever your answer is to Sassounian’s question, one cannot deny that diverse and determined Armenian diaspora spread over 70 countries symbolizes survival rather than victimhood.

Davutoglu “THE GOD FATHER ISIS” Warns Countries Who May Recognize Genocide

April 18, 2015 By administrator

Refers to Native Americans as ‘Redskins’

ANKARA—Warning that decisions like the European Parliament’s motion recognizing the Armenian Genocide will lead to enmity and prejudice against Turkey and Muslims, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in an attempt to point the finger away from the Turkish government, asked about the fate of the Aborigines in Australia and Native Americans in the United States.

“If a contribution is to be made to peace, if European culture is to preserve its multicultural and multi-religious structure, it must not make decisions that will cause enmity against any religious or national group on the basis of history. This is a situation which will provoke anti-Islam and anti-Turkish [sentiments], which have been on the rise recently in Europe. From now on, the ‘Turkey-Armenia’ [issue] has moved beyond the ‘Turkish-Armenian’ issue. It is a reflection of racism in Europe,” Davutoğlu said on Friday, responding to reporters.

The European Parliament’s motion came on April 15, a few days after Pope Francis also reaffirmed the Armenian Genocide with a Holy Mass at the Vatican.

The prime minister argued that both the European Parliament’s resolution and the pope’s statement were “a new reflection of racism.”

Davutoglu turned the discussion away from Turkey as he mentioned past injustices committed by European countries. “I told [European Parliament President Martin] Schulz yesterday. If we are to open the history of Europe, what was done in Africa during colonialism? What was done in Asia? What was done in Australia and where have those authentic tribes disappeared to? Where are the Aborigines, where are the Redskins?” he said, using the derogatory term for Native Americans.

Davutoglu then pointed the finger at the Catholic Church, criticizing the Church’s actions five hundred years ago during the Spanish Inquisition. “We could open files of Catholic history and bring up an issue by talking about those who fled the Inquisition, came to our country and how they have lived in peace here for centuries.”

Nalbandian Says Turkish Denial a ‘Sinking Ship’

April 18, 2015 By administrator

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian

YEREVAN—“Turkey finds itself more and more isolated on the sinking ship of denialism,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Asatutyun.am) on Tuesday while commenting on Turkey’s reaction to the European Parliament’s resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

“It has been clear for a long time that the policy of denial has no perspectives. By recalling ambassadors, by harshly criticizing those states, organizations, which pay tribute to the memory of 1.5 million innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, and which are raising their voices against denial for prevention of new crimes against humanity, Turkish authorities find themselves more and more isolated on the sinking boat of denialism,” Nalbandian said.

“Turkey attempts to put pressures, I would say to blackmail international structures, numerous countries. But hardly they can succeed in this regard, maybe with the exception of those countries, where human rights and fundamental freedoms are not respected, where democracy is on shaky ground,” he continued.

The Armenian foreign minister also commented sardonically on Ankara’s decision not to recall its ambassadors from EU member states. “What is the meaning of recalling ambassadors? We remember very well that after each recall they were obliged to send them back. It is the Parliament representing 28 European countries that adopted a resolution yesterday. It is good that Ankara at least realized not to recall their ambassadors from 28 countries. Otherwise that would create a serious unemployment problem for Turkish Ambassadors,” he said.

“The reaction of Turkish authorities is similar to a zugzwang in a chess game, where each of the following steps further worsens a player’s position.

“As the European Parliament resolution states: ‘without truth there can be no reconciliation,’ and I would add that this includes reconciliation with the international community, as well.”

Turkish city Mayor honors memory of Armenian Genocide victims

April 18, 2015 By administrator

During the Municipality Assembly session of the Turkish Van city, the attendees honored the memory of the victims of Armenian Genocide and Anfal campaign (slaughter of Kurds in Iraq).

At the beginning of the 3rd Municipality Assembly session, the Assembly Deputy Chairman Cahit Bozbay and press-secretary of Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Ramazan Alver made a statement on Armenian Genocide and Anfal campaign, Van city municipality official website reports.

Cahit Bozbay, the Van city Municipality Assembly Deputy Chairman, stated that they condemn the Armenian Genocide and Anfal campaign and honor the memory of the victims. In his remarks, Bozbay noted that the society should confront the past genocides and massacres. In his turn, Ramazan Alver stated that what happened to Armenians in 1915 is a human tragedy, which lies at the core of genocide. He said that DBP recognized the 1915 events as genocide, noting that the Pope’s statement was the precise definition of the events. “Although 100 years have passed, this human tragedy is still fresh, and the government is trying to paper it over,” the Democratic Regions Party press-secretary noted.

Kardashian sisters sign Armenian Genocide petition

April 18, 2015 By administrator

Google Doodle Armenian Genocide commemoration 100 year

The famous American Armenian TV personalities, Kim and Khloé Kardashian sisters, have tweeted the following:

“Please sign this petition to bring awareness to the Armenian genocide. I did!!!”

By way of this petition, the image below will appear as Google Doodle on April 24, which marks the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

– See more at: http://style.news.am/eng/news/21640/kardashian-sisters-sign-armenian-genocide-petition.html#sthash.msA8LPDs.dpuf

Armenian newspaper holds century of memories in Istanbul

April 18, 2015 By administrator

Philippe Alfroy, AFP

An editor shows an old copy of Armenian newspaper Jamanak in the newspaper’s offices in Istanbul on April 10, 2015

Istanbul (AFP) – It’s witnessed the collapse of an empire, the horrendous massacre of its people and the birth of an entirely new state. And it keeps on printing.

The newspaper “Jamanak” (“The Times” in Armenian) is the oldest continuously-running newspaper in Turkey and oldest anywhere in the Armenian language.

It published its first issue on October 28, 1908, in the final one-and-a-half decades of the Ottoman Empire when Armenians were still citizens of the empire, before the creation of modern Turkey and when Istanbul was still officially known as Constantinople.

It survived the massacres from 1915 of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces, an atrocity whose 100th anniversary is commemorated on April 24.

And still it prints almost every day, keeping Istanbul’s small Armenian community of some 60,000 up to date with events and views.

Entering its offices in Istanbul’s Ferikoy district is like visiting a museum with the walls decorated with old photos and back issues painstakingly stacked up.

In his office, the director Ara Kocunyan, dictates his articles to three editorial assistants who type them into the computer in Armenian script.

“We are the newspaper of the Armenian community in Turkey,” said Kocunyan.

“Jamanak has been published without interruption and for a long time, it has crossed so many eras that it has become an anthology of the life of Armenians in the Republic of Turkey.”

“It is our memory,” he added.

Six days a week, the 2,000 daily copies of the newspaper are printed in a basement close to the editorial offices. As it always has.

The press is the domain of Ibrahim Celik, a man of mixed Kurdish and Armenian origin who takes his mission seriously even if he cannot speak or read the language of his grandmother.

“It is very important to print this newspaper so as not to lose this language. If this kind of newspaper was not printed then our children would forget Armenian and end up forgetting their origins.”

– ‘An important mission’ –

For all its history, the newspaper’s influence is in no way comparable to the Agos weekly, which publishes in both Turkish and Armenian and is also widely read outside the Armenian community.

The assassination in 2007 of the director of Agos, Hrant Dink, cerated a wave of revulsion across Turkey.

But Ara Kocunyan said that it would be wrong to underplay the importance of Jamanak.

“On the political level, it has no weight, that is evident,” he said.

“But we have an important mission to serve as the link between the Armenian community and the Turkish community and to prepare its future in this country.

He said the paper’s mission is even more essential in the run-up to the anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces, which Armenians regard as a targeted campaign of genocide that killed 1.5 million of their ancestors.

Turkey vehemently contests the use of the word genocide, saying hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians lost their lives in a shared wartime tragedy. Tensions have spiked ahead of the anniversary.

“On April 24, 1915, our newspaper was the only publication to talk about what happened,” said Kocunyan. Armenians see the start of the tragedy as the rounding up of Armenian leaders on April 24.

“100 years on, it’s still very hard to look at this tragedy.”

“People who like me were born in the 1970s did not grow up with the burden of this historical catastrophe.

“We, the young people, need to tackle this subject so that we can carry on living in this country.”

Kocunyan finds the attitudes of the Armenian diaspora — who lobby heavily in the United States to push for recognition of the killings as genocide — as somewhat radical.

In his commentaries, he urges a rapprochement between Turks and Armenians. “While protecting our history and culture, of course,” he added.

He said that the paper has never in recent years been singled out by the government because it is Armenian.

“We have a problem with freedom of the press in Turkey but it concerns all organs of the press. We don’t have more difficulties because we are Armenian,” he said.

Daily Mail Genocide of the Christians: The blood-soaked depravity exceeded even today’s atrocities by Islamic State – now, 100 years on Turkey faces global disgust at its refusal to admit butchering over a MILLION Armenians

April 18, 2015 By administrator

By Tony Rennell for the Daily Mail

In 1915 the rulers of the Ottoman empire turned their hatred on Armenians
The Young Turks persecution of the minority turned to unbridled savagery
Modern Turkey faces disgust over refusal to admit the historic genocide
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES

She was in bed when the soldiers came in the middle of the night and dragged her father out of the family home in Diyarbakir, a city in eastern Turkey.

The last thing little Aghavni (her name means ‘dove’ in her native Armenian) heard as she cowered in her room was his shout of defiance: ‘I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian.’

Not until first light did Aghavni dare to creep downstairs on that morning 100 years ago. ‘I saw an object sticking through the front door,’ she later remembered. ‘I pushed it open and there lay two horseshoes nailed to two feet.

the ruling Turks had turned their hatred on the 2 million men, women and children of Armenian extraction who lived within their borders

‘My eyes followed up to the blood-covered ankles, the disjointed knees, the mound of blood where the genitals had been, to a long laceration through the abdomen to the chest.

‘I came to the hands, which were nailed horizontally on a board with big spikes of iron, like a cross. The shoulders were remarkably clean and white, but there was no head.

‘This was lying on the steps, propped up by the nose. I recognised the neatly trimmed beard along the cheekbones. It was my father.’

The year was 1915. In the sprawling, beleaguered Ottoman Empire — an ally of the German Kaiser in the world war that had engulfed Europe and parts of Asia for nine months — the ruling Turks had turned their hatred on the 2 million men, women and children of Armenian extraction who lived within their borders.

The Armenians — who lived on the eastern edge of the empire ruled from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) — were Christians and had been since the year 301, making theirs the first nation officially to adopt Christianity, even before Rome.

But here, among the Islamic Turks, they had long been second-class citizens, a persecuted minority. Now, as power in the land was seized by a junta of nationalist officers known as the Young Turks, persecution turned to unbridled savagery.

Over the next six months, there was to be a systematic uprooting and slaughter of perhaps as many as 1.5 million Armenians — on the grounds that they were infidels, racially inferior ‘dogs’ and traitors who were siding with Russia against Turkey.

Those who weren’t put to death on the spot, their faith cruelly mocked — such as Aghavni’s father, a mild-mannered, cultivated spice merchant who spoke five languages — were hounded in columns, eastwards, into the deserts of Syria and Iraq to die.

Their remains are long turned to dust, but the controversy that surrounds those terrible events is as alive as ever.

Just this week at mass in St Peter’s in Rome, the Pope heralded the upcoming centenary of the first killings on April 24 by describing the slaughter of the Armenian Christians as ‘the first genocide of the 20th century’ — only to be ticked off by Turkey in no uncertain terms for inflammatory remarks.

Read the complete story on Daily Mail

Police arrest five over alleged Anzac Day terrorism plot

April 18, 2015 By administrator

attack on Anzac Day. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAPIMAGE

Sevdet Besim, 18, of Melbourne, charged with planning terrorist act as four others are held after early morning raids

A teenager accused of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act has been remanded in custody after early morning raids in Melbourne in relation to an alleged plot to attack police at Anzac Day events in the city. Report The guardian

Sevdet Besim, 18, from the suburb of Hallam, appeared at a brief hearing in the Melbourne magistrates court on Saturday charged with preparing, or planning, a terrorist act. He did not apply for bail, though his lawyer, Anthony Malkoun, indicated there would be a future application, and was remanded in custody for a filing hearing on 24 April.

Besim was one of five men arrested during counter-terrorism raids on Saturday morning in relation to alleged plans to carry out Islamic State-inspired attacks against police at events to mark the centenary of the landings at Gallipoli during the first world war.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, urged Australians to attend Anzac Day commemorations in their numbers. “The best thing you can do in the face of those who would do us harm is to live your life normally,” he said.

An 18-year-old from Hampton Park was also expected to be charged with offences relating to preparing for a terrorist act, Australian federal police acting deputy commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters.

A third 18-year-old, from Narre Warren, was arrested on weapons offences, while two more Narre Warren men, aged 18 and 19, were in custody assisting police.

Australia’s government has raised the country’s terror warning level in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group. In September last year, the group’s spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, issued a message urging attacks t be carried out abroad, specifically mentioning Australia.

More than 200 police were involved in the raids across Narre Warren, Hampton Park, Hallam and Eumemmerring at about 3am. Police were still at a number of properties in those areas on Saturday afternoon.

Victoria police acting chief commissioner Tim Cartwright said three of the five men had been treated for minor injuries received during the morning raids.

Iraq, Deadly car bomb targets U.S. consulate in Iraq’s Erbil

April 17, 2015 By administrator

ERBIL | By Isabel Coles

Smoke rises from the site of a bomb attack in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, April 17, 2015.
Reuters/Stringer

(Reuters) – A car bombing at the entrance to the U.S. consulate in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed at least one person and wounded five others on Friday the local mayor said.

The State Department said no U.S. personnel were killed in the blast that it said was caused by a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” that went off right outside the entrance to the heavily guarded compound.

Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is an important partner in a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants who have seized swathes of Iraq.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A Reuters witness heard the blast which was followed by brief gunfire. Such attacks are rare in Erbil, a haven of relative safety in a country torn apart by insurgency and sectarian strife where, in many areas, bombings are a daily occurrence.

“A car bomb exploded outside the entrance to the U.S. consulate,” Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil’s city center, told Reuters. “It seems the consulate was the target.”

He said the bomber had killed one person and wounded five others. It was not immediately clear who had been killed.

The blast produced a plume of black smoke that rose high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes that is popular with foreigners.

Is Turkish PM Davutoglu fomenting PKK-KRG tensions after fresh war of words?

April 17, 2015 By administrator

Ongoing tension between Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is gradually growing, with the former accusing the latter of “treason” against the homeland.

The tension flared after Duran Kalkan, a key leader of the PKK, argued that “central dictatorship in South Kurdistan” is not viable.

Following a release of statement personally signed by President Massoud Barzani on April 16 as a strongly-worded and harsh response to Kalkan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Barzani, also released a separate statement on April 17.

“South Kurdistan [referring to the KRG] cannot be under a central political administration, as there are various dialects and very different communities there. A centralized dictatorship cannot survive in South Kurdistan. Only democracy can unite this region and keep it alive. One should not say, ‘We will administer South Kurdistan from Arbil and it will only be managed from Arbil.’ Sinjar, Kirkuk, Germiyan, Duhok and Sulaimaniya should govern themselves. If this happens, then Kirkuk would join Kurdistan too,” Kalkan was quoted as saying in a recent interview. Barzani’s written response was harsh.

“I call out to the people of glorious Kurdistan: Do not allow the existence of these groups in Kurdistan. They are elements wanting to commit treason and begin a civil war in this country. Do not give them recognition which will provide them with the opportunity to cause conflict,” Barzani said, calling out to the government and parliament of the KRG to fulfill their responsibilities.

“We witness the different ways that they are creating hostility towards Kurdistan. Their statements, their announcements and various propagandas are a new dimension to their hostility. Remarks and statements are being made to incite civil war and cause division between the Kurdish people. … This is not freedom of expression, but rather a betrayal of the nation and its people,” said Barzani.

‘Enemies to the nation’

“These kinds of enemies to the nation are not acceptable in Kurdistan. We will not allow for these initiatives. This issue is a serious threat to the country and its national security. Our gains have been won through blood and tears. But their attempts are a danger to our security efforts,” he added. In a swift display of its obedience to KRG leader Barzani, the KDP released a statement on the same issue only a day later.
According to the KDP, Kalkan “stepped out of line” with his remarks, which “did not reflect the truth about the Kurdistan region and its people.”

“Somebody who doesn’t know a single word in Kurdish, whose nationality is uncertain, and who doesn’t believe in the rights of the people of Kurdistan, has no right to speak about Kurds anyway,” said the KDP statement.

The tension is actually not new. In January, the KRG’s council of ministers announced its rejection of the PKK’s decision to establish a canton in the district of Sinjar, home to the Yazidi minority. They labeled the PKK’s move as “illegal” and against the constitution.

The council expressed gratitude to all fighters of the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG), who helped the Peshmerga to rescue the Kurds who were displaced from the Sinjar during the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack. However, it also baid “the PKK should stop treating the Yazidi area of Sinjar with such a partisan mentality. Such a position will cause political and administrative tensions.”