Iraqi Archives

Yazidis and Assyrians remain unconvinced by Iraqi Kurdistan referendum

August 16, 2017 By administrator

Gareth Browne

Barzani and the KDP abandoned us, the only Yazidis that support them now are the ones they are paying. We don’t want to be with them, we don’t want their referendum, a Yazidi student says.

The world is slowly becoming aware of the plight of Iraq’s minorities, and yesterday US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson toldreporters that “ISIS is clearly responsible for genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims”.

one in the discourse of US officials, reserved only for the most serious of cases. But even with the international community awaking to the plight of Iraq’s minorities – especially the Yazidis and Christians, the path of their recovery is far from clear.

Now with a referendum on Kurdish independence looming, minority groups’ qualms with both the Baghdad and Erbil governments are becoming all the more prominent, and the minorities are refusing to see their concerns go ignored.

Iraq’s Christian community has dwindled in recent years. Once home to some 1.5 million Christians, the country now boasts a population of barely 250,000, according to a recent report by the World Council of Churches.

Dozens more are leaving every week for new lives in North America and Europe, but the ones who have remained do not appear convinced by the Kurdish case for independence.

In July, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities forcefully removed elected Assyrian mayor Ayez Abed Jawahreh, only to replace her with a Kurdish figure more friendly to the ruling Kurdish Democratic Party’s (KDP) agenda. Although there were murmurs of corruption on Jawahreh’s part, no evidence was presented and many believe it was just an exercise in restricting opposition to the KDP’s agenda.

Diana Sarkisian, an Assyrian human rights activist, suggested “this removal and meddling in the political leadership in Alqosh has shown how little minorities are respected by the KRG”.

Assyrians quickly gathered in Al-Qosh to protest, and the Kurdish flag was notably absent from their demonstrations, with the Iraqi one instead proudly held up by many of those present. Assyrians further voiced their disagreement with referendum at an event involving the KRG’s representative to the United States in Washington earlier this month. Protesters rushed the stage holding aloft placards such as “KRG is not a democracy” and “Assyrians say no to referendum”.

Sarkisian added that most of the Assyrians in Iraq wanted to remain so, in an “independent province” similar to “that of the KRG”, but that obviously it was for the people to decide for themselves.

One minority that has received far greater attention from the Iraqi and Kurdish governments is the Yazidis. The victims of the world’s latest genocide have been widely courted by Barzani’s KDP party, which traditionally attempts to portray itself as something of a protector of minorities.

Indeed Haydar Shasho, the head of the YBS, or Sinjar Resistance Units, a Yazidi militia charged with defending Yazidi homelands in Northern Iraq, went as far as saying that the genocide carried out against the Yazidi people by the Islamic State group “would not have happened” if there had been an independent Kurdistan.

The Iraqi parliament’s sole Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, has also aligned with the KDP-led push for Kurdish independence, suggesting that an independent Kurdistan would be a “beacon of hope and stability”.

However this is a far cry from the perspective of most Yazidis, who feel that Barzani’s Kurdish Peshmerga – who fled their defensive positions in Sinjar in August 2014 as IS approached – abandoned the Yazidis in their hour of need.

Several weeks after IS’ capture of Mosul, the jihadists marched on Sinjar, and the thousands of Peshmerga charged with maintaining security withdrew without a fight. What subsequently took place has been labelled genocide by the United Nations – as many as 5,000 were executed and 7,000 women and children were kidnapped and exploited as sex slaves by IS fighters and officials.

As Hishah Bashir, a Yazidi student now living in Erbil, said: “Barzani and the KDP abandoned us, the only Yazidis that support them now are the ones they are paying. We don’t want to be with them, we don’t want their referendum.” He added: “If we stay with Baghdad, at least we can push for a federal or independent Yazidi province in Sinjar and Nineveh. The Kurds will never give us that; they want full control over everything.”

Source: eKurd.com

Iraqi Kurdistan’s risky independence referendum

August 7, 2017 By administrator

While Iraqi Kurds are expected to overwhelmingly vote their preference for an independent state on Sept. 25, it is less clear how Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani will manage opposition from just about everyone else.

The referendum does not compel Barzani to declare an independent Iraqi Kurdish state. Barzani may consider a yes vote as leverage to negotiate with Baghdad and neighboring powers from a greater position of strength.

This column wrote last month that there is “shared interest among Syria, Turkey and Iran in preventing Kurdish autonomy” in both Syria and Iraq. The Iraqi Kurdish referendum complicates Erbil’s close ties with Ankara. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opposed the referendum from the start, fearing the impact on the Kurds in both Turkey and Syria. Turkey’s top priority in Syria is to break the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPG is Washington’s Syrian partner of choice and also aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The United States and Turkey consider the PKK a terrorist organization. While the KRG does not support the YPG, and is a rival of the PKK, both the YPG and the PKK are popular with many Iraqi Kurds.

Cengiz Candar reports that among “the inner circle of the KRG decision-making process, negative comments by the Turkish side are for the benefit of Turkey’s domestic political scene. What they have heard from their Turkish colleagues privately on the referendum issue is quite different. … Therefore, for the Kurds, there is supposedly no need to be concerned about Turkey’s reactions.”

The question is whether the KRG inner circle indeed has the inside track or instead is hearing what it wants to hear. Candar writes, “Erdogan’s statement and the words he chose have to be treated with the utmost importance, as his position overrides every institution and personality in today’s Turkey. His remarks during a July 5 interview with TV channel France 24 do not support KRG officials’ optimism on Turkey’s ultimate position.

Candar continues, “Anybody familiar with Erdogan’s speaking style should know that these phrases are quite tough — beyond a friendly warning. Tellingly, Erdogan was also belittling the KRG by saying ‘local administration’ rather than using Iraqi Kurdistan’s official name. Erdogan has consistently made it known that he doesn’t support even the autonomous Kurdish entity in northern Iraq, fearing the same thing will happen in Syria. … Turkey’s military establishment, one of Erdogan’s recent staunch domestic allies, is also known for its opposition to the autonomous Kurdish entity.”

Nahwi Saeed writes that Iran unambiguously opposes to the referendum. “In a move that coincided with preparing for the referendum,” Saeed writes, “Iran cut water flow from the Little Zab River to Kurdistan. Iranian officials have recently told a high-ranking Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) delegation, ‘If you hold a referendum, do not expect anything good from us.’ More recently, the Iranian defense minister has threatened that the separatist movements in Iraq will not be tolerated. In short, Iran is unequivocally against the Kurdish referendum and will try to prevent it from taking place.

Holding the referendum is also complicated, Saeed says, because it would take place not only in the Kurdistan Region that Barzani is president of, but also in “disputed territories such as the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Sinjar, Makhmour and Khanaqin.”

Iraqi Kurdistan: Expelle Yezidi Fighters and Families “Collective Punishment”

July 9, 2017 By administrator

KRG Expel Yazidi Forced Returns, Threats Amount to Collective Punishment,

(Beirut) – Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) forces have expelled at least four Yezidi families and threatened others since June 2017 because of their relatives’ participation in Iraqi government forces, Human Rights Watch said today. The KRG’s security forces, Asayish, returned the displaced families to Sinjar, where access to basic goods and services is very limited.

The expulsion of Yezidi families from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) because a relative joined the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Sha’abi or PMF) amounts to collective punishment in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said.

“Kurdistan Regional Government authorities should stop expelling Yezidi families because of their relatives’ actions, a form of collective punishment,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These displaced families have the right not to be forcibly returned to their still-damaged home villages.”

Human Rights Watch spoke to three Yezidi commanders who said that Yezidi forces had been integrated into the PMF under the name Yezidi Brigades (Kata’ib Ezidkhan), with the forces holding positions in four areas of Sinjar. Sinjar is technically under Iraqi central government administrative control, but KRG security forces remain active in the area and control the main road from Sinjar to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In late June and early July, Human Rights Watch interviewed nine displaced Yezidis originally from Kocho, Tel Kassab, and Siba Sheikh Khidr villages in Sinjar, which the PMF retook from the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in May. All had been living in the KRI and did not want to return to their villages because of widespread destruction of property, mass graves, unexploded improvised explosive devices, and the lack of water and electricity. Their families had fled Sinjar in August 2014, after ISIS attacked the area, massacring and enslaving thousands of Yezidis. All those interviewed said that Asayish threatened them with expulsion because they had relatives who joined the Yezidi Brigades, and in four cases, they alleged that Asayish forces had forcibly expelled them to Sinjar as recently as July 5, 2017.

A Yezidi man who had been living in a camp near the town of Zakho in the KRI said that in late May, three of his sons joined the PMF’s Yezidi Brigades. On June 12, an Asayish officer told him to appear at the local Asayish office the following day. He said that when he arrived, officers told him that if he did not get his sons to leave the PMF and return to the camp, he and 15 family members would need to leave the KRI by June 21 and return to Kocho.

His sons did not leave the group, and on June 29, Asayish officers at the camp ordered him and his family to leave immediately. He asked for a 24-hour extension to get his family ready, but the officers refused. An officer drove him and his family to Sinjar. “I don’t know what to do next,” he said. “My village was completely destroyed, and there is no water or electricity in the area.”

Another Yezidi man who had been living in a camp near the city of Dohuk said that his father had joined the Yezidi Brigades in late May. On June 21, Asayish officers at the camp told him his family of 10 had one week to convince his father to come home or they would be expelled from the KRI. On June 30, the officers told him that because his father had not returned, the family would need to leave that same day, he said.

He said his uncle has close ties with the KRG, and so officers said they would spare the family the shame of picking them up at their tent, and would instead allow a relative to drive them to Sinjar. “We are now living with a relative in Khanasoor [in Sinjar], because our village is still littered in landmines,” he said. “We don’t know what we will do.”

A Yezidi man living in a camp near Zakho said that on June 17, two Asayish officers from the camp management office told him that they knew his brother had joined the Yezidi Brigades, and that if his brother did not leave the group within four days, his family of 10 would be returned to Kocho, in Sinjar. The man said that he had two brothers who had joined the Yezidi Brigades and that they would not be willing to leave the armed group. At least 10 other families at the camp told him that Asayish had made the same demand of them. He said he and the other families expected to be expelled any day.

One Yezidi Brigades commander said that on June 24, Asayish officers called his family, who live in a village near Dohuk, into the city’s Asayish office. An officer made his wife sign a pledge that she and her two daughters would leave the KRI within seven days because of her husband’s role within the PMF, he said. “I don’t know where I should move my family,” he said. “I can’t bring them here to Sinjar. My older daughter is an engineering student at the American University of Dohuk and we cannot interrupt her studies.”

A Yezidi woman who had been held captive by ISIS for a year and a half, now living with two relatives in a town near Dohuk, said that her brother joined the Yezidi Brigades in mid-May. On June 14, an Asayish officer came to her home and told her to come to the local Asayish office the following morning. When she arrived, an officer there told her that if her brother did not leave the PMF, she and her two relatives would need to return to Kocho. She said she had persuaded her brother to leave the Yezidi Brigades and he informed Asayish that he had.

Human Rights Watch received reports from a Yezidi rights’ activist of another 15 Yezidi families who were expelled and returned to Sinjar by Asayish forces, but could not confirm the report.

On June 23, Human Rights Watch sent a set of questions regarding these allegations to Dr. Dindar Zebari, chairperson of the KRG’s High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports. Human Rights Watch has not received a response.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch documented severe restrictions on moving goods in and out of Sinjar that interfered with residents’ livelihoods and their ability to get food, water, and medical care. Three aid workers told Human Rights Watch that the situation had improved dramatically since May. However, while more goods are moving into Sinjar as more families have returned in 2017, many items have been heavily taxed, making them beyond the reach of many families.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch had also documented cases in which Asayish forces ordered families to leave the same camps and areas in and around Dohuk and threatened to expel others from the KRI after learning that their children had joined forces affiliated with the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê or PKK) in Sinjar.

International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment, which includes any form of punitive sanction or harassment by authorities on targeted groups of people for actions that they did not personally commit.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide that all internally displaced persons have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence (principle 14). They also have the right to seek safety in another part of the country and to be protected against forcible return to “any place where their life, safety, liberty and/or health would be at risk” (principle 15).

“While the Kurdistan Regional Government may not like the Popular Mobilization Forces, punishing family members of PMF fighters is the wrong – and unlawful – way to address the issue,” Fakih said.

Iran opposes Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum

June 10, 2017 By administrator

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi (Ghasemi). Photo: ISNA

TEHRAN,— Iran voiced its opposition on Saturday to an announcement by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region that it will organise a vote on independence later this year.

“Iran’s principal position is to support the territorial integrity of Iraq,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.

“The Kurdistan region is part of the Iraqi republic and unilateral decisions outside the national and legal framework, especially the Iraqi constitution… can only lead to new problems.”

Iraqi Kurdish leaders announced on Wednesday that they will organise an independence referendum on September 25, not only in their three-province autonomous region but also in other historically Kurdish-majority areas they have long sought to incorporate in it.

Iran worries about separatism among its own Kurds, most of whom live in Iranian Kurdistan, the areas along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Rebels of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) launch sporadic attacks into Iran from rear-bases in Iraq, triggering sometimes deadly clashes with the security forces.

After an upsurge attacks in 2011, Iranian troops launched a cross-border incursion, forcing KDPI to retreat deeper into Iraqi Kurdistan.

The federal government in Baghdad is deeply opposed to the referendum plan of the regional government in Erbil, as is neighbouring Turkey, which has a large and restive Kurdish minority of its own.

Washington has expressed concern that it could distract from the joint fight against the Islamic State group by stoking tensions between the Kurds, and Arabs and Turkmen in northern Iraq.

“An integrated, stable and democratic Iraq guarantees the interests of the whole people (of Iraq) from all ethnic and religious groups,” Ghasemi said.

“Today, Iraq more than ever needs peace and national unity and differences between Erbil and Baghdad must be resolved within the framework of dialogue and in compliance with Iraq’s constitution.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday “Russia supports Iraq’s unity and territorial integrity, provided that the legal rights of all ethnic and religious groups are respected, while the Kurds are one of those groups,”

Turkey called a plan by Iraqi Kurds to hold a referendum on independence a “grave mistake“, saying on Friday that Iraq’s territorial integrity and political unity was a fundamental principle for Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the decision “irresponsible”, adding that Ankara championed Iraq’s territorial integrity.

German Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, expressed concerns by his country on Thursday against Kurdish government’s decision to hold a referendum.

“We can only warn against one-sided steps on this issue. The unity of Iraq is on the line,” Gabriel said as quoted by German media outlets. “Redrawing the lines of the state is not the right way and could exacerbate an already difficult and unstable situation, in Erbil as well as Baghdad.” Gabriel said.

Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s political parties, not including the Change Movement (Gorran) and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) came to an agreement on Wednesday to hold the referendum on the region’s independence this year on September 25.

Breaking News: Iraqi Kurds agree to hold independence referendum on Sept. 25

June 7, 2017 By administrator

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday announced it would hold a referendum on independence, in a move the central government in Baghdad is likely to oppose strongly.

The Kurdish political parties, except Change Movement (Gorran) and Kurdistan Islamic Group KIG (Komal), came to an agreement on Wednesday to hold referendum on September 25 this year on the Kurdistan Region’s independence.

“I am pleased to announce that the date for the independence referendum has been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017,” Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP leader Massoud Barzani said on Twitter.

Hawrami said the question put to voters would be “do you want an independent Kurdistan?”

Barzani’s assistant Hemin Hawrami tweeted that voting would take place in the disputed region of Kirkuk and three other areas also claimed by the central government; Makhmour in the north, Sinjar in the northwest and Khanaqin in the east.

During a meeting headed by Massoud Barzani, representatives of fifteen Kurdish political parties and the region’s Independent High Electoral Commission held talks on referendum, Kurdistan Parliament stalemate and political crisis.

Party representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of holding referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s independence on September 25, 2017, according to the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP) official website.

Parties were in agreement to “Work towards reactivating the parliament and resolving political issues in an aim to achieve national harmony.”

“It was emphasized that the maintenance and financial problems of the Kurdistan people, employees and needy people to be tackled,” the KRP reported.

The Kurdish political parties were commanded to appoint their representatives to fill up members of a referendum committee in a six-day period.

Meanwhile, a source from the Kurdistan Region’s Independent High Electoral Commission told NRT that the commission will be able to prepare for referendum election on the date parties agreed on.

The crises inside Iraqi Kurdistan deepened in August 2015 following the expiration of Massoud Barzani’s term as president as he refused to step down and remains unofficially in office. According to the law, Barzani cannot run for presidency anymore.

Barzani has closed the Kurdish parliament in October 2015 after parliament’s Speaker Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq was prevented by Barzani forces from entering the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

The Kurdish opposition accuses Barzani and his KDP of using the independence issue as means to stay in power and monopoly it.

Kurdistan PM Nechirvan Barzani has removed four members of his cabinet from the Change Movement and replaced them with KDP politicians.

The president of Iraq’s ruling Shi’ite coalition told Reuters in April it would oppose a Kurdish referendum. Ammar al-Hakim especially warned the Kurds against any move to annex oil-rich Kirkuk.

A senior Kurdish official, Hoshiyar Zebari, told Reuters in April the expected “yes” vote would strengthen the Kurds’ hand in talks on self-determination with Baghdad and would not mean automatically declaring independence.

Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.

A Kurdish lawmaker said in March 2017 the amount of $1.266 billion from oil exports and Iraqi Kurdistan’s revenue has gone missing over the last three months.

Iraqi Kurdistan officials including Massoud Barzani clan, Jalal Talabani family and PUK leaders have long been accused by the opposition and observers of corruption or taking government money.

KDP leader Massoud Barzani has been accused by critics of amassing huge wealth for his family instead of serving the population. Barzani’s son is the Kurdistan region’s intelligence chief and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is the prime minister.

Lack of control mechanisms and closed parliament in Iraqi Kurdistan makes it a paradise for illegal financial activities by the Kurdish ruling leaders.

FEAR OF SEPARATISM

Iraq’s majority Shi’ite Arab community mainly live in the south while the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs inhabit different areas of the north. The center around Baghdad is mixed.

The idea of Iraqi Kurdish independence has been historically opposed by Iraq and neighboring Iran, Turkey and Syria, as they fear separatism spreading to their own Kurdish populations.

Kurdish officials will visiting Baghdad and neighboring states to discuss the referendum plan, Erbil-based TV Rudaw said, adding that elections for the Kurdish regional parliament are planned for Nov. 6.

Iraq has been led by Shi’ites since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The Kurds have their own armed force, the Peshmerga, which considered as militias loyal and taking orders from the ruling parties, the KDP led by Massoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK.

The oil rich Kirkuk city in Iraq’s north is claimed by both Iraq’s central government and the country’s Kurdish region.

The Peshmerga forces took full control of Kirkuk after the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq in 2014 and the withdrawal of Iraqi army form the province and some other northern region of the state, including second-biggest city of Mosul. They are effectively running the region, also claimed by Turkmen and Arabs.

Hardline Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi’ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and other disputed areas.

The Sinjar region is populated by Yazidis, the followers of an ancient religion who speak a Kurdish language and the group most persecuted by Islamic State. Makhmour is south of the Kurdish capital Erbil and Khanaqin is near the border with Iran.

Kirkuk’s Kurdish-led provincial council earlier this year rejected a resolution by the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad to lower Kurdish flags which since March have been flown alongside Iraqi flags on public buildings in the region.

Masrour Barzani, head of the Security Council of KDP-controlled areas and son of Massoud, said in June last year Iraq should be divided into separate Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed.

Iraq: ‘IS’ digs its heels in as Iraqi troops advance in Mosul

May 28, 2017 By administrator

Mosl destruction As the Iraqi army begins to surrounding them, the so-called “Islamic State” jihadist group has responded with a campaign of car bombs and sniper fire. Mosul was the terrorists’ last urban stronghold.

Snipers and suicide bombers fighting for the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) jihadist group targeted combatants and civilians alike in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday. The terrorists seemed determined to fight to the last amidst a government push to completely retake the city.

Mosul had been the last major IS stronghold in Iraq, but recent offenses have cornered the jihadists into select pockets of the old city. Despite this, they continued their campaign of suicide car bombings and snipers placed on rooftops to making the fighting difficult in the neighborhoods they control, already a challenge because of the narrow streets and dense civilian population.

There were “sporadic” clashes on Sunday, according to Baghdad, and at least two military officers were killed in fighting near the Tigris River in the city’s Shafaa neighborhood.

IS’ remaining strongholds (click to enlarge)

On Saturday, however, US-backed Iraqi forces were able to take control of key territory as they try to surround IS from three different directions. They were able to capture the Ibn Sina hospital, which is also in the Shafaa neighborhood, providing them access to a major medical complex that the terrorists have controlled since they swept through the city in 2014.

Since Friday, the government has been working to get civilians out of the targeted areas, dropping leaflets to alert citizens to “safe passages” where they could flee with the help of “guides, protectors and (transportation).”

US admits high non-combatant casualties

The push to protect civilians came as the US military was receiving heavy criticism for the amount of civilian deaths caused by its coalition against IS.

The Pentagon recently admitted that one of its airstrikes had killed 105 non-combatants in Mosul in March, the largest single loss of civilian life since the coalition began its bombing campaign.

According to a military investigation, both Iraqi forces and US military advisors did not know there were so many people in the building that collapsed as a result of the strikes near an IS target. They were similarly unaware that IS had placed explosives at the site, the report said.

In an interview on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that “everything humanly possible” is done to avoid civilian casualties, but in this kind of asymmetrical conflict, it becomes “a fact of life” that innocents could die.

“We have not changed the rules of engagement,” Mattis clarified to the CBS program Face the Nation. “There is no relaxation of our intention to protect the innocent.”

Mattis laid the blame for the deaths in Mosul at the hands of IS, saying the way they had laid explosives under the building full of civilians illustrated their “callous disregard that is characterized by every operation they have run.”

es/rc (AP, AFP)

Turkish warplanes bomb Iraqi Kurdistan for third day

April 23, 2017 By administrator

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Turkish fighter jets bombarded the district of Amedi in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Sunday for the third consecutive day targeting suspected positions of the PKK.

Turkish warplanes have targeted several villages in Sangasar and Warte districts, about 130 kilometers east of Erbil.

Warte Mayor Muslih Zrar told Rudaw that Turkish fighter jets intensively bombed Bokriskiyan village on Sunday, adding that fortunately it did not result in the loss of lives or material.

Turkish warplanes had previously shelled a community in the district of Amedi in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, wounding one person.

Another person was also wounded on Friday after military artillery bombarded the Kurazhari Mountains in Shiladze sub-district four times around 11 a.m.

The two districts are close to areas in Qandil Mountains under the control of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a three-decade-long war against the Turkish state.

Turkish fighter jets also on Friday bombed the Amedi area, injuring a 35-year-old woman in the aerial attacks.

The injured woman’s husband claimed that the Turkish army knows the locations of the PKK positions, but still targeted areas where civilians were.

The PKK has some 5,000 guerrilla fighters stationed mostly in the remote bordering areas of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

Since July 2015, Turkey initiated a controversial military campaign against the PKK in the country’s southeastern Kurdish region after Ankara ended a two-year ceasefire agreement. Since the beginning of the campaign, Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews, preventing Kurdish civilians from fleeing regions where the military operations are being conducted.

In March 2017, the Turkish security forces accused by UN of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the nation’s southeast.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the resulting conflict since then.

A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974, and has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.

Source: eKurd.com

Iraqi Youth Hold Solidarity Marathon From Baghdad to Mosul

February 19, 2017 By administrator

A group of Iraqi youth representing the movement “Sports against violence” held a sprint marathon from Baghdad toward the eastern part of Mosul.

Upon reaching Mosul, the team performed some exercises in the midst of the ruins of destroyed houses. The head of the team and coordinator of the “Baghdad Marathon for Peace” Ahmed Alaa spoke to Sputnik about this event.

“There were 7 girls and 9 boys who took part in the race. We left from Baghdad to bring a message of peace to the liberated Mosul. Citizens of Mosul want to live in peace, so our team decided to build bridges to restore those relations, which were destroyed by the Daesh terrorists,” Alaa said.

https://youtu.be/wkbDpx_yHBs

He further said that the young Iraqis believe that restoration of peaceful life in the liberated areas is not possible without spreading of non-violence and a culture of peace. It is up to the citizens whether to accept it or not after the military liberates towns and cities.

The race started in Baghdad. However, the distance from Baghdad to Erbil was covered on a military helicopter which helped the team save their energy.

“The hardest stage of the race was from Erbil to Mosul because the road was very bad over there due to the potholes which were created following the hostilities,” Alaa said.

Daesh terrorists from western Mosul tried to sabotage the event by bombing the runners but were prevented by the Iraqi army.

Residents of Mosul, both adults and children, responded enthusiastically to this movement. Some children joined the group and ran with them side by side.

KDP prevents marching PKK supporters from entering Iraqi Kurdistan capital

February 16, 2017 By administrator

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Kurdish security forces from the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP are prohibiting marching supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), from entering Iraqi Kurdistan capital city of Erbil.

A large number of security forces had gathered at Prde Checkpoint near Erbil and prevented the supporters from entering the city.

Nearly 300 PKK supporters began their peaceful march to Erbil from Sulaimani city on February 10 after a demonstration was held in the city against the continued imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan by Turkey.

According to the correspondent, an estimated 500 armed security personal gathered at Erbil checkpoint to stop the 300 PKK supporters.

“The security forces told the PKK supporters that they wouldn’t allow them to enter Erbil,” Jaf said, citing what demonstrators had told him.

The PKK supporters gathered at Prde checkpoint said they will not leave until they are allowed to enter the region’s capital, NRT reported.

The aim of the march is to demonstrate in front of the Turkish Consulate-General in Erbil and call for the release of the jailed PKK leader.

The KDP party led by Massoud Barzani has close relation with the Turkish government.

Ocalan has been incarcerated in Turkey for the past 18 years.

The Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) detained Ocalan, also known as Apo, in 1999 in Nairobi, Kenya. The PKK leader was taken to Turkey where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union.

Is Iraqi Kurdistan heading toward civil war? urging Massoud Barzani to step down

January 4, 2017 By administrator

Thousands of people took to the streets of several towns in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on for the past weeks, urging its long-time president and KDP leader Massoud Barzani to step down and demanding payment of their salaries, Oct. 2015. Photo: AFP

Dr. Denise Natali | Al-Monitor

The campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul has diverted attention from simmering problems inside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that will affect post-conflict stabilization. Within the last several months alone, there has been another assassination of a Kurdish journalist, an “honor” killing of a university student, death threats against a female Kurdish parliamentarian, bombing of an Iranian Kurdish party office that killed seven people and a string of foiled terrorist attacks in Sulaimaniyah province. These incidents have occurred alongside ongoing demonstrations by civil servants for unpaid salaries, a nonfunctioning Kurdish parliament, swelling numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons, an expanded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish airstrikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq. They have not only reversed most gains the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has realized since 2011, but also leave the Kurdistan Region increasingly vulnerable to financial collapse and internal conflict.

Instead of “inevitable Kurdish statehood” after the defeat of IS, a more realistic scenario is weakened autonomy, political entropy and armed conflicts. The KRG launched “independent” exports in 2014, but the Kurdish economy is now in tatters. KRG debt exceeds $22 billion. The availability of electricity has decreased to 2005 levels, or about four hours a day in many areas without private generators. Tens of thousands of youths continue to migrate from the region. The once-touted Kurdish energy sector is being undermined legally and politically. Although the KRG exports about 600,000 barrels of oil per day to Ceyhan, these exports remain contentious, are dependent on Turkey and are largely sourced from Kirkuk — still a disputed territory — and not the Kurdistan Region. International oil companies have thus far abandoned 19 oil fields in the Kurdistan Region, including ExxonMobil’s withdrawal from three of its six fields.

Emails between the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources and Turkish officials released by WikiLeaks reveal the depth of the KRG’s financial crisis and the political fallout. In the eyes of some Kurds, the ministry’s attempt to secure an additional $5 billion in loans from Ankara and offer Turkey a larger stake in Kurdish-controlled oil fields may help protect the economic interests of the Kurdistan Region. Others, however, including parliamentarians in Erbil, see things differently and oppose the ministry’s proposal as the “selling of the Kurdish land to Turkey.” Iraqi officials in Baghdad have also reacted critically, arguing that the KRG does not have the legal right to sell oil fields to Turkey.

Expanded PKK influence in northern Iraq is feeding off these crises and reinforcing intra-Kurdish power struggles. In addition to its base in the Qandil Mountains, PKK groups are now embedded in the Sinjar Mountains to protect the Yazidis against future incursions by IS and to control this strategic territory. While the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran support or tolerate the PKK, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) officials have threatened to potentially use force to eject the PKK from Sinjar. Ankara has also warned that it will intervene in Sinjar in the spring if the peshmerga fail to drive out the PKK. Although acting PKK leader Murat Karayilan has recently said that PKK forces are prepared to withdraw from the Yazidi district of Sinjar, it is unlikely that PKK-affiliated groups will depart entirely. Divisions between those that support the KDP and those against it in northern Iraq are also palpable. Concerns have emerged about the possibility of another birakuji, Kurdish civil war.

Indeed, the idea of armed conflict between the Kurds or internal instability may be difficult to imagine. Much has improved since their four-year Kurdish civil war (1994-98). The Kurdistan Region has developed economically, matured politically, gained international recognition as part of a federal Iraqi state and has become a key local partner in the battle against IS. Although the Kurdish parties are bickering, the risks of sustained violence are too high for leading KRG officials, who are deeply vested financially in the region. Iraqi Kurdish parties are also too fractured and reliant on President Massoud Barzani to effectively challenge the KDP, even if they oppose it politically.

Still, part of the current crises is beyond the KRG’s control and is not so different from what led to the Kurdish civil war. At that time, Iraqi Kurdistan was politically and economically unstable, despite its international safe haven status. Baghdad’s withdrawal from the Kurdish north after the 1990 Gulf War and international sanctions against Iraq had left the newly created KRG unable to pay civil servant salaries, provide services, resettle hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees and reconstruct the villages destroyed by President Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaign, which involved chemical attacks. Although individual traders tied to Kurdish political parties found creative ways to break sanctions and profit, the majority of Kurds were poor and reliant on international aid.

Power struggles were also salient between the KDP and PUK over leadership and access to revenues and resources. These tensions drew in Turkey, Iran and rival Kurdish parties, including the PKK, much like what has happened today. Back then, for instance, to check the PKK insurgency raging in southeastern Turkey and to secure smuggling revenue at the Habur border, the KDP negotiated commercial and security arrangements with Turkey. Ankara, in turn, launched a series of cross-border military campaigns from 1992 to 1997 — Operation Steel-1 and Operation Hammer — to pursue the PKK across the border. At one point, Turkish interventions involved 35,000 troops penetrating 37 miles inside the Kurdistan Region. The PUK gained support from Iran and backed the PKK. Islamic groups also took advantage of the instability to form and radicalize, including the precursors to Ansar al-Islam.

These patterns are repeating themselves in the Kurdistan Region. Even if the KRG and Kurdish party officials have much to lose from internal conflict, other groups may not and could benefit from the weak Iraqi state, angry populations and managed instability. In addition, as the KRG becomes increasingly dependent on Ankara, the Kurdish problem in Turkey remains unresolved, the Kurds in Syria demand autonomy and the PKK expands its influence, the KRG will inherit the transborder PKK problem. The PKK in turn will attempt to benefit from the political void growing in the Iraqi Kurdish street, where many see it as an authentic Kurdish nationalist party. The PKK and other radicalized groups are also useful to regional states, including Iran, that seek to counter Barzani-KDP power and Turkey.

Left unchecked, these tensions will continue to undermine the economic growth and internal stability of the Kurdistan Region — even after Mosul’s liberation — and the KRG’s ability to act as an effective local partner to defeat IS. More serious attention should be paid to strengthening Iraqi state institutions, including the KRG and provincial administrations, economic diversification, revenue-sharing between Baghdad and Erbil, border security and relations between Ankara, Baghdad and the KRG. The PKK issue inside northern Iraq also needs to be addressed by including ways to reinstate a cease-fire with Ankara and resolve the Kurdish issues in Turkey and Syria.

Dr. Denise Natali is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University, where she specializes in regional energy politics, Middle East politics, and the Kurdish issue.

1st published at al-monitor.com