Armenian MFA: We are deeply concerned by violence faced by Iraqi Yazidis

August 16, 2014 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Armenian Foreign Ministry is deeply concerned by the violence faced by Iraqi Yazidis, spokesperson Tigran Balayan wrote on Twitter.

“We share the concerns of Yazidis living in Armenia. Armenian missions abroad have instructions to closely cooperate with stakeholders on Iraqi Yazidis issue,” he tweeted.

Hundreds of Yazidis marched in Yerevan on Thursday and handed over letters to Russian and French ambassadors as well as to UN office and earlier to the ambassador of U.S.

According to various sources, more than 5,000 people are killed in the town so far, and thousands of others have been displaced.

West has to deliver more aid’ to Iraq’s Mount Sinjar (Video)

August 15, 2014 By administrator

European Parliamentarian Michel Reimon, of the Austrian Green Party, accompanied an Iraqi military mission to deliver aid to Yazidi refugees on Mount Sinjar. He captured the scale of the crisis on film.

DW: There are still many Yazidi refugees who fled Islamic State (IS) militants on Mount Sinjar. You travelled to the region, how would you describe the situation?

Michel Reimon: Imagine thousands of people sitting on desert mountain in temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees F). They have no source of water, no shade and are dying of thirst. Helicopters fly over, drop water and when they then briefly land, hundreds if not thousands of people run towards them.

They clamor to get on board and to be flown to safety. Soldiers do their best to help women and children inside, and to prevent the men from tipping the helicopters over. You can see it in the video I filmed there. It really is a dramatic situation. People are terrified they will die of thirst on the mountain, and they see the helicopters as their only chance of rescue.

The helicopters can only land for a few seconds. Soldiers stand in the doorway and do what they can to control the situation. I, along with two other people, was in the second row and tried to pull children on board, but before you know it, you’re taking off again. People are half in and half out, and you try to pull then inside, and then off you go. A couple of days ago a helicopter was so overloaded that it crashed. The pilot died on Tuesday and the soldiers on board were all seriously injured.

The United States had announced a major evacuation operation, but the Pentagon has since back tracked on the grounds that the situation is not as bad as first thought. Having been there, how do you view that assessment?

If you watch my video, you can assess the situation for yourself. There is no point in using figures to argue the case is. Kurdish fighters are managing to rescue people at night, so the number of refugees is going down, and that is good news, but there are still thousands of people there and that would absolutely justify a rescue mission. Apart from that, they need more helicopters to take water to the mountain. That would help people up there survive for a few more days.

In the West, there is hot debate about whether to provide the Kurds in northern Iraq with arms. Having been there, would you say that is what is most needed in the region?

The most urgent need is humanitarian aid for the refugees. As a politician from a neutral country like Austria, I am not convinced about supplying weapons. We have an arms export ban, and if we are not authorized to arm them, it would be hard for us to advise other countries to do so. All I can say is that the local population is afraid and wants to defend itself against the fundamentalists. The call for arms is fairly unanimous.

Is the West doing enough to provide humanitarian aid?

If you consider the catastrophic scale of the situation, it is almost certainly not enough. Even before this new situation developed, there were 400,000 refugees in need of shelter across the region. I have seen aid organizations’ internal documents, which depending on the conflict situation of the hour, report having to accommodate between 12,000 and 60,000 new refugees each day. That illustrates how the problem is getting worse by the day, so, yes, the West has to deliver more aid.

Michel Reimon has been an MEP for the Austrian Green Party since July 2014. He is a member of the delegation for relations with Iraq. He blogs about his experiences as a European politician and about his travels at www.reimon.net.

Source: DW.com

Lebanon a safe haven but Middle Eastern Christians still at risk

August 15, 2014 By administrator

Jean Aziz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s

The expulsion of Christians from cities in northwestern Iraq at the hands of Islamic State (IS) militants is still resonating and felt throughout Lebanon for different reasons. The first is that Lebanon comprises the largest number of Christians compared to other countries in the Levant. Second, Christians assume leadership positions in Lebanon, allowing them to raise issues, take a stance and make demands, a luxury that Christians in neighboring countries do not enjoy.

In addition, the churches concerned with the tragedy of Christians in Mosul and the Ninevah Plains — such as the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac churches — are currently all located in Lebanon in terms of religious headquarters, followers and religious officials. The presence in their homeland has become very limited and mostly silent. For these reasons, a meeting was held on Aug. 7 at the summer headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate in Diman, a village in the north of Lebanon, which was attended by all the Levantine patriarchs.

The meeting raised three issues: the developments in Gaza; the battles in Lebanon’s Arsal between the Lebanese army and the armed Sunni fundamentalists; and the tragedy of Christian displacement from Mosul and the Ninevah Plains. Sources who participated in the meeting told Al-Monitor that the first two issues took no more than a few minutes. The articles related to them were already prepared for the draft statement that was issued after the meeting.

The discussions were, however, focused on the Iraqi incidents. The same sources said, “The interjections of religious officials stressed to identify the parties responsible for the tragedy that has befallen the Christians of Iraq since 2003.”

The participants were clear in blaming it on the repercussions of the US occupation, and the current violent and extreme inclinations characterizing political Islam. The finger was also pointed at Iraq’s neighboring countries, some of which are involved while others are accused of ignoring the situation. Some countries are also trying to achieve political gains at the expense of the tragedy taking place.

The sources said the participants expressed “strong dissatisfaction toward the Western silence and the inability of the international community to stop the crimes against humanity that are committed freely and with impunity.”

Subsequently, religious officials accused some Western countries of plotting against the Christians of the Levant, while drawing on old but well-known theories. These theories link to many factors such as the influence Israel has over some Western countries, and the potential Israeli interest in establishing pure sectarian entities. This comes in addition to Western interests to court oil-rich Islamic states, despite the latter’s discrimination against Christians living in their countries, which creates a model for extremist movements to follow. Although religious officials had different opinions about this theory, they all agreed on refusing the French stance that seemed to lure Mosul’s Christians into leaving their homeland. The officials considered the French position as a blow to the Levantine Christian stance.

For his part, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Lebanon, Bishop Michel Kassarji, informed Al-Monitor about the steps that can be adopted to help with the tragedy in Mosul and Ninevah. He said, “During the meeting, the heads of the churches have discussed all the possible methods to help. … A preliminary idea was adopted, stipulating that patriarchs visit Baghdad as soon as possible, within a week maybe, to discuss with the Iraqi government the situation of Christians in Iraq. The high-ranking delegation may also visit Erbil for the same purpose.”

He added, “The patriarchs know that the fate of Christians in Iraq, or those who remained out of the 1.5 million Christians, relies on the stance of different countries around the world. This is why they are thinking of visiting all these countries, from Tehran, Riyadh and Ankara, to Western countries.” Some proposed staging protests in front of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris against the demolition of Iraqi archaeological sites that are on the World Heritage List, to incite the international public opinion to try and save buildings in case it would be impossible for human lives to be spared. Moreover, the cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon will continue in regard to its announced plan to follow up on the issue.

On the humanitarian level, the deputy patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church, Bishop Youhana Jihad Battah, told Al-Monitor, “The humanitarian tragedy of the displaced exacerbates by the day, especially after IS militants reached the heart of the Ninevah Plains and occupied the Christian villages there, including Qaraqosh.”

He said, “The displaced did not have identity cards or passports, as IS forced them to leave empty-handed, or else they would have left Iraq. This, however, compelled them to stay and move to the Christian villages of the Ninevah Plains, the mountains of Dahuk and the Christian-dominated suburb of Ankawa, adjacent to Erbil.”

In the same context, Kassarji said, “Approximately a hundred Christian families from Mosul that were able to reach Beirut recounted the tragic situation. Their situation is dire and the only place they could resort to was the headquarters of the Chaldean Patriarchate near Beirut.”

Religious officials are incessantly talking about the latest developments in the plight of Christians in Islamic countries. They are torn between the silent knowledge that this will not be the last chapter and that Islamic fundamentalism will root Christians out of the Levant, and the deep faith that the Holy Spirit, who protected Christians for 2,000 years amid heinous horrors, will keep them in the region for longer. Which of these will prove to be right? The answer might come sooner than expected.

Jean Aziz

Columnist

Jean Aziz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Lebanon Pulse. He is a columnist at the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar and the host of a weekly political talk show on OTV, a Lebanese TV station. He also teaches communications at the American University of Technology and the Université Saint-Esprit De Kaslik in Lebanon.

Stop the crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic State!

August 14, 2014 By administrator

The national office of the American Chamber of Commerce has taken the decision on August 13 to support the call for demonstrations launched the same day by the Federation of Associations of France Kurds and Yezidis Association of France.

Support the Kurdish resistance against the horror!

Call to protest Saturday, August 16, 17h, to the Gare de l’Est

“Pretty women were sold between fifteen and twenty-five dollars each. They sell women like animals “,” Women have been gutted and beheaded children “,” The blood flowed like a river “
Testimonials Yezidi Kurds of Zakho Shengal refugees

Wherever they went in Mosul Shengal, Qaraqosh, Makhmour, jihadists of IE have committed atrocious crimes against the population, especially against non-Muslims such as Christians and Yazidis, those who refuse to convert Islam are killed, women are raped, abducted and sold into slavery. Yezidis even less likely since the jihadists do not even offer them to convert.

Every step of the IU throws hundreds of thousands of people on the roads. Those who do not have the means to go far take refuge in the mountains and are facing starvation. Hundreds of Yezidi children died of dehydration in Mount Shengal. Thousands of people are still trapped in the arid installation, with temperatures exceeding 40 °.
Despite the fierce resistance of the Kurdish fighters from all parts of Kurdistan to defend the region, the IC continues to advance and threaten entire populations.

We call for mass protest Saturday, August 16, at 17h before the Gare de l’Est for:

Denounce the massacres of IE,

Call on the international community to take immediate steps cons killers states that finance and support the IU,

Ask the continuation and development of humanitarian aid for refugees

Support the resistance of the Kurdish fighters.

First signatories Federation of Associations of France Kurds; Association of Yezidis of France, CCAF (Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France).

Thursday, August 14, 2014,
Ara © armenews.com

The sheer, brutal efficiency, ISIL closest analog Turkish Talat Pasha and Adolf Hitler

August 13, 2014 By administrator

ISIL is several steps above Boko Haram or even the Taliban. The closest analog is Turkish Talat Pasha The young Turks massacring 1.5 million Arminians, Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian movement that killed more than two million people in the mid-1970s. There was a reminder of those horrors this week, when two top Khmer Rouge leaders were finally sentenced for their crimes. In their remorseless advance through eastern Syria and northern Iraq, ISIL’s fighters have demonstrated the same iron will and discipline that Khmer Rouge deployed against the Cambodian army and the Cambodian people. In territory Al-Baghdadi controls, he uses the same tactics of intimidation and public punishment that Pol Pot used to cow his fellow Cambodians.

In its appetite for genocide, ISIL seems to borrow from Turkish Talat Pasha and Adolf Hitler’s Nazis. It, too, has identified for extermination entire categories of people. Its fighters have systematically rounded up groups of “unbelievers”—and remember, that can mean anybody, including their fellow Sunnis—and slaughtered them in a manner Heinrich Himmler would have approved of. If the disturbing photographs (and be warned, they are very disturbing) in this Washington Post story were in grainy black-and-white, they could have come from a Nazi death camp. And online videos of these mass killings clearly show miss the zealous glee with which the executioners go about the work.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

some of the information from Bobby Ghosh article. photo gagrulenet

Turkey played part in Islamic State’s success, commander says

August 13, 2014 By administrator

An Islamic State militant stand guard at a checkpoint captured from the Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. AP Photo

The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), recently renamed has Turkey to thank for growing strong enough to conquer large swathes of Syria and Iraq, one of its commanders has suggested in an interview with the Washington Post published on Aug. 12.

The 27-year-old commander, identified as Abu Yusef, who traveled to the town of Reyhanlı in the southern province of Hatay for the interview, explained that they received most of their supplies from across the Turkish border until a recent crackdown against them.

“We used to have some fighters — even high-level members of the Islamic State — getting treated in Turkish hospitals. And also, most of the fighters who joined us in the beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and supplies,” Yusef told the Washington Post.

Although it has now become more difficult to rely on the Turkish borders since the recent crackdown, the jihadists now have more than enough access to weapons in Iraq.

“It is not as easy to come into Turkey anymore. I myself had to go through smugglers to get here, but as you see, there are still ways and methods,” he said.

The piece, penned by Anthony Faiola and Souad Mekhennet, suggested that Turkey’s recent measures could prove “too little, too late.”

Click here to read the Washington Post’s article.

Turkey helping ISIL terrorists gain independence – analyst

August 12, 2014 By administrator

Press TV has interviewed Veterans Today’s Jim Dean to talk about Turkey’s role in the strengthening of ISIL Takfiris who are currently engaged in terrorist activities targeting civilians in Iraq.

Press TV: Your take sir. It appears that during the reign of Erdogan as prime minister, Turkey has gone through many changes, economically and politically. Has it been odd to you at all that more and more Ankara has become allies, at one point to Riyadh and then now we see to extremist elements even like ISIL?

Dean: Well, we really were surprised when Endogen really stood up for Turkey during the Mavi Marmara incident. They had very close relationship with Israel for a long time; joint military work, even allowing the Israeli military to train and do low-level bombing in Turkey in preparation for practicing attacks on Iran nuclear facilities, as a matter. And then, when the Mavi Marmara situation happened, everything changed on a dime and we are not used to seeing that happen for people who have had any close relationship with Israel, because usually the parliaments have a lock on what the presidents do. So, relations were very cold there and we saw a very independent asserting manner there in NATO and not subservient.

And then when the Syrian war came, at first he started just taking care of refugees, and then after about a year, we began to see that he was siding with the West, he had thrown in with their destabilization program with Turkey, and then even got in heart and soul into supporting the insurgency, training facilities, really quite more than has been in the newspapers. And as we had always been advising them, once you start working, particularly, the terrorist groups in northern Syria, they tried to get a second flight going, you are letting Frankensteins loose all over the region, which is the last thing the region needs, because no matter what happens in Syria, all of these people with all of these fighting experience, they are going to be looking for another fight to get in to. And we are going to be living with this possibly for decades with this horrible mistake.

Press TV: As you have talked about the seizing of the 49 diplomats, we know that it took a long time just recently the last couple of days, that Ankara even talked about that situation in public. They hadn’t even really acknowledged it in public. So looking at that, Mr. Dean, it appears that Ankara has been basically in bed with these terrorists in one way or another. I want you to expand on that. What is your perspective on that?

Dean: Well, I think they just didn’t jump in with both feet. It started and it became… it kind of grew. We have tracked the phony sarin gas attack which was going to be tried to be used to trigger an American involvement. That came down through the Republic of Georgia and was transmitted through Turkey. So he was going to conduit there, some of it we do not know, they intercepted some shipments, which may have been for show and they let some go through so they…
We have seen some cooperation there. And recently, we are tracking now ISIL and other jihadists that are taking over the oil areas, most of that oil, they are selling it, transporting it to Turkey. So Turkey is actually helping them fund themselves, which is making them independent even from the Gulf states, and we are working now to see how that is flowing and we are pretty sure oil is being trucked over, it is being taken to tank farms and some of the oil field they have there, and then actually flowing in to the oil pipeline to the Ceyhan Port, and of course Exxon runs that and wherever that extra oil goes into the pipeline and gets loaded on a ship, somebody has to ride a check to somebody and that is being done by Exxon.

So we are seeing the possibility of some rather very larger powers involved in helping launder this oil money, which by the way is a very serious felony of a large number of international crimes. Money laundering is supporting terrorism.

Press TV: There are many paradoxes in the situation when you look at Turkey and its relationship with many entities. As Mr. Richard Weitz has pointed out, he looked back at the Mavi Marmara incident, of course we know on the one hand that Erdogan was very adamant when he was talking to Shimon Peres. However, we also know that actually nothing happened on the ground and the Israeli embassy was still there and Israeli companies still functioning and basically, nothing happened. Now, we look at this situation. On the one hand, as you have seen some of our viewers are saying, what proof do you have? Actually, they are working hand in hand with ISIL and you just talked about first of all, the oil, and the overall situation. However, what is trying to be shown perhaps is something different. The bottom line to this is why would Erdogan want to work with these extremist elements? What is he getting or what does he think will be attained for propping up the extreme elements in the region?

Dean: Well, as Mr. Weitz said it is a very complex political situation which Turkey, the country has always been a key area between East and West and the politics there and the intrigue is going on for centuries. But we have to look at it little broader because it is not only Erdogan, but look at the Gulf states and their support for not only these terrorists operations, but feel the terrorist groups in brigade formations. We were stunned when we saw that they were actually funding brigades. In fact there were advertisements in Saudi Arabia, where it was almost like you could buy a piece of a football club by putting $1,000 in and you can have a video made of a beheading for a certain amount of money.

It was absolutely incredible and of course the Gulf states are also at risk that once these terrorist groups as we see, they may be dependent on them in the beginning for funding, but they are smart enough to realize that while they are out there in the field, they have got to rob and steal everything they can get, form other relationships, so they are not totally dependent on one group. And then they can turn around and bite the hand that feeds them, which means they can be paid off once the war is over rather than be cast aside as the Americans did with the Taliban after the Soviet-Afghan war and that came back to bite us in the behind. So, and then lastly what we always have in politics is they never accept responsibility for their mistakes.

Press TV: And Mr. Dean, how likely re the policies that have already been implemented by Erdogan likely to backfire as we have seen him support these extremist elements and of course being that Turkey is secular itself. How likely is this all going to backfire and blow up into space right there in Turkey itself?

Dean: Well it easily could and his relationship with the military are strained because of all the trials and some of the opposition, still he has been clearing out the military and now also the police. So he could find himself in a no man’s land, where when he needs the security people, they are not really sure he is going to stand because he has said, you can use us one day to help you and save you and support you, and then you can be prosecuting us in a year or a couple of years from now. So I think we are going to see a very delicate balancing act as people juggling for influence and power and it is really in determinant.

Iraq This is what could happen if the Islamic State destroys the Mosul Dam

August 8, 2014 By administrator

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Washington Post

A general view shows the Mosul dam on the Tigris River. (AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYEAHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

If , as some reports suggest, Islamic State forces have seized Mosul Dam, they might have stumbled on a weapon exponentially more powerful than any U.S.-made armored vehicle or Soviet-era anti-aircraft gun.

The Mosul Dam is Iraq’s largest dam and with its shoddy construction could, if destabilized, affect the lives of Iraqis as far south as Baghdad.

Located on Mosul Lake the facility provides electricity and irrigation to surrounding areas.

“If the dam fails, scientists say, Mosul could be completely flooded within hours and a 15-foot wall of water could crash into Baghdad,” Keith Johnson wrote in a Foreign Policy article from earlier this summer.

A 2011 article from the International Water Power and Dam Construction magazine indicated that if the Mosul Dam was destroyed the ensuing destruction could result in half a million deaths.

In July the Islamic State took the Nuaimiyah Dam in Western Iraq, and now with the seizure of the Mosul Dam, its control of critical infrastructure presents a huge challenge for the the Iraqi government.

In a 2007 letter to Iraqi Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki from then commanding General of the U.S. Army David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the two Americans warned that the structure, built in the 1980s, had been erected on an unstable foundation of soil and was “at great risk of failure.”

Johnson described Iraq’s dams as the country’s “soft underbelly in the fight against ISIS. ”

Iraqi forces remain in control of Haditha Dam. That structure, a sprawling hydro-electric facility located to the south west of Baghdad in Al-Anbar province, was a key focus of coalition efforts during the Iraq war. For most of the U.S. occupation of the country a large contingent of Marines were physically garrisoned within the structure.

“Using [the] Haditha [dam], ISIS could flood farmland and disrupt drinking water supplies like it did with a smaller dam near Fallujah this spring,” Johnson wrote, referring to a flood that displaced more than 50,000 people between Fallujah and Abu Ghraib.

150 Kurdish Peshmerga forces killed, 500 injured in battle with ISIL according to KRG

August 8, 2014 By administrator

Erbil (IraqiNews.com) On Friday the Chief of Staff to the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Dr. Fuad Hussein, said that 150 Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were killed and 500 were wounded in battles with the terrorist organization the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL.

Dr. Hussein said in a joint press conference in Erbil, with Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, attended by IraqiNews.com that “Peshmerga forces provided 150 martyrs during the battles fought by the organization with Daash (also known as ISIL)” and added that “the number of the wounded from the Peshmerga during those battles reached 500.”

Hussein added that Kurdish “Peshmerga forces are currently battling ISIL but there is a disparity in weapons used,” explaining that “ISIL used tanks and artillery, which it acquired from Iraqi forces.”

Kurdish security chief: Turkey must end support for jihadists

August 7, 2014 By administrator

Author Wladimir van Wilgenburg

QAMISHLI, Syria — The head of the Kurdish security police in northeast Syria, Ciwan Ibrahim, said that his security forces are willing to cooperate with Turkey if it ends its support for radical jihadist groups.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Ibrahim accused Turkey of continuing to support jihadist groups such as the Islamic State (IS), which is in the throes of a major and vicious assault against Kurdish populations in Syria and Iraq.

The Kurdish security police, known as Asayish in Kurdish, operates in Syrian Kurdish cities to combat crime and terrorism. Amid the turmoil of Syria’s civil war, the Kurds established their own autonomous system and security apparatus in northeastern Syria in January.

The Asayish is seen as being affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), although Ibrahim denied any link to any political party.

Relations between the Syrian Kurds, steered by the PYD, and Turkey have been hostile, fueling repeated accusations from the PYD and the Asayish that the Erdogan government is supporting the radical IS, which is currently besieging the Kurdish enclave of Kobani and massacring Kurdish Yazidis in Iraq.

Ibrahim also accused the Syrian government of backing IS to prevent the Kurds from achieving autonomy in northeast Syria.

“Ali Mamlouk, the head of the intelligence, is responsible for all IS attacks in the Kurdish region,” he said.

The Asayish head rebutted claims that the Kurds sought independence from Syria, stating that they only seek to be part of Syria where all their rights are respected.

Speaking on the fight against IS, Ibrahim urged Western powers to provide technology to his forces to help beat IS.

“If they would support us some way with technology, we would not have this problem.”

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: There have been media reports that Turkey is backing jihadist groups, such as IS and Jabhat al-Nusra. Do you agree with these reports?

Ibrahim: Ankara supports radical groups. Near the border with Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan], a refugee camp is used as a training camp for jihadist fighters. They also support them with medicine and treat wounded jihadist fighters in their hospitals. Ankara does not control the border’s security and allows Islamist groups to operate under the name Free Syrian Army, Islamic Front or IS. These groups are collaborating together in the Jazeera area against the Kurds to destroy the region.

Al-Monitor: Why would Turkey support IS? Are they not a threat to Turkey?

Ibrahim: The Turkish government is afraid of Rojava because of the new self-rule system here. Turkey does not want to happen here what happened in northern Iraq. If Turkey did not support people fighting our revolution, we would not have any problems with having ties with Turkey. They always say that we are the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party], but we are not the PKK.

Al-Monitor: Do you think ties with Turkey could improve in the future?

Ibrahim: If Turkey changes its behavior regarding its support for radical groups, then we don’t have any problems with the government of Turkey, or the people of Turkey.

Al-Monitor: Do you have any relations with your counterparts in Iraqi Kurdistan?

Ibrahim: Officially, we have relations with the Asayish of the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan]. We have good connections with the people in Bashur [Iraqi Kurdistan]. But we do not have any relations with the Asayish of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP]. The KDP sides with Turkey, and they are an enemy of the Rojava revolution. We want to have a good relationship with the KDP, and the Asayish in Erbil and Dahuk, but they are taking Turkey’s side.

Al-Monitor: There are accusations that the Syrian government has also supported IS. In June, Syrian Kurdish politician Abdullah Ahmad Qirtimini was assassinated and his son blamed it on the government. What do you think of these accusations?

Ibrahim: The main security risks for us are the regime and IS. I can assure you 100% that there is a connection between the Syrian regime and IS. So far, the regime has not attacked IS bases because IS is fighting Jabhat al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army.

Al-Monitor: Is it just IS fighting the Kurds in the Hasakah region, or are there other groups as well?

Ibrahim: Here in the Cizire canton [Kurdish for Hasakah province], IS and other groups have united to fight the Kurds. They are afraid of the Kurds and say the Kurds want their own country and want a piece from Syria. But the truth is that the Kurdish movement just wants the rights of Kurds. This whole situation is created by the Syrian intelligence. Ali Mamlouk united every group that did not accept Kurdish rights. They’ve turned the opposition into just IS. They want IS to fight Arabs who are not with the regime. Ali Mamlouk, the head of the intelligence, is responsible for all IS attacks in the Kurdish region. Damascus has failed in its attempt to unite all radical groups against the Kurds.

Al-Monitor: Do you have problems with the Arab tribes in Hasakah province?

Ibrahim: In Tirbespiyeh [Al-Qahtaniyah], some Arab tribes brought by the regime in the late 1960s and 1970s, and that are supporting IS, are trying to create problems. There are IS sleeper cells. Mohammed Fares’ tribe [the pro-government Tay tribe] can become an IS partner in the future and create problems in the region. The Arabs don’t mind who the ally is, they just want to fight the Kurds. In Sweidiah village, near Rumeilan, there are connections between the local Arab population and radical groups.

Al-Monitor: Does that mean you have problems with Arabs?

Ibrahim: We have a future to live all together. Our problem is the al-Qaeda ideology that came here and brought terror. It’s not an ethnic problem. Some Arabs accept the new Kurdish system, and some Kurds work with IS. We do not want independence from Damascus, we want to be a part of Syria, with all our rights.

Al-Monitor: The West has not supported your struggle against jihadist groups. How has that hindered your fight?

Ibrahim: If you fight terrorism, you need support, like from the West. They had explosions in London and Madrid. We need Europe and the United States to support us with technology. Detectors and explosive deactivators are needed to fight IS. If they would support us in some way with technology, we would not have this problem.