KRG ARE QUISLINGS

Iraqi Kurds in the crossfire of Turkish army, militants

By AFP
Published May 3, 2023

Moustafa Ahmed shows bullet casings collected after one of the many firefights near his home - Copyright AFP SAFIN HAMED
Kamal Taha

Under an almond tree in his garden, Moustafa Ahmed shows a handful of bullet casings he collected near his home in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

Residents of his village in Iraq’s mountainous far north often find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Turkish army and fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Most of the inhabitants have left,” said Ahmed, from the Kurdish village of Hiror in a green valley near the Turkish border, an area that for decades has seen fighting between the two forces.

Turkish forces hold dozens of positions on the mountain heights while PKK fighters, who are Turkish Kurds, maintain rear bases in the Iraqi territory.

“Our life has become hell, we no longer feel safe at home,” said Ahmed, aged in his 70s, who said once a shell hit the ground near his home.

Ten of Ahmed’s 12 children have left the region, he said, a cigarette between his lips.

“Out of the 50 families in the village, there are only 17 left. The others have abandoned their homes and their land for fear of the bombardments.”

Those who have stayed endure the daily roar of military planes above and the buzzing of Turkish military drones.

Armed men are nearby, “over there, on these heights,” Ahmed said, pointing to the wooded mountains surrounding Hiror.

“They see us and know what we are doing. We can no longer go to our fields or graze our animals.”

– ‘Gunfire, shrapnel, shelling’ –

The PKK, designated a “terrorist” group by Ankara and its Western allies, has since 1984 waged an insurgency in Turkey in unrest that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Turkish forces have long maintained military positions inside northern Iraq where they regularly launch operations against the militants.

In early April, Turkey was accused of bombarding the airport at Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan’s second city.

Several days earlier, Ankara had halted flights to and from Sulaimaniya, citing an increased PKK presence at the airport.

In Hiror village, 60-year-old Adib Moussa was preparing to drive his pick-up truck to a nearby village that has been spared from the conflict, where he has left his cattle in the care of an acquaintance.

“This is the third year that we have seen this — Turkey entered our regions and surrounded our village,” said the moustachioed farmer with a weathered face.

“There are many houses damaged by gunfire, shrapnel or shelling,” added Moussa, a father of 10 children.

His neighbour, father of two Mahvan Ahmed, showed AFP a concrete railing riddled with bullet holes on his roof terrace.

“After dark, we hear gunshots and explosions,” said the 37-year-old.

He said he hopes that Baghdad will intervene to “solve this problem, so that the Turks leave and we can resume a normal life”.

– ‘Gone forever’ –

Baghdad and Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital, have long been accused of ignoring the situation to preserve their strategic alliances with Ankara, only offering symbolic condemnations of violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and the impact on civilians.

Turkey is one of war-battered Iraq’s main trading partners and until March Arbil was exporting oil directly to Turkey, independently of the federal government in Baghdad.

In July 2022, nine people died when artillery shells hit a recreational park in the border village of Parakh, with most of those killed holidaymakers from southern Iraq.

Iraq blamed Turkey, which denied any responsibility and accused the PKK.

Ramadan Abdallah, 70, was seriously wounded in June 2021 when an explosive struck about three metres (10 feet) from where he was standing.

He underwent three operations on his lower back and leg.

“The doctors couldn’t get some shrapnel out that had lodged in my leg, it still hurts me when it’s cold,” Abdallah said.

The burly man with a coarse beard now walks with a cane and has moved into his son’s house in Zakho, a small town nine kilometres (six miles) from the border.

The old man said he hopes for an end to the region’s troubles.

“I dream of one day closing my eyes and reopening them to see all the Turkish soldiers gone forever,” he said.

Iraqi Kurdish official accuses PKK of blocking aid to Ezidis in Sinjar

Hayri Bozani from KRG calls on UN to take action, saying organization is third party in October 2020 security agreement

Anadolu Agency Staff |04.05.2023 - Turkish Press

ERBIL, Iraq

An official from Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) accused the PKK terrorist organization Wednesday of causing security problems in the Sinjar region, which has led to the disruption of aid delivery.

Speaking to Anadolu, Hayri Bozani from the KRG's Ministry of Religious Affairs said a security agreement signed on Oct. 9, 2020 has still not been implemented despite more than two and a half years passing.

"Families cannot return to their homes in the region because of armed groups," Bozani said.

Calling on the UN, which he said is the third party in the October 2020 agreement, to take action, he said: "We all know that the PKK is on the world's terror list."

"Terrorist groups are the biggest obstacle to security in Sinjar. I don't believe in establishing peace in the region as long as these groups exist," he added.

In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the KRG in northern Iraq signed an agreement to preserve security in Sinjar through the Iraqi federal security forces in coordination with the KRG Peshmerga forces.

Daesh/ISIS terrorists attacked Sinjar, a region with an Ezidi-majority population, in August 2014.

The terror group kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas under its control.

The PKK terrorist organization managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Ezidi community from Daesh/ISIS terrorists.

Sinjar has a strategic position, as it is some 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul and close to the Turkish-Syrian border.

BULLSHIT TROPE
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.