I wrote this article originally for BasNews, here is the link to the article.
Erbil - Kurds greatly appreciate the airstrikes by the US and coalition warplanes against the extremist group Islamic State. The strikes have played a key role in the Kurdish pushback to recapture areas they lost to the group also known as IS, ISIL and ISIS. But they have also been complaining recently that the US promised delivery of heavy weapons of which few have made their way into the Kurdistan Region that has become the forefront of the fight against ISIS while at the same time a bastion of peace for refugees as well as internally displaced people from other parts of Iraq. All this, despite an economic crisis that began last year when the Iraqi government cut off Kurdistan’s share of the Iraqi budget.
There seems to be one main reason why the US is not so willing to directly arm the Kurds as it is in helping the Iraqi army: the weapons given to Kurds could be used later for Kurdish independence against Baghdad, and the US does not want to be blamed for “creating” a Kurdish state in the Middle East only to destabilize the region as the conspiracy theory goes. And while exploiting the weapons for independence may well be the reason why Kurds want the weapons so badly, there are several other reasons why they are losing patience.
First of all, they are losing many lives on the battlefield (over 1000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been killed) against IS because of a lack of sufficient military equipment as simple as body armor, helmets, and night vision, let alone heavy weapons they need to counterbalance the large number of heavy weaponry IS took (estimated at 1,700 pieces including tanks, Humvees, MRAPs, artillery, etc) from the three Iraqi army divisions that ran away in the face of an IS offensive in June last year. Not a single day of foggy weather passes easily in Kurdistan without thousands of families struggling to go to sleep because of fear of a possible large scale, surprise attack by IS who use suicide fighters with explosive vests, as well as car bombs which they have learned to armor in a way that only planes, or direct hits from a tank or other heavy weapons like anti-tank MILAN rocket systems, which Peshmerga forces received from Germany, could stop. Members of these families are on the frontline and when it is foggy enough to make IS movement invisible, the planes aren’t able to help, and the tanks and MILANs are few, and also face the same visibility issue in such weathers. The Peshmerga are left to a IS special combo of ferocious man-vehicle bombs who are only too eager to blow themselves, and their bomb-laden cars, up in the middle of a group of Kurdish fighters. Moreover, the US and coalition airstrikes will not be there forever, in which case IS has to be fought and defeated on the ground where heavy weapons are needed.
Second, there’s a strong sense of betrayal among Kurds who never killed Americans, or ever think they will. Yet, the US heavily supports Baghdad where the Shiite dominated government – let alone the Shia militias the Iraqi government supports and arms – don’t like Americans very much, or maybe at all. Some Iraqi Shia officials have also gone so far as accusing the coalition forces of dropping weapons, ammo and military supplies to IS militants.
And third, when the US spends billions of dollars training the Iraqi army, which has a bloody history in Kurdish memory no matter how hard Baghdad or Washington tries to paint a different picture, and when it tries very hard to keep Iraq united, it is only really frustrating at best – Kurds are fighting ISIS on a nearly 1000 km long frontline and received only 25 MRAPs from the US (of course apart from light weapons and ammo), and insulting at worst, especially to the countless Kurdish families whose loved ones died fighting for independence over the past decades against the Iraqi Army and successive Iraqi governments. So, many Kurds could now ask: Did we fight Iraq for over half a century only to see that our dream of independence, which never before has seemed so within reach, is being rolled back by the US when even some high profile Iraqi leaders, one way or another, have come to terms with the idea?
Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abbadi reportedly said at the Munich Security Conference recently held in Germany that he believed it was up to the Kurds to choose whether or not to stay as part of Iraq. And an Iraqi lawmaker, Mishaan Jubouri, a Sunni who is known for his anti-Kurd comments, told NRT TV – a Kurdish news channel – that he supports Kurdish independence, although he supports a Kurdish state that does not include the oil-rich Kirkuk province, and that his support for a Kurdish state is rooted in his beliefs that Kurds are like cancer in Iraq, that they are working on “weakening Iraq” so they get stronger and that Iraq will only rest when Kurds are no longer part of. Also, Iraqi lawmaker Abdulsalam al-Maliki, a Shia from the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party, also known for their anti-Kurds comments, recently called on Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan regional Government (KRG) to hold a referendum to secede from Iraq and “drop their Iraqi citizenship.” Similarly of course, al-Maliki sees the Kurds as a kind of cancer in Iraq and that Iraq can only enjoy peace when Kurds separate. And Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia leader who won the most seats in the parliamentary elections 9 years ago beating Nouri al-Maliki before Maliki forged an alliance in the parliament to claim the largest bloc, is well known for his position regarding a Kurdish state which can be put simply like this: In principle, I support a Kurdish state. Kurds deserve to have their own state; my only concern is that it is not the right time now. All of these voices stand in stark contrast with the nationalist Arab rhetoric of, say, a few decades ago, or even with that of the early years after the US war in Iraq in 2003 when speaking on not only Kurdish independence, but also of a more decentralized Iraq, was a taboo among Sunni and Shia Arab politicians alike.
Besides, the more the US – or any other nation – pushes on Kurds to disown aspirations for independence, the more attractive the idea becomes. Successive Iraqi governments used all types of intimidation from revoking their Iraqi citizenship, expelling, forced resettlement (also true in the case of Syrian Kurds) to clamping down on them militarily, and using chemical weapons against them. Only a total genocide could remove the Kurdish dream of independence altogether. That’s exactly the kind of realization former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein must have had when he ordered the Anfal Operations – a series of military operations that killed as many as 182,000 Kurds, flattened some 4,000 villages, and forced rural populations into urban settlements to control them, but to no avail.
It is simple. You can’t impose on Kurds (or almost any people) what they don’t want, and history supports this claim. Kurds are known for their stubbornness, and perhaps it is only this stubbornness that has kept the people as distinct from other neighboring peoples as they can be despite decades of harsh assimilation policies by the Middle Eastern countries. The word “stubborn” in Kurdish is a compound word that, when translated word for word, becomes “hard-skulled” in English. Iraqi Arabs have jokes and sayings about this stubbornness of Kurds. And internally, Kurds have different jokes about the degree of “hard-skulledness” of Kurds from different tribes and areas. One joke is roughly as follows: A man was hammering a nail on a wall as hard as he could, but the nail wouldn’t make a dent. When he looked at the other side of the wall, a Khoshnaw (member of a Kurdish tribe of the same name) was leaning against the wall with his head right against the opposite side of where the man was trying to hammer the nail. The lesson: you cannot penetrate Kurdish skulls (i.e. mentality) the hammering (forceful) way, at least not with the dream of independence.
More important than US officials realizing that when Kurds talk about independence there’s nothing that can dissuade them to keep Iraq together, is realizing that the US should not worry about the outcome of arming the Kurds. Because, the weapons will never be used against the US and American people unlike what has happened in other places where the US supported certain groups with weapons: for example in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq’s non-Kurdish parts (a lot of the weapons given to Iraq end up in pro-Iranian Shia militia hands who see no difference between the US and IS – remember the comment by Iraqi MPs that US drops weapons for IS). Also, it would be false to say that in the event of an emerging Kurdish state – that the US “carved out” a Kurdish state from Arab, Turkish, or Persian lands, like the WWII superpowers are accused of “creating” a country for Jews. Unlike the case of Israel, there’s a whole century of armed struggle behind today’s Kurdish aspirations for independence. And what lands Kurds claim are actually overwhelmingly Kurdish-populated lands in addition to some disputed land still with a majority Kurdish population that underwent an Arabization policy under Saddam Hussein, especially around the oil-rich Kirkuk province, plus more and more Iraqi leaders are beginning to realize that they cannot, and should not oppose Kurdish independence. Today or tomorrow, the Kurds will always be pushing for independence. Therefore the US should not treat Kurdish concerns the hammering way.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Kurdish Peshmarga's death toll hits 999 since ISIS began offensive on Kurdistan last year
Erbil - The number of Kurdish Peshmarga fighters who were killed in battles with the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, or ISIL) has hit 999 with another 4596 injured in the fighting that started in August last year.
Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the KRG Ministry of Peshmarga disclosed the number in a press conference on Wednesday following a brutal ISIS attack on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in an attempt to grab more land and to deal a quick blow to the Peshmarga forces to repair its image as the "unstoppable" jihadi force. ISIS had been losing ground on several fronts in Iraq including around their stronghold of Mosul, Kirkuk, Diyala province as well as Anbar.
It is not clear how many ISIS militants have been killed by the Peshmarga forces, because they never report on the number of their dead fighters and most of the time they do not leave behind bodies if they can recover them before pulling back. Massoud Barzanin, President of Kurdistan Region has said recently that "no less than 3000" have been killed by Peshmarga.
ISIS captured territories in Iraq's mainly Sunni Arab populated areas in a lightening fast offensive in June last year after three divisions of the Iraqi Army ran away in the face of the extremist group leaving heavy weaponry in the hands of the extremist group.
At first, the group did not appear to be interested in attacking Kurdistan, and Kurdish officials did not want to engage ISIS in the Arab populated areas for fear of igniting an ethnic conflict between Arabs and Kurds. The Sunni Arab population had long been complaining of marginalization by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, therefore many Sunnis welcomed ISIS, or did not resist when the Army fled.
However, Kurdish Peshmarga forces, who were now filling the gap created by the absence of the Iraqi Army in contested areas between Baghdad and Erbil that Kurds claim to be historically part of Kurdistan and has a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minority groups. ISIS began its surprise attack with the newly captured heavy weapons and armored vehicles in August pushing deep into Kurdish territories taking key towns like Sinjar, Zummar, makhmour, Gwer (only 25 km from capital Erbil), and dozens of villages.
The Peshmarga fought, as it seemed, a helpless war because what they had was old Russian made AK-47s, BKC machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and RPG rocket propellers which proved ineffective against the armored US-made Humvees and MRAPs and long range artillery, howitzer and mortars. So, they pulled back in what they described tactical retreats to avoid heavy casualties.
On August 8 American warplanes began bombing ISIS destroying their armored vehicles and artillery positions. With that, Kurdish forces started to reorganize and put up a better fight as the air support boosted morale.
Kurdish forces have been making gains against ISIS ever since, especially after they received MILAN anti-tank weapons from Germany. The weapons system has proved to be very effective against ISIS armored vehicles, and especially against ISIS suicide car bombs which they also armor so nothing can stop them.
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/0402201510
http://nrttv.com/home/2015/02/03/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%95%DB%8C-%D9%83%D9%88%DA%98%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%DB%95-3-%D9%87%DB%95%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%83%DB%95%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%86%DB%8C%DB%95
Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the KRG Ministry of Peshmarga disclosed the number in a press conference on Wednesday following a brutal ISIS attack on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in an attempt to grab more land and to deal a quick blow to the Peshmarga forces to repair its image as the "unstoppable" jihadi force. ISIS had been losing ground on several fronts in Iraq including around their stronghold of Mosul, Kirkuk, Diyala province as well as Anbar.
It is not clear how many ISIS militants have been killed by the Peshmarga forces, because they never report on the number of their dead fighters and most of the time they do not leave behind bodies if they can recover them before pulling back. Massoud Barzanin, President of Kurdistan Region has said recently that "no less than 3000" have been killed by Peshmarga.
ISIS captured territories in Iraq's mainly Sunni Arab populated areas in a lightening fast offensive in June last year after three divisions of the Iraqi Army ran away in the face of the extremist group leaving heavy weaponry in the hands of the extremist group.
At first, the group did not appear to be interested in attacking Kurdistan, and Kurdish officials did not want to engage ISIS in the Arab populated areas for fear of igniting an ethnic conflict between Arabs and Kurds. The Sunni Arab population had long been complaining of marginalization by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, therefore many Sunnis welcomed ISIS, or did not resist when the Army fled.
However, Kurdish Peshmarga forces, who were now filling the gap created by the absence of the Iraqi Army in contested areas between Baghdad and Erbil that Kurds claim to be historically part of Kurdistan and has a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minority groups. ISIS began its surprise attack with the newly captured heavy weapons and armored vehicles in August pushing deep into Kurdish territories taking key towns like Sinjar, Zummar, makhmour, Gwer (only 25 km from capital Erbil), and dozens of villages.
The Peshmarga fought, as it seemed, a helpless war because what they had was old Russian made AK-47s, BKC machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and RPG rocket propellers which proved ineffective against the armored US-made Humvees and MRAPs and long range artillery, howitzer and mortars. So, they pulled back in what they described tactical retreats to avoid heavy casualties.
On August 8 American warplanes began bombing ISIS destroying their armored vehicles and artillery positions. With that, Kurdish forces started to reorganize and put up a better fight as the air support boosted morale.
Kurdish forces have been making gains against ISIS ever since, especially after they received MILAN anti-tank weapons from Germany. The weapons system has proved to be very effective against ISIS armored vehicles, and especially against ISIS suicide car bombs which they also armor so nothing can stop them.
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/0402201510
http://nrttv.com/home/2015/02/03/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%95%DB%8C-%D9%83%D9%88%DA%98%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%DB%95-3-%D9%87%DB%95%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%83%DB%95%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%86%DB%8C%DB%95
Friday, January 30, 2015
ISIS launches large scale offensive on Peshmarga forces, mostly repelled
Erbil - Islamic State (IS) militants also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL launched a massive operation in the early hours of Friday morning taking advantage of foggy weather to push into the lines of the Kurdish Peshmarga forces on mainly all fronts stretching from Kirkuk province from the east to the Nineveh province in the west of Iraq, but were mostly repelled by the Peshmarga with dozens of ISIS militants dead and more injured.
Attacks in Kirkuk
It appeared that most of the attacks in Khazir and Makhmour areas, south west of the capital Erbil, were a decoy to distract the Peshmarga forces while they launched the most vicious offensive on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Initially, ISIS militants were able to advance and take several villages from the Peshmarga including Maryam Beg, Mala Abdullah, Nahrawan, Maktab Khaled and Talward.
Then ISIS suicide militants that appeared to have either infiltrated into Kirkuk, or been ISIS sleeper cells in the city, blew up a car bomb at the entrance of a multi-storey, large building that is close to other security facilities, followed by 3-4 militants with explosive vests storming the building. Shortly afterwards the Kurdish security forces in the city claimed retaking the building after raiding it, killing all the militants inside, with one of them blowing himself up.
Video footage on Rudaw TV showed local civilian Kurds taking up arms to join the fight when they heard the explosion and gunfire. Moments later Kurdish security men appeared on top of the building firing celebratory gunshots into the air for clearing the building. Six security personnel were injured in the fight.
The building shows a lot of smoke after one suicide bomber blew himself up inside when security forces raided the building. Civilians appear in the footage who took up arms after they heard gunfire. Also Kurdish security forces appear on top of the building after clearing it.
Around Kirkuk where the fog had disappeared and it was clear daylight now, Kurdish Peshmarga forces aided by an Iraqi army brigade made up of Kurds went on the offensive to recapture most of the areas ISIS had taken. Reports said only Mala Abdullah village was still under ISIS control and fighting was still going on. Video footage and photos showed what appeared to be a pile of bodies of ISIS militants killed in the counteroffensive.
A security source said the mastermind and commander of today's attacks on Kirkuk was a man called Abu Hassan Turki who was killed in the counterattacks on ISIS.
There were different reports about the casualties in the ranks of ISIS with some putting the number of militants killed at 60 and around 80 more being wounded. What appeared in a video footage by Gali Kurdistan TV of the battlefields around one village showed about a couple dozen. The death of at least 17 Peshmarga personnel has also been confirmed with some 160 others wounded. One of the fallen Peshmarga was the beloved commander Sherko Fateh Shwani.
Separately, seven Peshmarga were killed near Jalawla in Diyala province when a militant blew his car bomb up.
Video: bodies of some of the ISIS militants killed in Maryam Beg village. One of the Peshmarga fighters says 11 of the dead Chechen fighters [Peshmarga fighters refer to Caucasian fighters as Chechen].
Sherko Fateh Shwani before he was killed by ISIS mortar fire said he would never allow ISIS to get near Kirkuk even if it means laying down his life.
In Erbil's southern Makhmour town, and Khazir area to the west, ISIS attacked Peshmarga positions simultaneously but were soon repelled. The militants did not make any advance here as they appeared to be smaller in number and served as a decoy for the ultimate trophy: Kirkuk.
Four Peshmarga were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded. The bodies of at least 3 militants were recovered by the Peshmarga although officials say more were killed by the Kurdish fighters.
ISIS militants killed during their attack on the Peshmarga positions in Makhmour town.
ISIS attack in Mosul
Similarly, ISIS launched an offensive on the Peshmarga forces to the west of Mosul around Aski Mosul, which is a strategic point that connects Mosul to other towns like Talafar and Shingal (Sinjar), but were repelled by the Kurdish fighters. Again, there were different reports about ISIS casualties with one source putting the number at 17 dead and one suicide car bomb also being taken out before it rammed into the ranks of Peshmarga fighters. Another source said around 40 ISIS militants were killed and many more were injured. No Peshmarga casualties were reported in this area.
In most of the attacks ISIS used car bombs and suicide fighters with explosive belts to penetrate the Kurdish lines, according to the reports.
Today's attacks appear to have come as retaliation for the heavy losses the group had to take in western Mosul after Peshmarga forces killed about 200 ISIS militants and captured a 600 square kilometer area on January 21-22, getting so close to Mosul that they were able to fire grad missiles at ISIS positions inside Mosul city causing panic in their ranks. Perhaps that's why they released a video showing the beheading of a Kuridsh Peshmarga prisoner after delivering threatening messages to US president Barack Obama, France, Belgium and Massoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region.
And, they seem desperate for a some victory that retains their image as an unstoppable force, an image they have been actively using as a recruitment tool.
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/300120151
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26462
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26461
http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?=hewal&jmare=10979&Jor=1
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/3001201524
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26455
- 27 Peshmarga died in the fight, among them popular commander
- Between 60-100 ISIS militants were killed and many more injured
- ISIS used suicide car bombs and militants with explosive vests
- Initially ISIS made advances, but were repelled later
Attacks in Kirkuk
It appeared that most of the attacks in Khazir and Makhmour areas, south west of the capital Erbil, were a decoy to distract the Peshmarga forces while they launched the most vicious offensive on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Initially, ISIS militants were able to advance and take several villages from the Peshmarga including Maryam Beg, Mala Abdullah, Nahrawan, Maktab Khaled and Talward.
Then ISIS suicide militants that appeared to have either infiltrated into Kirkuk, or been ISIS sleeper cells in the city, blew up a car bomb at the entrance of a multi-storey, large building that is close to other security facilities, followed by 3-4 militants with explosive vests storming the building. Shortly afterwards the Kurdish security forces in the city claimed retaking the building after raiding it, killing all the militants inside, with one of them blowing himself up.
Video footage on Rudaw TV showed local civilian Kurds taking up arms to join the fight when they heard the explosion and gunfire. Moments later Kurdish security men appeared on top of the building firing celebratory gunshots into the air for clearing the building. Six security personnel were injured in the fight.
The building shows a lot of smoke after one suicide bomber blew himself up inside when security forces raided the building. Civilians appear in the footage who took up arms after they heard gunfire. Also Kurdish security forces appear on top of the building after clearing it.
Around Kirkuk where the fog had disappeared and it was clear daylight now, Kurdish Peshmarga forces aided by an Iraqi army brigade made up of Kurds went on the offensive to recapture most of the areas ISIS had taken. Reports said only Mala Abdullah village was still under ISIS control and fighting was still going on. Video footage and photos showed what appeared to be a pile of bodies of ISIS militants killed in the counteroffensive.
A security source said the mastermind and commander of today's attacks on Kirkuk was a man called Abu Hassan Turki who was killed in the counterattacks on ISIS.
There were different reports about the casualties in the ranks of ISIS with some putting the number of militants killed at 60 and around 80 more being wounded. What appeared in a video footage by Gali Kurdistan TV of the battlefields around one village showed about a couple dozen. The death of at least 17 Peshmarga personnel has also been confirmed with some 160 others wounded. One of the fallen Peshmarga was the beloved commander Sherko Fateh Shwani.
Separately, seven Peshmarga were killed near Jalawla in Diyala province when a militant blew his car bomb up.
Video: bodies of some of the ISIS militants killed in Maryam Beg village. One of the Peshmarga fighters says 11 of the dead Chechen fighters [Peshmarga fighters refer to Caucasian fighters as Chechen].
Sherko Fateh Shwani before he was killed by ISIS mortar fire said he would never allow ISIS to get near Kirkuk even if it means laying down his life.
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| Courtesy of Wishe Newspaper www.Wishe.net |
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Attacks in Erbil
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Four Peshmarga were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded. The bodies of at least 3 militants were recovered by the Peshmarga although officials say more were killed by the Kurdish fighters.
ISIS attack in Mosul
Similarly, ISIS launched an offensive on the Peshmarga forces to the west of Mosul around Aski Mosul, which is a strategic point that connects Mosul to other towns like Talafar and Shingal (Sinjar), but were repelled by the Kurdish fighters. Again, there were different reports about ISIS casualties with one source putting the number at 17 dead and one suicide car bomb also being taken out before it rammed into the ranks of Peshmarga fighters. Another source said around 40 ISIS militants were killed and many more were injured. No Peshmarga casualties were reported in this area.
In most of the attacks ISIS used car bombs and suicide fighters with explosive belts to penetrate the Kurdish lines, according to the reports.
Today's attacks appear to have come as retaliation for the heavy losses the group had to take in western Mosul after Peshmarga forces killed about 200 ISIS militants and captured a 600 square kilometer area on January 21-22, getting so close to Mosul that they were able to fire grad missiles at ISIS positions inside Mosul city causing panic in their ranks. Perhaps that's why they released a video showing the beheading of a Kuridsh Peshmarga prisoner after delivering threatening messages to US president Barack Obama, France, Belgium and Massoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region.
And, they seem desperate for a some victory that retains their image as an unstoppable force, an image they have been actively using as a recruitment tool.
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/300120151
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26462
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26461
http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?=hewal&jmare=10979&Jor=1
http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/3001201524
http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&lang=1&type=1&id=26455
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Release of pro-Jihadi Kurdish Cleric by Norway elicits mixed reactions in Kurdistan
Erbil – On January 25th, Mala Krekar or Najmaddin
Faraj if we go by his real name, a former Islamist-Jihadi from Kurdistan whose
group of fighters was in a bloody conflict with the more secular groups before
he fled to Norway in early 2000s, was released by Norwegian authorities after
completing a 34 month jail term.
The news of Krekar's release traveled fast back to Kurdistan and with it came a whirlwind of mixed reactions from the different political parties of the region: both joyful and threatening ones.
The welcome-home kind of reactions
Islamic groups were quick to welcome the news including the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) which
is known as a peaceful, anti-violence Islamic party in Kurdistan, Komal (or the
Islamic Group) another Islamic group that is seen a degree less moderate than the former, but still a civilian group taking part in the political game in Kurdistan, and the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) which is the most conservative of all the Islamic parties in the region and is also like the mother group among whose ranks Mr. Krekar was an active leader before the group broke up after which he established his own called Ansarul Islam.
The KIU‘s Politburo member Omar Mohammed said: “We hope that
he benefited from his imprisonment, that he looks at it as a life experience, so
he can better serve" it is not clear what he meant by "better serve" or whom and what to serve as most of the time Krekar was the IMK, or when he had his own group, he was in conflict with the Kurdish parties militarily.
He continued, “His fault was that the way he thought and
preached was to a great extent harsh, especially when he was with Ansarul
Islam. We hope that Mamosta [in reference to Krekar, the word in Kurdish means
teacher, but is used for a spiritual leader, a religious leader, or any person of
great abilities, a master] can use his abilities in literature, rhetoric and influencing [others]
to better serve.”
IMK said Krekar was a fellow citizen and had the right to
return to Kurdistan. Abdullah Warty, a member of the IMK leadership said “a new
page should be opened with people like him.”
Komal was probably the happiest of all the Islamic
groups with Mohammed Hakeem, Komal spokesman, saying “in case he returns [to
Kurdistan] and decides to work in our ranks, we will be happy to accept him.”
Komal was also an armed group once that was established after the break-up of IMK. Their militants were subjected to disarmament after the 2003 war on Iraq with US warplanes
and rockets destroying their bases in Sulaymaniyah province. They are now
engaged in the political process in Kurdistan with a minister in the KRG
cabinet.
You-filthy-terrorist kind of voices
The most vehemently opposing faction on the ground is the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a secular social democrat party whose
Peshmarga militia was in a bloody conflict with Mala Krekar’s group before he
fled the country to Norway in 2002.
Ata Sarawi a leader with PUK, and brother of one of the Peshmargas
killed by Ansarul Islam militants when they were at war with the PUK, said “No party should dare welcome him back. We are going to treat him like a
Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIS or ISIL, which is now known as Islamic State or IS). We will not be silent, neither as PUK, nor
as the families of the Kheli Hama martyrs, about anyone who brings a man killer
into this country” referring to the death of 43 PUK Peshmargas in one surprise attack by Ansarul Islam in 2001. The men were brutally killed with many of them by beheading. Later PUK said the bodies of most of the fallen Peshmargas were also disfigured by Ansarul Islam.
Sarawi said all of the families of the Kheli Hama massacre
were ready to file lawsuits against Krekar as soon as he sets foot on Kurdish
ground.
Another PUK official, Lateef Sheikh Omar, says “If Mala Krekar, or anybody else, is involved in a lawsuit, they will have to be
immediately handed over to the security forces and sent to court... The court will decide, with political consensus. It is not
up to anybody, or and party, to grant him forgiveness. This is PUK’s principle”
So is he a dangerous man to return to Kurdistan?
Well, you should first read something about the latest
developments in Kurdistan. Calm and prosperity was disrupted in August
last year when ISIS militants turned their barrels on Kurdistan
following a lightning fast land grab in the northern and western parts of
Iraq’s mainly Sunni populated areas.
Since then, over 800 Kurdish soldiers have died in the battle pushing back ISIS from the
territories they took in the first attack. In the ranks of the ISIS fighters were
hundreds of foreigners lured by Jihadi ideology, but also around a couple
hundred Kurds from Kurdistan Region itself. This group of young Islamists were
radicalized either in mosques by hard-line preachers (and patterns show they mainly came from areas where Krekar had influence before going to Norway), or online. Now the
security forces claim that the number of Jihadists from Kurdistan who joined
ISIS could be a lot higher. And in the latest video released by ISIS, a Kurdish-speaking fighter dressed in Kurdish clothes beheaded a captured Peshmarga fighter after he delivered threatening messages to US President Barack Obama, France, Belgium, as well as the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.
Now, ISIS may not be that big a threat to Kurdistan as it appeared to be last year. Peshmarga forces are
gaining ground against the Jihadists ever since the US-coalition airplanes
started bombing ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Last week Peshmarga forces pushed deep
into ISIS held territories recapturing some 600 square kilometers in an
operation west of Mosul (the ISIS stronghold in Iraq) in which ISIS sent about
14 suicide car bombers to break the lines of the Kurdish solders all of which
were taken out either by the coalition warplanes or the Peshmarga who used
their newly received MILAN anti-tank rockets from Germany with brutal
effectiveness. Officials said over 200 ISIS militants had been killed in the
operation, and they said that they were so close to Mosul now that they could
shell the center of Mosul with artillery fire - and had actually done so to
destroy ISIS positions before Barzani ordered the Peshmarga to stop shelling
ISIS positions in Mosul for fear of civilian casualties and that ISIS
could use that as a propaganda tool arguing Peshmarga are targeting civilian
populations, attracting more recruits from the city.
In this video, Kurdish Peshmarga Forces blow up ISIS suicide bombers, and destroy ISIS armored vehicles with their new anti-tank weapons.
The real deal is that there are hundreds of Kurdish militants in the ranks of ISIS, and there may be hundreds more inside Kurdistan Region who all look up to Mala Krekar, and his return to Kurdistan in addition to some influential Jihadi speeches, could encourage many pro-Jihadi young men, and awaken a sleeping generation of Jihadi-minded fellas inside Kurdistan.
According to Kurdish media outlets, ISIS had posted a message on social media pages "welcoming back Mala Krekar" but refrained from commenting on what the group thought about Krekar before he opens his mouth. "We are not going to say anything before he speaks and we find out what he thinks about the Caliphate and the US-Peshmarga alliance"
Mala Krekar is known to have said he is against the idea of young Kurds joining the war in Syria to wage Jihad. "It is better for them to stay in Kurdistan and learn Islamic sciences" his brother once quoted him as saying. He has also claimed that Krekar supports the creation of a Kurdish state.
As for the question: Is he going to return to Kurdistan or stay in Norway? it is not clear what his plans are yet.
- http://hawlati.co/%D8%A6%DB%95%D8%B1%D8%B4%DB%8C%DA%A4%DB%95%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%86/23456
- http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/270120152
- http://basnews.com/news/2015/01/25/%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%95%D9%83-%D9%84%DB%95-%D9%85%DB%95%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%B1%DB%8E%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AF%DB%95%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA/
- http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?Jmare=114&Jor=5
- http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/2501201543
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Video of Peshmarga forces taking out ISIS suicide car bombs
Erbil - A new video released yesterday by Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Peshmarga shows how Kurdish Peshmarga forces take out Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL) suicide car bombs.
Kurdish forces launched a major offensive on January 21-22 west of ISIS stronghold of Mosul, inflicting the heaviest defeat on the group since they took territories in Iraq and pushed deep into Kurdish territories last year.
Kurdish forces said they had retaken some 600 square kilometers which included two townships and a handful villages. Fighting continued into Friday. Most important of all is the capture of an area that looks on the road which links Mosul to Talafar (a major town and ISIS stronghold), Shingal (also know as Sinjar) and Syria, cutting off route for resupply.
The release of the video is the second of its kind that directly show ISIS elements destroyed by Peshmarga. Another was released earlier this month by Kurdistan TV that showed how the Kurdish forces chased and killed ISIS militants in a retaliatory operation following the ISIS surprise attack on the town of Gwer where 24 Kurdish soldiers died.
In this video, Peshmarga forces appear to have armored US made Humvees they either acquired when the Iraqi Army fled Mosul, or captured from ISIS. They also have some tanks - at least two tanks that appear to be Russian made T-55s appear in the video.
Peshmarga officials said the bodies of at least 200 ISIS militants were found on the battlefields. They also said ISIS sent 14 suicide car bombs to break into the lines of the Peshmarga forces of which 3 were destroyed by the coalition planes and the rest taken out by the Peshmarga forces who now use their newly received anti-tank weapons with brutal effectiveness.
In the video, at least 3 suicide car bombs trying to ram into the ranks of the Peshmarga forces are blown up by the Peshmarga with German made MILAN anti-tanks.
One armored vehicle that advances on Peshmarga forces is struck with two rockets. Two militants are seen abandoning their vehicle, trying to escape. Then, another armored vehicle approaches to help the two militants but the Peshmarga blow it up with a MILAN rocket.
Kurdish forces launched a major offensive on January 21-22 west of ISIS stronghold of Mosul, inflicting the heaviest defeat on the group since they took territories in Iraq and pushed deep into Kurdish territories last year.
Kurdish forces said they had retaken some 600 square kilometers which included two townships and a handful villages. Fighting continued into Friday. Most important of all is the capture of an area that looks on the road which links Mosul to Talafar (a major town and ISIS stronghold), Shingal (also know as Sinjar) and Syria, cutting off route for resupply.
The release of the video is the second of its kind that directly show ISIS elements destroyed by Peshmarga. Another was released earlier this month by Kurdistan TV that showed how the Kurdish forces chased and killed ISIS militants in a retaliatory operation following the ISIS surprise attack on the town of Gwer where 24 Kurdish soldiers died.
In this video, Peshmarga forces appear to have armored US made Humvees they either acquired when the Iraqi Army fled Mosul, or captured from ISIS. They also have some tanks - at least two tanks that appear to be Russian made T-55s appear in the video.
Peshmarga officials said the bodies of at least 200 ISIS militants were found on the battlefields. They also said ISIS sent 14 suicide car bombs to break into the lines of the Peshmarga forces of which 3 were destroyed by the coalition planes and the rest taken out by the Peshmarga forces who now use their newly received anti-tank weapons with brutal effectiveness.
In the video, at least 3 suicide car bombs trying to ram into the ranks of the Peshmarga forces are blown up by the Peshmarga with German made MILAN anti-tanks.
One armored vehicle that advances on Peshmarga forces is struck with two rockets. Two militants are seen abandoning their vehicle, trying to escape. Then, another armored vehicle approaches to help the two militants but the Peshmarga blow it up with a MILAN rocket.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
What takes my time
It has been quite a while since I last posted an article on this blog. I am in love with this blog, because it is the first I started, it archives my works, and has a good readership throughout the world, and finally it helps me keep busy.
But there's been a lot going on lately which kept me away for quite some time. First of all, I quit my job as a journalist. Second, I went to the US for my graduate studies in English and Communication. Third, I have been working an average of 10 hours per day since I returned from the US early 2014, and more recently I have involved in literary writing more than commentary and analysis. I am currently working on a book. Creative nonfiction, also I am working on another blog trying to introduce Kurdish literature to the world. my new blog is www.kurdishbookshelf.blogspot.com
but that does not mean I am quitting this blog. I want to keep working on this blog, I just need some time to take care of some other distractions and come back with a clear mind. meanwhile, if you have any appetite for learning about Kurdish literature, you can follow me on my new blog which I have just started.
But there's been a lot going on lately which kept me away for quite some time. First of all, I quit my job as a journalist. Second, I went to the US for my graduate studies in English and Communication. Third, I have been working an average of 10 hours per day since I returned from the US early 2014, and more recently I have involved in literary writing more than commentary and analysis. I am currently working on a book. Creative nonfiction, also I am working on another blog trying to introduce Kurdish literature to the world. my new blog is www.kurdishbookshelf.blogspot.com
but that does not mean I am quitting this blog. I want to keep working on this blog, I just need some time to take care of some other distractions and come back with a clear mind. meanwhile, if you have any appetite for learning about Kurdish literature, you can follow me on my new blog which I have just started.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Interfaith marriage shows how sectarian divide in Iraq is unprecedented
There are many gauges to determine why the current sectarian divide
between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq is unprecedented, but one of them strikes me
and makes this pretty clear: the record low intermarriage between Shias and Sunnis.
If some 50 years ago an Iraqi Sunni and Shia couple - whether Kurd,
Arab, or Turkmen - decided to get married, nobody would have even known that it
was an intermarriage between the two sects. This is because it was totally
normal and such occasions.
Today, however, these rare occasions, like the recent marriage of a
Sunni girl to a Shia man, seem to make headlines as an act of bravery,
interfaith tolerance, and patriotism as well.
Mohammed Hares Yousef (25) and his bride Reem (20) both were among the families who fled the northern city of Mosul after it fell to the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - now known as only Islamic State or IS - in a lightening fast offensive that routed Iraqi Army in June.
The couple got married in a ceremony in Baghdad's al-Saeedea neighborhood on Monday. According to the reprots, and Iraqi MP Ahlam al-Husseini also attended the wedding ceremony.
The story made headlines across not only Iraqi media, but also Arab countries as "Shia man and Sunni woman challenge ISIS with their marriage in Baghdad". Arab media outlets also wrote that with the intermarriage the couple wanted to "stand in the face of the violence that threatens to tear Iraq apart"
"... I challenge sorrow, I challenge terrorism.." they quote the young groom as saying.
I know this is supposed to be a good sign that Iraqis are fighting sectarianism, but I am afraid it can be seen in more than one way. I believe it means the divide between Sunni and Shias is beyond bridging with all the fighting and bloodshed going on in the country since 2003.
The tensions between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq started when the Baath regime held power in Iraq and it peaked under Saddam Hussein in the 1980 when he banned Shia religious rites in public and started to jail Shia leaders. Shia soldiers rebelled against the Iraqi Army in 1991 after Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait and much of the army was damaged by the coalition forces in the first Gulf War. Saddam Hussein clamped down on the Shia with an iron fist.
But even then intermarriage was a lot more common than the years after 2003. According to unofficial figures from a judge from Baghdad in an article published in 2009, with the title: Life Goes On: Mixed Sunni-Shi’ah Marriages in Iraq roughly 50% of marriages in Baghdad before 2003 that the judge signed on were intermarriages.
The judge says that an estimated 40 percent from that figure dropped with the 2003 war that toppled Saddam which still left a good percentage of intermarriages. But why do intermarriages make headlines these days? I believe because they have dropped even more dramatically since the 2009 article, and that's exactly why they make headlines.
Some of the online media outlets that ran the story from Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, as well as USA and UK based Arabic language media outlets:
- http://www.afakmasria.com/vglcxpqo.2bq0025acsa82.,.html
- http://www.albayan.ae/one-world/arabs/2014-09-03-1.2194538
- http://arabic.cnn.com/middleeast/2014/09/03/arabic-papers
- http://www.ishtartv.com/viewarticle,55914.html
- http://alkhabarpress.com/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%AD%D9%81%D9%84-%D8%B2%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8A-%D9%88%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A/
- http://xendan.org/dreja.aspx?=hewal&jmara=6875&Jor=2
- http://www.alweeam.com.sa/289028/%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A/
- http://www.alarab.co.uk/?id=32157
- http://shabwaahpress.net/news/19954/
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Friendly relations and then some
This Article was originally published by Kurdistan Tribune. Here is the Link. @RaberYAziz
I was a junior undergrad student in 2007 when a journalist from a Dutch radio station who worked on a report about Kurds and Kurdistan asked me as a Kurd what I thought about an independent Kurdish state. My answer was as follows: having a Kurdish state without the blessings of the neighboring countries, even if the whole world recognizes it, is like sitting in a room with no windows, doors or exits. That Kurdistan – and I mean both the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the greater Kurdistan as well – is a landlocked enclave and all of its interactions and trade with the outside world had to be either through airspaces, or across the soils of Turkey, Syria, Iraq or Iran. I told the journalist that an independent Kurdish state was the dream of every Kurd. However, I didn’t want us to rush into a declaration of independence without first building friendly relations with the neighboring nations through mutual understanding and interests.
For a long time after the Kurdistan Region gained self-rule in northern Iraq, the neighboring countries were not happy with this. They all tried to meddle in its internal affairs, and maybe still do. Saddam Hussein was a permanent threat and there was the Turkish military’s continued transgression on its soil ostensibly to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But, in 2004, Kurdistan Region was officially recognized by the Iraqi Constitution which made it irreversible. Saddam Hussein was gone, but Turkish officials still referred to Kurdistan as “Northern Iraq” and continued denying a Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish identity.
With the Justice and Development Party (AKP) coming to power in Turkey, that Turkish attitude changed too. Kurdish classes are now offered and a state-run Kurdish language TV is operational, Recep Teyyip Erdogan has tried to introduce more reforms, which are not huge but better than nothing. And Turkey is a major trade partner of the Kurdistan Region today. Erdogan officially invited the President of the Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, to Diyarbakir, the largest predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey, where they spoke about friendly relations and “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.”
It was a historical moment to see Barzani in Diyarbakir. No one should deny that – not even those who looked at the intertwined politics that Barzani needed Erdogan’s support in his own ambitions to push oil deals with the neighboring country without going back to Baghdad, or that Erdogan needed Barzani to gain votes from the Kurdish southeast of the country as parliamentary elections are expected to be held in March. Barzani was received by Erdogan as more than just an ally to his AKP party in the Middle East. He was received as an equal counterpart and that has its significance.
Also, Erdogan for the first time referred to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as “Iraqi Kurdistan” which I am not suggesting, as some enthusiasts have suggested, it is a sign that Kurdistan is on the right track towards becoming a fully independent country. Rather, the denial policy practiced by the Turkish governments in the past is gradually vanishing and friendly relations are becoming stronger and stronger. It is for that very reason that Turkish hardline nationalists now call Erdogan a traitor. Some have gone so far as accusing Erdogan of splitting Turkey and helping Kurds establish the Greater Kurdistan.
After six years, I still hold the same view that an independent Kurdistan, without friendly relations with its neighbors, is unimaginable because Kurdistan is surrounded by those countries that can literally impose sanctions on it and cut it off from the rest of the world if they so wished. However, I would like to add one more line to it now: besides friendly relations with neighboring countries, Kurdish leaders and their fans need to overcome their own denial attitudes towards other Kurdish leaders, parties and factions.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Erbil is recognized by its leaders as the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and of the greater Kurdistan. In Turkey’s Kurdistan, and in particular by the PKK and its sympathizers, Diyarbakir is. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq describes Barzani as the supreme leader of the Kurdish nation, PKK and its sympathizers give Abdullah Ocalan the same titles, while many Iranian Kurds constantly refer to Qasemlu, leader of the KDP-Iran who was assassinated by Iranian intelligence in Austria, as the leader of the Kurds despite his being dead.
While Barzani’s KDP media, in addition to the Turkish media close to Erdogan’s AKP party, praised both leaders and their friendly relations and achievements, the PKK media, and the PKK sympathizer Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) of Turkey harshly criticized Barzani for refuting the PKK-affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD)’s recent interim administration in Syria. An object of criticism by the BDP leaders was also the fact that Barzani responded to Erdogan’s call to visit Diyarbakir when hundreds of the city’s sons are still in jail on charges of working with the PKK, while he turned down an invitation from the BDP to participate in the Nawroz (Kurdish New Year) celebrations in Diyarbakir.
At the heart of the competition is the Barzani-Ocalan rivalry.
Everybody is partly to blame for this rivalry and lack of unity among Kurds. The PYD/PKK accuse Barzani and his KDP party of family rule and having a monopoly of power, politics and trade in Kurdistan, yet they are doing the same in Syria. I know that the PYD is the most popular force on the ground in Syria, and I know that as the first power there it has the right to be the one dominating politics and administration. But they have no excuse for marginalizing all other Kurdish parties that seem to disagree with the PYD, however small – at least not until elections are held to see which party has a popular base and deserves to be called a political party and deserves to be part of the administration and how much power each party should have. The same is true of the KDP and Barzani as well. Barzani has done everything in his power to put pressure on the PYD in Syria, from blocking the border crossings and banning Saleh Muslim, the PYD leader, from entering Kurdistan, to adopting political attitudes that show enmity for the PYD, including refuting the recent interim administration announced by the PYD to carve out a Kurdish region in Syria.
One more issue is that, in his recent visit, Barzani failed to consider the frustration it would cause to the BDP/PKK and other independent Kurdish leaders in the country – that they would feel marginalized and excluded. Erdogan and his government did not take PKK and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan for granted, so why should Barzani do that? Erdogan accepted Ocalan as an interlocutor in the peace process and has been holding talks and striking deals with them, so why shouldn’t Barzani do the same? This is not to suggest that he has never tried to hold talks with Turkey’s Kurdish leaders, rather Barzani – as an iconic Kurdish leader – should try harder to bring all Kurdish leaders together especially in compliance with his own ambitions to become the supreme leader of the Kurds everywhere.
The BDP is a popular party and its views should matter a lot to Barzani. It garnered about 2.8 million votes in the Turkish parliamentary elections in 2011, which is more than twice the votes Barzani’s KDP received in the Kurdistan Region elections this year. I am not forgetting the number of Kurdish voters in Kurdistan of Iraq and Turkey and therefore this should not mean that they are more popular than Barzani in the Kurdish world, but it should certainly mean that they are a popular force with massive support and a huge fan base in Turkey and the Kurdish world. This should testify that the BDP leaders should not be taken for granted, nor should the PKK. Just a few days ago 20,000 Kurds marched in Germany calling on the German government to reconsider its ban on the PKK.
What angered the Kurdish leaders of Turkey was that Barzani’s visit seemed to send the message that Erdogan and Barzani can bring about peace in the region without going back to the BDP or PKK. This may not have been the intention of Barzani, but it certainly did send this message and this was clear from the BDP and PKK leaders’ reactions.
Salahattin Demirtas said that “those who say they went to Diyarbakir to deliver some messages to the Kurdish people should respect the sacrifices of this land (Diyarbakir) they have stepped on. “ He also said, in what appeared to be a response to Barzani’s comment that he wouldn’t be able to go and speak in Turkey some 15 years ago but is now able to do so thanks to Erdogan: “If children and mothers of Diyarbakir had not turned each and every neighborhood of the city into an uprising and resistance field, nobody would be able today to deliver any messages here. Everybody should know on what soil they stand before speaking”
Here is why Demirtas and other BDP and PKK leaders are frustrated: Barzani went to Turkey and talked about Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood when the BDP and PKK leaders were sidelined, when the BDP/PKK still strongly disapprove of Erdogan’s reform packages and are highly dissatisfied with it and want to press for more. But the Barzani visit seems to legitimize what Erdogan has given so far. How would Barzani feel if Turkey’s Kurdish leaders visited the disputed city of Kirkuk in Iraq and talked about Arab-Kurdish brotherhood and said that it was time for peace and, whether intentionally or unintentionally, sent the message that what is there for Kurds in the city is enough and they should be content with what they have? I know that I would be angry if a Kurd from Turkey, Syria or Iran told me that Iraqi Kurds should stop whining about Kirkuk, move on and be content with what is already there. I know that we Kurds are one nation, but we did not all fight as one nation for Kirkuk, only Iraqi Kurds did and therefore it is not up to Turkey’s Kurds or Iranian Kurds to decide what’s best for Kirkuk, it is up to us Iraqi Kurds.
As long as we are looking at having Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers within their states rather than one independent Kurdistan, I think the same is true for Turkey’s Kurds, and Syria’s Kurds. They know better what is best for them and only they should have the right to decide that because, in the same way, only they fought for Kurdish rights in Turkey and not the whole of the Kurdish nation as one. One might say Mustafa Barzani, Massoud Barzani’s father, fought alongside Qazi Mohammed during the Mahabad Republic in 1946. But I am not talking about that long ago, I am talking about recent years, and besides, when Barzani joined Qazi Mohammed, the Kurdish regions in the four countries had not become as distinctive as they are today and Kurds still strived for one independent Kurdistan state rather than Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers.
I see Barzani’s recent Turkey visit as a positive event for Kurds in general, and the Kurdistan Region in particular. Kurds need to build friendly relations with Turks, Arabs and Persians if they ever want to have their own independent state. However, Kurdish leaders and their supporters should stop denying each other because they do not agree. Differences are not bad, they are just differences. And a supreme Kurdish leader is a matter of relativity as long as there is not an independent Greater Kurdistan where polls can be held to determine this.
For a long time after the Kurdistan Region gained self-rule in northern Iraq, the neighboring countries were not happy with this. They all tried to meddle in its internal affairs, and maybe still do. Saddam Hussein was a permanent threat and there was the Turkish military’s continued transgression on its soil ostensibly to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But, in 2004, Kurdistan Region was officially recognized by the Iraqi Constitution which made it irreversible. Saddam Hussein was gone, but Turkish officials still referred to Kurdistan as “Northern Iraq” and continued denying a Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish identity.
With the Justice and Development Party (AKP) coming to power in Turkey, that Turkish attitude changed too. Kurdish classes are now offered and a state-run Kurdish language TV is operational, Recep Teyyip Erdogan has tried to introduce more reforms, which are not huge but better than nothing. And Turkey is a major trade partner of the Kurdistan Region today. Erdogan officially invited the President of the Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, to Diyarbakir, the largest predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey, where they spoke about friendly relations and “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.”
It was a historical moment to see Barzani in Diyarbakir. No one should deny that – not even those who looked at the intertwined politics that Barzani needed Erdogan’s support in his own ambitions to push oil deals with the neighboring country without going back to Baghdad, or that Erdogan needed Barzani to gain votes from the Kurdish southeast of the country as parliamentary elections are expected to be held in March. Barzani was received by Erdogan as more than just an ally to his AKP party in the Middle East. He was received as an equal counterpart and that has its significance.
Also, Erdogan for the first time referred to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as “Iraqi Kurdistan” which I am not suggesting, as some enthusiasts have suggested, it is a sign that Kurdistan is on the right track towards becoming a fully independent country. Rather, the denial policy practiced by the Turkish governments in the past is gradually vanishing and friendly relations are becoming stronger and stronger. It is for that very reason that Turkish hardline nationalists now call Erdogan a traitor. Some have gone so far as accusing Erdogan of splitting Turkey and helping Kurds establish the Greater Kurdistan.
After six years, I still hold the same view that an independent Kurdistan, without friendly relations with its neighbors, is unimaginable because Kurdistan is surrounded by those countries that can literally impose sanctions on it and cut it off from the rest of the world if they so wished. However, I would like to add one more line to it now: besides friendly relations with neighboring countries, Kurdish leaders and their fans need to overcome their own denial attitudes towards other Kurdish leaders, parties and factions.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Erbil is recognized by its leaders as the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and of the greater Kurdistan. In Turkey’s Kurdistan, and in particular by the PKK and its sympathizers, Diyarbakir is. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq describes Barzani as the supreme leader of the Kurdish nation, PKK and its sympathizers give Abdullah Ocalan the same titles, while many Iranian Kurds constantly refer to Qasemlu, leader of the KDP-Iran who was assassinated by Iranian intelligence in Austria, as the leader of the Kurds despite his being dead.
While Barzani’s KDP media, in addition to the Turkish media close to Erdogan’s AKP party, praised both leaders and their friendly relations and achievements, the PKK media, and the PKK sympathizer Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) of Turkey harshly criticized Barzani for refuting the PKK-affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD)’s recent interim administration in Syria. An object of criticism by the BDP leaders was also the fact that Barzani responded to Erdogan’s call to visit Diyarbakir when hundreds of the city’s sons are still in jail on charges of working with the PKK, while he turned down an invitation from the BDP to participate in the Nawroz (Kurdish New Year) celebrations in Diyarbakir.
At the heart of the competition is the Barzani-Ocalan rivalry.
Everybody is partly to blame for this rivalry and lack of unity among Kurds. The PYD/PKK accuse Barzani and his KDP party of family rule and having a monopoly of power, politics and trade in Kurdistan, yet they are doing the same in Syria. I know that the PYD is the most popular force on the ground in Syria, and I know that as the first power there it has the right to be the one dominating politics and administration. But they have no excuse for marginalizing all other Kurdish parties that seem to disagree with the PYD, however small – at least not until elections are held to see which party has a popular base and deserves to be called a political party and deserves to be part of the administration and how much power each party should have. The same is true of the KDP and Barzani as well. Barzani has done everything in his power to put pressure on the PYD in Syria, from blocking the border crossings and banning Saleh Muslim, the PYD leader, from entering Kurdistan, to adopting political attitudes that show enmity for the PYD, including refuting the recent interim administration announced by the PYD to carve out a Kurdish region in Syria.
One more issue is that, in his recent visit, Barzani failed to consider the frustration it would cause to the BDP/PKK and other independent Kurdish leaders in the country – that they would feel marginalized and excluded. Erdogan and his government did not take PKK and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan for granted, so why should Barzani do that? Erdogan accepted Ocalan as an interlocutor in the peace process and has been holding talks and striking deals with them, so why shouldn’t Barzani do the same? This is not to suggest that he has never tried to hold talks with Turkey’s Kurdish leaders, rather Barzani – as an iconic Kurdish leader – should try harder to bring all Kurdish leaders together especially in compliance with his own ambitions to become the supreme leader of the Kurds everywhere.
The BDP is a popular party and its views should matter a lot to Barzani. It garnered about 2.8 million votes in the Turkish parliamentary elections in 2011, which is more than twice the votes Barzani’s KDP received in the Kurdistan Region elections this year. I am not forgetting the number of Kurdish voters in Kurdistan of Iraq and Turkey and therefore this should not mean that they are more popular than Barzani in the Kurdish world, but it should certainly mean that they are a popular force with massive support and a huge fan base in Turkey and the Kurdish world. This should testify that the BDP leaders should not be taken for granted, nor should the PKK. Just a few days ago 20,000 Kurds marched in Germany calling on the German government to reconsider its ban on the PKK.
What angered the Kurdish leaders of Turkey was that Barzani’s visit seemed to send the message that Erdogan and Barzani can bring about peace in the region without going back to the BDP or PKK. This may not have been the intention of Barzani, but it certainly did send this message and this was clear from the BDP and PKK leaders’ reactions.
Salahattin Demirtas said that “those who say they went to Diyarbakir to deliver some messages to the Kurdish people should respect the sacrifices of this land (Diyarbakir) they have stepped on. “ He also said, in what appeared to be a response to Barzani’s comment that he wouldn’t be able to go and speak in Turkey some 15 years ago but is now able to do so thanks to Erdogan: “If children and mothers of Diyarbakir had not turned each and every neighborhood of the city into an uprising and resistance field, nobody would be able today to deliver any messages here. Everybody should know on what soil they stand before speaking”
Here is why Demirtas and other BDP and PKK leaders are frustrated: Barzani went to Turkey and talked about Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood when the BDP and PKK leaders were sidelined, when the BDP/PKK still strongly disapprove of Erdogan’s reform packages and are highly dissatisfied with it and want to press for more. But the Barzani visit seems to legitimize what Erdogan has given so far. How would Barzani feel if Turkey’s Kurdish leaders visited the disputed city of Kirkuk in Iraq and talked about Arab-Kurdish brotherhood and said that it was time for peace and, whether intentionally or unintentionally, sent the message that what is there for Kurds in the city is enough and they should be content with what they have? I know that I would be angry if a Kurd from Turkey, Syria or Iran told me that Iraqi Kurds should stop whining about Kirkuk, move on and be content with what is already there. I know that we Kurds are one nation, but we did not all fight as one nation for Kirkuk, only Iraqi Kurds did and therefore it is not up to Turkey’s Kurds or Iranian Kurds to decide what’s best for Kirkuk, it is up to us Iraqi Kurds.
As long as we are looking at having Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers within their states rather than one independent Kurdistan, I think the same is true for Turkey’s Kurds, and Syria’s Kurds. They know better what is best for them and only they should have the right to decide that because, in the same way, only they fought for Kurdish rights in Turkey and not the whole of the Kurdish nation as one. One might say Mustafa Barzani, Massoud Barzani’s father, fought alongside Qazi Mohammed during the Mahabad Republic in 1946. But I am not talking about that long ago, I am talking about recent years, and besides, when Barzani joined Qazi Mohammed, the Kurdish regions in the four countries had not become as distinctive as they are today and Kurds still strived for one independent Kurdistan state rather than Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers.
I see Barzani’s recent Turkey visit as a positive event for Kurds in general, and the Kurdistan Region in particular. Kurds need to build friendly relations with Turks, Arabs and Persians if they ever want to have their own independent state. However, Kurdish leaders and their supporters should stop denying each other because they do not agree. Differences are not bad, they are just differences. And a supreme Kurdish leader is a matter of relativity as long as there is not an independent Greater Kurdistan where polls can be held to determine this.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Towards a National Anthem for Kurdistan
This article was originally published by Kurdistan Tribune. Here is the Link.
Recently, I watched a short video footage of the late Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya in which he is to be named as the Musician of the Year in Turkey. Kaya appears on stage as he receives the award and says, “I am receiving this award on behalf of everyone struggling for human rights. In my next album, I will sing in Kurdish and will make a Kurdish video clip. I am sure there are courageous TV people who will air this.”
But no sooner had he said this than he was showered with swear words by the attending Turk artists. Some of them shouted angrily that there is nothing called “Kurd” or “Kurdish language”. Others waived their hands in the air as they spoke unintelligibly because of the uproar of the audience. Kaya was speechless. It was heart breaking. Later I did a little research: reading related articles, watching other videos. I found out that on that night Kaya was also pelted with forks and spoons by the attendants and that he barely survived an attack by some of the attendants. He was also pounded by the mainstream Turkish media as a “traitor”, and was also prosecuted on false charges and sent into exile in France where he died the following year, of a heart attack.
Today, I read on one Kurdish news outlet that Turkey’s Nationalist People’s Party (MHP) opposes efforts to have a Kurdish language dictionary printed by the state printing and publishing facility. Mehmet Gunal of the MHP has reportedly said in the Turkish parliament that recognizing Kurdish language divides the state language and serves as a step toward federalism in the country. I understood the Kurdish sentiment behind the article. I am also a Kurd and all that denial of the Kurdish identity, culture and language is very relatable. It was heart breaking again. I can’t understand how a person can deny the ethnic and cultural identity of someone else. How can you hold so much hate for someone else based on the fact that they are different from you one way or another?
I tried very hard to imagine myself doing to a non-Kurd those things the Turkish audience did to Kaya, and I couldn't. And I believe that no Kurds - who have seen decades of discrimination, denial, and forced assimilation - should be able to imagine that. But as much as I love this to be true with every single Kurd, it is still far from reality. Disagree with me? well, here is what was also going on recently:
A few members of the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) – an opposition party in the Kurdistan Parliament – did not stand up in a Kurdistan parliament meeting when the Kurdish Anthem was played. They based their rejection of the anthem on grounds that it contained blasphemy, and later in an attempt to divert all of the criticism some of their brethren said it did not represent all ethnic groups in Kurdistan. This stirred outrage among the nationalist Kurds on social media networks and has been further hyped up by the media close to the secular Kurdish parties.
I tried very hard to imagine myself doing to a non-Kurd those things the Turkish audience did to Kaya, and I couldn't. And I believe that no Kurds - who have seen decades of discrimination, denial, and forced assimilation - should be able to imagine that. But as much as I love this to be true with every single Kurd, it is still far from reality. Disagree with me? well, here is what was also going on recently:
A few members of the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) – an opposition party in the Kurdistan Parliament – did not stand up in a Kurdistan parliament meeting when the Kurdish Anthem was played. They based their rejection of the anthem on grounds that it contained blasphemy, and later in an attempt to divert all of the criticism some of their brethren said it did not represent all ethnic groups in Kurdistan. This stirred outrage among the nationalist Kurds on social media networks and has been further hyped up by the media close to the secular Kurdish parties.
Now, the point here is not to defend the Islamic MPs for what they did. I am not an Islamist person and I do not appreciate what those Islamic MPs did on such grounds that the lyrics of the anthem contain blasphemy, because I have always been of the opinion that poetry should not be treated within rigid frameworks of right and wrong, good and bad. I have also been of the opinion that those Islamic party members generally spend more time worrying about such trivial things than on understanding the poem's historical and political context. I believe “Ey Reqib” is the “Kurdish” anthem, I honor it, and stand up to its playing. But, I do not believe it is a good anthem for Kurdistan because it is sung specifically for Kurdish ethnics.
And we know that Kurdistan, as in “Kurdistan Region” which is a federal region in northern Iraq, has a diverse ethnic and religious makeup. Let me explain. Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans, Assyrians, Syriac, Chaldean and Armenians live in Kurdistan and they hold such faiths as Islam, Christianity, Yezidism, Kakayi and Atheism. Ey Reqib is full of praise for the Kurdish valor, bravery, struggle of the Kurdish people, fight for freedom of Kurdish people, the Kurdish identity, the Kurdish language. Below is some excepts form the anthem:
"... the Kurdophone people still remain.."
"Kurdish people stand up valiantly.."
"We are sons of Medya and Kaykhusraw" - In reference to the mesopotamian poeple and empire of the same name that Kurds consider to be the ancesstors of Kurds.
Did you notice any patterns? It is all “Kurdish” and not diverse as is the “Kurdistan Region”
And we know that Kurdistan, as in “Kurdistan Region” which is a federal region in northern Iraq, has a diverse ethnic and religious makeup. Let me explain. Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans, Assyrians, Syriac, Chaldean and Armenians live in Kurdistan and they hold such faiths as Islam, Christianity, Yezidism, Kakayi and Atheism. Ey Reqib is full of praise for the Kurdish valor, bravery, struggle of the Kurdish people, fight for freedom of Kurdish people, the Kurdish identity, the Kurdish language. Below is some excepts form the anthem:
"... the Kurdophone people still remain.."
"Kurdish people stand up valiantly.."
"We are sons of Medya and Kaykhusraw" - In reference to the mesopotamian poeple and empire of the same name that Kurds consider to be the ancesstors of Kurds.
Did you notice any patterns? It is all “Kurdish” and not diverse as is the “Kurdistan Region”
On many occasions, Kurdish political leaders – and I mean all of them including the Islamic and secular and nationalist leaders alike, and at the top of the list, President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani – have stressed that Kurdistan is not only the land of “Kurds” but also of all the other ethnic groups that live in Kurdistan. And history proves that and I support that statement.
Now, can you, as a Kurd who has seen discrimination, denial, and forced assimilation by the Iraqi Arab nationalist governments, Turkish fascist governments and Persian regimes, imagine why Ey Reqib is not a good national anthem for Kurdistan Region?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then I believe this has reminded you that the anthem is hurting other minority groups in Kurdistan and it should be replaced. That does not mean that we have to give it up altogether. We can still retain it as the “Kurdish” anthem – “Kurdish” as in “that which pertains to Kurds”, as opposed to the “Kurdistan national anthem” where Kurdistan is a federal region - or hopefully an independent country in the future - with a mixed ethnic structure.There needs to be this distinction between an anthem for Kurdistan (the diverse region) and an anthem for Kurds (the homogeneous ethnic group)
I am assuming that there will not be a flat “No” answer, but rather something like “Yes I understand, BUT… "
But there is only one humanely right answer.
If you are thinking that Ey Reqib should still be the national anthem of Kurdistan (whether as the federal region, or the independent state), then I beg you to consider this: If you are old enough to remember the Baath Regime in Iraq and the then-Iraqi national anthem – I remember singing it in school, though not its connotations – How did you like it when you heard the anthem glorifying the “Arab land” and its “Arab headscarf” and how the “Arab sands” kindled a “revolution”?
If you are thinking that Ey Reqib should still be the national anthem of Kurdistan (whether as the federal region, or the independent state), then I beg you to consider this: If you are old enough to remember the Baath Regime in Iraq and the then-Iraqi national anthem – I remember singing it in school, though not its connotations – How did you like it when you heard the anthem glorifying the “Arab land” and its “Arab headscarf” and how the “Arab sands” kindled a “revolution”?
If your answer is that you did not hate it and believed it was okay because it was the national anthem, then you were either too young to know, like I was, or too busy to be worrying about it for whatever reason, or you were simply, by today's nationalist standards, a fake Kurd, a traitor, a jash (like people used to refer to Kurds who worked with the Arab Iraqi governments)
And if you hated it and yet still want Ey Reqib to remain as the anthem of Kurdistan then you are doing nothing different from what Saddam Hussein and the repressive governments of Iraq, Turkey and Iran did – and may be still doing – to Kurds for decades. You have taken the exact same steps.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
The New York Times fancy map of how five countries in the Middle East could become fourteen
The New York Times has published a potential new map of the Middle East which looks good to me as a Kurd. But it looks more like wishful thinking than a real evaluation because I think it is far more complicated than this simply put by the New York Times. I think the person who drew this map was thinking about the issues in the Middle East more like "I think this is the best solution for all the issues" rather than "I think this is what is going to happen because of this and that". The issue here is that other than Kurds in the Middle East, every body else wants a "unified country" than seeing the country be divided into smaller countries or regions.
Americans suggested that Iraq be divided into three federal regions, Sunni, Shite, Kurdish, in order to overcome disputes but it was rejected by Sunnis and many Shites alike, other than Kurds. Sunnis who are now minorities in Iraq are the most ferocious opposers of this division into three regions or possible states. They never stop complaining about the powers of the central Shiite held government yet they stress on one central government. The issue here is that each one claims that they want a unified country, but one which gives them the power to rule. Shites want a unified country ruled by Shiites, Sunnis consider different federal regions and division a blasphemy and they want a unified country, looking back on it with nostalgia how great Iraq was under Sunni rule. The same thing applies to Syria as well. Sunnis Arabs who form the majority see the opportunity to rule the whole country as the Shiites did in Iraq after the 2003 fall of Saddam so they will never give up on a unified Syria. Kurds want at least autonomy, or a Kurdish region government by a Kurdish government within Syria just like in Iraq, but Sunni Arabs vehemently oppose it.
Other than that, if this could be accepted by all, I do believe [like the editor might have thought than evaluated the issues] that it is a good solution to the turmoils in the Middle East.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
A group of young Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan decide to go to Syria for "Jihad for Kurdistan" against al-Qaeda linked groups
A group of young Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan have announced in a video posted on youtube to go to Syria to do "Jihad for Kurdistan" against al-Qaeda linked groups the Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which are currently fighting alongside some other groups against the Kurdish forces not submitting to the JN/ISIS.
In the video, nine young masked Kurds appear before a flag that is raised by the the People's Defense Units (YPG) the military wing of the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD) - the main Kurdish party in Syria that controlling the Kurdish territories.
The YPG has been in a deadly fight with the JN/ISIS and some other groups linked with them for a few weeks now. The JN/ISIS and other rebel groups accuse the YPG of working with Mr Bashar al-Assad against the rebels because they do not help the rebels in overthrowing Assad. YPG denies such claims and asserts that they are protecting Kurdish territories and are not willing to fight elsewhere.
Recently JN/ISIS fighters killed at least 26 Kurds in the villages of Tal Hassil and Tal Aran which Syrian Kurds have called a massacre and an ethnic cleansing in the villages with mixed groups. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the numbers and also said rebels fighters detained Kurds and handed them over to JN/ISIS in the city of al-Safeera who reportedly tortured them. SOHR also said "family members of the killed and wounded refrain from reporting the murder of injury of their relatives out of fear from the ISIS, al-Nusra and rebel fighters attacks, who usually detain them, as has been the case for over 250 citizens from the towns of Tal'arn and Tal Hasil. "
One of the young men reads a statement from a paper in Sorani Kurdish. He starts the statement by "Jihad for Kurdistan". he defines Jihad as "Jihad is defense, revenge and honor"
"The Kurds in Syria have been able for the past two years to strengthen their foothold democratically. but the occupying forces and those who grudge the achievements of our nation continuously attack our people and commit genocide against us in the most brutal way"
"Even in the holy month of Ramadan they did not stop their attacks" the man says and goes on to blame the Kurdish forces in Iraqi Kurdistan for being silent and not doing anything about it.
"Just like when Anfal campaign (genocide against Kurds in Iraq) was carried out by the Baath regime in South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan), now the same is being committed against Kurds by the militia groups with the support of NATO, the US and Turkey"
"we have decided.... to join the ranks of the YPG and lay down our lives in its way. Those who do not have a homeland do not have honor and dignity. Those those attack Kurds children are Arab fascists, agents of the United States.. they use word Jihad but this a betrayal of Islam and humanity... and when a person, people or group is attacked and they do not show any self-defense then thy have no honor"
The man goes on again to criticize the Kurdish government in Iraq and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in particular. the KDP currently holds the prominent government posts in Kurdistan such as the Prime Minister, Ministry of the Interior and the President of Kurdistan Region. The KDP is the "servant of Turkey and the US"
Monday, August 5, 2013
Egyptian series rekindles Kurdish outrage over case of 18 Kurdish women being sent into sex slavery by Iraqi regime in 1989
An
Episode of an Egyptian series Niran Sadeeqa [Friendly Fire] that is
aired on the Saudi channel MBC for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
has rekindled a public outrage among Kurds on social networks
recently about the story of 18 Kurdish girls and women who were sent
to Egypt by the Saddam Hussein regime to be forced into sex slavery
about a quarter of a century ago.
 |
| Khurasan Abdullah (top) and her daughter Chiman (A little girl in the ID photo) And below the photos is the Iraqi intelligence secret letter from the Kirkuk office to the main office in Baghdad and below that is the wearing photo page of the Iraqi ID of Chiman whose Mother's name Khurasan Abdullah also appears on the same page |
In
the scene, a young Egyptian protagonist appears talking to a man who
is apparently working for his father about how 18 Kurdish girls and
women who were captured by the Saddam Hussein regime in the Anfal
operations in Kurdistan ended up in his night club. The man replies
that he has no authority and that he is just following orders [the
protagonist's father]. When the protagonist talks to his father how
and why he had accepted to force the Kurdish women
into working in the night club, the father replies “Son, isn't it
better for them [to live] than to die like others [Kurds] who die on a daily basis [in Iraq]?” referring to the Anfal operations.
“No,
it is better for them to die. At least they die martyrs. It is more
honorable for them to die than to be forced into working in the night
club” the young man replies to his father.
Anfal
was a series of military operations aimed at crushing the Kurdish
revolt in the 1980s. In the campaign, the Iraqi army destroyed 5,000
Kurdish villages and rounded up up to 182,000 civilian Kurds among
them women and children, killed them and buried them in mass graves.
The
mention of the Kurdish girls and women created a public outrage
especially because an Iraqi intelligence document surfaced on the
social networks a few years ago according to which the Kirkuk
provincial office confirmed to the general intelligence office in
Baghdad that they had sent the women to Egypt to be used in the
“night clubs” and the document included a list of the names of
all the girls and women who aged between 14 and 29 years.
The
letter from the Kirkuk office which is dated December 20th
1989 and is addressed to the general intelligence office, states:
“After [receiving] immediate authorization from the political
leadership and carrying out the First Anfal and Second Anfal
operations, in which a group of different people were captured among
them a group of girls whose ages range between (14 – 29), we have,
as per your orders, sent a number of those girls to the brothels and
night clubs in the Arabic Republic of Egypt as you ordered. Attached
is a list of the names of those girls and their ages for your
reference”
All those years the surviving families of the girls and women thought their loved ones had been killed in the Anfal campaign until the intelligence document which is marked "highly clasified" appeared on the social media.
All those years the surviving families of the girls and women thought their loved ones had been killed in the Anfal campaign until the intelligence document which is marked "highly clasified" appeared on the social media.
The
Kurdish authorities did not launch any investigations into finding
the women in Egypt or what happened to them when the document
surfaced for the first time following the 2003 Iraq war, according to
Bestoon Fayaq, a political activist and advocate for the families of
the Anfal victims. Fayaq said the authorities even dismissed the document as fake and said no Kurdish girls or women had been sent to Egypt.
“The
Kurdish leadership lied to us” Fayaq has said (Niha24). “A few
years ago... we asked Jalal Talabani, Iraqi President (a Kurd) to
verify the authenticity of the news [that Kurdish women were sent to
Egypt] and he assured us that he had contacted Egypt and that there
was no such thing. Then we asked Adnan Mufti, former Kurdish
Parliament Chairman [to investigate the news] and he answered the
same way” (Sbeiy)
Fayaq
said the mentioning of the 18 Kurdish girls and women was evidence
that the story was true otherwise why would it be brought up in an
Egyptian series.
Following
up on the story of the 18 Kurdish girls and women, Sbeiy news outlet
– which is associated with the opposition party Gorran – released
ID information of three of the names listed on the document including
ID photos of two of them whose only surviving member of the family
had survived the Anfal campaign.
Three
of the names on the list are Chiman Nazim Abbas, Layla Abbas Jawhar
and Khorasan Abdullah Tawfiq. Sbeiy has identified a man in
Sulaimaniyah city named Karim Abbas Jawhar who claims he is the
brother of Leyla Abbas Jawhar, uncle of Chiman Nazim Abbas and
brother-in-law of Khurasan Abdullah Tawfiq who is also the mother of
Chiman Nazim Abbas.
According
to Sbeiy, Mr Karim has called on the Kurdish authorities to
investigate the fate of his family members but they had let him down.
Despite legal attempts by Mr Karim, his case has been closed by the
authorities, Sbeiy reports.
Kurdistan
Without Genocide, an NGO advocating the Anfal victims, called on the
KRG in a statement to immediately cut ties with Egypt until the
authenticity of the document is verified (Niha24)
Three other NGO that advocate the Anfal victims have warned the KRG to take action and return the 18 girls and women to Kurdistan or they will have "tough reactions"and will take "legal procedures" against the KRG (KNNC)
The
Kurdistan Regional Government's Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs
Aram Ahmed Mohammed has pledged to pursue the case of the 18 Kurdish
women after the family of another member of the 18 women pleaded with
the ministry to disclose the fate of their family member.
Abdul
Khaliq Qader Aziz is another person who survived Anfal and is
claiming one of the women listed in the document, Esmat Qader Aziz,
to be his sister. Acording to a statement released by the Ministry,
Mr Abdul Khaliq has visited the Ministry and met with the Minister
and personally asked him to pursue the fate of his sister and
other 17 women.
"The
ministry will make all efforts to pursue the case in order to reach
the truth of this news seriously, so the Minister if Martyrs and
Anfal and a group of families of the victims will visit Consulate of
Republic of Egypt in the capital Erbil to pursue the case as a first
step” the minister has said in a statement quoted Shafaq News.
Names
of the girls and women and their ages as listed in the Iraqi
intelligence letter:
Galawej
Adel Rahim (14)
Chiman
Nazim Abaas (22)
Leyla
Abbas Jawhar (21)
Lamiah
Nazim Omar (19)
Bahman
Shukir Mustafa (26)
Khusaran
Abdullah Tawfiq (20)
Qadriyah
Ahmed Ibrahim (17)
Golmalek
Ibrahim Ali (19)
Khawla
Ahmed Fakhradeen (25)
Esmat
Qader Aziz (24)
Najiba
Hassan Ali (18)
Hasiba
Ameen Ali (29)
Shiler
Hassan Ali (20)
Shukriyah
Rustem Mohammad (27)
Habiba
Hidayat Ibrahim (15)
Kuwestan
Abbas Mawlud (26)
Serwa
Othman Karam (17)
Soza
Majeed (22)
Link to the Egyptian series scene:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=166565986861512&set=vb.191172917580661&type=2&theater
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