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“The PKK is the main reason behind the delay of the Shingal operation,” Qasim Shesho, the head of the Yazidi forces organized to resist ISIS occupation in August 2014, told Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet. “Let them go and save the Kurds in Syria and Turkey, but we will never let them gain power over Shingal,” he said of the PKK, adding that his forces “do not want to start a fight” with the PKK
Bas News, another Kurdish outlet, quotes a Peshmerga commander expressing the same reservations about the presence of the PKK in the region. Sme Bosali claims that his troops halted plans to rid the region of ISIS after a sudden, major move of PKK forces, along with Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ), into the region.
The current head of the Peshmerga, Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani, has also rejected the PKK’s presence in the region. The Peshmerga issued an official statement last week announcing that they will allow no other militias to participate in the liberation of Sinjar, stating that Barzani had already issued an order to both the PKK and YPG fighters to stay out of the region. Barzani, who has close ties to the Turkish government — the PKK’s main state enemy — has previously demanded the PKK evacuate Iraq and criticized the group’s relations with the Turkish government.
Iraqi Kurds have said that the PYD cannot be considered a group that represents all Kurds in Syria and that the group's legitimacy has declined for them. The PYD has forced 13 Syrian Kurdish parties to leave PYD territory.
In order to hinder the opposing voice from the KRG and Iraqi Kurds, the PYD banned Iraqi Kurdistan's Rudaw Media Network from operating in Kobani and the surrounding area last week.
In December, Assad gave an interview to the U.K.'s The Sunday Times newspaper in which he said that the regime supplies arms to the PYD. PYD Co-Chair Salih Muslim said in an interview with Al-Hayat magazine in July that they could allow the return of Syrian regime forces to Rojava and that the YPG will join forces in a certain case.
originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
So the rest are going to turn on the PKK/PYD to fight a proxy war for Turkey.
This is how WW's start. Or is this how it's always been?
originally posted by: spirit_horse
a reply to: MrSpad
Thanks for that sitrep. A good primer on what is an ongoing complex dynamic. The Kurds have been targets of all the states surrounding them for as long as I can remember. It is hard for a person far removed to see them not be strong in their joint military operations to protect all Kurds regardless.
What is the real basis for the division of these Kurdish forces? Is is a schism between different sects of Islam? I see muslims in the region being their own worst enemy over the differences between Shia and Sunni. Being from the US a country where all religions are accepted it is hard to even understand the wars in Ireland between Protestants and Catholics because they are still all christians.
This division will be exploited by outside regional forces and I can see Assad using psyops and saying one of them is cooperating with him. It is hard to keep track of all these groups and their sometimes alliances even for single battlefield objectives and opposition over other objectives. How there can be a peace is much more complicated as a result.
Kurds want their own state. "Problems" between Turkey and Kurds? The Turks are attacking them with tanks and artillery because the Kurds are shooting at ISIS.
2 soldiers killed in two separate PKK terror attacks in southeast Turkey
PKK terror attack leaves one police officer dead, two wounded in Turkey's southeast
They are also committing terrorist acts against Turkey…
originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: tsurfer2000h
They are also committing terrorist acts against Turkey…
Do tell…
Heres the Turkish military gunning down civilians, waving white flags, during a funeral procession, no less.
That video has a big edit in the middle of it, why is that? Who is shooting?