Kurdistan forces are liberating Western Kurdistan

[burnsss]

The Independent
In secret training camps in the mountains and plains of northern Iraq, Kurdish Syrian army defectors are being drilled to protect the oil-rich areas in the north-east of their home country, which have so far managed to avoid being dragged into the civil war. Hundreds of Syrian Kurds are training with Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga forces, and there are plans to send the men back to protect the Kurdish regions of Syria should clashes break out in those areas with the government or the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

"It's defence training in order for these people to defend their own communities … not for offensive purposes to go and attack," Falah Mustafa Bakir, the KRG's minister for foreign relations, told The Independent.

Syria's 1.7 million Kurds have largely taken a back seat in the 18-month struggle to oust President Bashar al-Assad, despite being one of the traditional bastions of opposition to his rule. After clashes in July, Syrian army forces pulled back from many of the region's towns and cities, leaving the Kurds free to begin building their own institutions such as police forces and local councils.

Mr Bakir said the Syrian Kurds should learn from the experience of the Iraqis, who gained de facto autonomy in 1991 after a no-fly zone was established in the north of the country and Saddam Hussein's forces pulled out of the area.

"There is a lot they can use for homework before the collapse of the regime," he said.

However, there are fears that it is only a matter of time before the chaos that has enveloped much of the country reaches Syria's Kurdish areas, particularly given that the Al-Hassaka province in which they are concentrated produces most of the country's oil.

The inevitable spillover has already begun. Oil pipelines have been attacked and last Sunday a bomb in a cement truck detonated outside a government building in Al-Hassaka's regional capital of Qamishli, killing four people.

Local Kurdish politicians speculate that the attack – the biggest blast in the city so far – was the work of an outside group.

In the canvas tents of Iraq's Domiz refugee camp, which now house around 25,000 Syrian Kurds, Abu Ali, a burly 28-year-old who works in camp security, says dozens of his friends are now in military training with the KRG.

"They are paid a small allowance by the KRG, but I don't know a lot about what they are doing there," he says, explaining that while they are in training the recruits are not allowed to make calls or leave the camps.

However, plans to return the trained soldiers to Syria appear to have been delayed by political infighting between Kurdish factions over the border. In July, the KRG president, Massoud Barzani, called the fractious Syrian Kurdish parties to Erbil to sign a power-sharing agreement.

Despite the agreement, opposition groups complain that Syria's Kurdish regions are being held within the tight grip of the Democratic Union Party (PYD),www.ekurd.net a group with close links to the Kurdish Workers' Party, which is fighting a separatist insurgency against the Turkish government and has been designated a terrorist group by the US and the EU.

Mustafa Juma, the secretary general of the Syrian Kurdish Azadi Party, claims the PYD has been blocking the return of the Iraqi-trained men because "they want to control the region alone".

The PYD denies having any armed elements. However, the new police forces which are springing up manned by armed volunteers are under their control.

In the desolate scrubland on the Syrian border, checkpoints on the Syrian side, once manned by the Assad regime, are now in the control of a new Kurdish armed group, the Popular Protection Units, known by its Kurdish acronym YPG. It is a secretive organisation, whose members refuse to speak to the press. And although they claim to be independent, they appear to be aligned with the PYD. Local politicians say they number somewhere around 1,000 men.

"The experience for us, the Kurdish history ... was that always the Kurdish people were soldiers for the others, so we decided to be soldiers for ourselves, for the Kurdish people only," said Saleh Muslim Mohammed, the PYD leader. "If somebody attacks us we will defend ourselves."

[burnsss]

La Times

AFRIN, Syrian Kurdistan,— This tranquil town in northwest Syria is a haven from the warfare convulsing much of the country, but the calm points to profound challenges facing the country — and the entire region — when the fighting ends.

The laid-back guards at the checkpoints are Kurdish militiamen. The mustachioed man whose image greets visitors is Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison for his leadership role in the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a group deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Here, the PKK is widely lauded as the vanguard of Kurdish nationalism, a movement that has unsettled countries in the area for decades. In recent months, the de facto "liberation" of Syrian Kurdish communities like Afrin has ranked among the most unanticipated and broadly significant outcomes of the Syrian rebellion.

Newly established Kurdish control here presents a quandary for Syria's Sunni Arab-led rebel movement, which has a tense relationship with the Kurds, and for whatever government emerges should Syrian President Bashar Assad fall. It also has troubled Turkey, which this week fired artillery into Syria after apparently errant cross-border shelling killed Turkish villagers. Turkey, a regional power and NATO member, appears to have few good options.

The cross-border shelling illustrated how Turkey's relationship with Assad, who had kept Syria's Kurds in check, has crumbled. But Assad's weakness and possible fall from power present Turkey with an even more dismaying prospect: a swath of northern Syria firmly under control of the PKK.

Turkey has waged a long and bloody war against the Kurdish group on its own territory, and has suffered a recent surge in PKK attacks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to attack Kurdish areas of Syria if they become a haven for the PKK, one-third of whose fighters, according to a recent study, are of Syrian origin.

For now, conflict seems far away from Kurdish towns like this agricultural hub, known for its olives and pomegranates and dotted with craggy hills featuring the toppled remnants of Roman temples, early Christian basilicas and medieval citadels.

While battles rage in Aleppo, just 40 miles to the southeast, markets here are lively and, in the evenings, men at animated eateries sip arak, the clear, anise-flavored liquor that turns cloudy when mixed with ice and water.

Assad's stretched forces gradually withdrew, culminating in a near-total pullout in July that occurred with barely a shot being fired, Kurdish leaders say.

"We didn't suffer a drop of blood," boasts Atouf Abdo, a coordinator here with the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, a close ally of the PKK and the dominant Kurdish faction here.

Nearby, rebel-held Arab cities like Azzaz and Al Bab have become doleful and depopulated battlegrounds, rubble-strewn ghost towns where remaining residents dart for cover when fighter jets buzz overhead. But the main evidence here of the war raging nearby are thousands of Arab refugees, most of them women and children. Kurdish leaders say that noncombatants have been welcomed, but that they have kept out armed rebels.

Kurdish aspirations for more autonomy, or outright independence, have long perturbed Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Officially, Syria has more than 2 million Kurds, about 10% of the national population. Kurdish activists claim the real number approaches 20%.

At least 4,000 Syrian Kurds have been killed while fighting for the PKK, according to Kurdish activists here.

Many Turkish officials view the PYD as nothing more than a front for their archenemy, the PKK. Some Turkish officials call the Syrian government's withdrawal a deliberate strategy by Assad to embolden PKK sympathizers here to strike back at Turkey to retaliate for Ankara's support of the rebellion. Kurdish leaders here reject suggestions that they collaborated with Assad.

Kurdish representatives said they seek a measure of self-rule within Syria, not independence. The dispersed nature of Syria's Kurds — the densest population lives nearly 300 miles east of Afrin — makes a separate Kurdish Syrian state unlikely. One aim of Kurdish leadership is to begin formal Kurdish-language instruction in schools.

"We're looking for a democratic, pluralistic state and to isolate the state from religion," said Mustafa Hussein, an activist here with the Kurdish National Council, an umbrella group.

Mutual mistrust characterizes relations between the Kurds and Syria's Sunni Arab majority. Kurds say they also have faced discrimination during much of the 40-plus-year reign of the Assad family, who are members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Once Syria's rebellion erupted in March 2011, Assad's administration generally sought to placate the Kurds, part of a broader effort to present the government as a defender of minorities. Still, many Kurds blamed the government for the assassination last year of a celebrated Kurdish pro-democracy activist, Mashaal Tammo.

Kurdish officials say they sympathize with efforts to overthrow Assad. But wariness abounds about Arab nationalism in general, and what many here view as the increasingly Islamist face of the Syrian rebellion. Kurds,www.ekurd.net like most Syrians, are predominantly Sunni Muslims, but Kurdish activists here say their region has a strong secular tradition.

"As the revolution has continued over a long period, it has opened the door to more extreme ideology," said Hussein of the Kurdish National Council.

Many Kurds see the rebel Free Syrian Army and its supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood, the pan-Arab political movement, as hostile to their aspirations.

Checkpoints manned by Kurdish militiamen line the roads and deny access to rebel forces. Kurdish "self defense" units have been receiving basic military training in Iraq's quasi-autonomous Kurdistan.

PYD forces provide police and other services and appear in control of the infrastructure, somewhat to the chagrin to other Kurdish groups. The PYD, the most militarized Kurdish faction, has faced charges of using strong-arm tactics to put down rival Kurdish factions, allegations it generally denies.

Asked about the rebel fight to oust Assad, Mohammad Jarnas, 42, a teacher here affiliated with the PYD, responded, "Their struggle is a legitimate one, but it is a bit chaotic. It is not our fight now."

Kurdish leaders view Assad's fall as a matter of time, and they are preparing for what they view as an inevitable violent scramble for power among various Sunni Arab factions, all hostile to Kurdish self-governing aspirations.

"We will not hesitate to defend the rights of the Kurdish people," says Abdo, the PYD coordinator here. "The arming of the Kurdish people is a fact, in every Kurdish village. We will defend ourselves."

[brendar]

[purearch72]

Getting tired of PYD they should go to the KRG ask for help ect. It's disrespectful when all your food medicine ect is coming from the krg and you don't go to their syrian confrences and stuff. Love the map they must connect with KRG or else we will have to be forced to make trade with turkey

[alan131210]

Turkey knows if WK becomes reality KRG will rebuff them thus they will do all they can to cause instability in WK, and PYD should make secret agreements with KRG not Assad, as KNC members from WK have reported.

[RawandKurdistani]

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Despite the deteriorating situation in Syria, Syrian Kurds have not been able to fully implement the Erbil Agreement signed in July between the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and People's Council of West Kurdistan (PCWK), an affiliate of the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The signatories of the agreement have confirmed their commitment to its implementation, but this has not yet happened on the ground. The PYD is virtually controlling all political, military and administrative authorities in the Kurdish regions of Syria singlehandedly, without adhering to the power-sharing provision mentioned in the agreement.

A member of the KNC, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Rudaw, "The Erbil Agreement only prevented a civil war among Kurds, but none of its other provisions has been implemented on the ground."

He believes that the failure to adhere to Erbil Agreement is because the PYD is an armed group. "One signatory is armed; the other is not. How can an agreement succeed in such a situation?" he said.

Shalal Gado, a political bureau member of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria, believes that the Kurds of Syria cannot implement this agreement. "There is a power imbalance between the two signatories,” he said.

“The PCWK is armed and controls the land. They also have media and economic power,” Gado told Rudaw. “The KNC has many supporters but they are not organized, do not have institutions and are weaker in all aspects, especially in terms of weapons.”

Gado noted that beyond the power imbalance, historic differences between the two groups were also at play, and narrow partisan interests share some of the blame for the agreement’s failure.

A Kurdish Supreme Council (KSC) was formed in Syria to implement the agreement and administer the Kurdish regions in Syria. But it too failed to serve its purpose.

Members of the council met this week in Erbil to discuss their problems with officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Abdulbaqi Yusuf, a representative of Kurdish Union Party (KUP), told Rudaw, "The visit of the KSC is related to the non-implementation of the Erbil Agreement."
Gado said that the Kurdistan Presidency Divan would put pressure on the involved parties to implement the agreement.

“It is unfortunate that it has not been implemented for so many months,” he said. “If the Kurds in Syria fail to implement this agreement, it means we will return to square one and civil war is a possibility. We have no choice but to implement the agreement."

On several occasions, the PCWK has blamed the KNC for failing to implement the agreement.

"Since KNC is a major power, it should establish all the necessary state institutions,” Gado said. “This will be empowering and balance the power between the two signatories.”

He also agreed with some of the PCWK’s criticisms, saying, "There is no doubt that the KNC in Syria is disorganized. Although there are 16 political parties in the KNC, in addition to the independent members and youth organizations,www.ekurd.net there has been no real unity among them. Their views about the issues are very diverse."

"The KNC has a big body and therefore it moves very slowly," Gado concluded.

Ismael Hama, a member of the KSC and the secretary of the KUP, said, "It is time for both councils to become one, because their remaining as two is an obstacle to our work and the future of the Kurds.”

Hama said that, in the near future, a meeting would be held in Qamishli between the two councils and more than 150 individuals to discuss unity.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, rudaw.net

[burnsss]

How many kurds live in Aleppo city? Only Aleppo city and not the whole province. i heard they are clashing with fsa and its still ongoing. This should be warning sign for PYd to let their only ally the peshmerga trained kurds before its to late. let us see west kurdistan peshmerga marsh into Qamishli to deter any arab attack.

[alan131210]

PYD been stupid again !!

[RawandKurdistani]

Kurdish Officials Abducted in Western Kurdistan



ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—An official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) told Rudaw on Thursday that a political bureau member of his party was abducted on Wednesday and he has been missing since then.

This official who wished to remain anonymous said, “Political bureau member and party representative in Dirk city Behzad Dorsen and Nidal Salim were kidnapped by the forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) yesterday and we have no news of them.”

According to this official, Dorsen and Salim were on their way to the Kurdistan Region to meet with members of their party when they were kidnapped near the border.

Nuri Brimo, KDPS representative in Erbil confirmed the news of Dorsen’s abduction, saying, “Since 7 pm Wednesday afternoon he has been missing and we know nothing of his whereabouts.”

Brimo said that he did not want to point the finger of accusation at any particular group.

Earlier this month Dorsen reported that unknown gunmen in two unmarked vehicles had chased him and made threats to his life.

Source: http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/5356.html

Just great! We are already opressed by four barbaric regimes, and now a kurdish group is at it. When will we learn to cooperate

[Bahoz]

alan, the stupid one is you! you don't know what is going there! you watch tv and facebook pages! you guys have no idea about west kurdistan! and all you want is to enforce your beliefs whether you are PDK or PUK over others in West Kurdistan! enough is enough! you want the arabs to enter kurdish area in alleppo? so that the regime start bombing the area also? so any kidnapping happen now in West Kurdistan is because PYD is doing it? you guys are out of your mind! for your information all other parties includi9ng PDKS and other cartoonic parties has nothing but talking! you want to work to serve your people do stuff don't just wait for arabs to come enter your area and free you! they will not free you. they will kill you by name of God as they did always. by name of arabisim as they did always! ...enough is enough! dont fool your self or others ..

[Kurdistano]

alan, the stupid one is you! you don't know what is going there! you watch tv and facebook pages! you guys have no idea about west kurdistan! and all you want is to enforce your beliefs whether you are PDK or PUK over others in West Kurdistan! enough is enough! you want the arabs to enter kurdish area in alleppo?

Open your eyes The arabs are entering Alleppos Kurdish areas because the Erbil agreement is still not implemented fully. I am not accusing the PYD for the kidnapping, all I am saying is that they need to get over their ego and cooperate accordingly to Erbil agreement.

[Bahoz]

so you are saying that the other part is cooperating and doing something? do you see the mess inside KNC? do you see whats happening between cartoonic parties inside KNC? do you think KNC is strong enough? wake up man! do you see the battle between this parties over the cake? do you see the fights between KNC president and vices? do you see such problems in PYD? you think PYD doesn't do their part and KNC does? what do you expect from KNC? when I see KNC has one voice I will consider them other than that, they are bunch of cartoons that has nothing to do with reality on the ground. I am not PYD supporter either! but they have stratigy, they have goal, they are one voice, they have ground, they are neutral in this fight between regime and opposition! we don't wana arabs invade or use our land to attach the regime so we get killed from airplanes of regime! we don't want be forced to leave our land because opposition want to use it to fight the regime! no and 1000000 no...they can kill each other but they will not use our land or use us as fuel for their fking goals.

[Bahoz]

you didn't mention why the regime bombed kurdish area in Aleppo today? why do you think 15 kurds were killed? did you ever thought that these is poor kurds who didn't do anything but wanted to be safe and live safe! why? because opposition wanted to enter the kurdish area and use it to fight the regime! hell with both sides! we don't need the opposition to protect us! we can do that! we don't want get bombed by regime because opposition is hiding like rats inside our area.

[Cewlik]

we don't wana arabs invade or use our land

But that will happen because PYD dont let trained Peshmergas to enter west Kurdistan.

You think that the PYD win because they have now the control over west Kurdistan, but that is just because of the syrian civil war. This is just a transition time, which Kurds should use with building a united force, but PYD rejects it, because they think they can save west Kurdistan alone with some Aks and Öcalans flags.

Deny it or not, but we all know that the PYD dont let Peshmerga fighters to enter west Kurdistan because of their own Party interests.

[RawandKurdistani]

so you are saying that the other part is cooperating and doing something? do you see the mess inside KNC? do you see whats happening between cartoonic parties inside KNC? do you think KNC is strong enough? wake up man! do you see the battle between this parties over the cake? do you see the fights between KNC president and vices? do you see such problems in PYD? you think PYD doesn't do their part and KNC does? what do you expect from KNC? when I see KNC has one voice I will consider them other than that, they are bunch of cartoons that has nothing to do with reality on the ground. I am not PYD supporter either! but they have stratigy, they have goal, they are one voice, they have ground, they are neutral in this fight between regime and opposition! we don't wana arabs invade or use our land to attach the regime so we get killed from airplanes of regime! we don't want be forced to leave our land because opposition want to use it to fight the regime! no and 1000000 no...they can kill each other but they will not use our land or use us as fuel for their fking goals.

KNC would be much stronger, would the PYD allow their Peshmerga's to enter. They don't wish for the freedom of west Kurdistan, if they did, they would allow the KNC to bring in our soldiers. Infact they are the only dividing kurds, an example is the new flag they brought with them.