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Iraqi Kurds back PKK despite hardships
19.4.2008
By Yahya Ahmed in Iraqi Kurdistan region (ICR No. 254)
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Villagers in the north continue to support rebels
fighting Turkey and Iran, even though many have been
displaced by recent fighting.
April 19, 2008
Kurdistan region 'Iraq'
Abdulla Saeed walks to a makeshift tent a few
kilometres from his deserted home. He hums a classic
Kurdish song as he follows his donkey down a
mountainside in Kurdistan 'northeast Iraq'.
Saeed, 61, is ferrying clothes and other essentials
to eight members of his family who fled their home
following a Turkish incursion into Kurdistan region
in northern Iraq in
pursuit of Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, rebels in
February.
The bases of the PKK and its offshoot the Party for
Free Life in Kurdistan, PJAK, are hidden in the
treacherous terrain of the Qandil mountain range,
which stretches across Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Since 1984, the PKK – viewed by the Americans as a
terrorist group – and Turkey have engaged in bloody
battles that have claimed thousands of lives in
southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. Turkey’s
week-long incursion in February was the latest of
some 20 similar military operations over the last
two decades.
Meanwhile, fighting between Iran and the PJAK has
been intensifying in the Qandil region since 2006,
and heavy shelling occurred there earlier this week.
There is no official record of the damage that has
occurred in northern Iraq as the result of the
ongoing conflicts. However, locals say the recent
Turkish incursion damaged dozens of villages in the
area.
Around 160 families from six villages in Zharawa
district near the Qandil mountains fled the fighting
and now live in an improvised camp, according to
Azad Hasso, the district head.
Mohammad Muhssin, a local Kurdistan Democratic
Party,www.ekurd.net
KDP, official, said the fighting also
uprooted around 150 families from their villages
close to the Turkish border in the Amedi area,
northeast of the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil.
Muhssin said five bridges have been destroyed in
Amedi. “People from more than 200 villages used
those bridges. Now the roads have been cut,” he
said.
Villagers said they faced economic hardship as a
result of the clashes.
Hassan Wssu Marf, 59, from the village of Razga in
the Qandil range, said he left his home several
months ago.
"We can't go back to raise our livestock or to take
care of our orchards,” he said. “It’s terrible."
Yet despite the damage and suffering caused to
civilians, public support for Kurdish rebels –
particularly the PKK – remains high.
“They are Kurds and demand their own rights,” said
Saeed. “Neither Iran nor Turkey wants [the fighters]
along the Iraqi border because [they] prevent them
from destabilising Iraq.”
“I want [the PKK] to be victorious,” said Goran
Faris, a 25-year-old secondary school teacher in
Sulaimaniyah, the largest city in northeastern Iraq.
“I love them because they were the only ones who
stood up to the Turkish incursion and defended
Kurdistan.”
The PKK and PJAK – along with many international
human rights groups – claim that Iran and Turkey
repress Kurds.
However, Turkey and Iran maintain that the
guerrillas are separatists, and have expressed
support for each other’s military operations against
them.
Syria, which is also concerned about separatist
Kurdish groups gaining power in northern Iraq, also
backed the Turkish incursion against the PKK earlier
this year.
At that time, the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG,
indicated it would not stand against the Turkish
military if its operations were limited to PKK and
PJAK areas in the Qandil mountain range.
“The presidential order was clear,” said Muhssin.
“Targeting civilians and areas far from the borders
[were] red lines, and the Peshmarga [would] respond
to them.”
However, Faris said he was frustrated that the KRG
decided not to deploy the Peshmarga against the
Turkish troops.
“I wanted the Peshmargas to confront the Turkish
troops,” said Faris. “Why do we have all of those
fighters if not [to fight] for something like that?”
He said the KRG “was powerless. They were trying to
remain neutral”.
Jabar Yawar, acting minister of the Peshmarga
ministry in Sulaimaniyah, insisted that the Kurdish
leadership has done its best to end Turkey’s
military operations on Iraq soil.
“We have condemned the incidents and told the entire
world about them to put pressure on Turkey,” he
said.
“President [Massoud Barzani] has sent letters to
President Bush, the United Nations and presidents in
the European Union asking them to pressure Turkey to
stop military actions.”
Yawar said the KRG had also asked Baghdad to
compensate displaced families and for the ministry
of foreign affairs to pressure Turkey to stop
shelling the Iraqi Kurdistan border region.
While fighting in the Qandil mountain range is less
intense than it was earlier this year,www.ekurd.net
frequent
Turkish and Iranian shelling makes it hard for
families to return to their homes.
Yawar said the KRG was trying to hold talks with
Turkey to solve the problems peacefully. The KRG has
also warned the PKK not to use Qandil as a base for
launching attacks against Turkey.
Sozdar Avesta, a PKK leader, said her party is open
to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. She said
that PKK demands include Turkey granting the rebels
a general amnesty and addressing the group’s
grievances regarding Kurdish rights in the country.
However, no PKK-Turkish negotiations appear to be on
the horizon.
“We have taken up weapons only to defend ourselves,”
said Avesta. “If they attack us again, we are ready
to defend ourselves.”
Yahya Ahmed is an IWPR- trained journalist based in
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
iwpr net
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