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Iraqi Kurds Turn Against the PKK
Now that it’s beaten back the Islamic State, the Kurdistan Regional Government is focusing its attention on a group it has long tolerated.
Members of the Iraqi Kurdish security forces stand guard at a checkpoint in Altun Kupri, 25 miles south of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Oct. 16, 2017. SAFIN HAMED/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ERBIL, Iraq—Tensions are rising in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are speaking out against the long-accommodated but increasingly unwelcome Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known as the PKK. The intensified rhetoric—complemented by a new security agreement between authorities in Erbil and Baghdad that takes a decidedly anti-PKK stance—seems to be part of a coordinated effort to pressure the group to leave its historic hideouts in the mountains of northern Iraq.
The Oct. 8 assassination of a Kurdish border official—which the KRG’s security forces said was perpetrated by the PKK—and attacks on a key pipeline and Peshmerga soldiers in early November have brought to the fore the long-simmering tensions between the KRG and PKK. The latter group is making it known that it has no intention of leaving Iraq peacefully.
In Western discourse, “the Kurds” are too often referred to as a monolithic ethnic group with shared aims, glossing over very palpable historical, geographical, and ideological divides between various Kurdish political parties and factions. Belligerent activities by Kurdish-led armed groups have eroded stability both at the local and regional levels in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Unfortunately, these attacks receive only scant attention, even when those most severely affected are Kurdish.
The Kurdish-led PKK has long been designated a terrorist organization in the United States, European Union, and Turkey. It was also named a significant foreign narcotics trafficker by the United States in 2008, and exerts a sort of mafia-like power in certain areas. The PKK has long used the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq—which are just across the border from Turkey—as a hideout and training ground during its decades-long fight against Turkey. In June, Turkey began stepping up attacks on the PKK in Iraq, targeting its military positions in the Qandil and Sinjar mountains as well as other locations where the group has a presence.
The present standoff between the KRG and PKK has been a long time coming
—a burgeoning impasse I’ve witnessed in my reporting in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq over the years. In a 2014 interview with Peshmerga Sector Six commander Maj. Gen. Sirwan Barzani, who was then fighting on the frontlines against the Islamic State, he told me that the PKK was a major problem for the Kurds. At the time, however, the Islamic State had recently taken over vast swathes of Iraqi territory, and was setting its sights on the city of Erbil, the capital of the KRG, as well. The KRG forces had enough to deal with without opening another conflict with a different group, Barzani implied—though the PKK had, admittedly, helped in the fight against the Islamic State.
Five years later, in early 2019, Barzani doubled down on his claims that the PKK was a problem for the KRG but said the time had not yet come to discuss the matter publicly. There were still more pressing concerns: Our interview took place near the Qarachogh mountains, which had faced a rash of fires allegedly started by Islamic State.
But in early September 2020, with the threat of the Islamic State significantly reduced, Barzani was more open. He adamantly insisted to me that action must be taken against the PKK in northern Iraq and urged the Iraqi government to make a move. He noted that, until all weapons in Iraq as a whole were brought under state control, people would continue to be attacked by the group—and security concerns would prevent investment in the cash-strapped region. According to its own reports, the PKK maintains 37 bases in the Kurdistan region of Iraq—and has said it may resort to violence in response to KRG encroachment.
Gen. Barzani also lamented the influence of the PKK in the disputed territory of Sinjar, which lies along the Syrian border, noting that many internally displaced Yazidis could not return due to the confusion and lack of security resulting from the of presence of several armed groups. One KRG security official I met in Sinjar in 2016 has been targeted in PKK assassination attempts in recent years, causing him to be transferred to a different district.
Also in September, former KRG President Masoud Barzani spoke out against the PKK’s confiscation of land and extortion of locals in Iraqi Kurdistan. A statement by his Kurdistan Democratic Party claimed that “slavery has ended in the world but continued within the PKK.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/29/iraqi-kurds-turn-against-the-pkk/
