Collaboration of the KDP with Turkey in Shengal

Last week four Yazidi fighters of the YBŞ were killed in a Turkish air raid on the Shengal region. The Turkish attacks there are also a result of the collaboration of the South Kurdistan’s KDP with the Turkish AKP regime.

Last week the Turkish Air Force attacked Shengal again. The attack, in which a commander and three other fighters of YBŞ (Shengal Resistance Units) died, is just one event in a chain of systematic attacks and assassinations by the Turkish army on the northern Iraqi territory inhabited by Yazidis. Before the attacks of the Turkish army, the ISIS had attacked the region and tried to carry out a genocide on the Yazidi population. Just as practically none of the political and military forces, apart from the PKK and the YPG and YPJ, took sides with the Yazidi people when the ISIS tried to slaughter the people, almost no one protests against the Turkish attacks today. It is as if the Yazidi people were allowed to be massacred. Here we see what moral decline this world has suffered.

The Turkish state attacks, but the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government remain silent. Iraq is not able to say anything at the moment. And when it says something, it is not taken seriously. Didn't Erdoğan say to Haider al-Abadi back then when he demanded a withdrawal of Turkish troops from Bashiqa (in October 2016): "You are not my interlocutor, you are not on my level, you are not equal to me, you are not of the same quality as me.”

Everyone condemns Turkey's attacks, but no one says a word about the KDP, which is at least partly responsible. The KDP indeed promotes these attacks. With its support, the KDP aims to force the Yazidis to abandon YBŞ and its autonomous structures and to make them take refuge in KDP. Because of this evil machination the Shengal region is attacked and Yazidis are murdered.

AKP regime relies on local collaborators

The people of Shengal and those close to YBŞ say that these attacks are also based on local collaborators. This was definitely the case in the murder of YBŞ commander Zerdeşt Şengalî. The Yazidi politician Zekî Şengalî was also murdered with the help of information from the ground. At that time it became known that "Parastin", the secret service of the KDP, was cooperating with MIT. This collaboration takes place especially in the Shengal region. The KDP is now also implementing its classic policy of liquidating the opposition through other forces in Shengal. The Turkish state, for its part, wants to gain control of the Shengal region itself.

KDP tied to Turkey

The KDP does not tolerate anything Kurdish beyond its own structures. This policy and attitude manifests itself everywhere as Kurdish hostility. We see this in Rojava. It is also evident in Northern and Eastern Kurdistan. When Iran tried to suppress the Kurdish movement in the 80s, the KDP stood on the side of the mullah regime. It was similar in Afrin as well. The attack on Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî was supported by the ENKS, the so-called Kurdish National Council dominated by the KDP. The correspondence of the KDP and its associated circles with the Turkish state about a joint attack on Rojava has reached the press and proves this. There are also letters from Osman Öcalan, who had tried to destroy the PKK by treason. In these letters he is trying to make plans with the KDP and the Turkish secret service MIT to destroy the Kurdish movement. Under the auspices of the KDP, Osman Öcalan and Nizamettin Taş were supposed to set up a network of agents against the PKK in Turkey. For this purpose they had met with MIT several times. The high-ranking MIT agents arrested by the PKK confirmed these meetings but declared that they had not taken this project seriously, as neither the KDP nor the two traitors had such influence.

Cooperation between the KDP and Turkey has a long tradition that is deeply rooted in the character of the feudal party. It is said that there were also agreements between the KDP and the ISIS regarding an attack on the Shengal region. According to this, the ISIS declared during its advance on Hewlêr (Erbil) that the KDP had not kept its word. There is still a need to clarify what the ISIS meant by this.

KDP wants to weaken the self-government in Shengal

Today the KDP works against the YBŞ, the PADÊ and the autonomous Yazidi self-government and its councils in the Shengal region. It is trying to weaken them and expand its own influence. The KDP denounces those who are sympathetic to PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, just as Turkey labels them as 'terrorists'. They are made into a target in Shengal and in Rojava for the Turkish state. When the KDP establishes political relations with Europe, USA, Russia or other political forces, they also try to defame and isolate the YPG, PYD and YBŞ by calling them PKK. In all talks with Iraq, it says that YBŞ are the PKK. It thus wants to put pressure on the Iraqi government and urges it to drive them away.

It is clear that the KDP is behind the attacks on the Shengal region. Of course the Turkish state is anti-Kurdish. Any religion except Sunni Islam is considered an enemy. This state uses religion as a means of power, but at its core is an enemy of humanity.

Kurdish unity as a means against collaboration

Kurds everywhere are talking about "Kurdish unity" nowadays. This has become a wish of all the Kurds. Apart from the KDP, the majority of the political movements are ready to tackle this task. The politics of the KDP and its collaboration with the enemies of Kurds undermines this work. To build a congress or a platform for unification is the most important thing at the moment to stop the collaboration because the desire for unity is directed exactly against such harmful relations and behaviour. It is about democratic relations between the different Kurdish political forces. A national congress will mainly be about a national strategy and joint diplomacy. This will put an end to the political parties damaging each other and working against each other. However, it remains doubtful whether the KDP will participate in such work.

It is now important to find out who in Shengal is collaborating with the Turkish state and in what way. Otherwise these attacks will continue.