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Kurdish news from Bashur
Dec. 28th, 2017 08:35 amIraqi Kurdistan (Bashur, Southern Kurdistan) has seen serious unrest in the recent week. First, a bit of background. The independence referendum, which everyone could see would lead nowhere, did worse than that. It gave the Iraqi government and its Iran-controlled Shia militia, the People's Mobilization Units (PMU, Hashd al-Shabi), a pretext for moving in and taking back Kirkuk from the Kurds. Kirkuk has historically been a multi-ethnic but important Kurdish city, and as importantly, has serious oil fields in its vicinity. This oil was going to be an essential source of income for an independent Kurdistan. Qasem Suleimani, the leader of Iran's Quds Force, which runs the PMU, basically went to the Kurds and promised them total war if they didn't pull back from Kirkuk. The PMU was the most important military force in driving ISIS out of Iraq, way more than the Kurdish peshmerga, so the KDP and the PUK pulled out, and the PMU let Iraqi anti-terrorism forces move in and take back the city. This was a huge victory for Haider al-Abadi which was widely celebrated in the rest of Iraq.
The defeat was so complete that the Iraqi government was able to get the KRG to annul the results of the referendum. Massoud Barzani, who was the head of the KRG and the KDP, and controlled Erbil, stepped down, leaving his son Nechirvan to take his place. On the PUK side, long-time leader Jalal Talabani recently died so his wife Hero and some important PUK peshmerga general are fighting a succession battle for control of Suleimania, which is the center of the PUK sphere of influence.
Amidst all this, ordinary Kurds spontaneously (some say fuelled by local PKK media) decided to revolt last week, protesting and setting fire to various party offices all over, even that of Gorran (the Movement for Change), the PUK offshoot which has been way less corrupt than the other two parties and is seeking important democratic reforms. Using this unrest, the PKK, which has an important presence in the Qandil mountains, has declared a new self-rule region in Northern Iraq, which is an interesting development, copying its model of local governance establish which it has established in Rojava (Northern Syria).
The Turkish Air Force has been stepping up its bombardments of PKK camps in Iraq (it claims to have killed 11 PKK fighters yesterday) so that's kind of the downside of what's going on there. It's rumoured that the U.S. might sell bunker-buster bombs to Turkey to placate it for the support the U.S. has provided to the SDF/YPG. This would be disastrous to the PKK as it relies on its mountainous locations to survive Turkish onslaughts.
The defeat was so complete that the Iraqi government was able to get the KRG to annul the results of the referendum. Massoud Barzani, who was the head of the KRG and the KDP, and controlled Erbil, stepped down, leaving his son Nechirvan to take his place. On the PUK side, long-time leader Jalal Talabani recently died so his wife Hero and some important PUK peshmerga general are fighting a succession battle for control of Suleimania, which is the center of the PUK sphere of influence.
Amidst all this, ordinary Kurds spontaneously (some say fuelled by local PKK media) decided to revolt last week, protesting and setting fire to various party offices all over, even that of Gorran (the Movement for Change), the PUK offshoot which has been way less corrupt than the other two parties and is seeking important democratic reforms. Using this unrest, the PKK, which has an important presence in the Qandil mountains, has declared a new self-rule region in Northern Iraq, which is an interesting development, copying its model of local governance establish which it has established in Rojava (Northern Syria).
The Turkish Air Force has been stepping up its bombardments of PKK camps in Iraq (it claims to have killed 11 PKK fighters yesterday) so that's kind of the downside of what's going on there. It's rumoured that the U.S. might sell bunker-buster bombs to Turkey to placate it for the support the U.S. has provided to the SDF/YPG. This would be disastrous to the PKK as it relies on its mountainous locations to survive Turkish onslaughts.