How deep is Turkey's Sinjar entanglement?

Turkey, which has developed rather odd relationships with some of its neighbors in recent years because of its reckless foreign policy, has begun treating Kurdish notables coming from Iraqi Kurdistan as official leaders.

According to former Turkish Consul-General at Erbil Aydin Selcen, when Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani used to come to Turkey, he was received in Istanbul and not in Ankara, the capital. The meetings were not held in palaces but at less-impressive locations. The Kurdistan flag was never displayed. Meetings were held in Arabic, not Kurdish. To give the impression that the meetings were unofficial, nobody wore ties. In short, everything was done to prevent the meetings from being interpreted as recognition of Kurdistan.

Nowadays, Barzani is received as a reputable state leader and the Kurdistan flag is hoisted next to the Turkish flag. During his latest visit Feb. 27, the official reception menu in Ankara was printed in Kurdish. While Turkey adheres to combative relations with Kurds inside and outside the country, relations with Barzani are based on economic interests such as oil and Turkey’s design to use Kurds against Kurds.

For a while now, Barzani has been goaded into a policy of balancing Rojava’s leading political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its military arm, the People's Protection Units (YPG), with Syria's pro-Barzani Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the peshmerga of Rojava (officially the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria). In Iraq, Turkey expects Barzani to oust the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from Sinjar. Turkey fears the PKK will turn Sinjar into an operations base to facilitate access between Syria and Iraq.

Following Barzani’s latest visit to Turkey, Syrian Kurds organized by Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) under the name of “Roj peshmergas” were sent March 2 to Sinjar. The Yazidis' Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) in Iraq, trained by the PKK, did not allow them to enter. Clashes erupted and there were casualties on both sides.

According to information provided to Al-Monitor by journalist Ali Dagli, who was in Sinjar, tension broke out when front-loaders sent by Roj peshmergas started digging trenches between Hanesor and Sinune. A group of local women tried to stop the machinery. The angry women said they don’t trust the peshmerga and asked why they were digging in places where the Islamic State (IS) no longer existed. Why didn't they instead go to the front lines to fight for Mosul, they asked.

On March 3, tension turned to clashes. A cease-fire was arranged within hours, but tension persists. During the cease-fire, the peshmerga brought more vehicles and increased their strength to about 500 fighters. The YBS interpreted the reinforcements as preparation for battle and told the Roj peshmergas they wouldn't be allowed passage. “Roj peshmergas want to capture Hanesor, make it a base for themselves, and sever the connection between Sinjar and the Rojava border,” Dagli said.

In Sinjar's town center and in Sinune, the YBS maintains checkpoints just as Iraqi peshmerga forces do. The YBS controls Hanesor. Between Sinjar and Sinune, there is a small Iraqi police presence and two battalions of Shiite militia (Popular Mobilization Units) near the Arab village of Madiba. There are around 100-130 fighters of the PKK’s People’s Defense Forces (HPG) to support the YBS in Sinjar. The road to Hanesor is important for providing a connection between Sinjar and Rojava territory.

Local sources believe that within the Roj peshmergas there are both Iraqi peshmerga forces and Turkish intelligence personnel. Renowned Yazidi sociologist Azad Baris blamed both the KDP and the PKK for exploiting the fragile situation.

“Many Yazidis are grateful to the YPG and the HPG. Many don’t trust the KDP anymore after what happened in 2014," when thousands of Yazidis were massacred by IS after the KDP allegedly abandoned them. "Yazidis are also uneasy with the Sunni leanings of peshmerga. But some of them cooperate with the KDP for monetary or political reasons. Moreover, there is a Yazidi unit under Qasim Shesho that is backed by the KDP. They incite the YBS by asking what Turkey’s Kurds are doing in Sinjar. The ratio of non-Yazidis in the YBS is not more than 5%,” Baris told Al-Monitor.

He added, “Some of them have come from places such as Hanover, Germany, but they are originally from Sinjar. In 2014, hundreds of Yazidis returned to Sinjar to defend their homeland and joined the self-defense forces. You can’t simply dislodge and send them away now. Some of them hail from Sheyhanli of south Kurdistan. The Iraqi central government recognized them as a legal force and began paying them salaries. There are now about 3,500. Every Yazidi has the right to defend his land. The question is with those assisting the self-defense forces — the pro-Apo [imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan] elements. Their opponents say there is no place for pro-Apo ideology on this land.”

Barzani frequently declares that he won’t allow infighting among the Kurds. Sending Roj peshmergas instead of Iraqi peshmerga forces to Sinjar inevitably led to hostilities between pro-Apo Yazidis and Syrian Kurds. Some say Barzani, using this tactic, can claim he has kept his word on preventing internecine clashes while preventing his KDP from getting involved. But Roj peshmergas are not denying that they get their orders directly from Barzani and the Peshmerga General Command.

Baris said this situation — the KDP-supported Yazidis challenging PKK-oriented Yazidis and the PKK — is based on two main strategies: “First of all, there is the obvious tactic of instigating the local people to fight each other. The KDP has never really adopted the Yazidis because of their faith. Yazidis never feel safe. If Yazidis are split, then the KDP’s domination will be easier. Second, they are using the foreign Kurds of Syria to hit at other foreign Kurds from Turkey. They keep saying the YBS is a foreign force. I don’t want to dismiss the charges that Turkey has been influential, but keep in mind, whether Turkey wants it or not, Barzani’s intolerance is not limited to the PKK presence. He is also against the Yazidis' defending themselves and their aspiration for an autonomous structure. The KDP has never shared any of our pains and casualties and has never listened to any of our pleas. Even today they don’t listen to us. Anyone who prefers brutal hordes such as IS to Kurds and Yazidis and attacks our homeland will always be cursed by Yazidis.”

In 2014, when the PKK assumed the protection of the Yazidis after KDP peshmerga forces withdrew from the battlefield against IS, the pro-Apo ideology suddenly became the most prominent military and political entity of the area. The PKK’s military wing, the HPG, by blocking IS at Sinjar Mountain, and the YPG, by opening a corridor from Syria to Sinjar, practically saved the Yazidis. While the KDP couldn’t recover from its loss of credibility, the HPG organized the Yazidis and helped them set up the YBS. Although peshmerga forces eventually returned and lost hundreds of their fighters battling IS, Yazidis still stayed loyal to the PKK.

As for Turkey’s relevance in developments in Sinjar, the pro-PKK media keeps saying the attack against Sinjar was guided by Turkey and the Roj peshmergas who, they say, were actually members of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization.

Persistent declarations by Turkish leaders that Sinjar can't be allowed to become a second Qandil — the main Kurdish headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq — are naturally cited as confirming Turkey's role.

According to high-level diplomatic sources talking to Turkish media, Ankara continues to cooperate with Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan's capital) against the PKK presence in Sinjar and in Makhmour, Iraq, and Turkey will intervene when the day comes. When the Mosul operation is concluded, then peshmerga forces will be able to transfer fighters to Sinjar and Makhmour. Should the Kurdish government want its help, Turkey will set up training bases around Kirkuk and in some northern areas.

In December, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak declared, “We will never allow a new Qandil to emerge at Sinjar. Our biggest hope is for Barzani to succeed, but if that doesn’t happen we will do whatever is necessary with the Turkish army.”

Military action against Sinjar wouldn't be easy and could trigger even worse, bloodier strife between the Kurds. The Baghdad government would also see such action as an attack.

The US and Russia don’t want the Kurds to fight each other, at least as long as the IS threat exists. The cease-fire at Sinjar was arranged by the US. Iraq's central government is unhappy with Kurdish aspirations to take over more disputed territory, hence its support for the YBS. Baghdad, which had cut off the salaries of Yazidi forces last year, has resumed payments because of protests by Turkey, which didn’t want Yazidis to be dependent on the PKK.

Yazidi agony over the massacres suffered and the sale of Yazidi women in slave markets is resonating worldwide, and the first European assistance to the YBS is trickling in. One EU member country sent the Yazidi self-defense forces 5,000 military uniforms. It's not going to be easy to end the conflict between the PKK and the KDP. For many people, avoiding bloodshed will be considered a sufficient success story.

This is a fairly accurate assessment of the conflict on Sinjar (Shingal) mountain between the Yazidi YBS milita and the (so called) Roj Pershmega.

But with all the group names and the issue of translation, I admit if you don't have some prior exposure to this, it may not make a lot of sense.

Long and short? Turkey is meddling in Iraq and has pitted 2 groups of Kurds against each other. Trust is damaged, both sides feel they are right.

Turkey's arrogance and territorial ambitions are the reason this is so messed up. Remember Erdogan is who partnered with Obama an Hillary to put weapons in the hands of those who wanted to overthrow Assad. And later became al Qaeda and ISIS.

It is a mess.

Well, we’ll have to see what happens whe Mosul is taken. The Iranians are Shia, and the Kurds are Sunni.

Trumps goal is to create a safe zone for refugees, and whichi ever Kurd factoin helps, it will be them who will create a Kurdish state.

But the Iranians have to be sent packing. The Turks will also have to return to their borders or they will no longer be in NATO, and subject to international commercial sanctions.

the loose understanding I have of the yazidis comes from a old national geographic story written by a supreme court justice of the 1960s.In describing their religion, and the contempt most of the other tribes of Iraq at the time had for them he said that he had never seen a happy yazidi.

Would you be happy if all your neighbors wanted to kill you?

I don’t know them any of them personally. Have one friend on the web who is Yazidi. He’s nice guy.

There are some things in their beliefs that make some Christians question them.

I’ve been told by a number of Kurds that the roots of all Kurds is from the Yazidi. My closest friend in Syria told me that long ago.

The Yazidi’s are much like “along for the ride” with the Kurds. A part but not a part. But the Kurds took big risks and heavy casualties to save them on Shingal.

One complication, at least before the collapse of the USSR, id that PKK is or was a Communist faction. The PKK used to make raids into Turkiye and the Turks, if they couldn’t catch them inside the border, retaliated by bombing the Iraqi Kurds. Turkish wisdom is that the only good Kurd is a dead Kurd and Erdogan would like to make all Kurds good.

There is no question that the PKK was Communist. Kurds are communal in nature in Syria. It is an odd arrangement. But they are good people, judging by how they treat displaced people, Christians, Jews, Yazidis, even atheists.

And yes, there are links between the PKK and Syrian Kurds. They trained them when the war started in Syria. They had to protect themselves.

I know some of the Rojava Kurds very well. I believe they have a real shot at self government with a mixed ethnic community in Northern Syria aka Rojava.

Each town they have liberate was allowed to set up their own local government. They say they want a Republic. I hope they get a shot at it.

Did you know, they claim 1,000 Arab women (mostly young) have signed up with the YPJ. They want more than just having ISIS removed. They don’t want to be treated like cattle or livestock. I think is very positive.

I actually have a pretty good respect for all of the Kurds tempered with the knowledge that they are, after all, Moslems and subject to the same Koran as other Sunni and the Shia. It would be interesting if they were to prevail in the Middle East and become actually powerful. I wonder if they would revert to basic Islam. I believe Saladin was a Kurd, no?

Yes, Saladin was a Kurd.

No, all Kurds are not Muslim. The percentage of them that are, depends on the country they are in and the community they live in. Some of the communities in Rojava have a fairly large Christian component. Some are, I am told, atheist. The Yazidi component is fairly small and they try to stay among their own.

I trust my source on what I just wrote as being fact. And I have been told by others that the PKK does not care what religion they practice. It is said that Ocalan is atheist.

I’ve seen other articles that hold it the exact opposite, that the PKK got in the way of the rescue of trapped Yazidis, then tried to take credit for their ultimate rescue.

Given that PKK people along with Palestinians were propagandizing even on FR here in the months before 9/11 I trust them no farther than I could throw them.

I’m not relying on articles. I know a number of people who were there. All agree that YPG and PKK were the reason it was not a total massacre of all of the Ezidi on Shingal.

What article did you read about it? What was the source?

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