ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) should leave Shingal as it has created instability in the region and deterred people from rebuilding their town, said Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), on Thursday.
Speaking at a conference titled Future Independence of Kurdistan at the American University of Kurdistan-Duhok, Barzani said “one of the main reasons which has deterred the rebuilding of Shingal is the PKK, and this is a fact.”
He said the people of Shingal are hesitant about their future as long as the PKK is present in the region and that is why “they do not reconstruct the town. The PKK should understand that and, for the good of the people, they have to leave the region.”
“The people of Shingal have to run their city and decide on their future," not any other political party, Barzani stressed.
In August, the PKK leader in Shingal, Agid Civian, told Rudaw that only after “all of Shingal is liberated and rescue the Yezidis who are still in ISIS captivity” would they then discuss whether or not they should leave.
“We are here on a humanity basis, morality and national duty,” said Civian.
ISIS captured Shingal on August 3, 2014. It was liberated in November 2015 by a coalition of Kurdish forces, including KRG Peshmerga and PKK fighters.
Some people have blamed the Peshmerga for allowing the town to be taken by the terrorist group, accusing the Kurdish forces of abandoning the area.
Barzani said that the geography of Shingal has been a problem for the Kurdistan Region as it is in a remote area.
“If you look at the area, you notice the distance between Shingal and the Kurdistan Region is 70 kilometers,” Barzani explained. “We were not present anywhere between these two. This meant as it was an island open to the enemy and this created a big problem to us.”
But, he noted, “The liberation of Shingal was Present Masoud Barzani’s main objective.”
Barzani also discussed the current situation in Rojava, northern Syria, calling the authority running the self-autonomous zone, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a “dictatorship.”
“They do not allow any other political party to work there,” he said. “What we ask them is to live as brothers and together administrate the region’s future.”
Though the KRG does not interfere in Rojava’s affairs, Barzani said, “we want them reach their rights within the context of a state they live in."
The KRG premier believes the PYD has become “the political prisoner” of the PKK’s “wrong policies” that will negate the region’s achievements and ruin its future.
“If they do not get out of the PKK’s form, they will not have any future in Syria,” he warned, accusing the PKK of “trying to gain legitimacy” through the people of Rojava.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.
