Peshmerga to Abadi: Attacking compatriots not comparable to ISIS fight
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry slammed remarks by Haider al-Abadi who had labelled the Iraqi army and Iran backed Hashd al-Shaabi’s incursion into the disputed territories as equal to the defeat of ISIS in Iraq. The ministry said had not it been for the Peshmerga, ISIS would have never been destroyed.
“Uniting Iraq and preventing it from partition was another victory, which was no less than the triumph achieved over the ISIS terrorist gangs,” Abadi said during a Dawa Party meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday.
The Peshmerga ministry responded Thursday night saying “it is very unfortunate for the prime minister of a country to compare attacking the people of his country with victory over terrorists and to very proudly talk about it.”
It added had not it been for the Peshmerga, “the giant victory which Abadi is now proud of would have never been achieved and the whole word has witnessed that.”
Leaders from both Erbil and Baghdad had hailed the unprecedented cooperation between their forces in anti-ISIS operations, which saw them fighting a common enemy side-by-side.
This is the first time the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces have shed blood together, then Kurdish President Masoud Barzani said on the first day of the Mosul operation. “We hope it’s a good start to create a bright future for both sides.”
Two weeks later, Abadi echoed Barzani’s words. “For the first time in Iraqi history the Iraqi federal forces with Peshmerga are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder,” he said. “This is the new Iraq.”
On October 16, the Iraqi military, supported by Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi began an offensive to take over Kirkuk from the Kurdistan Regional Government following their referendum bid for independence which was held on September 25.
The ministry added in their statement that if the Peshmerga had not stopped the Iraqi armed forces and their Shiite militias after October 16, they would have continued to do what they did in Tuz Khurmatu.
Tuz Khurmatu, which fell to Iraqi forces when they drove out the Peshmerga, saw the brutal displacement of Kurds, killings, arson, looting and burning houses belonging to the Kurdish inhabitants of the town as reported by rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
The Kurdistan Region parliament in a special session that discussed the plight of tens of thousands of Kurds who fled the city labelled the acts of violence in Tuz Khurmatu by Iraqi forces "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing.”
The KRG ministry said Abadi’s remarks come at a time when all the parties are working to lay the foundation for a suitable atmosphere for talks between Erbil and Baghdad. Such dialogue has been encouraged by the international community with France most recently taking a direct lead.
“However such remarks indicate the essence of all the grudges that they hold against the nation of Kurdistan. But history has proven that the will of the Kurdistan nation has never been shattered by anyone and will not be shattered,” it concluded.