ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 150 Kurds from the Kurdistan Region have left the Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamist groups over the past two years and some of them are under detention by Kurdish security forces, a religious affairs official disclosed. Mariwan Naqshbandi, spokesperson of Kurdistan’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, told Rudaw that, following the ISIS attack on Kurdistan in 2014 which triggered the ongoing war, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) began efforts to stop recruitment of Kurdish youth by Islamist groups. “Since then, 150 young people have returned back, either by turning themselves in to the Peshmerga or through continuous cooperation by the security agencies with their families,” he said. The official explained that in 2013 and 2014, 500 young people aged between 13 and 25 from the Kurdistan Region had joined ISIS. He said that 600 Kurds from Iran and 800 in Turkey had joined up with Islamist groups. Naqshbandi said he believes there are several reasons why young Kurds began leaving ISIS and other Islamist groups. “When the Kurds joined ISIS they wanted to fight the Assad regime, but then the fight was shifted against the YPG,” the Kurdish force that controls Syrian Kurdistan. “The ISIS war against the Peshmerga and the execution of several Kurdish ISIS militants on charges of betraying the state were other reasons for the youth withdrawing from the group,” Naqshbandi said, adding that he believed there are only 40 ethnic Kurds now left in ISIS ranks.
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