Kurdistan VP calls for unity to preserve peace among Kurds
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The vice president of the Kurdistan Region on Friday called for Kurds to unite to preserve peace, saying there are efforts to provoke war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Peshmerga.
"Unfortunately, there is currently an attempt to provoke an unwanted war between the PKK and the Peshmerga in the territory of the Kurdistan Region. I hope that will not happen and that bloodshed will stop here,” Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Historic tensions between the PKK and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) are once again elevated as the PKK is under pressure from Turkey’s armed forces and the guerrillas are blamed for two separate attacks on Peshmerga forces that resulted in the death of six. It has sparked concerns that conflict may break out between them. The PKK has denied involvement in the Peshmerga deaths.
Sheikh Mustafa said that while they “respect political parties that have settled on the Kurdistan Region’s land and have allowed them to carry out their political works and activities, but we never support causing war and instability, as well as evacuation, destruction and martyring civilians in the area.”
The PKK, an armed group fighting for greater rights of Kurds in Turkey, has bases in the Kurdistan Region's mountains and Turkish forces regularly pursue the group on both sides of the border. Kurdish civilians get caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of villages in the Kurdistan Region have been emptied over decades of conflict, dozens of civilians have been killed, and the environment has been devastated. Turkey launched two new military operations against the PKK in northern Duhok in late April.
The PKK has also said it does not want a fight with the KDP. War between Kurds "is a red line," Zubeyir Aydar, a board member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that includes the PKK, told Rudaw English in a recent interview.
A senior member of the PKK, Murat Karayilan, has warned that Turkey wants to see the KDP and PKK turn on each other.
Sheikh Mustafa called for unity. “I urge the Kurds of all four parts of Kurdistan to join hands to root out all the oppression and tyranny that has been inflicted on us throughout history,” he said, referring to Kurdish populations in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
"Unfortunately, there is currently an attempt to provoke an unwanted war between the PKK and the Peshmerga in the territory of the Kurdistan Region. I hope that will not happen and that bloodshed will stop here,” Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Historic tensions between the PKK and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) are once again elevated as the PKK is under pressure from Turkey’s armed forces and the guerrillas are blamed for two separate attacks on Peshmerga forces that resulted in the death of six. It has sparked concerns that conflict may break out between them. The PKK has denied involvement in the Peshmerga deaths.
Sheikh Mustafa said that while they “respect political parties that have settled on the Kurdistan Region’s land and have allowed them to carry out their political works and activities, but we never support causing war and instability, as well as evacuation, destruction and martyring civilians in the area.”
The PKK, an armed group fighting for greater rights of Kurds in Turkey, has bases in the Kurdistan Region's mountains and Turkish forces regularly pursue the group on both sides of the border. Kurdish civilians get caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of villages in the Kurdistan Region have been emptied over decades of conflict, dozens of civilians have been killed, and the environment has been devastated. Turkey launched two new military operations against the PKK in northern Duhok in late April.
The PKK has also said it does not want a fight with the KDP. War between Kurds "is a red line," Zubeyir Aydar, a board member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that includes the PKK, told Rudaw English in a recent interview.
A senior member of the PKK, Murat Karayilan, has warned that Turkey wants to see the KDP and PKK turn on each other.
Sheikh Mustafa called for unity. “I urge the Kurds of all four parts of Kurdistan to join hands to root out all the oppression and tyranny that has been inflicted on us throughout history,” he said, referring to Kurdish populations in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.