ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Yazidi militia leader in the disputed area of Shingal has condemned the Erbil-Baghdad agreement to resolve security and administration issues in the area, and has warned of “war” if the agreement is implemented.
“If the agreement is implemented, Shingal could return to a period of war like it did in 2014,” Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) commander Haso Ibrahim said in an interview with Rudaw’s Tahsin Qasim on Tuesday.
“The people of Shingal do not want to go back to such a time,” said Ibrahim, who is also a leading figure in the Shingal Autonomous Council, a civil society administration formed by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) affiliated groups to govern the district.
Shingal lies within areas disputed between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. The Yazidi population fled when the Islamic State (ISIS) overran the district in August 2014, committing genocide against the ethnoreligious community.
Various armed forces have vied for control of Shingal since its liberation from the terror group, including the YBS, which is linked to the PKK. The PKK helped save thousands of Yazidis stranded on Mount Shingal in 2014.
The Iraqi army took control of the region in 2017 after the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
Baghdad reached a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on October 9 over the governance and security of the disputed district.
Under the agreement, security for the troubled region will be the responsibility of the federal government, which will establish a new armed force recruiting from the local population and expel the PKK, according to details released on October 10.
Federal forces have been deployed to Shingal to secure the border with Syria, Nineveh province officials confirmed.
“Three brigades of Iraqi federal forces are placed on the border between Shingal and Syria in order to prevent any forces from going back and forth,” Deputy Governor of Ninevah province Sirwan Rozhbeyani told Rudaw on Tuesday.
The presence of PKK-linked groups in the district has brought further instability to the already vulnerable region, with Turkish airstrikes regularly hitting the area as a result of decades-long conflict with the PKK.
Displaced Yazidis and Shingal locals have called for a quick implementation of the agreement, so more Shingalis can return home.
"We ask the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central government to implement this agreement as soon as possible, for us to go back to our homes," Khelif Hassan told Rudaw earlier this month.
Officials in northeast Syria, or Rojava, have recently condemned the deal for its expulsion of non-federal forces.
“The Iraqi government and the Bashur [Kurdistan Region] government handed Shingal to ISIS wolves without a fight,” Head of Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) Gharib Haso told Hawar News on Wednesday.
“The PKK defended the people of Shingal out of their humanitarian responsibility, and sacrificed a lot for the Yazidi community,” he added. “This deal does not benefit the Yazidi community.”
