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Kurdish Peshmergas attacked Islamic State’s headquarters

BreakingNews @en/Middle East - Africa di

Media Official of Peshmerga forces in Sinjar District announced that the Kurdish forces attacked strongholds and headquarters of the Islamic State in the area.“Kurdish Peshmerga forces attacked three headquarters of the Islamic State in Rambousi Village and Telskuf area.” have said Khalil Shafan. “Last night, Peshmerga forces located members of the Islamic State in the areas of al-Baaj and al-Balij, where the militants were trying to flee toward Syria,” he further added and that the Kurdish security forces are waiting for President of Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani’s orders to liberate the remaining areas of Sinjar from ISIS control.

Mission to retake Mosul begins. Gen. Townsend: "All troops are Iraqis"

Asia @en di
Following months of preparation, the Allies’ operation to retake Mosul from the grip of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) was finally launched on the very early hours of last monday. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi released an official announcement to government-dependent television station Al Iraqiya immediately after the last troops of the international coalition had been deployed to the outskirts of the second largest city in Iraq.
Whilst the Kurdish Peshmerga forces are stationed to the north and east of Mosul, with the goal of obstructing possible escape routes for IS’ militants, the Iraqi and international ground troops will advance from all sides besides the northern, also helped by local tribal fighters on the western front. The coalition headquarters is just south of the city: it will provide intel on the conflict and very precise indications on which targets the US-led airstrikes should hit inside Mosul.
The commander of the Joint Task Force Operation “Inherent Resolve”, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commented on the prospects of the battle and the role of the international coalition in support to the Iraqi forces, in a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense. Townsend affirmed that the operation to regain control of Mosul will likely continue for weeks and possibly longer. But it comes after more than two years of ISIL oppression in Mosul, “during which they committed horrible atrocities [and] brutalized the people” after declaring the city to be one of their twin capitals, the general said in the statement. The coalition can’t predict how long it will take for the ISF to retake the city, “but we know they will succeed — just as they did in Beiji, in Ramadi, in Fallujah and, more recently in Qayyarah and Sharqat.” The OIR coalition will provide “air support, artillery, intelligence, advisors and forward air controllers,” Townsend said in the statement, adding that the supporting forces “will continue to use precision to accurately attack the enemy and to minimize any impact on innocent civilians.”
 
Townsend also addressed the very controvertial topic of the nationalities amongst the ground troops: “To be clear, the thousands of ground combat forces who will liberate Mosul are all Iraqis,” Townsend said in the statement”. Meanwhile, the start of the conflict has raised serious humanitarian concerns among many international organisations, such as the UN and UNICEF, and NGOs.
Federico Trastulli

“Military training” in Kurdistan against Isil

BreakingNews @en/Middle East - Africa di

In late August ended the first phase of the sixth round training for a Peshmerga battalion, organized by the multinational Command Kurdish Training Coordination Center (KTCC) – composed of Italian, English, German, Dutch , Norwegian, Finnish and Hungarian military instructors – which is currently commanded by Italy. Those training activities are included in the “Prima Parthica” military operation, a response to the request for help presented by the Iraqi Permanent ONU Representative to the President of the Security Council.

The mission is intended to obstruct the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s threat, by supporting the security forces of regional partners. The tasks of Italian contingent concern, first of all, the training of Iraqui and Kurdish security forces, as well as the territory reconnaissance and surveillance, but also synergies with the Chief of the Coalition staff. During the training cycle, Italian soldiers handend down to 300 servicepersons of Kurdish unit the necessary skills to conduct tactical activities in different environments, to implement strategies of attack and defense in particular contexts, such as towns. But not only.

The know-how transferred to the local militia includes individual instruction for combat, research and clearance of IED (improvised explosive devices) and the establishment of a task force able to supervise emergency situations. Kurdish have learned and perfected the moving techniques in a variety of locations, and how to install of adequate facilities for telecommunications to guarantee instantaneous contacts. Finally, special attention to the planning of efficient combat operations as soon as possible and to the use of precision instruments.

This mission in Erbil is very important. Italy plays in the synergy with other countries of the Coalition to strengthen cooperation relations with Kurdistan, which is now fighting to defend its borders against jihadists attacks. Starting from last January, about 1.500 soldiers of local security forces have taken advantage of Italian support. The training phase ended with the verification of the operational capabilities through military exercises, and with the diplomas delivery ceremony. Kurdish authorities were satisfied with the training of the Peshmerga unit.

Viviana Passalacqua

The Kurdish wars

Middle East - Africa/Politics di

Against Isis, against Erdogan’s threats, against Barzani that wants to be the president of KRG forever.

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[level-european-affairs]
While on the turkish border, President Erdogan is exploiting international aid to face Isis and, at the same time, try to hit the Kurds of PKK, the president of the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government), Barzani, is organizing military parades in order to retain his mandate, beyond the two-year extension already granted. KRG is the only form of government able to represent Kurdish people, divided between Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran.

The Kurdistan Regional Government was established in Iraq after the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein and is now subjected to the same power struggles that caused the instability of the Middle East. During the years Kurdish people were, and still are, discriminated against. Saddam Hussein has made the Kurds the target of his chemical weapons causing real massacres as in Halabja in 1988. The persecution took the traits of the genocide through the “Anfal Campaign”.

In Turkey , as well as in Syria, over the years, the persecution never stopped and Kurdish people did not get more favors. Their conditions has come to international attention since the irregular army of KRG, the Peshmarga, took their weapons to face the advancing of Isis. The pages of history books written now, will describe the heroic resistance of these mixed troops made of men and women, who fought to protect cities like Kobanî. But this is not enough for Turkey that is ready to exploit the Isis justification to attack the Kurdish army.

If the elections on June 7 in Turkey seemed to be a turning point with the entrance in Parliament of HDP; recent events like the connection of the Democratic party of the Kurdish people to PKK after exceeding the threshold of 10% of the preferences set by Erdogan, seem to record a sharp setback.In recent years, the bombings inflicted by the Turkish on the Kurds of northern Iraq never stopped and have caused the reaction of the Kurdish militants. On August 10th, the escalation of violence caused 9 victims, killed in four separate attacks. Near the US Consulate and a police station in Istanbul and near a convoy and a military helicopter in the south-east of the country, Sirkin, in Kurdish territory.

Episodes that are triggering the danger of a real civil war. The DHKP-C claimed the shots against the US consulate that brings the terrorists of the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of the People, and PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party of Ocalan, was responsible for the two attacks in the south-east . The reasons that led Erdogan to attack the Kurds, causing their reaction, is to be found in the victory of the Kurdish minority in the last election.

The entry of HDP into Parliament has removed the AKP, the Party for Justice and Development which belongs to Erdogan, that had held absolute majority for 13 years. After the attacks of August 10, Erdogan is supporting the need to go to early elections and get back to the majority denied last June. The attacks claimed by DHKP-C and PKK will cause a loss of votes in the Kurdish party of Hdp at they will be used at his advantage. If it is not possible now to talk about a probable alliance between the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the terrorists of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C), however, it is certain that the Kurds are increasingly unwilling to accept the requests of the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, in 2006.

From the prison of Imral he asked his fighters to seek dialogue with the Turkish government to reach a cease-fire. If the risk, in Turkey, is to come to a war against the Kurds, the chances that serious internal unrest will happen in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan are just as real . Days ago, the President of the KRG, Massoud Barzani organized a military parade in Erbil. A clear message designed to get to what he has been asking for a long time, that Is a new confirmation of his role. According to the internal laws to KRG, the presidential term of four years is extendable just for only one renewal. Then, the President decades automatically. Barzani has already achieved a two-year extension that will run out on the next August 19. However, he does not intend to give up his role. The first elections in the KRG took place in 1992. Neither political parties PUK and PKK, represented by Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani reached a majority and an agreement. Those conditions caused the dreadful civil war that has killed more than 3,000 civilians. When the civil war ended in 2005, Talabani became the Iraqi President and Barzani the KRG’s President.

The power of the Kurdistan Regional Presidency was stronger than the one of the Parliament and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), to counterbalance the Iraqi presidency. For the KRG, the presidency was a new institution with unlimited powers. The result is that corruption has grown exponentially, national resources have been squandered, private militias and intelligence services are increasingly loyal to their parties as opposed to the country, and there is ever-growing social inequality. The country is bankrupt and most people are struggling to make ends meet, while 10,000 millionaires and 15 billionaires have emerged in a short period of time. Society is polarized between lackeys who live on political parties’ handouts and good honest citizens who have to wait for wages that are three months behind. In fact the system is almost near a dictatorial regime than a Presidential one. It’s true that is a well-established Middle-Eastern-Fact that the presidential system only breeds dictators and corrupt leaders.

In 2013, when Barzani’s term was extended, the political system became an absolute presidency according to legistlation and the chances required by Barzani, to get the president’s powers greater than those of any other president in the region. Just to have an idea, here’s a few of the KR President’s powers: highest executive power in KR, chief of General Staff, power to dissolve Parliament, can announce a State of Emergency [without parliament’s consent], power to appoint KR’s Constitutional Court members and members of the Judges Assembly, power to control KR’s Security Council and KR’s Intelligence services and most importantly of all, the power to approve or reject legislation passed by parliament.

The oppositions tried to make alliance to oppose Barzani but every attempt has been unconclusive. When the war against IS began, only the attack to Shingal and the following capture of a 1,000 women and children made Barzani act. Before that violences Barzani was refusing to engage in the conflict. Nowadays even the war hasn’t motivated Barzani to get his act together with Yazidis and unite the Peshmerga into a strong national army. There can only be two explanations for the multidimensional crisis Barzani has dragged the nation into: either he is too weak to accept responsibility and tackle these matters head on or else he is directly involved in the wrongdoing and exploitation of national resources.

What could happen is Barzani left? The response is not easy at the moment. Now, KRG is governed from the two-party coalition of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (Kurdistan List). At the opposition we found four parties, PUK, Gorran, KIU and KIG that might accept another KDP candidate o tolerate another term for Barzani only if KDP accepts constitutional amendments to establish a full parliamentary system and limit the powers of the president.
But at the moment KDP has not an influential leader who can be accepted by both of the main wings of their party. The PUK seems to have given up on the position since they already have Iraq’s presidency. Gorran also hasn’t declared any interest in the presidency. Just one thing is certain. If the parties do not reach a consensus in the next few months, KR will face a political crisis which could potentially lead to civil unrest.
Monia Savioli

[/level-european-affairs]

Turkey and renewed repression against the Kurds: what is happening?

BreakingNews @en/Middle East - Africa di

In the last days, the Turkish government has been carrying out a wide repressive operation against civilians, parties and kurdish guerrillas.

Such an intensity of bombings has not been experienced in years. A double attack was carried out against both the workstations of PKK guerrillas and the villages of civilians. It is obvious that Erdogan has decided to intervene both in Turkey and the rest of the Middle East, by attacking all those components that try and advance democratic instances. Why this escalation of events? Mainly for what purpose?

Young people, university students, male and female workers, militants of the lgbt movement, together with the Kurdish movements gathered on the streets against an oppressive and increasingly authoritarian government. The prompt response of the government consisted in breaking into houses, arresting, killing people on the streets, forbid everything and militarily attacking groups of people. Turkish people know the meaning of military coup. In this case, it was a political coupe of the State, since the decisions concerning military operations were taken illegally, without the coverage of a government. During the last general elections held on June 7, Erdogan’s party, the Akp, has experience a significant reduction in its consent, showing that it has politically lost in the Middle East, and thus losing even his image in front of the whole world. It is now evident that the response of Erdogan to electoral defeat is, once again, a strong repression. Almost two months have passed since the elections but the Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has not yet found allies to form a new government. This makes the position of Erdogan even more weak, who is nevertheless, taking advantage of the absence of a government, and continues to take illegal decisions in a rebel and a fascist way. In seeking approval, since it is impossible the impasse and form a new government soon Turkey will go back to the elections, and the goal is to once again push the Kurds into a corner, labeling them as “terrorists” , weakening the HDP.

However the resistance inside and outside Turkey is very strong, since the Kurdish pepole are accustomed to rise up against repression as they have already shown. On the one hand the HDP has received broad electoral support, surpassing by three points the hideous 10% threshold to enter the parliament; on the other hand, the PKK has demonstrated to the world that they are the only force able to stop ISIS (Daesh) in the Middle East. While regular armies have left the field to ISIS, guerrilla forces intervened rescuing thousands of civilians, regardless of ethnicity and religion, protecting the entire population. Hence his continued growth of popular support inside and outside Turkey. Erdogan is realizing this fact and is fearing the consequences.

And what about the peace process that was taking place between Ocalan and the Turkish state and the Turkish government, and that in the last few months has finally got to a stopping point isolating Ocalan in the last 4 months. The AKP has always used the negotiations with the Kurds to offer Europe an image of openness and tolerance; in reality its policy aimed at trying to divide the Kurdish movement and the positions of Öcalan from guerrilla forces and the Kurdish refugees in Europe, in order to divide it and weaken it. Since it failed to crush the movement with the arms, he tried to do it politically by exploiting the contradictions inherent to any peace process.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that the AKP has never recognized the revolution in Rojava and denied status for the Kurdish people, who are trying to implement the so-called “democratic autonomy”. Instead, he tried to destroy it, by financing and allowing ISIS to move freely within and through its borders. The AKP plans have failed because of Kobane’s victory and the pushing of ISIS out of Rojava. Often news about the increasingly blatant connivance between the Turkish secret services and ISIS, spread both inside and outside of Turkey.

On July 20, 32 young socialists from the largest cities in Turkey were killed in the town near the Turkish -Syrian border of Suruc. Suruc is well-known for being the village where international support was given to the resistance of Kobane. Thousands of activists from around the world, many even from Italy, went right to Suruc to offer support and help, while the guerrillas in kobane resisted against the attack carried out by ISIS. That’s why these 32 young socialists were in Suruc on July 20. They wanted to continue to give support to the reconstruction of Kobane. Using this attack as a pretext, the turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has decided to take military action, justifying this decision with the danger represented by ISIS, and bombing its stations. Nothing but false and hypocritical propaganda. In the last two days of operation, the attack on the ISIS lasted 13 minutes at the most. And the stations attacked were empty. Someone had perhaps warned them?

On July 24 the bombing operation against the Kurdish guerrillas started in the mountains in the defense area of Medya. July 24 is an unlucky day for the Kurds since on the same day in 1923 in Lausanne, they witnessed the division of Kurdistan into four parts: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Turkish F-16s took off five minutes after midnight from the cities of Diyarbakir and Batman and dropped bombs all night long on the regions of Zap, Basyan, Gare, Avasin and Metina. The planes then hit Xinere and Kandil and many villages of civilians in the region. Some areas were hit three times in the same night. At the same time, a wide repressive operation was carried out in Turkey. It had the same magnitude than the one that was carried out in 2009, known as “KCK operation”, that led to the arrest of about 700 Democrats across the country and resulted in the killing of the 21 year old Abdullah Özdal in the city ​​of Cizre (Turkey). All these events, in a very delicate moment when the prime minister is still trying to form a new government, smell like “strategy of tension”. Taking advantage of the political vacuum, the AKP continues undisturbed its policy of annihilation of the Kurds. And that even with the support of Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region (Iraq), who is issuing statements condemning the Turkish bombings but basically turns out to be a spokesman for Erdogan and the AKP in southern Kurdistan, endorsing the game division of the Kurds. Exposing, among other things his country and putting his people at risk of becoming the “backyard” of Turkey, hoping for a formal recognition of the Kurdistan region while Erdogan’s real goal is exploiting its wealth and politically and economically controlling it. The policy of the AKP is therefore increasingly clear and desperate. Its policies in the Middle East have failed, that is why it is trying to regain a role that it no longer has, because the revolution of Rojava showed that no policy without or against the Kurds will succeed in the Middle East.

All countries that somehow are interested and / or involved in the Middle East policies change strategy according to their own interests. But Turkey insists on not changing and tries to continue as if it was still at the time of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey did not understand that the world has changed, the role of Turkey is no longer the one it had in the past: It cannot survive with the policies and “tricks” used by the Ottomans, rather this would lead the country to total failure. Society is changing. The boundaries are changing.

The only possible way out is to democratize Turkey and resolve all issues with all the people who live there, this is what Ocalan has been trying to pursue with the peace process. Meanwhile it is clear that the Kurdish guerrillas will not stay and watch, and they will continue their fight against ISIS in Rojava (since they showed they can stop them), and in Turkey against repression and bombings. They will continue to fight against this policy of the AKP that is taking Turkey into a marsh. They will continue to carry out the revolution in Rojava since it is the only solution for the people in the Middle East. The will continue to express their protest in all the cities in the world, as it happened for example in 15 cities in Italy or in 22 cities in Germany, or Japan, India, France, after the attack on Suruc. Kurds are accustomed to resist and will no longer bend, nor they would let anybody use them for the games of the great powers as had happened in the past.

Now the revolution has begun and has no boundaries. Especially those artificial boundaries that were decided in Lausanne without consulting the people. Then the audience should break the silence! The Kurds will no longer accept slavery. No bombing will break them ..

These bombings beyond the Turkish border are a violation of international law. International forces, with their democratic solidarity have had an important role in stopping the spreading of Isis in the Middle East. Let’s not forget that the AKP is another face of ISIS. It is important to act immediately to put an end to this policy of the Turkish state.

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