ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Canadian military advisors in the Kurdistan Region may have to remove the Kurdish flag patch they wear on their uniforms, only days after US forces in Syria were ordered to remove Kurdish insignia from their uniforms.
"We'll have to re-examine that and we may well take them off too," the commander of Canada's forces in the Kurdistan Region, Mike Rouleau, told Canada's CTV News on Wednesday.
"Whether we have them on or off, it's not going to change anything about the level of commitment and closeness that we have with the people who we're sent there to support," Rouleau went on to claim.
It's common for embedded forces to wear the flag patch of a country they are deployed in along with the flag of their own country. In this case however the wearing of Kurdish flag patches has proven controversial since the Kurdistan Region is still a part of Iraq.
It's not clear if the Canadians will wear an Iraqi flag patch on their uniform instead or simply not wear any second flag patch at all.
Late last month it was revealed that some of the US Special Forces training Kurdish forces in Syria were wearing the badge of the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). The Turkish government bitterly condemned this and the US military apologized saying it was "unauthorized" and "inappropriate" for American forces to wear the insignia.
As a result American forces in Syria will stop wearing YPG insignia flags on their uniforms.
"We'll have to re-examine that and we may well take them off too," the commander of Canada's forces in the Kurdistan Region, Mike Rouleau, told Canada's CTV News on Wednesday.
"Whether we have them on or off, it's not going to change anything about the level of commitment and closeness that we have with the people who we're sent there to support," Rouleau went on to claim.
It's common for embedded forces to wear the flag patch of a country they are deployed in along with the flag of their own country. In this case however the wearing of Kurdish flag patches has proven controversial since the Kurdistan Region is still a part of Iraq.
It's not clear if the Canadians will wear an Iraqi flag patch on their uniform instead or simply not wear any second flag patch at all.
Late last month it was revealed that some of the US Special Forces training Kurdish forces in Syria were wearing the badge of the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). The Turkish government bitterly condemned this and the US military apologized saying it was "unauthorized" and "inappropriate" for American forces to wear the insignia.
As a result American forces in Syria will stop wearing YPG insignia flags on their uniforms.
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