In a statement issued on Monday, the KCK, a political body associated with the PKK, said that Shingal must be administrated by its people and have their own forces.
“The PKK assists the Yezidis to create a self-defense force and administrative institutions,” reads the statement, adding that “once the Yezidis have their own protection force and independent administration, then the PKK’s ambitions will be fulfilled in Shingal.”
The statement also noted that “the more Yezidis create their force, the less guerrilla force will remain there.”
The KCK is an organization founded by the PKK to put into practice jailed leader Ocalan’s ideology of democratic confederalism.
A controversial withdrawal of PKK fighters from Shingal has stirred up heated debates between the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, Turkey, and the USA as they all insist that the group should retreat from the region.
The issue of the PKK’s pullout from Shingal officially emerged at a conference on the independence of the Kurdistan Region held in December last year at the American University of Kurdistan in Duhok when the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani stressed that, “The PKK should leave Sinjar. Today’s presence of the PKK in Sinjar causes instability in the region.”
In a later interview with Al-Monitor, Barzani said he was ready to use force against the PKK if they did not leave Shingal voluntarily.
The leader of the PKK and member of its executive council Murat Karayilan has said that negotiations have been underway with the Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) over the issue of their presence in Shingal and that the PKK was ready to leave the area at the conclusion of the talks.
A figure close to the PKK told Rudaw last week that an agreement has been reached for the PKK’s peaceful withdrawal.
“The PKK and the Kurdistan Region have reached an agreement on pulling out the forces of the People’s Defence Force (HPG) from Sinjar,” said Mohammed Amin Penjweni, referring to the armed wing of the PKK.
The KRG’s spokesperson confirmed that they have received a positive response from the PKK on the question of the withdrawal of their forces from Sinjar. “The only thing left to be discussed is mechanisms whereby the PKK forces could leave Sinjar,” Safeen Dizayee said.
Dizayee also expressed gratitude for the PKK in assisting the Peshmerga forces during the fight against ISIS in the region.
Baghdad and Ankara have both expressed their opposition to the PKK’s ongoing presence in Shingal.
“The PKK activities carried out against us from here is not acceptable at all,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a press conference in Erbil on Sunday. “Every necessary step will be taken to the end [of this threat]. The spread of this group to the west of Sinjar is not acceptable to us.”
He stressed that the PKK, which Turkey and the US have named as a terrorist organization, is a threat to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region as well as Turkey.
In Baghdad a day earlier, Yildirim and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reached an agreement to coordinate on many issues, one of which was to not allow the presence of any terrorist organization on their lands, according to a statement issued by Abadi’s office.
US Defense Department Press Secretary Peter Cook said last week that the US supports Abadi’s position on the PKK, that the group must withdraw.
