Nine arrested protesting Shingal clashes remain in detention in Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nine people, three Kurdish and six Turkish nationals, are still being held after their arrests at a protest against recent clashes between Rojava Peshmerga and Shingal Protection Units (YBS) in the Shingal area. 

On March 4, security forces in Erbil arrested a reported at least 32 people at the protest. Some of them were released on the same day, but, “Nine of them have not been released, six of whom are Turkish,” the Director General of Erbil Police, Abdulkhaliq Talaat, told Rudaw.

“They were arrested by a court order, and will be released by a court order, too,” he detailed. “They will be freed whenever the court decides.”

One of the three Kurdish citizens who is still being held is Mohamed Kyani, who is a political activist and former member of parliament with the Change Movement (Gorran). Kyani is no longer a member of Gorran, party member Abdulrahman Muhandis told Rudaw. “I am unaware of any Gorran members in Erbil being arrested due to protest,” he added. 

The other two Kurds have been identified simply as Swara and Hawre.

Explaining why they were demonstrating, civil society activist Ali Siasi said, “We wanted to stage a protest against fraternal war, not in support of any political party. We were 32, were all arrested, but were all released a few hours later, except 3 people.”

Deadly clashes between the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Rojava Peshmerga and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)-backed Shingal Protection Units (YBS) erupted Friday morning in the Shingal area. 

The Rojava Peshmerga claimed in a statement they were fired on first and that the YBS prevented them from carrying out a routine deployment of their forces to the Iraq-Syria border. 

The YBS, in their own statement, said that they object to the presence of the Rojava Peshmerga, a brigade formed from Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region, calling them an “occupying force.” The YBS, formed by the PKK in the Shingal region to provide protection for Yezidi towns, deny they started the confrontation however, stating that the Rojava Peshmerga were the first to open fire.