KRG trying to halt Turkish strikes, Iranian shelling: Masoud Barzani
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish authorities are working on a solution to halt Turkish airstrikes and Iranian shelling on targets inside the Kurdistan Region’s territory, former president Masoud Barzani said Monday.
“We are concerned about the challenging situation on the border … with shelling and … bombings … be it from Iran or Turkey,” Barzani told an audience of elders and veteran Peshmerga fighters in the town of Choman, near the Iranian border.
He was applauded for saying any solution must not provoke Kurdish infighting.
“We are working on it in a way that Kurdish blood should not be shed by Kurds. This has become a fundamental principle for us.”
Kurdish parties based in the Kurdistan Region should not give neighboring countries an excuse to retaliate by bombing and shelling the border areas used by Kurdish villagers and nomads, Barzani said.
“God willing, all the parties will be wise and considerate and the circumstances of the [Kurdistan] Region should be taken into account because we do not sacrifice the stability and security of our people for anyone else,” he said.
Since 1992 when the Kurdistan Region was established under the auspices of a US-led coalition, the Region has acted as a safe haven for Kurds from Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
But as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) wins greater international recognition, it has become increasingly difficult to continue acting like a responsible actor while fulfilling nationalist duties to the Kurds from these countries.
In recent years, at least two Iranian Kurdish parties have deployed some of their peshmerga fighters to the border area near Choman to the chagrin of the Iranian authorities.
Iran has retaliated by shelling these areas, causing wildfires which have destroying crops and grazing land.
Further north in an area known as the triangle, where the borders of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey meet, Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops, heavy guns, helicopter gunships, and a fleet of Turkish-made drones to pursue Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters and to construct permanent bases inside the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK has fought a bloody war against the central government in Ankara since the early 1980s for the recognition of Kurdish linguistic and political rights.
The Turkish army has taken an offensive posture since last year and says it is determined to deprive the PKK of safe havens in the Qandil Mountains to the east of Erbil and the Khwakurd areas to the north on the Turkish border, which acts as a corridor for PKK fighters to cross into Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
Thousands of villagers have evacuated their ancestral land as a result of the fighting and fled to the safety of towns and cities deeper inside the Kurdistan Region.
KRG officials say the PKK and the Iranian Kurdish groups should stop causing instability in the Kurdistan Region and should instead take their fight to their respective parts of Kurdistan and carry out their struggle there.
Barzani did not elaborate on what kind of solution authorities were searching for, but urged Kurdish parties to preserve the achievements of the Kurdistan Region, calling it “the only place of hope” for the Kurds.
If that hope is eradicated, “everything would be over”, he added.
“We are concerned about the challenging situation on the border … with shelling and … bombings … be it from Iran or Turkey,” Barzani told an audience of elders and veteran Peshmerga fighters in the town of Choman, near the Iranian border.
He was applauded for saying any solution must not provoke Kurdish infighting.
“We are working on it in a way that Kurdish blood should not be shed by Kurds. This has become a fundamental principle for us.”
Kurdish parties based in the Kurdistan Region should not give neighboring countries an excuse to retaliate by bombing and shelling the border areas used by Kurdish villagers and nomads, Barzani said.
“God willing, all the parties will be wise and considerate and the circumstances of the [Kurdistan] Region should be taken into account because we do not sacrifice the stability and security of our people for anyone else,” he said.
Since 1992 when the Kurdistan Region was established under the auspices of a US-led coalition, the Region has acted as a safe haven for Kurds from Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
But as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) wins greater international recognition, it has become increasingly difficult to continue acting like a responsible actor while fulfilling nationalist duties to the Kurds from these countries.
In recent years, at least two Iranian Kurdish parties have deployed some of their peshmerga fighters to the border area near Choman to the chagrin of the Iranian authorities.
Iran has retaliated by shelling these areas, causing wildfires which have destroying crops and grazing land.
Further north in an area known as the triangle, where the borders of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey meet, Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops, heavy guns, helicopter gunships, and a fleet of Turkish-made drones to pursue Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters and to construct permanent bases inside the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK has fought a bloody war against the central government in Ankara since the early 1980s for the recognition of Kurdish linguistic and political rights.
The Turkish army has taken an offensive posture since last year and says it is determined to deprive the PKK of safe havens in the Qandil Mountains to the east of Erbil and the Khwakurd areas to the north on the Turkish border, which acts as a corridor for PKK fighters to cross into Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
Thousands of villagers have evacuated their ancestral land as a result of the fighting and fled to the safety of towns and cities deeper inside the Kurdistan Region.
KRG officials say the PKK and the Iranian Kurdish groups should stop causing instability in the Kurdistan Region and should instead take their fight to their respective parts of Kurdistan and carry out their struggle there.
Barzani did not elaborate on what kind of solution authorities were searching for, but urged Kurdish parties to preserve the achievements of the Kurdistan Region, calling it “the only place of hope” for the Kurds.
If that hope is eradicated, “everything would be over”, he added.