A pro-PKK protester killed, others injured in clash with Kurdish security in Shingal

SHINGAL, Kurdistan Region – One woman was killed and several others injured as some people near the Yezidi town of Khanasoor started to protest against the deployment of the Roj Brigade, also known as Rojava Peshmerga, to the area on Tuesday.

 

Tensions between the Peshmerga force of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Shingal Protections Units (YBS), an armed group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in the Yezidi region of Shingal, sharply escalated earlier this month in Khanasoor when the two sides entered an armed confrontation, resulting in several fatalities. Each side accused the other of initiating the clashes. 

Naze Naif Qavaland, a resident of Shingal and a member of the council of the Freedom Movement of the Ezidkhan Women (TAJE), also a PKK affiliate group, was killed in the protest, Rudaw's reporter in Shingal confirmed, adding that three people have received injuries after being shot.

Media close to the PKK reported 10 people have been injured during the confrontations between the protesters and the KRG security, adding that the protesters were marching on foot to oppose the presence of the Roj force.

 

The PKK media said that two of those injured were from bullets fired into the crowd “by forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),” a term the PKK applies to forces that are said to be under the influence of the ruling party led by President Masoud Barzani.

A commander of the Roj force, the KRG-trained Peshmerga force whose members are originally from Syrian Kurdistan, said that the riot police are in charge of dealing with the protests, claiming that the PKK have brought people from Syrian Kurdistan to Khanasoor to protest against the KRG-funded force.

 

“The PKK have brought people in a number of vehicles from Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan), from Derik, to Khanasoor and make them protest against us,” Qadir Shekh Mami told Rudaw.

 

He claimed that the riot police have used plastic bullets to avoid casualties among the protesters.

 

He also said they ordered their Peshmerga not to open fire against the protesters, and that it is the duty of the riot police to bring the protests under control.

 

This comes after the KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who is also from the KDP, said on Monday that his government expects the PKK to act  “reasonably” and leave the Yezidi region of Shingal.

 

Nechirvan Barzani told attendees of a meeting with the Yezidi leaders in Duhok that his government wants to help with rebuilding war-torn Yezidi areas, but claimed that the presence of the PKK fighters has limited this process.

 

“[T]he Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) wishes to start rebuilding Shingal as soon as possible, but the presence of the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the region has become a problem that made the Kurdistan Regional Government unable to work seriously enough in this regard,” Nechirvan Barzani said, according to a press release from his office.

 

ISIS captured Shingal on August 3, 2014, committing genocide against the Yezidi population. The town was liberated in November 2015 by a coalition of Kurdish forces, including KRG Peshmerga and PKK fighters. The PKK has maintained a presence in the area, refusing calls from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to leave.

 

Nechirvan Barzani repeated the official line that the KRG is thankful for the efforts of the PKK who helped with the protection of the Yezidi people in Shingal, adding that his government expects the PKK to leave these areas as the Peshmerga did after the liberation of Kobane in Syria in 2015.