By Farhad Dolamari ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Only 68 new recruits made the cut out of hundreds who turned up to volunteer on the first day of a recruitment drive for two newly-formed Peshmarga brigades in Kurdistan. Peshmerga officials said young volunteers had flocked to recruitment centers in major Kurdish cities as a month-long enlistment process started in earnest on Sunday. “We need motivated young people with proper education who can handle the sophisticated weaponry which the ministry will provide after completing the training programs,” Deputy Peshmarga Minister Anwar Haji Usman told Rudaw. According to Usman, the new recruits will be part of the special program that the US military has set up in support of Kurdish forces against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) group. “If the volunteers lack in education or physical abilities, they won’t be able to take full advantage of the training sessions,” Usman said. He added that only 68 applicants had passed the ministry’s requirements on the first day of recruitment in Erbil. Officials said those turned away were lacking “sufficient skills or education.” But some of those turned down did not agree with the criteria for recruitment. “It’s unreasonable,” said Rizgar Aziz, who did not make the cut. “We are not here to be employed for a higher position, we want to go to the frontlines of war,” he said, expressing his disappointment. Rashid Jixsi, 18, who has some fighting experience, did not understand why he was turned down. “I have already been a Peshmerga, regardless of what they say,” Jixsi told Rudaw outside the recruitment center in Erbil. Volunteers must be between 18 and 30 years of age, with at least a high school diploma. The Peshmerga ministry has 14 different brigades, each with 3,200 Peshmarga soldiers. Since the war started in August last year, the US and some EU member states have pledged military support for the Peshmerga and set up training camps inside the Kurdistan Region.
