Yezidi commander resigns from PUK, founds new party

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The commander of a Yezidi force active in the Shingal region has resigned from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) with the intention to found a new Yezidi party, the PUK and the commander confirmed.

 

Haider Shasho was a member of the PUK’s Central Council. He had been a “loyal comrade” of the party and the PUK will treat him as a “close friend” after his resignation, read a statement issued by the Council on Monday.

 

Shasho resigned from the PUK because he is founding a new party. He confirmed to Rudaw that he has started the registration process for his new political party to be called the Yezidi Democratic Party.

 

He also said that his armed force, the Ezidkhan Protection Force, has been fully incorporated into the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry and that they depend on the Kurdistan ministry for their salaries and arms.

 

He emphasized that his force will not belong to any political party.

 

Some 1,000 fighters of the Ezidkhan Protection Force were officially put under the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry in mid-March. 

 

Shasho previously had problems with Kurdish authorities in Erbil for having ties with Baghdad. He was also briefly arrested in 2016 on charges of receiving salaries from the central government.

 

The issue was resolved after he was promised that his force would be incorporated into the Peshmerga forces. He told Rudaw in March that his force will be “neutral.”

 

“We will maintain our logo and name,” he said. “We will also be a neutral force even within the Peshmerga Ministry.”

 

When ISIS attacked Shingal in August 2014, Shasho, then a member of the PUK, fought the group near Sheikh Sharafadeen shrine on Mount Shingal, encouraging many to stand by him and fight.

 

Later on he formed the Ezidkhan force.

 

When clashes erupted between the Roj Brigade, also called Rojava Peshmerga, and Shingal Protection Units (YBS), an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in early March, Shasho said that his force would not take sides. He played a role as a mediator to calm tensions.

 

The Roj Brigade, whose members are originally from the Syrian Kurdistan, are under the Kurdistan Region's interior ministry. 

 

Shasho’s cousin, Qasim Shasho, is a member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a party that does not have easy relations with PKK and has influence over the Roj Brigade

 

There is an 8,500-strong Peshmerga force stationed in Shingal under the command of Qasim Shasho, who takes orders from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).