ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani on Saturday claimed that one of the helicopters which crashed in Duhok province earlier this week had been purchased by a group within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The premier held a gathering with a number of international representatives and consuls working in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq in celebration of the Kurdish New Year, Newroz, also discussing the ongoing tensions between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PUK, and the puzzling helicopter crash. A helicopter mysteriously crashed in Duhok’s Chamanke subdistrict on Wednesday night, killing nine people onboard. It was not initially clear who the chopper belonged to or what led to the crash. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Friday said that nine of their fighters from the Counter-terrorism Units (YAT) were killed when two helicopters crashed in Duhok, blaming the crash on bad weather conditions. “We’ve started an investigation to know what these helicopters are and why they were there. These were helicopters that initially were purchased by a group in PUK, but why they ended up in SDF? We don’t know,” said PM Barzani in a speech during the event. The PM added that they are working with the Iraqi federal government and the US-led coalition to understand why the helicopters were in the air without permission and what were they doing in that area in the first place. The SDF has said that the helicopters headed to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region with the purpose of exchanging “security and military expertise,” without naming the parties they were allegedly there to meet. Pictures of PUK leader Bafel Talabani wearing a YAT logo on his outfit emerged on social media on Friday afternoon, hours before the SDF claimed ownership of the helicopters. He extended his condolences to the YAT later in the day, saying that he was “extremely saddened.” Tensions have recently escalated between the Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties -the KDP and the PUK- over the Region’s parliamentary elections, the transparency of the oil and local income of the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October. The recent escalation of tensions has led PUK officials -including Deputy PM Qubad Talabani- to boycott the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) weekly meetings. PM Barzani said that in his Newroz statement he will ask the deputy PM and the PUK team to return to the cabinet meetings, inviting them to “use their chamber as a place to solve problems.” “We can solve every single problem if we have the will and the intention, and I can tell you that I certainly have that intention and I have that will to solve all the problems.” Despite working together in the KRG, the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often being referred to as the “Yellow Zone” and “Green Zone“. The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK rules Sulaimani and Halabja.
