ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— The mayor of the Kurdish Yezidi town of Shingal has slammed the formation of a new armed group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a move that could only deepen tensions.
Mayor Mahma Khalil told Rudaw the Yezidi Special Units (YSU) which is funded by the PKK will “deepen the crises and wounds of the Yezidi people”, urging the Kurdish guerrilla group to disband the armed Yezidi unit.
“We call on the PKK to settle its feuds and conflicts outside the war-torn city of Shingal since such moves don’t serve the stability and recovery of this region,” Khalil said referring to YSU.
The PKK announced Tuesday that the Yezidi military unit in Shingal will provide protection for their fellow Yezidis who the PKK believes are at risk of new ISIS attacks.
With over half a dozen rivalling armed groups operating in the ISIS-ravaged city of Shingal after its liberation in November 2015, the near prospect for the Yezidi society in the area still seems bleak.
Iraqi and Kurdish government officials have recently urged the PKK to leave the area and allow the reconstruction efforts to start which sources say have been halted due to PKK presence in the city.
Iraqi officials have said the city of Shingal alone “desperately needed” $100 million to provide basic services such as electricity and healthcare before the possible return of some 400.000 refugees, both Yezidis and Muslims to the area.
The majority of the Yezidi refugees are still in camps across Kurdistan Region and have not returned to their areas which have partly been demolished by ISIS militants.
Shingal is outside Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and is part of Nineveh province where Mosul is the capital.
Both PKK-affiliated guerrillas and the peshmarga troops close to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) played crucial roles in the fight for Shingal in 2015, but both have received criticism since for their perceived rivalries within the war-scared Yezidi community.
The U.S. State Department last month called the presence of the PKK in Shingal a “major obstacle to reconciliation” and the return of displaced people.
“We regard their presence there as a major obstacle to reconciliation, as well as to refugee return, to the return of internally displaced people,” former U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said last December.
