Barzani against Kurdish civil war in northern Syria

[Anthea]

Kurdistan’s president Barzani is against Kurdish civil war in northern Syria
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

President of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, Masoud Barzani, said during the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that he doesn’t want to have a civil war in Kurdish areas of Syria, also known as Rojava.

Since 2012, the Zerevani forces affiliated to Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have trained thousands of Syrian Kurdish Peshmergas to fight ISIS. However, due to disagreements between Barzani-backed Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Rojava’s Peshmerga have not been able to return to Syria.

“We don’t want to see a Kurdish-Kurdish fighting in Rojava, that is why we have not sent back the Rojava Peshmerga,” Barzani said. “We are not optimistic about the future of Kurdistan Rojava in Syria.”

Masrour Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s Security Council (KRSC), has started lobbying for the return of the Rojava Peshmerga forces last Month in Washington. He argued that “Peshmerga of Rojava can be the bridge to lessen regional tensions and force multiplier in anti-ISIS campaign.”

However, Pentagon officials say that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have the most effective fighters in northern Syria, and that trying to assemble, train and equip an alternative force could be difficult and at best would take months.

In a meeting with the Dutch envoy to Syria, Ambassador Gerard Steeghs, the Kurdish security chief Masrour Barzani argued that the agreements signed in Erbil and Duhok ensure Kurdish unity in Syria and safeguard the rights and gains for the Kurdish people.

However, the YPG have rejected the existence of two Kurdish military forces in Rojava, arguing that this could lead to a civil war, similar to what the Iraqi Kurds fought in the 1990s.

The Rojava Peshmerga are now fighting with other Peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan and also played a major part in the Bashiqa operation that was completed in November with the expulsion of ISIS militants from the Bashiqa District in northern Iraq.

On Thursday, a Rojava Peshmerga named Muhammed Emin Silo was buried in a village near the town of Tirbespî in northeastern Syria. He died last Wednesday after being shot in the neck by an ISIS sniper on the Eski Mosul frontline.

It is unlikely that the Rojava Peshmergas will ever fight in the Kurdish areas of Syria, unless a new agreement is reached between the Kurdish parties in Rojava.

http://aranews.net/2017/01/president-ba ... ern-syria/