Azadi and YGP clash in Syrian Kurdistan 11.3.2013

[Piling]

March 11, 2013
Rival Kurdish parties, Azadi and YGP clash in Syrian Kurdistan 11.3.2013
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg - Al Monitor
Syrian Kurdistan,— Clashes between Kurdish militias broke out in rural Kurdish areas of the province of Aleppo on March 7. According to UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least four fighters were killed, and other Kurds were captured by the the People’s Defense Units (YPG). The fighting shows the underlying tensions among Kurdish political groups in Syria and brings back memories of the civil war between Kurdish parties in neighboring Iraq in the 1990s.

The fighting broke out in the villages of Burj Abdilla and Abdilla in the Efrin region, in the province of Aleppo between supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Party (Azadi, in Kurdish) and the People’s Defense Units, an ally of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is close to the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is fighting in Turkey for cultural rights for the Kurdish minority.

The Kurdish Freedom Party led by Mustafa Cumma, a main rival of the PYD with grass-roots support especially in Kobani and Efrin, is the most critical of the PYD and its policies and accuses the PYD of authoritarianism and working with the Syrian government.

This while media affiliated with the PYD often accused the group of working with Turkey and supporting "armed gangs" such as the Kurdish Salahadin brigade and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) against the PYD.

Therefore, there have been tensions and clashes before between the Kurdish Freedom party and the PYD before in Aleppo and Cumma was detained by the PYD in June 2012 when he was heading to Iraq.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, led by the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, however, pressured the Kurdish parties allied in the Kurdish National Council (KNC) to work together with the PYD in order to prevent a civil war between Kurds. This pressure led to the signing of the so-called Erbil-agreement to share power in the Supreme Kurdish Council.

The Azadi party, however, last month withdrew from the Kurdish Supreme Kurdish Council claiming the council is increasingly dominated by the PYD and it’s allies within the KNC and to protest the continued detainment of one of its members Alladin Hamam and his son in February on charges of supporting Syrian rebels.

Although the Supreme Kurdish Council officially unites the different Kurdish nationalist parties in Syria, in reality two blocks have been formed: the PYD with members of the KNC who are funded by the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),www.ekurd.net and a KDP-funded four political party alliance called the Democratic Political Union, including Azadi. The Democratic Political Union is supported by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Barzani and is increasingly getting armed.

The Azadi party in a statement claimed that claims the joint bodies between the Kurdish parties are not working and blamed the “Supreme Kurdish Council for failing to show real leadership.” The group suggested that the council “turned sadly into a political cover for shameful acts by the Democratic Union Party and it’s militia at the expense of the security and safety of the Kurdish community.”

Maria Fantappie, the International Crisis Group’s Middle East analyst, told Al-Monitor that she doubts that the Syrian Kurds will engage in a real civil war. “I think that Barzani will keep his priority to avoid an intra-Kurdish confrontation. This Syrian Kurdish Party Union might serve counterbalance the YGP control of the ground, but not to fight against it.”

But Vienna University political scientist Thomas Schmidinger, who did research on Syrian Kurds in Syria in January, still fears more violence. “I fear that tensions between PYD on one side and Azadi and other KNC parties (especially the parties closer to Barzani's KDP) could result in a civil war between the Kurds.”

Cumma, who lives in the capital of the Kurdistan region, Erbil, blamed the PYD in an interview with the Kurdish newspaper Rudaw: “Our party is revealing the wrong deeds of the PYD, that is why the PYD is targeting our supporters. Yesterday, they arrested 20, including a member of our political bureau Ebdulrahman Apo. I ask the presidency [Barzani] of the KRG to put an end to the PYD’s actions.”

But according to the YPG, an armed group took YPG fighters captive and went to Burj Abdula. “Then YPG units went to village to try to negotiate their release, but the group wouldn't release captives so armed clashes broke out. Three members of armed group got killed, three wounded, and more than 40 captured,” the YPG said in a statement.

The YPG said it would not allow any civilians to carry weapons and conducted house to house searches.

Mohammed Reşo, a PYD spokesman based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, told Al-Monitor that the YPG operations are continuing, but he said that the political parties try to solve their differences. “The Supreme Kurdish Council in a meeting discussed the situation and want to calm down the conflict and they will establish a specialized committee to resolve the problem of all these different military battalions and ask them all to join this committee.”

Kurdish youth groups that played a significant role in staging protest against the Syrian government in northern Syria called on the Kurdish parties to bury their differences and work together for Kurdish unity.

“A Kurdish-Kurdish fight, will not be good for the Syrian people and especially not good for the Kurds, since it would weaken their position among the Syrian opposition,” said Bedir Mustafa, a member of the Kurdish Youth Movement (TCK).

But it remains to be seen if the political Kurdish parties would work together in the future and if more clashes would happen in the future.

The Kurdish Military Council and the Salaheddin al-Ayubbi Batallion, which allegedly has hundreds of fighters in Aleppo and is accused of having ties to Azadi, called for revenge and said from now on YPG barriers and checkpoints would be a target for them. “From now we will not allow the presence of these disruptive forces in Efrin,” they declared.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg is a political analyst specializing in issues surrounding on Kurdish politics. He has written extensively for Jamestown Foundation publications and other journals such as the Near East Quarterly and the World Affairs Journal.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, al-monitor.com

[hevalo27]

azadi and salahedin members are rats. their leaders cant accept that PYD is the strongest party in rojava and should have the controle. in an interview the salahadin leader said, they are against PYD, but for FSA, they say they want a united syria without autonomy. to hell with them. those guys are kurds who lived for long time with arabs together and forgot their people

[Shirko]

azadi and salahedin members are rats. their leaders cant accept that PYD is the strongest party in rojava and should have the controle. in an interview the salahadin leader said, they are against PYD, but for FSA, they say they want a united syria without autonomy. to hell with them. those guys are kurds who lived for long time with arabs together and forgot their people

I'd like to see you call them those names in their faces big boy. Why are you not calling Ocalan names for not asking for autonomy now.

[Anthea]

What happened to the original West Kurdistan parliament in waiting who were struggling for independence and partitioning world leaders for support long before all these others fools decided to become involved and tear the Kurds even more apart

[Shirko]

What are you guys talking about? At least they are the Kurds that are fighting the ragime, none of the gains the PYD has achieved would be possible and any hope for Rojava, if these guys and FSA were not doing the fighting.

[hevalo27]

azadi and salahedin members are rats. their leaders cant accept that PYD is the strongest party in rojava and should have the controle. in an interview the salahadin leader said, they are against PYD, but for FSA, they say they want a united syria without autonomy. to hell with them. those guys are kurds who lived for long time with arabs together and forgot their people

I'd like to see you call them those names in their faces big boy. Why are you not calling Ocalan names for not asking for autonomy now.

i dont care about öcalans words, he is in prison and influenced by turkey. at least pyd fights for kurdish rights and dont ally with our enemys against other kurds.

this salahedin gruop has already said that they want a unifid syria without a kurdish state or autonomy and they were even allyd with fsa in serie kanie confrontation. azadi and salahedin, both would kiss their feets and let the fsa step onto kurdistan. PYD is the most influential party in rojava and all should accept this

[Anthea]

I would still like someone to explain what happened to the original West Kurdistan parliament in waiting who were struggling for independence and partitioning world leaders for support long before all these others fools decided to become involved and tear the Kurds even more apart

This is a SERIOUS question, a lot of brave Kurdish people stood up against the Syrian regimes for years. And contacted governments as representatives of Western Kurdistan government YEARS before everyone else joined in the fight. I know this because representatives from the Western Kurdistan Government even met with Tony Blair when he was Priminister.

These were mature, intelligent and well respected Kurdish leaders unlike some of the gun-happy idiots roaming the streets of Syria now

[Shirko]

What are you guys talking about? At least they are the Kurds that are fighting the ragime, none of the gains the PYD has achieved would be possible and any hope for Rojava, if these guys and FSA were not doing the fighting.

i bet you'd like azadi to take control and live in muslim brotherhood with your other fellow arabs =)

Bet and you will lose, because I am not a broterhood supporter. AND i do not know much about the Azadi party, or the PYD, Imeas defending the Salahadin Ayyubi Brigades, made up of Kurds mostly from Arab areas that have lived there for centuries and never lost their identity, n some disgrunteled ex PKK. They are the ones fighting and making us proud. But you and hevalo27, think you are better than them or more Kurdish or something, this is was is causing dissunity, if you guys want to seperate 10% of the Kurdish people, from Bilad Al Sham, then that is your loss.

[Shirko]

Anthea, who exactly do you keep calling fools?

[Anthea]

Anthea, who exactly do you keep calling fools?

The majority of the so-called Kurdish leaders with their separate groups of fighters who rather than work with the original, and I believe elected leaders of Western Kurdistan, all appear to be pulling in different directions.

Syria Kurds, who I always refer to as the forgotten Kurds, are probably the most long suffering of all the Kurds. They have produced the most respected and admired of all Kurdish leaders. Thousands of them died after joining the PKK in the fight for a free Kurdistan. They are also probably the most nationalist of all the Kurds.

At a time when Kurds need UNITY there are now over 12 different Kurdish groups fighting in Syria. I personally believe that they should put a stop to in-fighting, close ranks, ignore the rest of Syria, declare an Independent West Kurdistan, something Assad himself expects to happen, and ask for UN forces to protect them

I did ask what has happened to the Leaders of Western Kurdistan, I was under the impression that there was a government ready to take control of the region before all the in-fighting took place.

[hevalo27]

They are the ones fighting and making us proud. But you and hevalo27, think you are better than them or more Kurdish or something, this is was is causing dissunity, if you guys want to seperate 10% of the Kurdish people, from Bilad Al Sham, then that is your loss.

they are the one who are waving proudly the fsa flag and said they want all kurds become part of a united syria without selfrule. they lived for a long time with their arab brothers and forgot their roots, forgot that other kurds want selfrule and if they ally with the fsa only to fight the pyd and thus 60-70 percent of rojava kurds, then they are traitors

[Piling]

they are traitors they don't want autonomy or independence ,

Then Öcalan their 'philosophical' leader is one also, and all the PKK might also be soon.

[hevalo27]

Bet and you will lose, because I am not a broterhood supporter. AND i do not know much about the Azadi party, or the PYD, Imeas defending the Salahadin Ayyubi Brigades, made up of Kurds mostly from Arab areas that have lived there for centuries and never lost their identity, n some disgrunteled ex PKK. They are the ones fighting and making us proud. But you and hevalo27, think you are better than them or more Kurdish or something, this is was is causing dissunity, if you guys want to seperate 10% of the Kurdish people, from Bilad Al Sham, then that is your loss.

There were also kurds fighting with saddam who lived there for centuries and call themself kurd you know what we call them =) Jash ^^
they are traitors they don't want autonomy or independence like these jashes kurds who fight for islam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLt5LkpHvg,

please let religion outside. most kurds are muslims, even most pkk supporter are muslims

[hevalo27]

These people don't fight for kurds, they fight for Islam so??
Qazi mohammed was muslim did he fight for islam? no he fought for Kurdistan just like Salih Muslim but those are not nationalist Kurds they are jashes who fight for muslim brotherhood they don't care about Kurdsistan

i never mentioned qazi, but who said he didnt fight for his conviction and view of islam?
i only asked you to let be religion outside

[hevalo27]

yes religion will always play a big role, that is humanly, but there is no contradiction to be a religious muslim fighting for his beliefs and fight for a free kurdistan. otherwise pkk would not be so efficient and powerful. those guys in the video are traitors, they share the belief of fanatic and anti kurdish arabs. the muslim world is varied