Shahin
Member
Here are two article that highlights the divisions among the Kurds and their political leaders/organisations:
1) The first one is about Kurds and their stances on PKK and ISIS.
Kurds Joining Islamic State? ISIS Finds Unlikely Supporters Among Turkey's Disgruntled Kurds
In recent years, hundreds of Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Syria have joined the Islamic States' ranks, according to experts and government officials. In one highly publicized incident, a high-ranking Kurdish leader of ISIS from the city of Erbil in Iraq, Ziad Salim Mohammad Ali al-Kurdi, was killed earlier this year in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike.
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Kurd Vs. Kurd
The poorest areas in Turkey's southeast have been the most fertile recruiting grounds for ISIS, experts said. Unemployment in Turkey's Kurdish region is about six times higher than elsewhere across the country, the Christian Science Monitor has reported. The region is also considerably less developed than elsewhere in Turkey, with poor housing and governmental infrastructure.
But the lure of ISIS goes beyond class divisions. As the war in Syria has re-energized Kurdish political movements operating in southeast Turkey, a wide division has also resurfaced among left-wing and conservative Kurds. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a guerilla movement which was founded to carve out a secular autonomous state, has been the loudest voice in Kurdish politics for decades and their policies have prompted some Kurdish youth to look toward religious extremist groups for alternatives.
"Kurdish society is a religious society, and many have a problem with the PKK's secular language, so many are changing their [views] about them," Mehmet Kurt, an assistant professor of sociology at Bingol University and Newton Advanced Fellow in School of Law at Queen Mary University of London, who has written a book on Kurdish Islamist groups, said.
...
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2) The second article is about PKK's Kurds position toward KRG and Turkey.
Striking Pipeline, Kurdish Militants Deal Blow to Fellow Kurds
The PKK?s attacks on energy infrastructure in Turkey aren?t just directed at their longtime enemy in Ankara ? they're also aimed at Iraqi Kurds they see as sellouts.
...
Here?s where things get complicated: The oil pipeline that the PKK attacked carries crude from Iraqi Kurdistan to the Turkish coast for export. That pipeline is the financial lifeline for Iraqi Kurds: It is the only way to sell serious volumes of crude oil that the Kurdish regional government needs to keep functioning, including paying the salaries of Peshmerga fighters who have battled the Islamic State in Iraq since last summer. In other words, while the attack blew up a pipeline inside Turkey, it was directed as much toward fellow Kurds as it was against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
...
?The PKK has a reason to stick it to both Barzani and Erdogan,? said Matthew Reed, a Mideast expert and vice president at energy consultancy Foreign Reports. They see him as a sellout.??Barzani has traded dependence on Baghdad for dependence on Turkey.
...
?The question isn?t whether or not the pipeline can be repaired in short order; it?s how many times a week it is going to have to be repaired,? Reed said.
The immediate concern is for Iraqi Kurdistan?s finances. The pipeline can ship a maximum of 400,000 barrels of crude per day ? though actual capacity is often far less? from oil fields in northern Iraq to the Turkish coast, where the oil can be loaded onto tankers. That translates to as much as $20 million a day in potential revenue at current oil prices.
Longer-term continued threats to the operation of the Kurdish-Turkish pipeline could also torpedo an uneasy peace between Erbil and Baghdad. Over the past year, the two sides reached an agreement: The Kurds could export their own oil and still share some of the proceeds with the Iraqi government. Lately, the Kurds have also been letting Iraq pump oil through the pipeline to tankers in Turkey. Those shipments are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a month to the cash-strapped Iraqi government. But if the pipeline?s operations are diminished by steady PKK attacks, export volumes will almost certainly decline. And that could make relations between Erbil and Baghdad a whole lot thornier than they already are.
?If the volumes are diminished, will Baghdad get its tankers every month or are the Kurds going to prioritize their own needs? Because then you could see that fight getting much nastier,? Reed said.
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So we are seeing that Kurds are little by little fighting each others, With NATO (and US) full support to Erdogan, PKK could really be heavily weakened.
Barzani even said that: PKK responsible for ending reconciliation process
Moreover, if KRG become destabilized, the situation of our people will be worsened more. Let us note also that South East turkey is becoming more and more destabilized, what will also happen for our people there in Mardin, Hakkari and Sirnak province ? At the height of the clash between PKK and Turkey, our people emigrated to Europe, leaving many villages empty or now in majority populated by Kurds, but we still have some people and monasteries, churches, manuscripts etc.
1) The first one is about Kurds and their stances on PKK and ISIS.
Kurds Joining Islamic State? ISIS Finds Unlikely Supporters Among Turkey's Disgruntled Kurds
In recent years, hundreds of Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Syria have joined the Islamic States' ranks, according to experts and government officials. In one highly publicized incident, a high-ranking Kurdish leader of ISIS from the city of Erbil in Iraq, Ziad Salim Mohammad Ali al-Kurdi, was killed earlier this year in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike.
...
Kurd Vs. Kurd
The poorest areas in Turkey's southeast have been the most fertile recruiting grounds for ISIS, experts said. Unemployment in Turkey's Kurdish region is about six times higher than elsewhere across the country, the Christian Science Monitor has reported. The region is also considerably less developed than elsewhere in Turkey, with poor housing and governmental infrastructure.
But the lure of ISIS goes beyond class divisions. As the war in Syria has re-energized Kurdish political movements operating in southeast Turkey, a wide division has also resurfaced among left-wing and conservative Kurds. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a guerilla movement which was founded to carve out a secular autonomous state, has been the loudest voice in Kurdish politics for decades and their policies have prompted some Kurdish youth to look toward religious extremist groups for alternatives.
"Kurdish society is a religious society, and many have a problem with the PKK's secular language, so many are changing their [views] about them," Mehmet Kurt, an assistant professor of sociology at Bingol University and Newton Advanced Fellow in School of Law at Queen Mary University of London, who has written a book on Kurdish Islamist groups, said.
...
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2) The second article is about PKK's Kurds position toward KRG and Turkey.
Striking Pipeline, Kurdish Militants Deal Blow to Fellow Kurds
The PKK?s attacks on energy infrastructure in Turkey aren?t just directed at their longtime enemy in Ankara ? they're also aimed at Iraqi Kurds they see as sellouts.
...
Here?s where things get complicated: The oil pipeline that the PKK attacked carries crude from Iraqi Kurdistan to the Turkish coast for export. That pipeline is the financial lifeline for Iraqi Kurds: It is the only way to sell serious volumes of crude oil that the Kurdish regional government needs to keep functioning, including paying the salaries of Peshmerga fighters who have battled the Islamic State in Iraq since last summer. In other words, while the attack blew up a pipeline inside Turkey, it was directed as much toward fellow Kurds as it was against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
...
?The PKK has a reason to stick it to both Barzani and Erdogan,? said Matthew Reed, a Mideast expert and vice president at energy consultancy Foreign Reports. They see him as a sellout.??Barzani has traded dependence on Baghdad for dependence on Turkey.
...
?The question isn?t whether or not the pipeline can be repaired in short order; it?s how many times a week it is going to have to be repaired,? Reed said.
The immediate concern is for Iraqi Kurdistan?s finances. The pipeline can ship a maximum of 400,000 barrels of crude per day ? though actual capacity is often far less? from oil fields in northern Iraq to the Turkish coast, where the oil can be loaded onto tankers. That translates to as much as $20 million a day in potential revenue at current oil prices.
Longer-term continued threats to the operation of the Kurdish-Turkish pipeline could also torpedo an uneasy peace between Erbil and Baghdad. Over the past year, the two sides reached an agreement: The Kurds could export their own oil and still share some of the proceeds with the Iraqi government. Lately, the Kurds have also been letting Iraq pump oil through the pipeline to tankers in Turkey. Those shipments are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a month to the cash-strapped Iraqi government. But if the pipeline?s operations are diminished by steady PKK attacks, export volumes will almost certainly decline. And that could make relations between Erbil and Baghdad a whole lot thornier than they already are.
?If the volumes are diminished, will Baghdad get its tankers every month or are the Kurds going to prioritize their own needs? Because then you could see that fight getting much nastier,? Reed said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So we are seeing that Kurds are little by little fighting each others, With NATO (and US) full support to Erdogan, PKK could really be heavily weakened.
Barzani even said that: PKK responsible for ending reconciliation process
Moreover, if KRG become destabilized, the situation of our people will be worsened more. Let us note also that South East turkey is becoming more and more destabilized, what will also happen for our people there in Mardin, Hakkari and Sirnak province ? At the height of the clash between PKK and Turkey, our people emigrated to Europe, leaving many villages empty or now in majority populated by Kurds, but we still have some people and monasteries, churches, manuscripts etc.