MESOP BACKGROUNDER : PKK ON BAGHDAD / TEHRAN PAY ROLL – Baghdad Paying PKK Elements’ Salary in Sinjar: Official / BLOW AGAINST KURDISH UNITY

  Basnews English – 10 Oct 2016 – ERBIL — A source from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense revealed that the Iraqi government is continuing to pay the salary of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) elements who are providing military training to the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), a PKK affiliate armed group, consisting of Yezidi people on Mount Sinjar, which is likely to be involved in the battle to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS).

The source told al-Quds al-Arabi that the ministry continues to pay the salaries of more than 130 PKK guerrillas who are training a force of 2,500 young Yezidis in Sinjar district.The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject, confirmed that “the PKK trainers as well as the YBŞ force’s salaries have been paid on a monthly basis regularly for more than two years.”

Nawzad Sabah, political analyst, said that the Iraqi government is seeking to perpetuate and legitimize the presence of PKK on mount Sinjar and is providing them with financial and military aid under the pretext of supervising and training the local military forces.

He explained in a statement to al-Quds al-Arabi that Baghdad’s purpose behind supporting PKK is to decrease and marginalize the role of the Kurdistan Region in Sinjar, noting that the danger of this plan will become clearer in the post-IS era.Previously, the Kurdish bloc in the Iraqi parliament expressed surprise at the government in Baghdad for paying and equipping non-Iraqi fighters while it has refused to provide the Peshmerga forces with their share from the federal budget and the necessary military supplies despite the fact that Peshmerga is part of the Iraqi defense system. www.mesop.de