HPG: ‘We don’t collaborate with the oppressive Assad regime’: Kurdish military group
Al Arabiya – 5. 4. 2013 – The Kurdish Protection Group (HPG) is considered by some Syrians to be the military arm of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, operating in Syria. An Al Arabiya correspondent accessed one of the group’s camps in Syria to investigate their goals and day-to-day operations. According to interviews, the goals declared by the HPG include protecting the regions that are home to a Kurdish majority in Syria.
Zein Hasky, one of the female trainers of the HPG said: “We suffered from injustice and persecution for 50 years, and we still think that we are not accepted by the Syrians, that is why we feel the need to create our own military forces, to impose ourselves on the ground.”
Despite the declaration that the HPG is geared towards protecting the country’s Kurds, the group has been accused of perpetrating violence against President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents. “We are angry of these immoral accusations,” said Jamsheed, a field commander at the visited HPG camp. “We are rebels, and rebels do not collaborate with oppressive regimes like Assad’s.”