MESOP FOCUS : Barzani accuses PYD of collaborating with Assad Regime

ANF – Hewler 14.04.2014 – Massoud Barzani, the President of the Federal Region of Kurdistan, has accused the PYD of controlling West Kurdistan by armed force in collaboration with the Syrian regime. Barzani said: “Only one Kurdish organisation  in league with the regime and using armed force to control the region.” Kurdish officials have made contradictory statements regarding the digging of ditches.Speaking to SkyNewsArabiya TV, Massoud Barzani made serious accusations against the revolution in West Kurdistan.

‘The gains in West Kurdistan are only temporary!’

Barzani said: “The gains are temporary and when the conditions change they will disappear.” While on the one hand Barzani accused the PYD of collaboration, he contradicted himself by saying he did not believe there was an agreement between the PYD and the regime.

Barzani said: “If there is an agreement between a group and the Syrian regime regarding autonomy for Kurds in Syria, then I would consider that a positive step, but I don’t believe there is any political agreement. We have no evidence of such an agreement.”

Barzani’s statement came after protests by the people of Rojava on 9 and 10 April against the ditches being excavated on the Rojava border, demanding the removal of borders that divide Kurdistan. Turkey is also digging a ditch on its border with Rojava in parallel with that of the KDP.

The ditch is a government decision

The Federal Kurdistan authorities have also made conflicting comments regarding the ditches. While it has yet to make an official statement, the Deputy Peshmerga Minister Anwar Haci Osman said on Rudaw TV that the ditch had been dug on the orders of the Kurdish administration and Peshmerga Ministry, not of the KDP. Osman said the reason was ‘border instability’. Osman also accused the PYD, saying he did not understand why the matter had been so exaggerated. Osman said the ditch between West and South Kurdistan was no different to the ditch between Hewler and Kirkuk.

However, according to a statement published by Rudaw, Peshmerga Minister Jabbar Yawar said he knew nothing about the ditch. Osman remarked that Yawar was ‘not well’.

Peshmerga Commander: the decision was the Iraqi government’s

In another development, a Peshmerga commander told the Zaman newspaper in Iraq that the reason for the ditch on the border was rto prevent smuggling. The commander said the decision was a joint one of the Baghdad and Hewler governments.

Iraqi government: decision was not ours

Ali Mousavi, an advisor of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki, told Rudaw that the Iraqi government had not taken a decision to dig a ditch. Peshmerga sources say there is a project to excavate a 605-kilometre ditch along the Iraq-Syria border, and that only 15 kilometres remains to be completed. The ditch is in general 2 metres wide and 3 metres deep.