MESOP : PKK – FROM TRAGEDY TO CONQUEST / A SABOTAGE OF KURDISH UNITY

PKK Wants to Form Sinjar Canton

15.08.2014 –  Nuwar Fayaq – BasNews, Erbil – The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) is now busy trying to set up their fourth Canton in Sinjar after three cantons created in Syrian Kurdistan.

After Islamic State (IS) militants attacked and captured the Yazidi-majority town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, thousands of Yazidis fled to Mount Sinjar. A large number of them were rescued through air corridor and a road created through to Syria, making way for the PKK to move to the mountain and set up a camp. A source in the Peshmerga said that in the last two day, a large number of PKK fighters have gone on to the mountain and set up a camp by the name of “Yazidi Reform Movement,” a group intent on forcing Yazidi youths to join the camp on the mountain and to take up arms. The source also revealed in the past the same movement was setup with the support of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iran in an effort to prevent Sinjar joining the Kurdistan Region. The movement is now directly supervised by senior PKK leader Cemil Bayik, and has been in direct cooperation with the three Syrian Kurdistan Cantons.

After IS militants captured Sinjar, PKK and the Popular Protection Units (YPG) fighters came on to Sinjar mountain to nurture their influence in the area. Osman Ocalan, former senior PKK leader and the brother of PKK jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, told BasNews that the aim of the PKK coming in to Sinjar Mountain is to form a Sinjar Canton, which would be their fourth Canton in the area.  “The formation of Sinjar Canton is a threat to Sinjar areas security and also threat to all Kurdish interests in the region,” said Ocalan. A few days ago, reports emerged that Peshmerga forces, along with a special group of US troops, wanted to attack Sinjar in aim of freeing the town from IS insurgents, but PKK fighters prevented them to go ahead with the planned attack.