• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • Essays
  • Reports and Analysis
Powerless against the escalation

Powerless against the escalation

12:48 PM - 26 April, 2021
Exploring Türkiye’s Potential Contributions to Operation IRINI: Implications and Opportunities for Regional Stability

Exploring Türkiye’s Potential Contributions to Operation IRINI: Implications and Opportunities for Regional Stability

2:50 PM - 29 March, 2023
Africa: the new market for Erdogan’s arm sales

Africa: the new market for Erdogan’s arm sales

2:38 PM - 28 March, 2023
Publications Highlights March 4

Publications Highlights March 4

2:43 PM - 27 March, 2023
Tea Time with Ruud Koopmans – Part Two

Tea Time with Ruud Koopmans – Part Two

5:09 PM - 26 March, 2023
Combating conspiracy theories effectively – The example of Sweden

Combating conspiracy theories effectively – The example of Sweden

4:25 PM - 25 March, 2023
UK Migration Policy: We stop all boats!

UK Migration Policy: We stop all boats!

1:54 PM - 24 March, 2023
Play Ostrich: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Play Ostrich: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

11:40 AM - 23 March, 2023
Turkish Elections 2023: Opposition alliance designates its candidate to face Erdogan

Turkish Elections 2023: Opposition alliance designates its candidate to face Erdogan

10:35 AM - 22 March, 2023
Qatargate-Update: Interrogation of the key witness and the question of whether conservatives are also involved in the scandal

Qatargate-Update: Interrogation of the key witness and the question of whether conservatives are also involved in the scandal

1:33 PM - 21 March, 2023
Europe Monitor No. 1 in 2023

Europe Monitor No. 5 in 2023

1:51 PM - 20 March, 2023
Publications Highlights March 3

Publications Highlights March 3

6:29 PM - 19 March, 2023
Living in a Post-Truth Era: Case of Türkiye

Living in a Post-Truth Era: Case of Türkiye

2:21 PM - 18 March, 2023
3:52 PM - 30 March, 2023
  • fr Français
  • en English
  • de Deutsch
  • ar العربية
  • Login
MENA Reseach and Study Center
No Result
View All Result
MENA Reseach and Study Center
No Result
View All Result
MENA Reseach and Study Center
No Result
View All Result

Powerless against the escalation

12:48 PM - 26 April, 2021
A A
Powerless against the escalation
192
VIEWS

Two foreign ambassadors argue in Iraq. The Iranian ambassador says on television: “We do not accept at all that someone – be it Turkey or any other country – intervenes militarily in Iraq, advances or has a military presence.” The Turkish ambassador replied a little later on Twitter: The Iranian ambassador was “the last person who should instruct Turkey to respect the borders of Iraq”.

Sinjar, the settlement area of ​​the Yazidis, is a poor area, badly marked by the rule of the jihadists of the “Islamic State” (IS) as well as by the war that was necessary to drive them out. “We are just the pawn in a great political game by other powers,” complains one Yazidi citizen. “We need hospitals, not power struggles.”

In Sinjar several conflicts, some of them cross-border, overlap. Rioters from the Kurdish PKK organization have established themselves in the region that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is bitterly fighting – including on Iraqi soil, where the Turkish army is flying air strikes and has set up several bases. “We could come overnight,” Erdogan threatened. However, the Turkish ambitions go beyond the expulsion of the PKK from Sinjar. It’s about claims to power. The nearby city of Mosul is seen by many in the political class as a “lost home” that has slipped away from the Turkish grasp due to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Only the PKK fighters in Sinjar have come to terms with a powerful force in Iraq: with Iranian Shiite militias. Several hashd al-shaabi (popular mobilization) brigades have recently been relocated to Sinjar; there is talk of 2000 to 3000 men. The paramilitias who were detained in the course of the war against IS are nominally subordinate to the Iraqi head of government. But many militiamen and commanders are fighting under their banner, who willingly implement the strategic goals of their supporters in Tehran. The Iranian regime in Sinjar is concerned with securing a strategically important land connection. The area lies along expressway 47, which leads from Tell Afar, also controlled by militias, to the border with Syria. The PKK also uses the area as a transit route for its Kurdish brothers in arms in northeast Syria.

Commanders of these Shiite militias in Baghdad have already threatened Ankara with a “war of attrition”. “Iran will not allow Turkey to come here,” says a local Yazidi hashd militiaman who has been fighting in the ranks of the paramilitary for two years. He puts a possible invasion of the Turks on the same level as the conquest by IS. Many others would not go that far. But there is great distrust of the Sunni regional power. Yazidis who stand between the lines have not forgotten that Sunni Arab neighbors made common cause with the ISIS jihadists.

When the terrorist organization captured Sinjar in August 2014, the civilians living there were at the mercy of it. The Peshmerga fighters of the then president in Kurdish northern Iraq, Massud Barzani, had withdrawn. The Yazidis fell victim to a brutal campaign of extermination. The jihadists looted, pillaged, destroyed temples, cemeteries and churches, murdered, enslaved and raped Yazidi women and abducted children. It was PKK fighters who shot free an escape corridor to Syria for the civilians who had fled, who were huddled in the mountains. There the Yazidis set up their own “resistance units” for Sinjar with the help of the PKK. Ankara is now targeting them because of their proximity to the Kurdish organization.

Later came the confrontation between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous government of Barzani in northern Iraq. Their Peshmerga had returned to Sinjar in the course of the pushing back of the IS. However, they had to back off when the conflict between Baghdad and the autonomous government in Erbil escalated after the Kurdish independence referendum in autumn 2017. The Hashd al Shaabi took control of the Sinjar region, which is disputed between Baghdad and Erbil. An agreement between the central and autonomous governments in October should defuse the situation, contain the armed groups, allow the reconstruction and return of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of displaced persons. But the new hegemons in Sinjar do not want to give up their influence. The PKK is not stopping its cross-border operations.

Baghdad and Erbil are somewhat powerless in the face of the escalation. “There is a high probability that there will also be a military exchange of blows,” says Bahjan Selki, a Peshmerga general in Arbil. “Turkey will not stand idly by the activities of the PKK and its allies.” At the same time, he makes it clear that its armed forces cannot prevent this, and speaks of reliable information that the Yazidi militias, which are close to the PKK, receive pay from the Hashd al Shaabi. Autonomous Government officials believe that the rockets that hit the Erbil airport site in mid-February were not just an attack on US troops stationed there. It was also a message to the Turkey-friendly camp of Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the autonomous government, not to take the side of Ankara too clearly in Sinjar.

The victims of the ongoing power struggle are civilians. 250,000 to 300,000 Yazidis are still holding out in camps for internally displaced persons. Some of those who have gone back are already making arrangements for a possible new escape. One resident speaks of “panic fear”. “If the government can’t stop Turkey, how can we do it?”, says another. Both report that large parts of Sinjar are still destroyed, hardly any help is coming and reconstruction is stagnating – especially in the south of the Sinjar Mountains, where hardly anyone is returning. “That has to do with the greater mix of the population. More precisely: with the distrust of the Sunni Arabs, whose villages are mainly located there.” The local doctor seems resigned. “The future is bleak,” he says. “This place will no longer be our place.”

All publishing rights and copyrights reserved to MENA Research and Study Center

Tags: TürkiyeIranISIraq

Related Posts

Exploring Türkiye’s Potential Contributions to Operation IRINI: Implications and Opportunities for Regional Stability
Mena

Exploring Türkiye’s Potential Contributions to Operation IRINI: Implications and Opportunities for Regional Stability

2:50 PM - 29 March, 2023
193
Africa: the new market for Erdogan’s arm sales
Mena

Africa: the new market for Erdogan’s arm sales

2:38 PM - 28 March, 2023
193
Play Ostrich: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
Mena

Play Ostrich: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

11:40 AM - 23 March, 2023
213
Turkish Elections 2023: Opposition alliance designates its candidate to face Erdogan
Mena

Turkish Elections 2023: Opposition alliance designates its candidate to face Erdogan

10:35 AM - 22 March, 2023
780
Europe Monitor No. 1 in 2023
Podcast

Europe Monitor No. 5 in 2023

1:51 PM - 20 March, 2023
662
Living in a Post-Truth Era: Case of Türkiye
Mena

Living in a Post-Truth Era: Case of Türkiye

2:21 PM - 18 March, 2023
194
MENA Reseach and Study Center

2023 © by Target

MENA Research & Study Center

  • About Us
  • Advanced search
  • Podcast
  • Privacy Policy
  • Imprint

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Advanced search
  • Reports and Analysis
  • Essays
  • Regions
    • Mena
    • Europe
  • Topics
    • Politics
    • Politics Islam
    • Migration
    • Terrorism
    • Extremism
  • Podcast
    • Europe Monitor
    • Talks and Input
  • Videos
  • About Us
  • Contact us

2023 © by Target

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Pin It on Pinterest

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
error: Alert: Content selection is disabled!!
  • English
  • العربية
  • Français