[lbo-talk] Growing support among Iraqi Kurds for PKK and PYD

[Marv Gandall]

Below is the link to a report in today’s English language edition of Al Jazeera describing how the heroic defence of Kobane by the YPG/J, the militia allied to the Kurdish left-wing parties in Syria (PYD) and Turkey (PKK), has been drawing strong support from Iraqi Kurds. 

The latter have hitherto been generally loyal to the more conservative party of Masoud Barzani which heads Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government. But the Barzani government’s close commercial and diplomatic ties with Turkey and the US has been reflected in its hesitant support of the YPG/J, eroding the government’s base of support among Iraqi Kurds inspired by Kobane and themselves directly threatened by the Islamic State. 

This development very likely contributed to the accelerated use of American air power during the past week to help prevent the fall of Kobane and the inevitable destabilizing cries of betrayal which would have been directed against Barzani from outraged Kurds inside as well as outside of Iraq.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/17/pkk-s-rise-in-iraqikurdistan.html