Arab tribes to UN and Iraqi government: PKK must leave Sinjar

Twenty-two Arab tribes from Mosul made a call on Tuesday to the U.N. and the Iraqi central government to force the PKK to leave the Sinjar region.

At a press meeting in the city of Dohuk in northern Iraq, the tribes condemned the PKK militia's attack on the Syrian peshmerga last week. "We do accept the existence of the PKK in the Sinjar region. The PKK should immediately leave Sinjar as well as the other regions. As the Arab tribes from Mosul, we strongly condemn the PKK attack on the peshmerga forces," said the leader of the Cuburi tribe, Sheikh Sabah Abid, reading the joint declaration of the tribes.

Last week, clashes erupted between peshmerga forces and the PKK's Yazidi branch, known as the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), in the Khanasor area located in northwestern Sinjar. The clashes lasted for more than two hours and resulted in casualties on both sides.

Abid also claimed that the former prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, is the one of people behind these PKK attempts to bring further conflict and instability to the region through attacking peshmerga forces.

"PKK militias in Sinjar are under the supervision of Maliki. These militias are even worse than Chemical Ali [Ali Hassan al-Majid, cousin of Saddam Hussein and former Iraqi defense minister]. During Maliki's term, the peshmergas' salary was cut and Daesh has gotten stronger and occupied the region. Now, he is using the PKK as a threat not only to Kurdistan but the whole region. He aims to deepen the tribal and ethnic conflicts in Iraq," he stated.

In a written statement by the peshmerga forces of the Kudistan Regional Government (KRG) following clashes with the PKK, the KRG pointed to military activity of the terrorist organization near the Iraqi-Syrian border and warned the PKK to withdraw its militants from Sinjar, which were deployed in the region under the guise of protecting the local Yazidi population.

"The PKK's attack on the peshmerga or other security forces constitutes the red line for the Arab tribes of Mosul," said Abid, emphasizing that they will interfere in the situation if the Iraqi government and other institutional players insist on doing nothing about it.

"The PKK is in the region in order to create anarchy and uneasiness. Its main desire is to diminish trust among the ethnic and religious groups. It is present in Iraq to implement some states' plans within the region," he concluded.