Over 300 Yezidis abandon PKK in Sinjar: Peshmerga Official
PKK fighters.
Sinjar (Bas News) Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters continue to abandon the party on a daily basis in Sinjar and join the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces in the area, said a Peshmerga official.
Smi Bosali, the deputy commander of the Peshmerga forces in Sinjar, told BasNews that over 300 Yezidi youth in Sinjar have thus far left the ranks of PKK, noting that this phenomenon is occurring on a daily basis.
The Kurdish Yezidis join the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga after they abandon PKK, said the official.
The Yezidi community leaders and the officials in Sinjar district have repeatedly called on PKK to step out of Sinjar, but PKK insists on staying in the district.
“The increasing number of the PKK affiliates joining Peshmerga comes after their party launched violent actions against the Roj Peshmerga forces [earlier this month] in Khanasor sub district,” Qasim Shasho, head of Sinjar Directorate of Security told BasNews on Saturday.
He believes that the Yezidi members of PKK have realized that Peshmerga is the only legitimate force in the area to protect the Yezidis.