Kanak-kanak Syria-Kurdi bermain di luar khemah pelarian di kem pelarian Domiz, 20 km tenggara bandar utara Iraq Dohuk, pada 19 Jun, 2013. (Syrian-Kurdish children refugee play outside tents at the Domiz refugee camp, 20 km southeast of the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, on June 19, 2013. (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
JamaliahYusofyacob - (RT. Published Ogos 10, 2013) Presiden Kurdistan Iraq bersedia untuk mempertahankan Kurdis di Syria. Masoud Barzani, presiden rantau Iraq Kurdistan, telah berkata bahawa dia akan menggunakan "Semua keupayaan" untuk mempertahankan orang awam Kurdis yang berada di bawah ancaman oleh pejuang Al ‘Qaeda berkaitan yang terlibat dalam perang saudara di Syria.
Kenyataan itu datang hari selepas laporan pembunuhan beramai-ramai kemungkinan di Syria. Barzani berkata bahawa beliau mahu jawatankuasa yang dibentuk untuk melihat ke dalam laporan keganasan, dan telah membayangkan bahawa wilayah autonomi di utara Iraq, yang mempunyai tentera yang lengkap, akan campur tangan ketenteraan untuk mempertahankan Kurdis Syria.
Dalam surat yang beliau disiarkan dalam talian Sabtu di laman web Kerajaan Wilayah Kurdistan (krg), beliau berkata bahawa beliau memberitahu wakil Kurdis untuk pergi ke Syria dan menyiasat laporan bahawa “Pengganas Al ‘Qaeda menyerang penduduk awam yang tidak bersalah dan penyembelihan Kurdis wanita dan kanak-kanak.”
“Jika laporan adalah benar, menunjukkan bahawa rakyat, Kurdis wanita dan anak-anak yang tidak berdosa adalah di bawah ancaman dari pembunuhan dan keganasan, wilayah Kurdistan Iraq akan menggunakan semua keupayaan untuk mempertahankan wanita dan kanak-kanak dan orang yang tidak bersalah,” surat itu diteruskan.
Serta yang disiarkan dalam talian Sabtu, surat itu dihantar pada hari Khamis kepada jawatankuasa persediaan untuk Persidangan Kebangsaan Kurdis yang akan diadakan hujung bulan ini di Arbil - terletak di jauh utara Iraq Kurdistan.
Pernyataan yang disebut kawasan Syria di mana Kurdis hidup sebagai ‘Western Kurdistan.’ Orang-orang Kurdi tersebar di bahagian bersebelahan Iraq, Syria, Turki dan Iran, dan merupakan kumpulan etnik yang terbesar di DUNIA tanpa negeri mereka sendiri.
Kurdis Iraq telah menghantar makanan, bekalan perubatan dan bahan api kepada saudara-saudara mereka Kurdis di Syria tetapi kenyataan Barzani ini adalah kali pertama bahawa campur tangan telah disyorkan.
Terdapat laporan yang tidak disahkan daripada pembunuhan beramai-ramai pada awal minggu ini, di mana 450 orang Kurdis yang diculik dibunuh oleh pemberontak Al ‘Qaeda berkaitan. Menurut IranianTV saluran Al ‘Alam, militan dari Jabat Al ‘Nusra Front menyerang bandar Tal Abyad berhampiran sempadan Turki pada hari Isnin, membunuh 120 kanak-kanak dan 330 wanita. Pihak kerajaan Syria atau pembangkang Syria telah mengesahkan laporan itu.
President of Iraqi Kurdistan ready to defend Kurds in Syria. Masoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, has said that he will use “all capabilities” to defend Kurdish civilians who are under threat by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters involved in the Syrian civil war.
The statement comes days after reports of a possible massacre in Syria. Barzani said that he wants a committee to be formed to look into reports of violence, and has hinted that the autonomous region of northern Iraq, which has a well-equipped army, would intervene militarily to defend Syrian Kurds.
In a letter which he posted online Saturday on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) website, he said that he told Kurdish representatives to go to Syria and investigate reports that “terrorists of Al-Qaeda are attacking the civilian population and slaughtering innocent Kurdish women and children.”
“If the reports are true, showing that citizens, women and children of innocent Kurds are under threat from murder and terrorism, Iraq’s Kurdistan region will make use of all its capabilities to defend women and children and innocent civilians,” the letter continued.
As well as being posted online Saturday, the letter was sent on Thursday to the preparatory committee for a Kurdish National Conference to be held later this month in Arbil – located in the far north of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The statement referred to the area of Syria where Kurds live as ‘Western Kurdistan.’ The Kurdish people are spread over adjoining parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, and are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state.
Iraqi Kurds have already sent food, medical supplies, and fuel to their Kurdish brethren in Syria but Barzani’s statement is the first time that intervention has been suggested.
There were unconfirmed reports of a massacre earlier this week, in which 450 Kurds were allegedly murdered by Al-Qaeda-linked rebels. According to IranianTV channel Al-Alam, militants from the Jabat Al-Nusra Front attacked the town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border on Monday, killing 120 children and 330 women. Neither the Syrian government nor the Syrian opposition has confirmed the report.
Kem pelarian berhampiran Zakho, sebuah bandar sempadan Iraq dengan Syria. (Refugee camp near Zakho, an Iraqi border town with Syria. (Reuters/Azad Lashkari – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Walau bagaimanapun, RT berjaya mendapatkan dalam hubungan dengan sumber Kurdis yang mengatakan bahawa pertempuran peningkatan telah berlaku di kawasan itu.
“Militan Al ‘Nusra dan pasukan pemberontak lain mengepung kampung itu. Mereka mula pergi pintu ke pintu, memasuki setiap rumah. Jika terdapat mana-mana lelaki yang mereka membunuh mereka dan mengambil wanita-wanita dan kanak-kanak sebagai tebusan,” kata sumber itu.
Laporan-laporan terbaru mengikuti kenyataan bulan lalu daripada Kementerian Rusia asing yang pelampau Al ‘Qaeda berkaitan telah memegang 200 awam Kurdis sebagai tebusan. Militan nampaknya mengambil membalas dendam untuk menangkap orang Kurdis pemimpin pemberontak Abu Musab. 500 orang awam pada mulanya diculik tetapi beberapa telah dibebaskan dalam perjanjian dengan Kurdis, yang juga dibebaskan Musab. Kira-kira 200 orang yang dipercayai masih berada dalam tangan Golongan Jihad ini.
“Dalam bidang ini, telah terdapat lama menjadi pertembungan antara tentera pelampau antarabangsa bergabung dengan Al ‘Qaeda dan tempatan militia Kurdis yang berdiri untuk melindungi rumah mereka daripada serangan radikal Islam,” Kementerian Luar Rusia berkata dalam satu kenyataan, Julai.
Orang Kurdis ialah halangan utama kepada mengisytiharkan Islam keadaan de facto mereka sendiri di timur laut Syria - kawasan yang Presiden Syria Bashar Assad mempunyai sedikit kawalan ke atas.
Komen Barzani adalah lagi bukti bagaimana konflik 2 tahun Syria yang melimpah ke negara-negara jiran.
Rantau utara Iraq Kurdistan - yang telah mempunyai kerajaan sendiri dan angkatan tentera - juga telah mula untuk meneruskan tenaga bebas dan dasar luar, yang telah menimbulkan kemarahan kerajaan Syiah daripada Nouri Al ‘Maliki di Baghdad. Iraq Utara adalah satu-satunya kawasan di negara ini yang telah melihat keamanan dan mustahak kestabilan sejak tentera Amerika meninggalkannya pada tahun 2011.
However, RT managed to get in contact with Kurdish sources who said that increased fighting had taken place in the area.
“The Al-Nusra militants and other rebel forces surrounded the village. They started going door to door, entering every house. If there were any men they killed them and took the women and children hostage,” said the source.
These latest reports follow a statement last month from the Russian Foreign Ministry that Al-Qaeda-linked extremists were holding 200 Kurdish civilians as hostages. The militants were apparently taking revenge for the capture by the Kurds of rebel leader Abu Musab. Five hundred civilians were initially abducted but some were released in agreement with the Kurds, who also released Musab. Around 200 people are believed to still be the hands of the Jihadists.
“In these areas, there has long been confrontation between the troops of the international extremists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and local Kurdish militias who stood up to protect their homes from attacks by radical Islamists,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a July statement.
The Kurds are the main obstacle to the Islamists declaring a de facto state of their own in the northeast of Syria – an area which Syrian President Bashar Assad has little control over.
Barzani’s comments are further proof of how Syria’s two-year conflict is spilling over into neighboring countries.
The northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan - which already has its own government and armed forces - has also begun to pursue independent energy and foreign policies, which has infuriated the Shi’ite government of Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Northern Iraq is the only area of the country which has seen peace and a semblance of stability since American troops left in 2011.
