KRG minister blasts PKK for hindering Shingal Agreement implementation

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region’s interior minister on Wednesday slammed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for hindering the implementation of the Shingal Agreement agreed upon by Erbil and Baghdad by refusing to leave the district, labeling its ideology as an “illness”. 

“This is why we called for the formation of a joint committee [with Baghdad], to ensure that nobody in Shingal’s authority carries an Apoci [ideology of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan] or PKK ideology, because that is an illness,” Reber Ahmed said. 

The agreement was signed in 2020 between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the governance and security of Shingal in order to “normalize” and resolve a number of issues that have prevented the return of the area’s inhabitants who fled following the Islamic State’s (ISIS) brazen offensive in 2014. 

The agreement includes the withdrawal of all armed groups, including the PKK, from the city, and has been rejected by the Kurdish group and its proxies. 

“We will not allow any person who shares the beliefs and ideologies of the PKK to become a part of Shingal’s security,” Ahmed stressed.

The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious group in Shingal that were subjected to countless heinous atrocities, including forced marriages, sexual violence, and massacres when ISIS captured the city in 2014, bringing destruction to many villages and towns populated by the minority group and committing genocide. 

They were forced to flee to displacement camps, mainly in the Kurdistan Region. Political disputes over the region between Baghdad and Erbil as well as the presence of armed groups like the PKK have disrupted reconstruction of the city that suffered heavy destruction during the war to oust ISIS. 

International actors, such as the United Nations and the United States, have repeatedly called on the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to implement the agreement and “break the political deadlock” in the city. 

“A large part of our Yazidi brother and sister from Shingal are displaced in the Kurdistan Region, and they still cannot return to Shingal,” Ahmed said, adding that the Shingal Agreement was a means to resolve the situation through a “mutual understanding.” 

Ahmed said that a part of the Shingal Agreement that is rarely mentioned is an investigation committee between Erbil and Baghdad to supervise the implementation of the agreement, which includes an administrative, security, and development aspect. 

“The PKK and entities affiliated to the PKK do not allow the rule of law to return [to Shingal],” he regretted. “Three years and ten days since the agreement was signed upon, until now we have not progressed a step forward.” 

Claudio Cordonne, the deputy head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said that investors are unwilling to contribute to the city’s development due to the non-implementation of the agreement, lamenting that the district has been seized and abused by armed groups. 

“We will continue to work with the governments, with the proper institutions, that have the political authority to ensure that this agreement is implemented,” he said. 

Under the Erbil-Baghdad agreement, security for the troubled region will be Baghdad's responsibility. The federal government will have to establish a new armed force recruited from the local population and expel fighters from the PKK and their affiliated groups.

The PKK’s presence in Shingal also frequently attracts Turkish drones and airstrikes, as the Kurdish group is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara. The strikes severely impact the district’s development and bring about further instability to the area. 

The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged a deadly armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the fight for greater Kurdish rights. 

The all-Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) and Ezidkhan Asayish were formed by the PKK to oust ISIS after the terror group took control of Shingal and killed and kidnapped thousands of Yazidis. They control parts of the province. 

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), around 80 percent of Shingal’s public infrastructure and 70 percent of civilian homes were destroyed during the years of the ISIS war from 2014 to 2017. Fundamental services such as electricity and water are not consistently available, and numerous health and education facilities are yet to be reconstructed after being destroyed during the war.