“Brakuji” is the curse of the Kurds. The Kurdish word for fratricide is also used by Kurds to define the Iraqi-Kurdish civil war in the 1990s. The yearslong conflict between three major Kurdish actors in Iraqi Kurdistan is a black stain in Kurdish history. Today, escalating tensions among those actors over a small northern Iraqi town have revived memories of the civil war, calling to mind the oath of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s leader, Massoud Barzani: “I will never allow another Brakuji.”

In-house tensions are mounting over the town of Zini Werte, west of Mount Qandil, which is home to the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The tensions are playing into the hands of Turkey, which continues its military push against PKK positions in the region. The PKK has waged for decades an armed insurgency in Turkey, and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community.

The conflict began when Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), dispatched peshmerga troops to Zini Werte in the town of Rawanduz, some 40 miles (61 kilometers) northeast of Erbil. Zini Werte has served as a buffer zone between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) for over 20 years, since the 1998 deal that ended the civil war. The move has escalated tensions between the KDP and PUK, as Zini Werte is considered the PUK's turf, home to many PUK supporters.

Irked by the move, the PUK countered by deploying its own peshmerga forces to Zini Werte. The PKK then intervened, accusing both parties of invading the PKK's turf. The outlawed group sent a delegation of three to the area and demanded the parties withdraw in 72 hours.