Turkey targets Yazidi militia in Iraq over PKK links
The Sinjar Resistance Units have been targeted by Turkish forces in Iraq for its connection with the Kurdistan Workers Party.
The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) is subject to Turkish shelling every so often, although it is an officially recognized force by the Iraqi government and registered as part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) with the Ministry of Defense.
YBS members are Iraqi Yazidis from Sinjar who are often attacked because some consider them a local wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey classifies as a terrorist movement.
Meanwhile, there is an official Kurdish conviction that matches the Turkish opinion about the PKK still being present in Sinjar by means of the YBS. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has officially objected to the fact that YBS members receive their salaries from the Iraqi government, and could thus contribute indirectly to financing the PKK.
The federal government's support for the YBS demonstrates the nature of the strategy pursued by the federal government to separate the Yazidis from their Kurdish identity, according to Ziryan Rojhiati, director of the Rudaw Research Center in Erbil.
