Turkey-backed Massoud Barzani-loyal Rojava peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, 2017. Photo: Reuters
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Barzani’s The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Wednesday denied an accusation that members of the Roj Peshmerga were fighting in Libya for the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).
The denial follows a statement from a commander in General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) saying that they had arrested a Kurd allegedly fighting with a unit of Roj Peshmerga sent to Libya by Turkey to fight on behalf of the GNA.
The “Roj Peshmerga” is an armed group of Syrian Kurds found by Massoud Barzani, backed by Turkey, organized and trained in Iraqi Kurdistan and given political support by the KDP. The Roj fighter considered as mercenary fighters for Barzani and Turkish government. The Roj fighters were also used to fight Yazidi forces, Syrian Kurdish YPG and PKK forces in the past.
“The fight and destruction that is happening in Libya is the result of international conflict and does not have any relation with the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s policies and goals,” read an unsigned statement from the KDP’s Culture and Communication Establishment.
The statement described the arrested Kurd as a “mercenary” who was fighting in Libya for financial gain and that the incident was being used to “slander the name of [Roj] Peshmerga and Kurdistan Democratic Party.”
The allegation caused a stir on Kurdish social media, with some commentators demanding an explanation from the KDP. It specifically touched a nerve because of the close relationship between Turkey and the KDP and suspicions about the Roj Peshmerga from Syrian Kurds who support the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
The ongoing civil war in Libya pits the Tripoli-based GNA, which is the UN-recognized government of the country, against the LNA, which is based in eastern Libya.
Turkey has strongly backed the GNA and sent Syrian militants to Libya to support the increasingly desperate fight against the LNA.
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