[News] Defending the Syrian Kurds - An Interview With Kurdish Guerrilla Leader Cemil Bayik

[Anti-Imperialist News]

November 12, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/12/an-interview-with-kurdish-guerrilla-leader-cemil-bayik/

*Defending the Syrian Kurds*


  An Interview With Kurdish Guerrilla Leader Cemil Bayik

by PATRICK COCKBURN

Kobani cannot now be captured by the fighters of Isis but a million 
people in another Kurdish enclave in Syria are facing a mounting threat 
of being massacred or forced to flee by advancing jihadis, according to 
the Kurdish guerrilla leader overseeing the defence of Syrian Kurds.

In an exclusive interview with /The Independent/ in his headquarters in 
the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, Cemil Bayik, the top field 
commander of the PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla organisation in Turkey, and 
also of its Syrian affiliate, says: "Kobani will not fall. We are 
advancing on the eastern and southern fronts."

He said that the Syrian Kurdish fighters had succeeded in "taking back 
the municipal building and Isis was forced to blow up a mosque it held".

He added that US jets were regularly bombing the top of the strategic 
hill overlooking Kobani through which Isis fighters first entered the 
city. But the fighters "disappear into houses on the hillside when the 
bombing is going on and reoccupy their positions later." Other reports 
suggest that Isis holds half the city after a siege of 63 days.

Mr Bayik says there is a growing danger to the Kurdish enclave or canton 
of Afrin, 120 miles to the west of Kobani which has a population of one 
million people, including 200,000 refugees. The Syrian al-Qaeda branch, 
Jabhat al-Nusra, after defeating more moderate Syrian rebels in recent 
weeks, is moving towards Afrin.

"They are approaching its borders," says Mr Bayik. "They are calling 
villagers by telephone, saying, 'Runaway or we will kill you'. Like Isis 
they use psychological war, first creating panic among the people and 
then attacking."

Mr Bayik accuses Turkey of having covert links with Jabhat al-Nusra and 
encouraging the jihadis to threaten Afrin. It is one of three Syrian 
Kurdish enclaves, all strung along Syria's border with Turkey, and all 
of which have come under attack from jihadis.

He says that if Kobani falls or Jabhat al-Nusra attacks then "it will no 
longer be possible for the peace process to go on with Turkey", and the 
18-month-old ceasefire which started in March 2013 may end. He believes 
that Turkey has sufficient influence over Jabhat al-Nusra to prevent it 
attacking Afrin. "Kurds will not accept Kobani and Afrin being under 
threat of genocide and massacre."

Even if the ceasefire does not end, the siege of Kobani has provoked 
anger among the 15 million Turkish Kurds against their government whom 
they accuse of aiding Isis. Protests and rioting provoked by fear that 
Kobani was about to fall in early October left some 44 people dead. A 
similar threat to Afrin would probably lead to outbursts of rage from 
the 30 million Kurds in the region who live mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Iran 
and Syria.

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said that Isis is no 
worse than the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers' Party) or PYD (the 
Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party), though on 20 October Turkey 
agreed under American pressure to allow Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga forces 
to reinforce Kobani.

While international attention has been focused on the fate of Kobani, 
the Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar by Isis, whose fate helped fuel 
public support for US air strikes in August, are under renewed pressure. 
The jihadis have once more cut all roads leading to their mountain.

Mr Bayik, who has guerrilla fighters on the mountain, agreed that there 
was a greater danger of Sinjar falling to Isis than Kobani.

"There are 10,000 people on the mountain and they are in need of 
everything from food to medical care," said Mr Bayik. "Winter is coming 
and Isis is attacking once more."

He added that Sinjar is strategically important because it is close to 
important road links: "If you hold this area, you can control the roads 
between Iraq and Syria and cut Isis's communications between the two 
countries." He said the Yazidis trapped on the mountain, which they 
regard as holy, needed to be resupplied by plane or helicopter or a 
corridor should be driven through Isis positions so the Yazidis could be 
reinforced or evacuated.

Mr Bayik is careful to stress that the PYD and the YPG, the People's 
Defence Units, are not directly controlled by him, though he heads the 
PKK umbrella organisation, the KCK, which unites PKK affiliates in 
different countries. All follow the same leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who 
has been in prison in Turkey for 15 years, and they are organised along 
similar lines. A further reason for Mr Bayik to put distance between 
himself and the PYD is that the US has labelled the PKK, but not its 
Syrian affiliate, a "terrorist" organisation. Mr Bayik says: "The PKK is 
not in touch with the Americans directly but the YPG and PYD are."

The battle for Kobani and the PKK's role in helping the Yazidis trapped 
on Mount Sinjar resist Isis has increased the movement's popularity and 
prestige among Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere. The determination of their 
fighters to resist Isis successfully is in contrast to the failure of 
the Iraqi army, Syrian army, Syrian rebels and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, 
all of whom had been routed over the last five months by the jihadis. 
Although the number of male and female fighters in Kandil has been put 
at only between 3,000 and 5,000, they are having a significant impact on 
the politics of the region.

The Kurds complain that they are the nation which was the prime victim 
of the Sykes-Picot agreement that left them without a state. But they 
have been playing an increasing role in the region. The defeat of Saddam 
Hussein by a US-led coalition in 1991 and again in 2003 allowed the 
Iraqi Kurds to create a quasi-independent state more powerful than many 
members of the United Nations.

The PKK has fought an on-off guerrilla war with the Turkish army since 
1984 and, while it has failed to create liberated zones, the Turkish 
state has failed to eliminate it. The 2.2 million Syrian Kurds were a 
persecuted and largely invisible minority, 10 per cent of the Syrian 
population, until the Syrian civil war. In July 2012 the Syrian army 
pulled out of Kurdish areas in northern Syria, allowing the creation of 
three autonomous enclaves centred on the towns of Qamishli, Kobani and 
Afrin. Somewhat to their own surprise the Syrian Kurds became important 
players in the Syrian civil war. When Isis attacked the Iraqi Kurds this 
August, they too began to play a central role in the US-led campaign 
against Isis.

There are some signs that the US campaign is beginning to have some 
impact, with the Iraqi army fighting its way into the refinery town of 
Baiji today. This is still some way from the refinery itself, which is 
the largest in Iraq and has been fought over since the first Isis 
onslaught in June. Isis may be feeling the strain of fighting on too 
many fronts in Syria and Iraq and having diverted many of its fighters 
to Kobani where they are vulnerable to US air strikes.

Mr Bayik confirmed that Kurds in Kobani are in direct contact with the 
US air force in order to call in air strikes: "If there were no contacts 
or people on the ground to give co-ordinates then the US would not be 
able to send arms and ammunition or carry out bombing missions."

He says that the US air drop of arms and ammunition on 19 October was of 
immense value to the defenders because of its effect on their morale. 
Other sources say the Kurds were close to running out of ammunition.

Mr Bayik sees much of what happens in the region through the prism of 
Turkish-Kurd relations and is convinced Turkey has a strong influence 
over Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra and has been able to manipulate them 
against the Kurds. This may be overstated, though Turkey's tolerance of 
jihadis crossing from Turkey into Syria between 2011 and 2013 was a 
factor in strengthening Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra. Mystery also reigns 
over why 46 Turkish diplomats stayed in the Turkish consulate in Mosul 
when Isis captured it on 10 June and were later released by Isis in 
exchange for Isis prisoners held in Turkey.

But regardless of the real level of complicity between the jihadis and 
Turkey, the long struggle for Kobani has created a wave of feeling 
against the Turkish government among Kurds everywhere. Small though the 
siege is it compares to other sieges in history from Londonderry to 
Stalingrad which have acquired significance as symbols of courage and 
determination. The Kurdish belief that they won despite the best efforts 
of Ankara will not create a conciliatory mood in which Turkish Kurds 
might negotiate a measure of self-rule. A study just published by the 
International Crisis Group called Turkey and the PKK: Saving the Peace 
Process says that the process is at a turning point: "It will either 
collapse as the sides squander years of work, or it will accelerate as 
they commit to real convergences."

The furious rhetoric on both Turkish and Kurdish sides because of Kobani 
makes real negotiations more necessary but less likely. The PKK accuses 
the Turkish state of being hand-in-glove with Isis, something Mr Erdogan 
roundly denies. When a Turkish flag was taken down by demonstrators 
during the funeral of two young Kurdish protesters in Diyarbakir, 
President Erdogan said: "The fact that [the demonstrator] was a child 
does not concern us. He will pay the same price as those who sent him 
there."

Whatever happens the Kurds have become the latest victims in the Syrian 
and Iraqi civil wars.

/*Patrick Cockburn* is the author of The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the 
New Sunni Uprising <http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/jihadis-return/>. /

-- 
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