KRG blames PKK's Syrian wing PYD over its suppression of Kurdish opposition

Hamit Derbendi, the Syrian adviser for Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday that the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD) have increased their oppression and defamation in northern Syria against the Kurdish opposition, including the KRG. Saying that the PKK and PYD are known for mistreating the people in northern Syria, Derbendi claimed that the PYD's leader Salih Muslim has been targeting the KRG in order to cover-up his political failures. "The PYD doesn't tolerate any other political movement other than themselves in Rojava [northern Syria]. We opened the border gate between Iraq and Syria in order to meet the people's needs in the region, but the PYD is extorting the people passing through the border, seizing their goods" Derbendi said.

He drew attention to the PYD's mistreatment of the public as a main reason for all of the problems in the region, adding that they will continue their support for all Syrian people without discriminating between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.

The PYD's acts of oppression in Syria's north have been going on for a long time. A report published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) in January said the PYD has committed multiple human rights violations since the withdrawal of government forces in 2012, including ethnic cleansing and abusing women, children and media workers.

Also, in August 2015, a report on the PYD was published by KurdWatch, an independent group of experts reporting on Kurdish rights' violations in Syria. The report revealed information regarding the PYD's forcible recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, revealing this was done by the Democratic Union Party in Syria along with adults also being forcibly conscripted to serve in the PYD's armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG). It also noted that such recruitment included children as young as 12 years of age.