Kurdish disunity is cited as one of the main reasons the world’s largest people without a country, as the Kurds are often described, still don’t have one. The Iraqi Kurds’ failed referendum on independence in September, which saw one group cooperate with Baghdad against the other, was the most recent and damning example of how a lust for power can trump the collective Kurdish good. So when a delegation of Iraqi Kurds from rival political parties arrived in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin to show solidarity with their cousins facing a Turkish siege, a groundswell of euphoria erupted.
Asiya Abdullah, the former co-chair of the Democratic Unity Party (PYD), declared, “The visit by members of the Kurdistan Parliament sent an important message to the people of Afrin and all the people of Kurdistan. Today, Afrin’s resistance against the occupation of Turkey and their rebels is fierce. The assault on Afrin is an assault on the people of Kurdistan, and Afrin’s victory will be that of all of Kurdistan.”
Her comments were reported by Kurdistan 24, one of the few media outlets to make it into Afrin. It's believed to be financed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s muscular intelligence chief, Masrour Barzani. Kurdistan 24 journalists would have had to cross through territory controlled by Syrian regime forces and their Iranian allies to reach Afrin, a journey that Western journalists, Americans in particular, would hardly risk.
On Jan. 30, the Iraqi Kurdish parliament held a special session on Afrin and condemned Turkey’s offensive against the PYD’s military arm, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which has entered its 24th day. The parliament called for an immediate halt to Turkish aggression and pledged to step up humanitarian assistance to their besieged brethren via the Fish-Khabur border crossing, saying, “We praise the resistance of the men and women in Afrin and Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan] and wish them success.” The session was convened at the request of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is led by his father, Massoud, the former president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and that of the opposition Change (Gorran) Movement. But this outburst of cross-border Kurdish unity may come at a cost.
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