The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) peshmerga forces are lacking a unified command. Rather, the peshmerga, which played a key role in defeating the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq alongside the US-led global coalition, is receiving commands from the Kurdish ruling parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). This raises concerns that the peshmerga will be exploited in political disputes.
“Peshmerga forces must be free of political influence and remain neutral during party disputes,” Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said Nov. 12. “The Kurdistan Region needs an armed national force that has modern discipline and principles.”
Following the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds rose up against the Iraqi Baath regime and established a semi-autonomous region. The two main Kurdish ruling parties, the KDP and the PUK, have their own peshmerga forces. The KDP has 80 units, and the PUK has 70 units. Both parties jointly have nearly 240,000 peshmerga troops. The parties engaged in an internal armed conflict against each other from 1994 to 1998. Moreover, they frequently use the peshmerga to attack rival political parties and forcefully suppress civilian protests.
The unification of peshmerga forces has been a key topic in discussions between foreign military delegations and officials of the KRG. But no real steps to unify the peshmerga have been taken.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
