“ISIL Crisis Urges Kurdish Unity”

bianet interviewed Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) Co-President Salih Müslim Muhammad following ISIL' (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) invasion of Mosul. The developments show that Kurds must act together, said Müslim. 

Saying they had been left alone in the battle against ISIL, he remarked that they always extended a hand to collaborate, but Turkey never took it. 

How will ISIL seizing Mosul affect war in Syria?

We said it multiple times: Stability in Syria concerns the entire Middle East. We said that it could spread everywhere if there is no stability, it’s taking place now. Tomorrow it could spread to other places too, to Lebanon, to Jordan, to Turkey... 

To trap this in Syria and ensure stability is in the interest of the whole region. 

No party other than us that has seriously fought against ISIL up to now. Only the Kurds, Assyrians, and Arabs in Rojava; there were the formations in Rojava.

When they couldn’t pass through these places they went to others. They wouldn’t have been able to do that had there been serious effort. 

They left us alone in Rojava, no one resisted, and now we see the results.

If ISIL settled in Mosul, where would this take the process? How would it affect the Kurds in Syria?

Some people still don’t see facts. ISIL is a device used by others. The forces behind it are evident.

This fight is interconnected. A large portion of the weapons, the materials seized in Mosul have been taken there to use against us in Rojava. 

There was news at some point that ISIL and the Rojava Kurds had called a truce, is it true?

No. They had signed a nonaggression treaty around the Afrin region with the forces calling themselves the Free Syrian Army... In other places there’s nothing other than conflict with ISIL.

In this case can there be any talk of collaboration with Turkey? 

We constantly knocked on the door, extended a hand, but it was left hanging. Turkey must face facts now. Let us do something together; otherwise danger is upon us all.

Has there been contact with Iraqi Kurds, a collaboration call? 

No, we Kurds have always been in close contact anyway. We hope these latest developments showed them as much. The aim of ISIL and of the forces we’re fighting is to destroy the Kurds, to exile them. This enforces Kurdish unity. We hope that all Kurds have realized this and that we act together. (YY/PU/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.