Abdulla HawezVerified account

The PUK, one of the pillars of #KRG which de facto governs the eastern half of KRI is holding its 4th congress and about to elect a new group of leaders, expected to be dominated by the 2nd gen of Talabani family who have a confrontational style vs KDP. More on this tomorrow.

These three groups are already close to the Rojava administration: - Progressive party is PUK’s sister party in Syria - Kurdish National Alliance split from KNC and are part of the Rojava admin - this Yekiti delegation split & are in opposition to Suleiman Oso‘s Yekiti of KNC.https://twitter.com/vvanwilgenburg/status/1207900512630251521…

These ’unity‘ initiatives started by Ocalan-inspired groups across the region after the Turkish invasion of N Syria. For instance, currently Kurdistan National Congress or KNK is also pushing for a pan-Kurdish national conference to form a united Kurdish coalition across the ME.

There are currently similar attempts for a united Kurdish front among Kurdish parties in Turkey. Last week, nine Kurdish parties including: HDP, DBP, DTK, DDKD, KKP, KDP-T, and KDP-Bakur met in Diyarbakir to form a united kurdish front.

commander of SDF says positive steps to be taken in the coming days towards kurdish unity in Syria; and Rojava administration has decided pro-Barzani KNC parties can re-operate in NE Syria without needing the administration’s license and political prisoners to be released.https://twitter.com/MazloumAbdi/status/1206626635509850112…

KRG PM Masrour Barzani - who accompanied Nichervan in his last visit to UAE - was in Turkey a couple days earlier; he met with Erdogan and Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and promised more cooperation against PKK both in Iraq and Syria. Turkey and UAE are archenemies.

Within less than a month: KRG’s Nichervan Barzani has visited UAE twice (met with MbZ and intelligence chief Tahnoon); SDF’s Mazloum Abdi has also visited UAE; another SDF delegation is in Saudi. Now reports that three UAE planes full of weapons landed in Erbil. What is going on?

To conclude: Assad regime sought a deal with the PKK re Syrian Kurdistan after the deal with Iraqi Kurds failed following Turkish pressure. Ali Mamlouk was the regime's key representative in the negotiations, PKK was Sabri OK, PUK was Abdulrazaq Koyee, KDP was Mahmud Gargari.

Wow! Assad & Iran first in 2011 reached an agreement with Iraq Kurds: "Ali Mamlouk, Qassem Soleimani, Masoud Barzani and a PUK leader met in Erbil and agreed for 5000 Peshmarga to be sent to Qamishli" but Turkey stand against the plan and threatened Barzani against any such move.

PUK which was found in 1975 in Damascus was also supported by Hafez Assad's regime. Koyee says, he gave us weapons and supported us. He also says their relations with Damascus was stronger during Hefez, compared to now.

Abdulrazaq Koyee, who has been living in Damascus since the 80s, says he last met Ocalan a month before he leaves Syria in his villa in Darayya near Damascus. "It was the first time Ocalan criticise the regime" Koyee said. "Ocalan said the regime cannot be trusted".

According to Koyee, KDP also have good relations with Assad. According to him, a KDP representative in Syria told Assad's Ali Mamlouk: "all non-PKK Syrian Kurdish parties are owned by us, if you want, we will put them all in a plane and throw them away".

Apparently, PUK's relations are also still strong with Assad. Koyee says during the events of Shingal in 2014, a group of PUK fighters were trapped and Assad regime helped them with weapons and logistics to cross to Syria and from there, back to Iraq.

According to Koyee: as the protests were spreading across Syria, Assad told PKK - after several meetings - that they will give them weapons and withdraw so that they can guard the region. He claims Bayik in return said: "we owe the regime and we want to defend Syria".

According to Koyee, who openly says he himself and PUK have good relations with Assad says: when I visited Cemil Bayik in 2012 he said they want to rebuild relations with Assad. He says a PKK representative with name code (Dalil) met with Assad regime's Ali Mamlouk in 2012.

New and interesting details from Abdulrazaq Koyee, PUK's representative in Damascus in an interview with a local PUK outlet regarding how PKK rebuilt relations with the Assad regime after the Syrian uprising and Assad withdrawal from Kurdish areas was preplanned with PKK. More:

Prominent Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist Tahir Elci was shot dead in the heart of Diyarbakir in broad daylight four years ago. I had the privilege to talk to Elci few times - not long before his death - when he was @Moirasool's lawyer while in prison in Turkey.https://twitter.com/Diyarbakirbaro/status/1199748050102734849…

Also we shouldn’t forget the major role Alevi Kurds have played from the very early days of the PKK, from Mazlum Dogan, Ali Haider Kaytan to Cemil Bayik, Sakine Cansiz, Mustafa Qarasu.

Abdullah Ocalan himself is half or quarter Turkish; perhaps the PKK somehow reflects Ocalan’s own diverse family background.

And before people go crazy, there is nothing wrong about the ‘brain’ behind PKK being Turkish; I haven’t tweeted that as a negative thing, having a diverse group of people and ideas is always a good thing; the early Turkish brain was later mixed with lots of kurdish ideas too.

Ocalan himself has said: “he speaks Turkish, gives orders in Turkish, and thinks in Turkish”. Ocalan was the housemate with each of Kemal Pir and Haki Karer when the idea of a political group away from Dev-Genc (mainstream Turkish leftism at the time developed).