October 16 betrayal... A poisoned dagger in the back of the Kurdish people

ARK News… The Kurdistan Region, on Saturday, painfully recalls the fourth anniversary of the October 16, 2017, betrayal, when the Popular Mobilization Forces and other Iraqi forces took control of Kirkuk and most of the “disputed” following the betrayal of a wing of the Kurdistan Patriotic Union on that day, and their agreement with the Hashd militias that it launched an unprovoked attack after the independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Region, which received unparalleled support.

The Popular Mobilization militia and the Iraqi security forces, less than a month after the independence referendum in the Kurdistan Region on September 25, 2017, carried out a large-scale, unjustified military operation against the positions of the Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk and other Kurdish lands outside the administration of the Kurdistan Region or what it is called 'disputed'.

While the Peshmerga forces began to confront the attack, a faction within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan withdrew forces affiliated with them from the fighting axes, which caused the collapse of the Peshmerga defenses in what became known as the “betrayal of October 16.”

The attack launched by the Iraqi forces, in agreement with the treachery team within the Kurdistan Patriotic Union on Kirkuk and Khormatu on October 16, 2017, resulted in the death and wounding of hundreds of Kurdish citizens, and the displacement of about 200,000 Kurds.

Aras Jangi, brother of Lahor Jangi, the leader of the treachery team within the Patriotic Union, had confessed to the agreement with the PMF and Iraqi forces. Lahore Jangi has also repeatedly praised the withdrawal of the PUK forces on the day of the great treachery.

Kosrat Rasul, the First Deputy Secretary-General of the Patriotic Union, described the treachery team within the party as "immature", and said in a statement, "The responsibility for the disaster of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormatu and all the human, material and other moral losses of our people are borne by those immature members of the Patriotic Union."

On October 18, 2017, Mulla Bakhtiyar, an official in the executive body of the PUK Political Bureau, said in a statement: “The opportunists and teenagers in the PUK who are still distorting people’s minds are responsible for these incidents.”

The late Najmaddin Karim, governor of Kirkuk and a member of the PUK's political bureau, had repeatedly confirmed that the treachery team within the Union "betrayed their blood and sold themselves."

In the aftermath of the events of October 16 until now, Haider al-Abadi, who was the Iraqi prime minister at the time, and many Iraqi officials, expressed their thanks to the treachery team within the Patriotic Union, who handed over Kirkuk and most of the Kurdish regions easily.


Source: BasNews site (translated into Arabic)

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