A new interview with Besê Hozat, the co-chair of the Kurdish umbrella organisation, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), focuses on the new alliance between the Justice and Development (AKP) in Turkey, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Kurdish Hizbullah, or ‘Hizbulkontra’ paramilitary group, in southeast Turkey.
The developing alliances between the KDP and the Turkish state
The Turkish state has strengthened its alliance with the KDP, in order to intensify its war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). An agreement made in March 2024 between the KDP, the Iraqi Federal government and the Turkish state gave Turkey’s military the go-ahead for a full-scale occupation of the KRI.
The agreement between Turkey, Erbil (Hewler) and Baghdad has caused a sharp increase in the killings of civilians in Turkish attacks. Hozat said:
“After the agreement between Iraq, Turkey, and the KDP, several attacks and massacres against civilians developed. Gulistan Tara, Hero Bahadin in Seyidsadiq, three citizens in Dukan, three patriotic people in Sharbajer, and a shepherd in Bradost were murdered just recently… These massacres are particularly increasing after the agreement between Ankara, Baghdad, and the KDP.”
Hozat emphasised that the Iraqi federal government and the KDP were already accomplices in Turkish attacks, but this year’s agreement brought their complicity to a new level.
“In general, a serious massacre is taking place in the Behdinan region. Villages are being burned, bombed, and destroyed. Nature is being deliberately set on fire. People are being deliberately driven out of regions. What is happening here is genocide,” she argued. “The Turkish state is committing genocide. It is committing a crime against humanity. And now, the Iraqi government has decided to be a partner in this, making it also accountable for what is going on. We [the KCK] gave a statement the other day and pointed out that from now on we will hold Iraq as responsible as the Turkish state. Especially after the agreements between Baghdad, Turkey, and the KDP, these massacres of civilians have increased even more. They massacre patriotic people and children in a reckless manner. A child was massacred in Sharbajer. Massacres through the Turkish state had already taken place before, which were only possible because Baghdad and the administration of South Kurdistan kept quiet. They were already accomplices and have taken this to a new level.”
Hozat pointed out that the KDP also played a pivotal role in getting the PKK listed as an illegal terrorist organisation in Iraq, and has done everything it can to undermine the Rojava Revolution in North and East Syria, including mounting a siege against the flow of people, goods and medical supplies into Rojava.
“The KDP does everything it can to prevent the Rojava Revolution from being recognised internationally. It never calls the Rojava Revolution a revolution. It does everything it can to suffocate this revolution. It carries out both political and diplomatic work against the revolution to defame and liquidate it. KDP not only took part in the invasion attacks of the Turkish state and legitimised them, but it also took full siege to strangle the revolution. It dug deep trenches between Rojava and southern [Iraqi] Kurdistan,” she argued.
The KDP’s secret agreements with Turkey and ISIS
According to Hozat, the KDP is facilitating the movement of ISIS mercenaries into northern Iraq. She pointed out that the KDP has made secret agreements with Turkey and ISIS in the past too.
“In 2014, the Turkish state, KDP, and ISIS made an agreement. According to this agreement, Mosul would be handed over to ISIS, and the KDP would surrender Shengal (Sinjar) to ISIS and withdraw its forces from there. After that, it would use both as a defense of Mosul and as a centre for its attack on Rojava, particularly the Cizir Canton. After ISIS would take the Cizir Canton, it would be handed over to the KDP and included in southern Kurdistan. After that, Kobane and Afrin would be taken and handed over to ISIS. Kirkuk would be handed over to the KDP, and Turkey would become a partner in Kirkuk oil. Turkey, KDP and ISIS made an agreement on this basis. In order to hide Turkey’s role in this agreement, ISIS came and seized the Mosul Consulate. At that time, Ozturk Yilmaz was Turkey’s consul in Mosul. Later he made some statements, but they silenced him. Turkey did this to hide its role in the deal it made with ISIS and KDP.”
Hozat said that this deal fell apart when ISIS set its sights on capturing Erbil, and the KDP was forced to turn to the PKK for support.
Hizbulkontra: the new alliance
Now, according to Hozat, there is a new alliance between Turkey, the KDP and ‘Hizbulkontra’:
“It was Turkey that organized ISIS from the beginning. The international powers have benefited from ISIS, but the main organising force of ISIS, is the AKP itself. This is a fact. Now they have included HÜDA PAR and Hizbulkontra in this alliance. On the basis of this alliance, ISIS is now in the Medya Defense Zones, in Behdinan.”
‘Hizbulkontra’ refers to Kurdish Hizbullah, an armed group instrumentalised by the Turkish state to counter the Kurdish Freedom Movement. HÜDA PAR is its political wing. Hozat argued that Turkey has now involved Hizbulkontra in its attack on Iraqi Kurdistan.
Hozat explained how Hizbulkontra was developed in the 1990s as a paramilitary force to counter the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the PKK. She said:
“Hizbulkontra is a force organised by the Turkish Special Warfare Department. It worked as a branch of JITEM for years. It was used as a trigger force against patriots in Kurdistan in the 90s, and they brutally murdered thousands of patriots. Many intellectuals, religious people, and patriots, generally Kurdish society, were tried to be intimidated. They wanted to break the will of the people. A great fear was wanted to be created in Kurdistan.”
Hozat explained that, after the arrest of PKK co-founder Abdullah Öcalan, the Turkish state, wanting to re-establish its monopoly on violence, criminalised Hizbulkontra. But, as years passed by and the state failed to defeat the PKK, the paramilitary leaders were released, and even manoeuvred into positions of political power by the AKP and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Now, as Turkey grows ever more fascist, Hizbulkontra forms an integral part of the Turkish state’s strategy. Hozat argues:
“The Turkish state needed this contrastructure again. It released the Hizbulkontra agents it had arrested. It opened space for them in Kurdistan and provided them with a lot of material means. In the last general elections, the AKP carried four of them into parliament.”
Hozat argued that Hizbulkontra are now a serious part of Turkey’s fight against the PKK once again. She says that the organisation has recently opened an office in Iraqi Kurdistan:
“Hizbulkontra is now seriously organised in southern Kurdistan. They are organising agents in southern Kurdistan, in Rojava, and in North and East Syria. They are trying to develop a network of agents. That is why they have opened an office in southern Kurdistan. The Turkish intelligence, the Barzanis, and Hizbulkontra meet every day. They meet, plan, and act together, and fight against the freedom movement. A serious political, ideological, and social struggle must be waged against this very dangerous structure.”
Hozat concluded by calling on intellectuals and journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere to expose the evolving relationship between the Turkish state, Hizbulkontra and the KDP.
Click here to read the full interview with Hozat.
