Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has promised the Iraqi Kurds broad support for the reintegration of around one million internally displaced persons after the military victory over the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).
“No one wants to live in a camp all their lives,” said the Greens politician on Wednesday after a meeting with the prime minister of the Kurdish autonomous regions in northern Iraq, Masrur Barsani, in the Kurdish capital Erbil. Baerbock added: “That’s why it’s important for us that people can return to their homeland” and that they could lead a life in dignity there.
According to an official translation, Barzani said his government hopes to hold regional elections, which were postponed last year, by the end of 2023. At the same time, he criticized any violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdistan region, “regardless of which side”. He strongly condemned Iran’s drone and missile attacks. Barsani also criticized the PKK, which operates in northern Iraq and is banned in Turkey, and contributed to attacks from Turkey and to destabilization.
In northern Iraq, Turkey regularly takes action against offshoots of the Kurdish workers’ party PKK, which is banned in Turkey. The PKK also attacks people there who they don’t think are cooperating. It is also considered a terrorist organization in the US and Europe. The headquarters of the PKK is in the inaccessible Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq. According to Kurdish sources, three people were killed in a Turkish drone attack in northern Iraq at the end of February.
Baerbock: IS terrorist militia still casts shadows
Baerbock said the threat from the so-called IS “still casts a shadow over this region”. The security forces are still under great pressure to “keep this terrorist threat in check”. The German contribution in this context is “above all a contribution to stabilization and security”.
A few years ago, the IS terrorist militia controlled large areas in Iraq and Syria. The jihadists have been considered militarily defeated since 2017, but IS cells continue to carry out attacks.
When the jihadists overran the region around the Sinjar mountains in northern Iraq in 2014, they killed and abducted thousands of people. Many women were enslaved and raped. Kurdish fighters eventually drove IS out of the region. The United Nations speaks of genocide against the ethnic-religious minority of Yazidis living there. In January, the Bundestag officially recognized the crimes of IS as genocide.
Criticism of destabilization attempts
Against the background of disputes between the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region, Baerbock criticized the fact that forces from outside and inside Iraq were trying to “split and thus destabilize and thus thwart social and economic development”. The background is also the attacks from Iran and Turkey in northern Iraq as well as internal Kurdish conflicts. “It is all the more important that all the forces that stand for security work together,” appealed Baerbock.
Visit to a refugee camp near the Turkish border
In the afternoon, the minister wanted to visit the Qadiya refugee camp in Dohuk province near the Turkish border. More than 12,000 internally displaced persons live there. Most of the people are Yazidis from the Sinjar region who were driven out by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia between 2014 and 2017. In the camp, Baerbock also wanted to find out about a women’s project. Later, a visit to a center was planned in which IS crimes are to be documented in a court-proof manner.
The program also included a visit to an orphan school where more than 400 children are taught. The project, which was founded by a Yazidi who grew up in Oldenburg and also has a solar system, also includes a kindergarten.
