Sinjar Resistance Units

As Massoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, continues to resist mounting international calls to scrap a referendum on Kurdish independence planned for September, a rival Kurdish faction has added its voice, declaring what it calls “democratic autonomy” in the predominantly Yazidi region of Sinjar.

Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani was in Turkey on Feb. 26 and 27 for meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. Barzani's visit followed his meeting with Yıldırım in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

On our return from a NATO meeting, I spoke to Defense Minister Fikri Işık about the new U.S. administration's stance. He said, "They are more open to dialogue compared to the Obama administration. They are listening carefully to our justifications." 

Iraqi Deputy President Osama al-Nujaifi has claimed that outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants have attacked villages between Mosul's Sinjar and Rabia regions, killing five people and injuring several others.