The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has sent medical equipment to the YPG/PKK terrorist group to aid in its fight against COVID-19 in northern Syria, according to a statement Monday by YPG ringleader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, codenamed Mazloum Kobani.
“I would like to present my thanks and gratitude for KRG President Nechirvan Barzani, who immediately and generously responded to our request for coronavirus test kits,” the terrorist leader said on his Twitter account.
Exactly one month before, dr. Ciwan Mistefa of the PYD Health Council had stated that they had developed their own test kits in North-East Syria, a message that was spread by multiple PKK/PYD-affiliated news outlets in an attempt to mislead the people of North-East Syria. Later, this news was rectified.
We have contacted Barzani’s press secretary to verify the delivery, but have not received a response.
Şahin is the commander-in-chief of the SDF, which is dominated by the YPG, an armed terror group that operates as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union and has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Interpol currently has a red notice in Şahin’s name for playing a crucial leadership role in the YPG/PKK. He is the adopted son of the PKK’s imprisoned ideological leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is now serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison.
Şahin is also sought by the Turkish Interior Ministry with a red notice. The ministry divides its “wanted” list into five color-coded categories, with red marking the most wanted and dangerous. The terrorist leader’s involvement in the PKK goes back to 1996 when he engaged in militant activity in Turkey’s southeastern Hakkari province. He is notorious for planning multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey, among them the attacks on tourist sites in the 90’s that have led to foreign victims as well.
Relations between the YPG/PKK and KRG administration have not been favorable as the KRG had enforced a unilateral economic blockade against the YPG-led administration. YPG/PKK are known to have burned KDP-affiliated offices in North-Syria and have arrested and deported many members of ENKS, a local Kurdish party that favors Barzani.
Despite helping out with the COVID-19 crisis with humanitarian intentions, Barzani had said that the YPG/PKK terror group poses a threat to the local Kurds living in Syria. He called on them to keep the terror group at arm’s length and pointed out that the YPG/PKK aims to legitimize itself by using the Syrian Kurds.
