A local activist in Erbil said that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is forcing families of Roj Peshmerga forces in the Kurdish areas of Syria to leave the country.
Mahmoud Alou, a local activist, said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) intelligence service recently invited several families to a meeting in which they were obliged to persuade their Peshmerga members to leave the armed forces.
“The SDF, which is controlled by the PKK, has threatened to expel the families if their children do not leave the Kurdish areas of Syria or join the Syrian Democratic Forces,” Alou explained, indicating the SDF does no longer tolerate Roj Peshmerga members, nor their families, in its controlled territories.
The Roj Peshmerga Force is made up of Syrian Kurds who have gathered to join the Peshmerga in the Kurdistan Region in the fight against ISIS. They are not allowed to return to Syrian Kurdistan because the PKK and its Syrian wings are rejecting any other force outside their structure.
In previous statements, the Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS) condemned the PKK’s pressure, describing it as “an act similar to the dictators of the world who pressure families to speak out against their children.”
