Since the beginning of the ISIS attack in the region, PKK and PJAK elements have been trying to mislead the Kurdish citizens by using massive propaganda and abusing their feelings of sympathy for one another.
When ISIS came out of nowhere, Kurdish people watched them rampage through Iraq and Syria, taking Yazidi’s and killing Kurds, and were afraid the danger would also reach Iranian Kurdistan. Massive propaganda storms were held to attract Iranian Kurds to come and fight ISIS in Syria, alongside recruits and volunteers from all over the world. ISIS was different than any other enemy.
Yusuf Babaei was one of those people who got involved in the same PKK propaganda. Yaser Babaei, Youssef’s brother, contacted the Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Observatory and said: “My brother was married at the time and had three children, but unfortunately, whenever he saw a picture of an ISIS attack, he lost his temper. He didn’t want to do anything, of course, this was what he always said, and he was constantly following PKK related channels, and every time he was upset by these attacks, but we didn’t think that there was a possibility that our brother would want to attract them.”
“Be that as it may, because he was married and as far as I remember, he loved his children very much, and it was not possible to leave them, only God knows how those members managed to deceive my brother and take him away from his family. When Yusuf disappeared, I didn’t know where to look for him. Maybe the last place we could doubt was Syria, which he always talked about, but we could never believe it.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t hear about him for several months and we looked for him wherever we could. We even suspected something bad happened to him. Almost after six months, he called himself. The conversation didn’t last long. The only thing he said was that he was sent to Syria and he was wounded there.”
“During the conversation, we insisted on his return, his wife and children were in a bad state, and we all missed him so much. But suddenly we heard some muffling sounds as if someone took the phone from him by force, the call was cut off and we could no longer contact him. At that time, the situation in Syria was very insecure and we could not find a way to go after Youssef, so we could only pray. The number was turned off, it was a Syrian number.”
“Almost a year passed since this case and a number related to Turkey called us and said that my brother was killed in Syria, this call became the point of our suspicion about this issue and on the one hand the news of the sudden death of our brother. How is it possible that my brother was killed in Syria but they told us about it from Turkey?! That’s why our big brother decided to go after him himself. When he went to Iraqi Kurdistan, he went to one of the headquarters of the PKK and there they told him that my dear brother was killed in Syria, but there is no body, no grave and we were not allowed to travel to Syria to investigate his death. My brother was then forced to return to Iran as there was nothing he could do there.”
“Now someone please tell me, what was the sin of those three innocent children? Why should they take the father of a family from them? Are there no young people to fight? Do they need to take every man and woman, and make about 5000 martyrs for every town they returned from ISIS’ hands? But again, this case is very stupid for us, they say that our brother was killed in Syria, but they give the news from Turkey and to follow up physically, their address is in Iraq!”
“It is really a very funny issue… They did everything to could to make us lose his trail…”
