Early this morning, I have received news that Mazloum Abdi’s mother Khaznah Haji Hussein has passed away at age 86. And I feel really bad to say it, but news reports of her passing away has confirmed my earlier research. I wish to express my condolences to the Abdi family.
The death of Khaznah Haji Hussein was announced by Mazloum’s brother Dara Abdi, and followed by reporting by SDF-affiliated NPA-news, Kurdish tv channel Rudaw, and condolences by Nechirvan Barzani and Masrour Barzani. She was buried at the cemetery in their village Helinc, in Kobani.
Articles surrounding her passing away confirm that Mazloum Abdi is indeed the son of Khaznah Haji Hussein and Khalil Abdi, and has 5 brothers and 3 sisters.
I am not at all happy to have to use this saddening news to clear my name. I have received death threats by DM, the nastiest comments of SDF-supporters, and I have been victim to a smearing campaign by so-called ‘Kurdistan experts’ like Frederike Geerdink who all called me a liar, paid-pen and expressed other accusations concerning my integrity.
Especially Frederike’s comments have been the reason I was cancelled in Dutch media, as an editor told me by phone he refused to publish my work because of her accusations under my work. She has also pressed other renowned experts such as Joshua Landis to remove my work from their feeds after I released my report.
Dozens of other commentators have called me a ‘liar’ that randomly connected people with the same surname to eachother, yet in reality the persons I mentioned were and are truly Mazloum Abdi’s siblings and cousins. This can yet again be viewed in expressions of sadness and condolences on news sites and their Facebook pages.
Turkish media had been fast to pick up on my reporting, and have run my research on over 50 news sites, and published it on the front page of their newspapers.
What I wish to add is that I am quite sure of the fact that the general’s siblings are not bringing bags full of dollars home from their leading positions inside the administration. The goal behind these family politics is not money, in my eyes it is about controlling local politics, the establishment of a ‘ruling class’.
Though some might argue this is not corruption, in my eyes it is worse than stealing some dollars. Family and tribal politics have been the source of suffering for local societies through the region for decades. The continuation of such politics proves that this certain group, though it shows a very different ideology to the outside world, is actually continuing tribal politics.
You can read my earlier report here:
