20 Yazidi girls lost in ISIS territory: Who is to blame?

JerusalemOnline interviewed Yazidis, journalists, various experts, officials and Canadian human rights activist Steve Maman in order to find out why 20 Yazidi girls that were supposed to get rescued got lost, the ISIS ideology behind holding Yazidi sex slaves, Maman’s conflict with the KRG government, efforts to rescue Yazidi women and to analyze whether the KRG is part of the problem or the solution for Yazidis.

As we speak, ISIS continues to implement a genocide against the Yazidi people, murdering the men who refuse to convert to Islam and keeping the women as sex slaves. In the beginning, between 7,000 and 8,000 Yazidi women were held by ISIS as sex slaves. Today, ISIS holds hostage around between 2,500 and 3,400 Yazidi women and girls, who are constantly raped and abused. There are different theories regarding the ISIS ideology behind ISIS holding Yazidi women and girls as sex slaves. In order to find out the truth, JerusalemOnline interviewed Yazidis, journalists, various experts, officials, and Canadian human rights activist Steve Maman in order to get to the root of the issue. Additionally, JerusalemOnline will explore why 20 Yazidi girls who were supposed to get rescued got trapped in ISIS territory, Steve Maman’s conflict with the KRG government, efforts to rescue Yazidi women, and whether the KRG is part of the problem or the solution for the Yazidis.

According to Yazidi journalist Dakhil Shammo, “The radical groups think that everyone has to follow their rules. They think that they are jihadists that must kill non-Muslims and to convert them to Islam. That is why they take their girls. They call it saba, where they take the non-Muslim girls and use them, converting them to Islam and keeping them as a gift for the fighters. It is the jihadist ideology that Islam accepted.”

Many Yazidi rape victims have testified in numerous media outlets that ISIS terrorists believe that if 10 Muslims rape a Yazidi girl, she automatically becomes a Muslim and that this is what drives them to rape the Yazidi girls. Iraqi Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil added that in the ISIS mentality, the Yazidis are unbelievers and that is why they come to rape them: “They come to rape them and abuse them because they are unbelievers. ISIS kidnaps also Shias and kills them after raping them for they cannot keep and abuse Muslim girls. But they can kidnap and hold onto the Yazidi girls.”

Steve Maman, who is the head of the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children in Iraq, a Canadian based humanitarian organization that claims to have rescued 140 Yazidi girls, has a different take on the issue: “There is an influx of fighters in order so that ISIS can become a country and expand. The influx comes from all over the world. These men come into the Caliphate for a certain amount of time. These men that are away from their wives for an extended period have sexual needs and would turn the Sunni women into prostitutes because men would want women. ISIS doesn’t want to bring an influx of fighters without their wives. Therefore, they give the Yazidi girls in order to satisfy these men so they would not go after Sunni girls. It is a simple equation.”

“Now, the Shariah law stated something very simple,” Maman explained. “If you fight for jihad, you can temporary marry a woman. That will enable you to have sex with her. That is not new. In Marrakesh, you can also marry a girl temporarily and then return her to her family. In any country, you can marry a person by contract and get rid of them the next day. The logic is that around the world ISIS has been publishing about young fighters. Young people are financially strapped. Daughters are not given away for men can’t support the girls. ISIS invited them to have legal sex by fighting for them. It became sex tourism. If you fight for jihad, you can have free sex tourism. Young men in the UK who cannot marry in the UK for financial reasons came to ISIS. The concept is amazing. A lot of people don’t understand this. There is a lot of misconceptions in the media.”

20 Yazidi girls lost in ISIS territory: Who is to blame?

Maman told JerusalemOnline in an exclusive interview that his organization attempted to rescue 20 Yazidi girls but they were blocked from proceeding to rescue them by the Kurdistan Regional Government. According to Maman, “We negotiated the release of 20 girls. We worked on it for a month. We did not negotiate with ISIS. We negotiated via our contacts. These girls were moved out of the hands of their captors and moved to an area of Kurdistan. They were in the hands of trust-worthy middle men.”

“We found ourselves in a severe situation,” Maman related. “The risk was high for there were a lot of movements due to ISIS attacks. We didn’t care. The money was not used to buy the girls but to go and get the girls. It was a peaceful way of getting the girls back. We had a problem with the KRG. At the crossing along the Syrian border that has no ISIS people; only KRG, the people there are usually keen to let Yazidis get out. When we arrived at the crossing, the one responsible at the crossing Khairi Bozani says that he needs an ok from the KRG government representative of Yazidis in the Dohuk area.”

According to Maman, “Everyone knows what we do. The representative calls in advance. He calls and tells that our team is here and they are heading to Syria to get 20 Yazidi girls. Bozani says no, don’t let them go through. An argument opened at the border. The team on the ground was not able to get through. I called Bozani from Montreal. I said that the girls will die if not helped. He did not care an itch. Our team was there for a week. We were ready to move forward. He never called us back. Nothing. He never replied. The girls were lost. We have no means of getting them back them. The KRG blocked us.”

Following these very severe allegations made by Maman, JerusalemOnline spoke with the Director General of Yazidi Affairs in the Kurdistan Ministry of Religious Affairs Khairi Bozani to see if any of these allegations are true. Bozani confirmed that the 20 Yazidi girls that were supposed to get rescued from Syria got lost but he blames Steve Maman for the incident: “The Liberation of Yazidi and Christian Children of Iraq (CYCI) is an organization interested in releasing hostages that is run by Mr. Steve Maman. He called me for the purpose of freeing some hostages; they are leaving from Syria and they need a permit along the border check point that is located between the borders of the Kurdistan region and the Syrian border.”

“So, I told them that as an official I cannot provide you with any permission because your organization officially isn’t registered as having a general relationship with authorities in the provincial government, but if you want to travel to Syria as a person, I will provide you with permission depending on your personal documents and more than this, I will send to accompany you a person from our office in anticipation of any obstacles that may occur,” Bozani related. “But to this moment, nobody comes to us or even contacts us! Here I make sure over and over again that we are completely ready for any solidarity to help any official organization or any person who has the purpose of rescuing the victims out of ISIS terrorists hands and the process to save them is in itself a humanitarian work and it is our major aim first of all because those that have been captured by ISIS are our mothers and sisters.” Steve Maman acknowledged that his organization isn’t registered in the KRG but justified it based upon the fact that there is presently a genocide that is going on in Iraq.

The Steve Maman-KRG Conflict

It should be noted that Steve Maman is considered a controversial figure within certain official circles within the KRG. According to Bozani, Steve Maman is a fraud: “Steven Maman had a representative here in Kurdistan. His name is Dawood and I had a meeting with him. Dawood claimed that they rescued 185 Yazidi girls but when the KRG office for Yazidi affairs asked for the data and names of these girls, they could not bring any data. But after three weeks, they brought 14 names of rescued girls but when the office followed it and rechecked, they found out that these girls were rescued by their families and KRG paid them back. If families rescue their relatives, KRG pays them back.  Until now, Steve Maman didn’t rescue anyone and if they really did, where are these girls and show their names? According to Steve’s documents, they collected almost 2 million dollars but they didn’t spend any so far.”

Iraqi Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil thinks that Steve Maman actually invested in Kurdistan but that he just did not give enough in order to actually rescue anyone: “I think he makes propaganda and takes money from people and then doesn’t do anything for the Yazidis. He received much money from donations but I see that he helped very few families like 10 to 15 with some small money. If you see when we help the girls escape, we need 5,000 dollars for one girl or 10,000 dollars or 17,000 dollars for one family. But I see pictures that he only gives 1,000 dollars. He can’t say ‘I am helping those girls to escape.’ It is not true. He gives the money after the girls come back. I tell you maybe for I see some pictures. When you see that Steve takes about 1 million dollars from donations and helps 10 families with 1,000 dollars but what about the rest of the money? I don’t like that Steve uses the name of kidnapped women for his propaganda to take donations for money. He can take money but do not use the names of the Yazidi girls for he didn’t help them and he doesn’t help them.”

According to Yazidi journalist Dakhil Shammo, Maman did not rescue a single Yazidi: “He takes the money for himself. I am involved in these cases for a long time. I know people who rescue. He did not rescue anyone. He just makes money off that. I think he was successful in raising funds but he did not rescue any girls as far as I know. Hundreds of people are not registered in the KRG. Registered or not is a not big deal for the KRG. I don’t know anyone who was rescued by this guy. I never seen a fact that he rescued anyone.” However, Shammo did add that he would be interested in interviewing Maman and did try to get in touch with him without success in order to check out the situation more deeply.

However, one KRG official told JerusalemOnline that the fact that he didn’t register was problematic for the KRG: “He might have done something but he collected 2 million dollars. Even if he could not release the girls, he could help the Yazidis in the camps but he didn’t. He is not the only one who came and said he wanted to help. We welcomed many and had meetings with them. But for him, it was a waste of time. If you register your organization, we provide security and the Prime Minister’s Office asks all of its offices to help them. All the doors will be open.”

In response to these allegations, JerusalemOnline contacted Steve Maman. He responded by sending detailed documents, pictures and videos showing how he gives humanitarian assistance and helps to rescue Yazidi women and girls. He also sent over Arabic receipts showing that he invested money in Iraqi Kurdistan. It should be noted that teams from Channel 2 News and from I-24 News saw Mamon’s organization active in Iraq, interviewing women whom he rescued and saw his volunteers delivering humanitarian assistance. While both JPOST and the Times of Israel did publish reports calling Maman a fraud, Maman emphasized that they only based it off a report in Vice News that was slanderous and not accurate. Maman also claims some of the names on the petition of Yazidis calling him a fraud were fraudulent: “The majority of the list of the so called unsigned letter bear no letterhead or signatures or a title or an email for reply or the name of organization! Their names were on the letter but they never approved it. Even Mirza Ismail confirmed it with everyone in Kurdistan. It was a fraud to try to take CYCI down!”

Maman also added that claims that he raised 2 million dollars are also false, stressing that his organization only raised 800K Canadian: “We still have 400k left from our fundraising. All of their hypothesis is based on an unfounded amount raised. The go fund me page raised $587,000. The rest we received around our website. We have outstanding pledges for 90k. How can they come attack CYCI without any proof of what was raised by just assuming numbers? We liberated 140 lives, donated thousands of toys, jackets, boots, hats, heaters, flour bags, money, medications and doctor services. Tens and tens of thousands of dollars! CYCI and I have adopted a complete village called Amedi in Kurdistan. We supplied everything from money to heaters for every one of the 49 families. Today alone was $5000. All this is documented and shown in proof videos. Nobody can erase the footage.”

Maman claims that many important people back him among them the Canadian government: “We have ex-USA government and embassy personnel. They are backwater trained. Dawood is an Iraqi government and a USA government employee, untouchable in Kurdistan or Iraq.  Dr. Noori Abdulrahman of the KRG himself thanked me for my work and congratulated me.  I am a self-made millionaire Baruch Hashem way before CYCI existed. I never took a salary. It is now 7 months I work 24 hours a day on CYCI.  How dare people even think to call me a fraud? It makes me sick. I gave away my heart and health as well as my family for these 140 Yazidis and the distributions. I still have money left in CYCI to do great things.”

Despite the heavy allegations against Maman, he does have his supporters. Yazidi leader Mirza Ismail has confidence in Steve Maman and believes that it is the KRG that is inhibiting the rescue of Yazidi women and girls: “Everything has to be through the KRG. They have to say that the KRG rescued them so that they can have a good reputation. The Yazidis are divided between the pro-KRG and those that suffered the most. KRG blocked the rescue of Yazidis by Steve Mamon. The KRG is blocking groups from rescuing the abducted Yazidi who are mostly women and children because the KRG wants those groups to do the rescuing through the KRG, so that the KRG can tell the world that the KRG is trying its best to rescue the kidnapped Yazidis by ISIS, so the KRG basically wants to get the ‘credits of this holy work.’  The KRG does not get directly involved in blocking groups, but instead the KRG is doing through it via so called “Kurdified Yazidis” (the Yazidis who accepted Kurdish culture) like Mr. Bozani from the Office of the Yazidi Affairs, the Yazidi Supreme Religious Council and others like MPs Sheikh Shammo, Vian Dakhil and some clan leaders.”

There are also other Kurdish sources that have confidence in Steve Maman. Kurdish rebel Mohammed Alizadeh told JerusalemOnline: “I think many people are helping Steve for he is helping refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Yazidi people believe Steve. I have no problem with Steve. I also support Steve for he is working for the Yazidi people. I think that Steve is working for the Yazidi people and also helping some Christians.”

Another KRG official stated that only the KRG is responsible for rescuing Yazidis, acknowledged Steve Maman’s humanitarian work and stated that MP Vian Dakhil has no right to speak for the Yazidis because she is an Iraqi MP and not part of the KRG. He told Maman in a recorded conversation: “These people are using you to be famous through you. Be frank with them that they are trying to use you to get political power. Don’t even send them pictures. They use your kindness and sympathy. Send it to the government so that I can help you to clarify everything and to prevent them from using your humanitarianism for their own purposes.”

However, Maman also sent a Facebook status from last September written by Canadian journalist Sean Moore claiming that he witnessed personally his rescue efforts and could attest to his humanitarian work in Kurdistan. Following this, Moore contacted JerusalemOnline and said that the quote was old. He said that it no longer represents what he thinks after he went back and interviewed the people who Maman claims to have rescued independently with an interpretator. Moore highlighted that this raises questions about the reliability of other evidence submitted by Mamon. Nevertheless, Mamon denies these allegations made by Moore, insisting that he is not a fraud.

Efforts to rescue Yazidi women and girls

In our interview, I asked Steve why so far he only succeeded to rescue 140 Yazidi women and girls and not so many in recent days. His reply was as follows: “At early stages, ISIS was not concentrating on maintaining the girls as a priority so most of the girls could buy their way out. In the beginning, they left by hundreds. Today, it is complicated and difficult. Today is another story. When we started, there were 3000. We have accumulated 140 so far. But the point is now that these girls are scattered about the Caliphate, they are becoming more scarce and hard to find. It is hard to get them out as the Russians attacked and ISIS barricaded.”

“Now, these girls are less found easily,” Maman related. “Since Russia attacked, it has become very complicated. A lot of girls were moved to Raqqa. We go, talk and negotiate. No one goes to Raqqa. In Mosul, it was possible but most of them went to Raqqa. It is not easy. People are worried and scared. There is a lot changes on the ground. It is not as easy as before we worked. The logistics have changed tremendously. ISIS was attacked all over from different armies. The people inside do not have the same level of communication. They used to have a corridor and now it does not exist. It changes the logistics.”

“Girls are being funneled out to other Middle Eastern countries,” Maman added. “They command the interest of market of pedophiles in the Middle East. They pay 25, 30, 50 dollars for girls from other countries as sex toys. The Emirates and Sheikhs have been buying girls in Kurdistan. They pay a premium for them but it is inexpensive compared to what they used to pay. Yazidi girls are getting lost to those countries as well. They are going all over the Middle East. ISIS is selling them in order to make a profit. As opposed to them buying girls from other countries, getting the girls from ISIS is an easy thing. There is no danger of them getting exposed like in other areas. They are taking advantage of that aspect. They take like 5 girls. They are attractive and inexpensive. It has been written that the Middle Eastern sheikhs are taking advantage of this sad situation basically.”

Regarding KRG rescue efforts, there is contradictory information related to it. Bozani stresses that his office has done great work in order to rescue Yazidi women and girls: “We have a formal office that takes care of hostages and their affairs that has so far freed 2,331 Yazidis including 867 men, 316 female children, 563 male infants and 585 male children. Only the KRG Prime Minister’s Office takes care of this case through opening a special office in Duhok to rescue Yazidis who are captive by ISIS terrorists and we rescued 2331 Yazidis so far. Our efforts to rescue captives are successful because we are encouraged and helped logistically by many people. And the KRG Prime Mister’s office provides money to rescue them. Unfortunately, the international community doesn’t help us in this case; only the KRG Prime Minister’s Office provides all money for our needs.”

There are people who back up Bozani’s claims. Iraqi Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil has complete confidence in Bozani’s efforts to rescue Yazidi women and girls: “I am with him in this process that the KRG rescued about 2,300 Yazidi girls and children from ISIS. I help their families. I know everything about that. Those girls call their families and some of those kidnapped families under ISIS control. They call their families and tell them that they have a way to run away but we need money to bring them to the border and transfer them to a safe place like Kurdistan. Those families in Kurdistan go to our offices and tell them about the money to help those people. Those people go to another site and bring those kidnapped girls. We help them find some person to go to other side to help those kidnapped girls and to bring them.”

The Jerusalem Post’s Kurdistan correspondent and op-ed editor Seth Frantzman, who has traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan and spoke with Iraqi Kurdish officials on the ground, also confirmed the KRG’s efforts to rescue Yazidi women and girls: “The Kurdistan Regional Government has worked hard to rescue Yazidi women, although much of the work and financing of it remains secret due to the sensitive nature of the work involved.  According to Khairi Bozani, the director of Yazidi affairs in the KRG, 3,400 Yazidi women and children remain in the hands of ISIS.  He told me that 3,321 were rescued so far.  The problem is, as time goes by, that many of these women may be pregnant or have children with the men they were sold to by ISIS.  The major problem that seems to exist is there is not enough aid and attention given to this issue of rape and sexual trauma among the women who do return.  There is not adequate support from the international community or the central government in Baghdad to provide budgets to the cash-strapped KRG to support a real framework to deal with this monstrous crime of mass abuse of women.”  He stressed that the KRG has mainly been left alone to rescue Yazidi women and girls on their own.

“In the cases the Yazidis, I spoke to people whose relatives were kidnapped and they are still in contact with them,” Frantzman related. “In one case, a woman was taken to Raqqa and sold to an ISIS fighter.  He was killed in an airstrike.  But she had a child due to rape.  She now lives with the child in a house and an old man who lives next door has promised to help her escape.  Working through middle-men, quiet networks of nameless heroes try to help get these women out, often with locals who are sympathetic.  But a year and a half after the mass kidnapping took place by ISIS in August 2015 and with the war closing in on Raqqa, it is questionable how many more will be saved or how many have been killed and we simply don’t know.”

However, Yazidi journalist Dakhil Shammo believes that the KRG government is helping the Yazidi people but only in a way that benefits them: “It is propaganda for themselves. Those rescue operations are funded by the US State Department. It is a kind of trade. People go ask for help and collect money from relatives and pay money to them. Human traffickers facilitate that. The operations were successful. The girls were rescued. Mostly, the families pay and it is used as propaganda for Barzani. They don’t pay anything. The money is from the US State Department.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government: A democratic Yazidi safe haven or a corrupt Iran proxy?

JerusalemOnline received conflicting information on whether the KRG government is part of the problem or the solution for the Yazidis. Iraqi Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil has complete confidence in the KRG: “Most of the Yazidis are happy with Barzani but it is not 100 percent. You can’t say 100 percent for any party. Many people have other ideas. But I can state that almost all of the Yazidis are happy with the KRG because you see that the Yazidi refugees are living in Kurdistan because it is safe for us. We can’t go to another place among the Arab neighbors. Some of the villages help ISIS. I think the safest place for the Yazidis is Kurdistan and the Kurds help them in many ways.”

Kurdish rebel Mohammed Alizadeh is also pleased with the KRG, Bozani and Barzani: “Khairi Bozani is working to help the Yazidi people in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is very active as he is helping many refugees and working for human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is a good man and everyone in Iraqi Kurdistan knows this guy. He is helping a lot of poor people in Duhak City. There are many refugees in Duhak City like Yazidis and Christians and he helps everyone because it is near Sinjar.”

Yet Yazidi journalist Dakhil Shammo has more mixed feelings about the KRG: “In 2014, they withdrew without fighting. Barzani prevented Yazidis from having weapons. That was the turning point for the people. They never fought for the Yazidis. No one trusts them. However, they did not commit crimes. They just abandoned them.” However, Mirza Ismail disagrees, believing that Barzani is worse for the Yazidis than Saddam Hussein: “During the Saddam Hussein’s regime in power in Iraq; the situation of the Yazidis in Iraq was not good, but it was much better than the present brutal regime of Barzani and his KRG’s policy of Kurdification and expansion in the Yazidi regions in Sinjar and Sheikhan (Nineveh Plain). Under Saddam Hussein, the Yazidis were Arabized in ethnicity and many of the Yazidis’ agricultural farm lands were taken from the Yazidis and given to the Muslims, especially to the Arabs. All those changes affected the Yezidis’ social and economic life. But the Yazidis practiced their faith and other cultural and religious festivals freely; none of their alcohol shops were ever attacked by Muslims. If a Muslim person swore or insulted the Yazidis because of our religion, he would be imprisoned by the regime and the Yazidis safety was protected.”

Ismail related that under Barzani, now a Kurdish identity is being imposed upon them, an identity that some Yazidis accept and others reject while the farms that were stolen from them by Saddam were handed over to the Kurds rather than returned to their Yazidi owners. But Ismail related that Barzani unlike Saddam did not defend the Yazidis against their advisories: “The Yazidis in villages of southern side of the Mount Sinjar started to flee to the mountain but they were stopped and returned back to their homes by KRG forces; many Yazidis tried to flee more than 3- 4 times till 10:00 pm, but were not able to because the KRG forces returned them back. Few hours later in the early morning, the Yazidis villages were attacked by ISIS. Many Yazidis, who had a light weapon such as AK47 rifle fought against ISIS militias while the empty handed women, children and elders were fleeing towards the Mount Sinjar, but were stranded. The Yazidis thought the ISIS were KRG forces, but when they were stopped by them, they were ISIS forces. The ISIS killed thousands of them and kidnapped thousands of women and children.  The Yazidis in Northern side of Mount Sinjar heard the news; they went and begged the KRG forces for weapons. They refused to give any weapons to the Yazidis, who were ready to fight ISIS and protect their people. There is no difference between you handing a person to the butcher to be slaughtered or you slaughter the person yourself; this is what Barzani did to Yazidis, he handed the Yazidis to ISIS butchers to be slaughtered!”

Ismail is not the only source to claim that the KRG is corrupt. A Kurdish source who supports the PKK told JerusalemOnline that KRG corruption is no secret as it is ranked number 17 on the Corruption Index. He added that the KRG created their own problems with the Yazidis by withdrawing their forces after ISIS attacked Yazidi areas and noted that this is what led many Yazidis to oppose the KRG’s attempt to have their area included in the KRG controlled areas. He noted that the PKK supports the Yazidis in this and that the KRG opposes any PKK attempts to be involved in helping the Yazidis. It should be noted that Turkey considers the PKK a terror organization due to the many suicide bombings they implemented against Turkish targets.  In the wake of the struggle against ISIS, the PKK has won some sympathy in the West due to their fight against ISIS but other sources in the region still don’t like them, claiming that they are in bed with the Assad regime and Iran in addition to the fact that the Iraqi and Syrian branches of the PKK have not distanced themselves from the PKK in Turkey that has waged terror attacks.

But the Kurdish PKK sympathizing source and Ismail are not the only ones to have a problem with the KRG. Iranian human rights activist Shabnam Assadollahi does not trust the KRG because they are in bed with the Iranian regime and are thus an Iran proxy: “My Shiite Iraqi source from Ottawa said that 4 forces are destroying Iraq: the KRG, ISIS, the Shia regime in Iran and Obama. They told me that after Saddam Hussein was killed and the suicide bombings started in Iraq, Iran was behind them, bombing Shia populated centers, mosques and market places, blaming it on the Sunnis. They hate what Saddam did to the Iraqis especially the Shias but they said that there was harmony between all religious groups. The Kurds are robbing the oil and underground resources. As for Iran, they want to make a Shia Empire and the Iraqi Shia do not accept that. They told me that the religion that they practice is not like in Iran under the mullahs.”

According to an article written by Iranian journalist Reza Parchizadeh, “Since the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces in 2003, Iraq had been the mandate of a multi-national contingent led by the U.S. However, as control began to slip away from this multi-national contingent and later U.S. troops also started to pull out of Iraq, the Quds Force, which is the special-ops unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran, under the leadership of the enigmatic Major General Qasem Soleimani, by taking advantage of the situation managed to replace the multi-national force.”

“Dozens of comprehensive reports published in the past couple of years show that Soleimani has been wielding considerable power in Iraq and been enjoying a privileged position behind the political scene in that country,” Parchizadeh added. “As it seems, he has under his thumb both Nouri al-Maliki, the former Prime Minister of Iraq, and Masoud Barzani, the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. By exploiting his immense clout in Iraq, he has been tirelessly setting up numerous Shi’ite militia bands and training and equipping them, not only to enhance his influence and maintain his empire in Iraq but also to keep the road to Syria, where many pro-Islamic Republic contingents fight for the Assad regime, secure.”

However, JerusalemOnline’s Kurdish PKK-sympathizing source believes that the KRG has mixed interests and noted that they also support the State of Israel: “KRG has relations with Turkey, USA and Iran: it goes back to KDP’s earlier years of the 1960s. Because each of them wants something different than the other two, the current KRG (which also it means KDP) created a web of relations very delicate balance that changes daily, re-made daily.”

Yet despite all of KRG’s flaws, the Economist reported: “Democracy is established, though still rough-edged. Iraqi Kurdistan has regular elections, a boisterous parliament, an array of political parties and a raucous media. Certainly its courts are weak, its leaders’ habits feudal, its journalists sometimes harassed and its human-rights record far from spotless. But it is more democratic than most of the region and far safer than the rest of Iraq, even though the fanatics of ISIS press against its long border. Suicide-bombings and atrocities of the sort committed by sectarian militias in Baghdad and elsewhere in Arab Iraq are mercifully rare.”