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Makhmour residents resist attempts by Iraqi forces to take control of the camp

REFUGEES at the Makhmour camp in northern Iraq repelled an attempt by troops to place it under siege today in a move residents claimed was directed by Turkey.

Hundreds rushed to defend the camp’s perimeters yesterday morning as members of the Iraqi armed forces began putting up barbed wire fences.

They gathered at the Iraqi checkpoint and blocked the path of the troops, preventing them from seizing control of the UN-administered refugee camp.

“Iraqi security forces wanted to place the camp under siege and we held a demonstration against them,” English teacher Cemil Mijini told the Morning Star.

“I think Turkey has threatened Iraq and told them they must take control of the camp. They don’t want us to control it,” he said.

The Iraqi forces desisted and told camp officials that they would arrange for a delegation to meet in Baghdad for talks to resolve the dispute.

The camp, known by locals as the Martyr Rustem Cudi refugee camp, is home to about 12,000 Kurds, the majority of whom fled Turkey during forced assimilation operations in the 1990s.

It is frequently targeted by Ankara, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan describing it as “an incubator of terrorism” linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In the summer he authorised missile strikes that killed three people after he warned the United Nations he would act as a member state if the organisation failed to “clean up the camp.”

In December, Makhmour, which lies in one of the areas contested between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, was attacked by Isis.

Security sources told the Morning Star earlier this month that the resurgence of the jihadists was inextricably linked to Turkey’s occupation of Iraqi sovereign territory.

Makhmour has been placed under a blockade since July 2019 after a Turkish intelligence official was shot dead in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional capital. Nobody from the camp has been charged with the killing.

Residents believe the camp is targeted because it is operated under the principles of democratic confederalism, the ideology developed by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

“The people of Makhmour Refugee camp will never surrender. They will never bow down to the attempts of KDP and the Iraqi government. The resistance of Makhmour is total!” camp officials told the Morning Star.

The system of self-administration there is seen as a threat to both the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling KDP and to Turkey, which is also targeting similar projects in northern Syria, according to camp officials.

At least five members of the Revolutionary Youth Movement and the Young Women’s Union were killed after they were targeted by a Turkish drone strike on Kobane, northern Syria, on Christmas Day.

They were named today as Viyan Kobane, Nujiyan Ocelan, Rojin, Welid and Merhef.

In a joint statement, the groups promised revenge for their “martyrs.”

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