Joshua Landis is a faculty member at Oklahoma University and has a blog for surely, the most enlightened and intellectual types. Since his latest entry deals with the Kurds, I am posting here. This article, like many he posts is not by him. I guess he would be an expert, I wish he'd relay his thoughts more on the whole situation rather than just post stories from over there. I'm not even sure what the gist of this article is. College reading I suppose. A good website to look around on and maybe one can find an article, speaking for myself only, that one can make some sense out of, that is not too complex.
The End of the PKK in Sinjar? How the Hashd al-Sha’bi Can Help Resolve the Yazidi Genocide
Posted by Matthew Barber on Tuesday, May 30th, 2017
This article was published May 30, 2017 by NRT, a media service in Iraqi Kurdistan. The original article is available here. Photos and Images have been added to this re-post that were not present in the original.
by Matthew Barber
Sinjar is at a pivotal moment of transition and the next phase of its future will likely be determined by what happens over the next few weeks. This environment of change offers the US, UN, and EU a significant opportunity to help resolve the political crisis in Sinjar, and some specific recommendations for action will be detailed in this article.
Background on the Yazidi Hashd
Observers who have followed events in Sinjar over the past few years have probably seen the KDP-PKK rift as the salient competition in the area. This dynamic is now complicated by the presence of a third major actor, the Hashd al-Sha’bi and their quickly growing local Yazidi battalions.
The Hashd al-Sha’bi (or Popular Mobilization Units—PMU) are mostly known as a set of Shi’i militias, but the Hashd Body (or PMU Committee – هيئة الحشد), the institutional entity under which the Hashd al-Sha’bi are administrated, also serves as an umbrella for affiliated forces among many other Iraqi communities, including Christians, Turkmen, Sunni Arabs, and Yazidis.
Continued: http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/end-pkk-sinjar-hashd-al-shabi-can-help-resolve-yazidi-genocide/