Dutch defense officials visit Kurdistan to support troops during Christmas

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Dutch Minister of Defense Ank Bijleveld and Dutch State Secretary for Defence Barbera Visser on Monday visited the Kurdistan Region after visiting Baghdad in a show of support for Dutch troops over the holidays.

The officials visited Camp Stephan in Erbil, where fifty Dutch soldiers are training Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The two officials, in a video with Dutch soldiers, wished everyone a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas.

“We are here with our men and women who train Peshmerga forces, and carry out important work,” Bijleveld said in the video.

“And in several locations, they play an important role to bring security and safety to the people,” Visser added. The two senior officials and soldiers wished everyone a Happy Holidays in the video.

The Dutch government has had troops stationed in the Kurdistan Region for years as part of efforts with the US-led coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS).

“I just returned from a two-day visit to Dutch soldiers in Iraq together with Barbara Visser,” Bijleveld tweeted on Tuesday, after leaving Iraq.

“The fight against ISIS continues and that also is the case for Dutch support for this,” she added, in contrast to the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from Syria and claims IS had been defeated.

Dutch newspaper Telegraaf this weekend reported that Foreign Minister Stef Blok had argued the US withdrawal could result in “renewed fighting and instability.” However, it has not led to any changes for the Dutch army.

A Dutch F-16 fighter jet mission in Iraq and Syria will still come to a halt at the end of this month, the Dutch FM explained.

Bijleveld, nevertheless, continued to argue in a session in the Dutch parliament that IS still poses a threat in the region and could easily return.

Members of the Dutch parliament have expressed a fear that violence would once more erupt, including with regards to Turkey. Some called on the Dutch government to send a message to its NATO ally that a Turkish-led attack against Kurdish forces fighting IS “would not be accepted.”

The parliamentary meeting comes one week after a visit by Blok to Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. 

Blok also confirmed that Amsterdam will continue its training program for Peshmerga forces, stating that the Netherlands wants to see a “stronger” Kurdistan Region and hoped that a new government with “great ambitions” would be formed “in the near future.”  

The Dutch Army is part of the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTCC), which is made up of instructors from nine countries: Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Sweden.

The Dutch Army now trains Kurdish instructors so that they can take over training missions in the future.

Editing by Nadia Riva