Kurds cannot trust the Iraqi army

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – Kurdish citizens in Kirkuk and Erbil told K24 on Wednesday that they are not willing to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment the Iraqi army in the Kurdistan Region because they do not trust the Iraqi army, nor do they consider it an army of “liberation.”

Kirkuk citizen, Salim Abdullah said, “How can we congratulate the Iraqi army when it has surrendered to the Islamic State (IS)? As a Kurd, I have not seen any support from this army. The Iraqi army has always exploited Kurdish citizens. We Kurds are proud of (Kurdish) Peshmerga, not the Iraqi army.”

“I wonder which 'Iraqi' they mean by the Iraqi army. It does not defend Iraqi land and [this] has created many separate militias. It has been two years that they [have been preparing]  to retake  Mosul, but residents still hope Peshmerga forces liberate their land,” said Sarhang Jasim from Erbil.

Comparing the popularity of Peshmerga to the Iraqi army amongst Kurds, Karim Ahmed , a teacher from Kirkuk said, “The Iraqi army has not served Kurds at all, so this anniversary has nothing to do with the Kurdish community. Especially now that we have witnessed how they were pushed back from their bases in Mosul [all the way] to Tikrit and near Baghdad. If Peshmerga forces and the will of [Kurdish] Kirkuk residents did not exist, they would have also surrendered Kirkuk to the Islamic State.”

According to the Guardian, in July 2014 the Iraqi army, consisting of 30,000 soldiers, fled their barracks, surrendering  the city of Mosul to 800 IS militants.

The Iraqi Army established first in a modern form on 6 June 1921 by the United Kingdom.

(Hemen Delo and Goran Shakhawan contributed to this report.)