The crisis in Iraq has nevertheless strengthened calls for Kurdish unity among Kurds in facing the threat posed by jihadist militants who have been battling the YPG in Kurdish enclaves in Syria since last summer, and have kidnapped and executed Kurdish civilians.
“It is a shame that the YPG and the peshmerga cannot unite. Kurds should be one,” Aref Mohammed, a 34-year-old Kurdish civilian who fled the Syrian city of Hassakeh and lives in Iraqi Kurdistan, told Al-Monitor.
The tensions between the Kurdish administrations in Syria and Iraq have prevented cross-border trade and cooperation that could have relieved the Kurds in Syria, many of whom are suffering from high unemployment and economic devastation due to the war.
Still, there were some small signs of improvement in relations between the PKK and the KDP.
Mustafa Abdulaziz, the head of the PYD-controlled Syrian side of the Semelka border gate, told Al-Monitor that the chances of Kurdish unity were increasing. “It is good that one enemy [ISIS] is making the Kurds move closer to each other. The border is now opened for people to return to Rojava [the term Kurds use to refer to western Kurdistan in Syria].”
On June 9, dozens of Syrian Kurds returned to Syria from the KRG-controlled border after an agreement was reached between the two sides.
According to Abdulaziz, the Syrian Kurdish border administrations asked for a meeting for 20 days with the KDP-controlled border administration in Iraq to open the borders. As a result of the Mosul crisis, the border administrations on both sides agreed on June 9 to allow Syrian Kurds to return and open the border for international delegations and humanitarian groups.
Furthermore, there was a meeting between the peshmerga forces and the YPG on the Rabia crossing on June 10 after the border crossing was controlled on both sides by Kurdish forces.
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