Hawrami: ‘We are protecting our areas, we are helping the Iraqi army forces, and part of the global coalition to defeat ISIS’

AJTV: The Kurdish forces, the Peshmerga are regarded as the most successful in the fight against ISIL so far. Let's have a little bit of a closer look, now. It is providing that is the KRG the Kurdish Regional Government: 50,000 fighters for this offensive but under a deal with the Iraqi government, Peshmerga forces will not enter the city of Mosul itself. This is considered a red line. The offensive is the first time that the Kurdish and the Iraqi government forces coordinate their efforts on the battlefront. Now we can talk to Hemin Hawrami, who is advisor to Massoud Barzani, president of the semi-autonimous region of Northern Iraq. Mr Hawrami is also Head of the Foreign Relations Office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Now from Erbil, thank you for talking to us.

Hawrami: You're welcome.

AJTV: As I have mentioned already, your forces, the Peshmerga, are considered to be the most successful, crucial in this fight against ISIL particularly. This battle now for Mosul and the Kurdish Regional Government'' involvement would like in return. What kind of reward are you seeking?

Hawrami: We are fighting for the security of the Kurdistan Region and to fight ISIS. We are not looking for a reward, this is our fight, and this is the fight that we wanted to alleviate in the Kurdistan Region from the threat of ISIS. We are participating in this fight against ISIS to drive them out of Mosul to defeat them because as long as they stay in Mosul, they will pose a direct threat to the Kurdistan region and to international security. We have been protecting the minorities in those areas, we are entrenching those areas to protect the people and to help the Iraqi army forces to be successful in clearing the city of Mosul and governing the city of Mosul by the people of Mosul.

AJTV: So, you're not fighting them for Iraq as such, you are fighting for Kurdistan, a future Kurdistan.

Hawrami: We are fighting, we are very proud to say we have been the avant garde and spearheads of the whole humanity and protecting the value defeating these people. We are fighting on behalf of the free world, so we are fighting them on behalf of Iraq, on behalf of the free world because we are on the front line with them and of course we are part of the coalition. We are protecting our areas, we are helping the Iraqi army forces, we are helping and part of the global coalition to defeat ISIS. It is true that Mosul is their stronghold but also affiliates other stronghold organisations in Syria, in the other worlds they are posing threats, that is why we are part of this global coalition. We are fighting not only for Kurdistan. We are fighting on behalf of the free world as well.

AJTV: What happened in Kirkuk? Just over a week ago there was that a massive oversight on the part of your security forces.

Hawrami: We do not look at what happened in Kirkuk from that side and it was expected, when ISIS feels that the pressure is coming toward Mosul, they are trying desperately to launch attacks. What happened in Rutba, for example, and for what happened in the other parts, what happened in Sinjar, they tried to attack Sinjar as well. Also, there is a desperate attempt to attack Hawija to attack Kirkuk it was part of the effort to disrupt the attacking forces on Mosul, especially from the Peshmerga side and the Iraqi Army Unit and that operation is going to....

AJTV: Sorry to interrupt, yes, it failed eventually but it did seem to take Kurdish Forces by complete surprise. They were allowed, ISIL forces were allowed to take up positions to kill people and to control parts of Kirkuk for a short while...

Hawrami: If you look at the routes where they came in infiltrated into Kirkuk, they took an opportunity from the un governed area south of Daqiq and with the Hawiji area because ISIS are still in Hawija and Hawija is not that far away from Kirkuk, so, we have that frontline in the South of Kirkuk, they managed to come in and infiltrate from a weak points of the area that were under the control of the Hashd Shahabi and part of the Iraqi army not through the Peshmerga frontlines.

AJTV: Kurdish forces managed to route ISIL but there is concern about what has happened since, there is suggestions that  of whom are IDP's, they're people who have fled parts of the country who have sought sanctuary in Kirkuk that they're being treated badly by Kurdish forces now. Some are saying they are being forced out of the city, forced on to the road again, their houses demolished.

Hawrami: Those reports are not true because we have 1.6 million IDP's and refugees and one million of them are Arabs from Mosul, from Ramadi, Tikrit and from Baghdad. If the Peshmerga and Kurds are treating Arabs badly, why are those people staying in Kurdistan? But that's different because there are some people who help Sleeper Cells inside Kirkuk, the security forces in Kirkuk, they have all the right to follow the procedures to protect the security of Kirkuk and to see who has and has not been helpful. We have about 600,000 Arab IDP's inside Kirkuk and when we are treating security wise with some of these people that might have helped, the ISIS this does not mean that we are treating all 600,000 IDP's in Kirkuk like that.

AJTV: Can I ask you also, what this battle for Mosul? What sort of impact is that having upon the Kurdish desire for a homeland, a desire that you voiced for a long time, it's well known. How is that influencing your desire to set up an independent Kurdistan?

Hawrami: It's alright to have an independent Kurdistan, it's not a desire, we are a nation and we have a right of self-determination. So, we have always been saying that the ISIS has created or the Iraq, the Iraq pre ISIS or the Iraq post ISIS or Iraq pre Mosul and Iraq post Mosul is a different Iraq. We have two faces, from 1920 to 2003 to 2014, federalism in Iraq has failed but they have not accepted our full partnership so we have started this peaceful, dialogue process with Baghdad about the future of Kurdistan relations with Baghdad where President Barzani lately visited Baghdad and spoke with Prime Minister Abadi and with all other blocks that process has already started but the focus right now is to liberate Mosul and to defeat ISIS in Mosul but definitely after Mosul, we will enter more seriously into the process of getting the self determination of the future of Kurdistan through peaceful ways with Baghdad and through co-ordination with Baghdad.

AJTV: Hemin Hawrami, thank you very much indeed for talking to us here at Al Jazeera

Hemin Hawrami: You are very welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08XIIFzTM1w&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

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