As the Turks bomb the Kurds with the backing of NATO the media has begun its bombing campaign against “greater Kurdistan” aspirations, which will also end Kurdish “unity”.

On 18 JUL 15 NEC-SE posted the article:  #1) the beginning of a new era for the oldest region.  In the article we stated:  “It must be said, however, that the KRG has set itself up for this outcome. Developments in the region over the past 15 years have repeatedly shown the KRG leadership that global economics always trumps Kurdish tribal politics and the KRG’s 41 percent Corruption Index. But the KRG leadership has remained willfully and resolutely blind to such realities. They continue to operate in the same old outmoded ways, guided by an obsolete tribal mentality.”

http://nec-se.webbar312.net/2015/07/18/1-the-beginning-of-a-new-era-for-the-oldest-region/

It seems that the press media has finally taken steps to point out KRG and Kurdish missteps in the region.

The first article states: “Now, let’s be clear, the Peshmerga are certainly brave and they are certainly holding back ISIS, but their rulers, the Barzani clan, are dictators and gangsters. Masud Barzani isn’t meant to be president; there is a strict two-term limit on the post, which he’s just ignored. When a Kurdish poet wrote a satirical piece recently poking fun at the Barzani family, he was arrested and executed. If Kurdish businessmen don’t pay the right bribes to the Barzanis, they too face arrest. Numerous journalists writing critically about the clan have simply disappeared.”

“You son of a dog, if you publish that magazine tomorrow, I’ll entomb your head in your dog father’s grave,” one newspaper editor was told. Eighteen months later, he was shot dead outside his home. When Arab Spring-inspired street marches hit Kurdistan in 2011, there were over three hundred and fifty attacks on journalists by the Barzanis’ thugs. There have been hundreds more since then.”

“The Barzanis also appear to be overseeing a campaign of ethnic cleansing, both directly in Iraqi Kurdistan and via their affiliated fighters in Syria. They deny these charges, but diplomats and several aid workers attest to seeing Sunni Arabs driven from their homes in their thousands, their former dwellings burned to the ground. Many of the displaced Sunnis have lived there for decades, having been encouraged to move there by Saddam Hussein.”

“Looting, arson and forcible removal hardly seems a recipe for ongoing stability, and with the West simply standing by, often the only place for the Sunni Arabs to go is into ISIS-controlled territory.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/20062-lets-be-realistic-about-kurdistan-its-a-deeply-unpleasant-autocracy

The second article states: ” The US and Turkey are working together on plans to create an “IS-free zone” along the border with Syria. As well as targeting IS militants, the zone would also allow Turkey to hit positions held by the outlawed Kurdish PKK group.  Turkey says it draws no distinction between the PKK and IS, considering them both terrorist organizations.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33682972

The third article states:  ” Turkey launched negotiations in 2012 to try to end a PKK insurgency, largely fought in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, that has killed 40,000 people since 1984.  A fragile ceasefire had been holding since March 2013, but Turkey launched the air strikes after a several police officers and soldiers were killed in attacks blamed on the PKK.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/turkey-erdogan-pkk-peace_55b774bfe4b0224d8833beb9

The fourth article states: ” On Tuesday, Mr. Erdogan urged Turkey’s lawmakers to lift the legal immunity of members of parliament who had links to “terrorist groups,” a broadside clearly aimed at the HDP. The party’s leader, Selahattin Demirtas, vehemently rejected such threats. “Our only crime was winning 13 per cent of the vote,” he said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.  The trigger for the recent developments was a horrifying suicide bombing on July 20 in the southeastern town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The suspected Islamic State attack killed 32; many of the victims were young Turkish Kurds, who had gathered ahead of a trip to help rebuild the city of Kobani. The attack provoked a backlash from Kurdish nationalists, who accuse Mr. Erdogan and the Islamist AKP of tacitly or secretly supporting the Islamic State, something Turkey denies. Now, by launching offensives against both the Islamic State and the PKK, Turkey could find itself vulnerable to reprisal attacks by those groups.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/erdogans-new-offensive-puts-turkey-on-the-edge-of-a-dangerous-precipice/article25731709/

The fifth article states:  ” Erdogan said Turkey had the right to protect itself, and that the US agrees with Turkey’s assertion the PKK is a terrorist group despite the PKK and its affiliated groups also fighting ISIS. ”

What is interesting about this article is that it is published on Rudaw, which is a KRG supportive newspaper.  The current KRG leadership is close allies of Turkey and enemies of other Kurdish groups in the region.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/28072015