PKK, PYD conflict in Syria

Following the death of Bahoz Erdal, one of the three men on the PKK Executive Committee, the longstanding division between the outlawed Kurdistan workers party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliates PYD has deepened.

Dissent within the terrorist groups, led by an executive committee in Qandil, northern Iraq, is deepened due to differing ideas on the “relations with Iran and Assad, in the framework of focusing on the civil war in Syria.

Another reason of division between the groups was PYD's closeness to the U.S. military and its effort to get a legal view.

PYD administration in northern Syria, led by Bahoz Erdal, Sofi Nurettin and Şahin Cilo, proposed to transfer all forces to northern Syria but the PKK's Qandil authority opposed it.

Senior PKK members at their so-called headquarter in Mount Qandil, headed by Murat karayılan, Cemil Bayık and Duran Kalkan, rejected the PYD demand in order not to make it look as though the PKK had been defeated in Turkey.

PYD hopes to establish a “federal Kurdish state” in northern Syria with the support of the U.S. authorities but the PKK sees the strategy would isolate it in the region.

Recent reactions from the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq (KRG), headed by Masoud Barzani, who refused a PYD demand to send arms and additional force in Syria, also got PKK thinking about their future if the PYD established an autonomous region.

One of the other main reasons causing divisions is that PKK members in Turkey were left alone due to the interruption of the logistic support provided to them.

At least 40 senior members of both organization have been executed so far due to internal conflict.

Top PYD member Enden Haftaro, code-named Çerkder, and his brother were the first militants executed by Qandil's execution team. Then Bahoz Erdal, Alişen Koçkiri, Rüstem Cudi, Çiçek Botan, Eriş Tekvan and Bozan Tekin, based-on northern Syria, were neutralized for their opposite views.

Remzi Kartal and Ferhat Doskin, other important figures in the organization, were sent to the prison by the Qandil authority.

Following the fall of trench and barricade strategies, defended by Bayık, Kalkan, Karasu and Karayılan, due to heavy storm by the Turkish security forces since last summer, the conflict went in the worst in the organizations.

After the killing of Bahoz Erdal along with his 18 co-fighters in northern Syria the division became an open conflict.