The Battle of Zargata Hill
The Kurdistan Region — Iraq is no stranger to armed rivalries between political parties, but already tense political situation deteriorated further on as Gorran Headquarters in Sulaimaniyah’s Zargata Hill were targeted by PUK forces led by the party’s top Peshmerga commander, Shex Jafr, after polls in the Iraqi elections closed. By the time the guns fell silent, conference room where the heads of four political parties — Gorran, CDK, Komal, and Yekgrtu — met to discuss their course of action in response to alleged electoral fraud perpetrated by the PUK was riddled with machine gun bullets.
The PUK initially denied that the attack had taken place, with Lahur Shex Jangi Talabani even calling in to PUK-operated KurdSat News to assure audiences that security forces were responding to reports of “celebratory gunfire” at Zargata Hill. However, after video of the attack surfaced on social media, the PUK began to piece together it’s side of the story.
In an interview with Voice of America, Shex Jafr, a PUK politburo member and commander of the PUK’s 70th Division, recalled that after the polls closed, he began receiving information that Gorran operatives led by Qadiri Haji Ali (Gorran executive and former PUK intelligence chief) were seizing ballot boxes in Germian. Opposition newspaper Awene had, in fact, reported Gorran cadres removing and opening ballot boxes from polling stations in Kalar amid suspicions of tampering by the PUK. This followed a series of complaints made by the party throughout the early and general election processes about dishonest practices by the Sulaimaniyah branch of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC). By the time the polls closed and results began to come in on Saturday evening, Gorran, blindsided by what appeared to be a victory for the PUK, began circulating theories of Iranian-backed “hacking” of the electronic voting machines by the PUK. Shex Jafr claimed that he and other PUK leaders (who were celebrating news of a surprise electoral victory in Slemani and Kirkuk at Kosrat Rasul’s residence) attempted to reach Gorran officials to persuade them to file their complaints legally with the IHEC and refrain from “clandestine activities”, but to no avail.
As he left Kosrat Rasul’s house, Shex Jafr claimed that he attempted to call the “well-read and respectable” Omer Said Ali, Gorran’s General Secretary, but Qadiri Haji Ali (who he described as a “ruinous backstabber”) picked up the phone and a war of words ensued, escalating to the point where Qadiri Haji Ali challenged Shex Jafr to “come to [Zargata Hill] if you’re brave”. “I went”, Shex Jafr admitted, “if they didn’t provoke me, I wouldn’t have gone”. When he arrived at the hill to take Qadiri Haji Ali up on his challenge, Shex Jafr claims he was met with a “rain of gunfire” without any provocation from him or his men. Shex Jafr has repeatedly denied that he and his entourage carried heavy arms to Zargata Hill and claimed that nearby PUK peshmerga, upon hearing the shots, arrived on the scene and returned fire. “If we had shown up to stage an attack, all of the [people] from the cities and districts where [Gorran] seized ballot boxes would have attacked”.
Ata Sarawi, a peshmerga commander based in Sharazoor and the Talabani family’s “designated negotiator” when problems arise with Gorran, claimed in an interview with Niyaz Abdullah of Draw Media that he was on the phone with Nawshirwan Mustafa’s son, Nma when the firing began. “Right away, I went [to Zargata Hill] armed with my Peshmerga to protect Kak Nawshirwan’s grave and his sons.” After several hours, Sarawi recalled “ we reached a point where we calmed the situation and stopped [Gorran from] broadcasting to its people to come to the Hill, and we were able to come together with our colleagues [from Gorran] Omer Said Ali, Osman Haji Mahmoud, Mamosta Jamal, as well as Hero Ibrahim Ahmad, Hakim Qadir and Kak Imad [from the PUK] to end this [situation] and we ended it.” Sarawi maintains that Shex Jafr did not “attack” Zargata Hill. “This is not a consequence of some plan by the PUK or Gorran. Two friends had a fight and this tragedy happened… Gorran and those other five parties created a situation in which they turned this fight into a fight between the PUK and the opposition parties.”
Shex Jafr insists that he has exhausted his efforts to find common ground with Gorran leaders. “If those [Gorran] peshmerga hadn’t come, I would have gone to the hill to talk…but from this day forward, I will not compromise with anyone”. Sarawi claims that the PUK would prefer to reopen negotiations with Gorran to form a government. However, even Sarawi, who spoke in glowing terms of Nawshirwan Mustafa and his sons, said that if Gorran and the opposition was successful in suspending the election results, “there will be a bloody civil war in the Green Zone between the [PUK and Gorran] forces and the price will be very, very high.”
It seems that Gorran will also be less likely to compromise moving forward. The Movement has suspended communications with the PUK politburo and is increasingly discussing the need for self-defense. Gorran does not have a standing peshmerga force and its leadership has declined to establish one, even as the futility of competing politically in the KRG without the ability to appeal to force became clear over the past several years of political crisis. However, the events of May 12th compelled the movement to call on its supporters to help repel the PUK’s attack on Zargata Hill and an estimated 3000 people, many of them armed, answered the call. Although the leadership is divided on the question of establishing militias, there been calls for the Executive House — Gorran’s highest decision-making body which is regarded by many as too willing to compromise with the PUK — to resign. A change in leadership, if it occurs, could take Gorran in a less conciliatory direction as younger and allow more bellicose personalities rise to the surface.
Notwithstanding the Executive House’s lack of a position on the PUK assault or the establishment of a “self defense force”, some of the former peshmerga commanders in the party have reportedly taken security matters into their own hands and are already laying the groundwork for increased security around Zargata Hill. Others like Adnan Osman, a former Gorran MP in the Kurdistan Region Parliament and candidate in the 2018 Iraqi elections, and Shorsh Haji, Gorran Executive and Spokesperson, have adopted a particularly bellicose tone in the days and weeks following the attack. “Up to this point, we have been firmly resolved…that the fight for change is a non-violent struggle” Shorsh Haji explained, “but after May 12th…we believe that in this jungle…Gorran must look elsewhere for self-defense”. Osman assured listeners of Gorran Radio that the party will attempt to resolve the fraud disputes peacefully through legal channels, but if demands for a re-election are denied, “we will control the streets…all options will be brought to the table”. Osman had called on supporters to “come armed to the hill” when the attack occurred.
The eruption of violence and the escalation of inter-party conflicts amid challenges to the legitimacy of the results of the Iraqi general elections raise serious doubts as to whether the Kurdistan Region can proceed with KRG parliamentary elections, due to be held on September 30, without further destabilizing an already volatile political system. Although members of the PUK such as Ata Sarawi and Hakim Qadir insist that the line of communication is open, the PUK continues to defend Shex Jafr’s actions and threaten Gorran with violence if it continues to contest the Iraqi election, giving the leaders of Gorran no reason to believe that their interests are better served by continuing to pursue a “peaceful struggle” for change at the ballot box. Given these conditions, we can expect that party leaders will remain persistent in pursuing their vendettas and recklessly dragging their constituencies into the fray rather than using their influence to build confidence with other parties and the public to find solutions to the KRG’s political and economic crises.
