YPG's Tel Abyad operation and AKP's fear

Those who have seen the film 'Beritan' will recognise Rubar Beyar. Rubar played a guerrilla commander in the film. It's the only film he's appeared in and it was not a difficult role for him as in a way he was playing his own life....

Those who have seen the film 'Beritan' will recognise Rubar Beyar. Rubar played a guerrilla commander in the film. It's the only film he's appeared in and it was not a difficult role for him as in a way he was playing his own life....

Rubar Beyar is the son of Farise Inis from Qamislo. Farise Inis was one of Abdullah Öcalan's first friends and comrades in Rojava. After meeting Öcalan he devoted his life to the Kurdish cause before dying two years ago.

His son Rubar joined the PKK and spent 20 years in the mountains as a guerrilla. After the Rojava Revolution began he returned to Qamışlo, to the town where he had grown up. He was now known as Fermandar, or commander Rubar Qamışlo.

He was a commander in the operation to open up a corridor to Sinjar to rescue tens of thousands of Yazidis from ISIS. He was one of the commanders who led the operations that cleansed the town of Jazaa on the border of ISIS gangs to ensure the security of Sinjar.

Rubar Qamışlo was a member of the YPG General Command and the commander of Cizirê Canton.

The 'Operation to liberate the western front of Cizirê Canton' planned by Rubar Qamışlo was launched on 6 May.

Commander Rubar was wounded a few days later and died on 14 May. The YPG then called this operation the 'Commander Rubar Operation'.

The ultimate aim of this operation is to liberate the Tel Abyad area, thereby uniting Kobanê and Cizirê, and dealing a fatal blow to ISIS.

The YPG operation is continuing on the western front in Serêkaniyê and to the southwest of Hasekê.

The operation achieved a major success at the weekend by liberating the strategically important Mount Abdulaziz, called 'Çiyayê Kizwanan' [Mount Kizwanan] by the Kurds. Nearly a thousand years after it was conquered by another Kurdish commander, Saladin, the YPG took this mountain. The mountain was named Abdulaziz after one of Saladin's commanders. Now Saladin's descendants have taken it and have set up a defensive line on the mountain which previously provided ISIS with great advantages. From here ISIS carried out numerous brutal attacks. Abdulaziz mountain is strategically placed between Til Hemis, Mosul, Dera Zor, Tel Abyad and Rakka. It enabled control of the area between Tel Abyad and Serêkaniyê, that is, between Kobanê and Cizirê.

With the YPG's taking of Mount Abdulaziz, ISIS will no longer be able to use the area to send reinforcements to attack Rojava. Rubar Qamışlo planned this operation and his fighters carried out the plan.

The YPG will now continue to advance westwards, but the most important route leading to Tel Abyad is along the Turkish border from Serêkaniyê. With the capture of Abdulaziz mountain, the ISIS fighters on the border have been encircled. However, as has been said and documented a hundred times before, the Turkish border offers great benefits to ISIS. The area 30 kilometres to the west of Serêkaniyê between Tel Abyad and Rakka is the area where ISIS has been concentrated from the outset. Tel Abyad is opposite Akçakale on the Turkish side and the border crossing is open. ISIS uses this border crossing for logistics and reinforcements. Only between Tel Abyad and Jarablus can they cross into Syria. If Tel Abyad were to be captured by the YPG, ISIS would lose its source of oxygen. The TİGEM state farm stretching from Akçakale to Ceylanpınar used to be open to civilians, but for two years no one has been allowed near it. The TİGEM farm has 142 cameras monitoring security in what is now a prohibited zone. If footage taken by these cameras were to be examined the relations between ISIS gangs and Turkey would be proved. The farm is a command centre for ISIS operatives of Afghan, Chechen, Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian origin. ISIS operatives also cross the border near the villages of Zenginova, Akçaköy and Kepezli.

At last year's local elections the Urfa Metropolitan municipality and the Ceylanpınar district municipality was won by former JİTEM (Gendarme intelligence) agents, thus strengthening these ties. The Mayor of Urfa, Celalettin Güvenç is known for having held press conferences with Nawaf al Bashiri of Al Nusra.

To sum up, as the YPG's operation continues to head for Tel Abyad it first has Mabruka, then Saluk and finally Tel Abyad in its sights. The YPG's forces are heading east from Kobanê for the same purpose. If this plan succeeds, the Turkey-ISIS relationship will be buried in the soil of Rojava and will be a greater political, military and diplomatic victory even than that won in Kobanê. Even more than ISIS, Turkey and the AKP fears such a development. The AKP prefers to be friends and neighbours with ISIS rather than a free Rojava. The AKP government cannot accept the destruction of ISIS, which it sees as its only friend. Every blow inflicted by the YPG on ISIS is a response to the war waged on the peoples by the AKP. Every vote for the AKP means another bullet provided to ISIS. The elections of 7 June offers everyone the opportunity to respond to this evil alliance.

*This piece by Kurdish journalist Amed Dicle was translated from Turkish by ANF English service.