The People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia common in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, has taken to kidnapping young Kurds, forcing them to join their fighting forces clashing with ISIS.
The move is being called “conscription” by the militia’s political wing, and they have reportedly taken hundreds of youths of the streets of northeastern Syrian Kurdish cities in the operation.
Locals say that many young people are staying inside their houses to avoid being captured and “conscripted” by the YPG. The move was harshly criticized by several rival Kurdish political factions.
Ibrahim Biro, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Patriotic Party, said he believed the YPG efforts to force locals into their group was a “cynical move” designed to give them more influence at an upcoming meeting of Syrian Kurdish factions on the defense of Rojava.
