VIDEO: Peshmerga troops cheered by crowd while crossing southeastern Turkey

MARDİN

Locals cheered as a Peshmerga convoy was crossing the border district of Nusaybin, waving Kurdish flags and flashing victory signs, Oct. 29. DHA Photo

Peshmerga troops en route to Kobane to reinforce the Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamist militants were welcomed by large crowds while traveling through the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin.

Turkish Kurds cheered as a Peshmerga convoy was crossing the border district of Nusaybin, waving Kurdish flags and flashing victory signs.

The district head of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Şehabettin Güler, stepped onto one of the vehicles in the convoy and saluted the crowd.

More than 150 Kurdish fighters, which traveled in two groups, by air and land, crossed into Turkey in the early hours of Oct. 29, preparing to reinforce the Kurdish forces in Kobane, which has become a crucial battleground in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The main peshmerga convoy, which consists of 80 vehicles, entered Turkey via the Habur border crossing between Turkey and Iraq  at around 5:50 a.m.



The convoy used the Silopi-Cizre-Nusaybin-Kızıltepe-Suruç route to meet a group of Peshmerga fighters who arrived at Şanlıurfa Airport with a Turkish Airlines plane at 1:30 a.m.

Both groups were expected to enter Kobane in the late hours, as the distance between Suruç, a Turkish border town, and Kobane in Syria is 16 kilometers.

The convoys that were carrying Kurdish militants to Turkey’s border with Syria under tight security measures were welcomed by crowds of Turkish Kurds, who greeted and celebrated the passage of the peshmerga with flags and dancing.

A group of demonstrators assembled near the Habur border crossing late Oct. 28 to meet the Peshmerga convoy that left Arbil earlier in the day.

The group unfurled the flags of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), as well as northern Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), to welcome the fighters.

A minor scuffle also occurred between the crowd and Turkish security forces when some protesters started to pelt police units on the border with stones, prompting patrols to respond by firing warning shots into the air before dispersing the group with tear gas.

However, smaller groups continued to greet the convoy along the way, waving to militants and taking photos with them.