| ئاسایشی هەرێمی کوردستان Asayîşa Herêma Kurdistanê | |
 KDP Asayish logo | |
 PUK Asayish logo | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1992; 34 years ago (1992) |
| Jurisdiction | Kurdistan Region |
| Headquarters | Erbil,Duhok andSulaymaniyah |
| Employees | 10000–12000 (2017) |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency |  Kurdistan Region Security Council Ministry of Interior (of the KRG) |
Asayish (Kurdish:ئاسایش,romanized: Asayîş,lit. 'security'[1]) is the domestic security agency of theKurdistan Region ofIraq. The organization was established in September 1993[2] and has been often referred to as anintelligence agency,[3]security force,[3]security service,[4] security,[5] secret service,[6]secret police,[7] or just "Kurdish police".[3] It is distinct from the region'sKurdish police force but shares some responsibilities with it.
The Asayish is divided into two branches: one affiliated with theKurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which primarily operates inErbil andDuhok, and another affiliated with thePatriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which mainly operates inSulaymaniyah andHalabja. The Asayish coordinates and shares information with itssister organization, the Kurdistan Region’s investigative and foreign intelligence agency,Parastin u Zanyari.
The Asayish acts under the command of theKurdistan Parliament and theKurdistan Regional Government (KRG), specifically the Ministry of Interior.[2]
According to the KRG the Asayish's official goals are:
They have jurisdiction over a number of crimes including:
The Asayish conducts a network of security operations, which include:[9]
Following the emergence of theIslamic State, these security operations increased in scope and intensity.
Asayish members were initially drawn from the ranks of thePeshmerga following the1991 Iraqi uprisings. Like the Peshmerga forces, the Asayish was divided after theKurdish civil war in 1994 into branches affiliated with the KDP and the PUK, each having operated under separate Ministries of Interior.[10] In 2009, when the KRG’sMinistry of Interior was nominally unified, the Asayish was also unifiedde jure, however, divisions along party lines persisted.[9]
According to available sources, it remains unclear whether either branch has a formally codified legal basis for its existence beyond the loosely defined framework of its parent body, theKurdistan Regional Security Council (KRSC), which was established in 2011.[10]
TheAsayish SWAT units arespecial operations forces within the PUK's Asayish branch.[11] They frequently conduct anti-ISIS operations, including raids, inSuleymaniah,Halabja,Kirkuk,Ranya,Shahrizor, and areas nearChamchamal.[12]
On several occasions they've conducted their operations in conjunction with theKurdistan Commando Forces,[13] theCTG Kurdistan,[14] theIraqi National Intelligence Service,[15] and theIraqi Ministry of Interior.[14]
In 2022, they've conducted training excercises with theU.S. Army's11th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade.[16]
Scholars have described the Asayish as having anauthoritarian aura, while citizens of the Kurdistan Region are allegedly reluctant to speak about the agency.[9]
In 2009Amnesty International accused Asayish of abusinghuman rights, including torture and other ill-treatment, and claimed that the agency was "above the law" inIraqi Kurdistan.[17] The KRG criticized Amnesty by stating:
Most of the information provided in the report chronicles problems we had just after the fall of Saddam, when we were still subject to Saddam-era penal codes...Amnesty had a particular agenda and used dubious information, often very old, to paint an unrealistically harsh picture of the security forces in our Region by bringing up allegations of abuse at prisons such as inAkre, which have long been closed.
— Kurdistan Regional Government[18]
In November 2016, Amnesty International reported that Kurdish authorities (namely Peshmerga and Asayish) had taken part inKurdification, by forcefully displacing Arabs in Kirkuk by bulldozing homes and banishing the residents.[19]
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