Jash (term)

For the Youtube channel, see Jash.

Jash (Kurdish: Caş or Cahş, literally meaning "donkey's foal"), or " ar" or The Light regiments or fursan is a type of collaborator, usually a military unit composed of people of Kurdish descent that cooperates with enemy combatants against the Kurdish army, Kurdish rebels, or the Kurdish civilian population. The term is considered derogatory in a cultural sense in much the same way as quisling is.

History

The Light regiments were first established in the forties during the 1943 Barzani revolt in northern Iraq, then it flourished and start to take an important role in the 60's during the First Iraqi–Kurdish War when General Khaleel Jassim was in the command of these regiments and associated them with many Iraqi Army operations against the Kurd rebels, specially in Amadiya in 1965 and Rawandiz 1966.

During the al-Anfal campaign, the military campaign of genocide and looting commanded by Ali Hassan al-Majid, al-Majid's orders informed jash units that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even Kurdish women was legal.

The term "Jash Police" was used by the Kurds towards the Iraq's local Kurdish police militias in 1944.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Kurds who became collaborators with the Iraqi government were referred to as jash. The number of jash increased to "as many as 150,000 by 1986" as a method of avoiding military participation in the Iran–Iraq War. These jash then realigned with the rest of the Kurdish people during the 1991 Kurdish uprising. It has been stated by a number of Kurds that "the jash had been completely forgiven".

See also

• Fifth column
• Collaborationism
• Hanjian
• Quisling
• Village Guards