Ankara-Qandil..An area ablaze with Turkish claws and PKK's fire
Shafaq News / The political and security atmosphere has been significantly disturbed since June 15th after the Turkish Joint Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger operations began two days later, due to the attacks that claim Ankara aims to strike PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) bases.
It is not the first time Ankara has carried out attacks inside the Kurdistan Region against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and resorts to violence instead of political negotiation and launch an offensive against PKK that has been fighting the Turkish state since the 1970s as a secret organization, and in the early 1980s as an active armed Marxist party.
In recent years, Turkey has launched attacks inside Iraqi territory and has gradually been able, since 1995, to establish more than 10 military bases within Iraq (more than 30 km inside Iraq), especially in Duhok province.
The Turkish “Claws” attacks come at a sensitive time in Iraq and the region; damaging dozens of villages, displacing hundreds of people in Kurdistan, and recording many casualties. In addition to the many casualties, Ankara seems to be betting - with this show of power - on reaching political settlements with the two peace-seeking men, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in Baghdad and Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil.
"72 out of 84 villages have been left by their residents since the beginning of the armed conflict between the PKK and Ankara that has been going on for years," director of Derlock District east of Amadiya district, Sami Oshana, told Shafaq News.
With that, Turkey is completing its regional display of power; from Iraq to Syria to Libya, but at the same time it wants Al-Kadhimi and Barzani to find a satisfactory solution regarding PKK that has been thwarting it since the 1980s.
In doing so, Ankara ignores the fact that attempts to negotiate the conflict with PKK have been futile for many years; although the party has moved from demanding the independence of the Kurdish entity within Turkey to demanding a semi-independent autonomy, but within the territorial integrity of Turkey.
However, the presence of PKK bases within Kurdistan causes a lot of dilemmas for all parties.
The presence of PKK bases in Kurdistan has strengthened since 2013, following Ankara's announcement of a series of measures to improve the rights of Turkish Kurds, in return for the withdrawal of PKK from Turkey to northern Iraq. The party officially responded by declaring a ceasefire; as directed by the party’s leader, Abdullah ocalan, who has been detained since 1999 on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara.
Indeed, the ceasefire fell in 2015 when Turkey launched airstrikes against PKK sites after an ISIS suicide bombing killed 32 people - mostly Kurds - in the city of Suruch (located inside the Turkish border opposite Kobane, Syria). “ISIS-sympathizer” was one of the accusations against Ankara after the suicide attack. Days later, two Turkish policemen were killed in Shanli Orfa in a PKK attack.
Now, Ankara is reopening the PKK file differently, through two direct military operations after receiving support from the U.S. state department, which has urged Iraq, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Regional Government to work together to defeat PKK.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani is well aware of the seriousness of the situation. For instance, last April, he stated, commenting on a Turkish offensive, "What Turkey did, was a response to the establishment of PKK headquarters" noting the importance of "respecting the protection of refugees, but Makhmur camp is being used for military purposes" noting that "that is related to the Iraqi government, as the camp is under its control”.
When Bazrani visited Baghdad to meet Al-Kadhimi for the first time on June 20th, the security tension’s case in the border province of Dohuk with Turkey after the entry of the Turkish forces to pursue the PKK, was at the top of his agenda in the capital Baghdad.
The PKK headquarters are located in several areas on the Iraqi-Turkish border. From the town of Zakho to the Zab area in northern Dohuk, to the north of Erbil in the areas of Bradost, khwakourk, and the foot of Mount Qandil (located between Erbil and Sulaymaniyah).
The Joint Operations Command criticized the Turkish attack at the time and described it as "provocative". Also, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad; in the wake of the breach of the Iraqi airspace and the bombing of the refugee camp near the city of Makhmur.
Threfore, the issue is not new. The analyst and security expert, Manaf Al-Moussawi, believes that the removal of the Kurdistan Workers Party is within the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government and its armed forces, noting that it did not ask the Iraqi government to help remove the Labor Party.
In an interview with Shafaq News, Moussawi indicated that the Iraqi forces have been unable to enter Kurdistan since 1991 on the bases of UN resolution that granted Kurdistan a form of independence; prompting PKK to infiltrate Qandil Mountains and other areas and use it as headquarters and shelters to carry out operations against Turkey.
Al-Musawi added, "There are political commitments and influences that prevent the removal of PKK from the Iraqi territory”.
The former Kurdish MP and mayor of Sinjar, Mahma Khalil revealed the reasons behind the presence of PKK saying, "PKK members openly said that they will not withdraw from Sinjar or any other area unless Baghdad orders to do so. As a large part of them are paid by the Iraqi government for unknown purposes”.
In his talk to Shafaq News, Khalil noted, “there is harmony between the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and PKK when the head of the PMF committee, Falih Al-Fayyadh visited the headquarters of PKK during the war with ISIS” pointing out, “Sinjar administration has previously asked PKK to evacuate destroyed buildings to restore them, PKK refused; saying that we are here with the approval of the Iraqi government”.
He also wondered, "How can the Iraqi government allow PKK to remain in Iraq and refuse to cancel the Iraqi-Turkish agreement that allowed Iraqi and Turkish forces to move in the territory of the two countries?"
"How can the Iraqi government allow the PKK to remain in Iraqi territory and refuse to cancel the notorious Iraqi-Turkish agreement that allowed Iraqi and Turkish forces to move in the territories of the two countries?" Khalil asked.
Khalil criticized the policies of previous governments “did not respect the Iraqi people’s will in Nineveh and Kurdistan calling for the removal of PKK and the cancellation of the Iraqi-Turkish agreement; the cancellation of the agreement can be done in less than an hour as the parliament holds an official session to consolidate sovereignty and pull the rug from under Erdogan and end the Turkish excess to Iraq”. Adding, "Iraq is not a war zone for Turkish-PKK conflict, where civilian pay with their blood for regional conflicts".
PKK declared that four of its militants had been killed in the Haftanin area (north of Zakho) since the beginning of the Turkish operation against PKK sites.
"The ongoing Turkish military op
eration in the border areas inside Kurdistan resulted in killing four PKK militants in the Haftanin area, the killing of 100 Turkish soldiers, and the downing of two Turkish helicopters" Zagros Hiwa, PKK spokesman for the Relations Committee/Military wing declared to Shafaq News agency.
Hiwa added that “The Turkish army has got through 30 km in the Khwakourk area, and 10 to 15 km in the Haftanin region north of Zakho since the operations began in the middle of last month”. he also praised the Arab's condemning the Turkish military operation, and demanded positions to stop the Turkish attacks.
Hiwa called for the Kurdish parties to have a common position - particularly the peshmerga forces - against the Turkish military operations.
As for the Turkish point of view, Shafaq News was unable to obtain any comment regarding the matter at hand.
Nazar Ghafour, a member of Kurdistan’s parliament, told Shafaq News agency that, “Due to the military operations carried out by Turkish and Iranian forces since June 15th; by order of Kurdistan’s parliament; a committee was formed on Tuesday, June 30th to follow up on these operations in the border area”.
in the context of efforts to contain the situation, The Director of Batifa District in Dohuk, Dilsher Abd Al-Sattar told Shafaq News agency that, "Iraqi border guards had been deployed on the Turkish border in Kurdistan; which had recently been shelled by Ankara".
Abd Al-Sattar continued, "The Border Guard Brigade of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior centered a group of its forces in Batifa, and set up three military bases in the mountains - north of the area - indicating that the task of these forces will be to protect the border villages and their citizens".
