Shafaq News/ Turkey may hold a counter-terrorism operation against PKK fighters in the Sinjar district, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.
Erdogan speaks to reporters following Friday prayers at the Bezmi Alem Valide Sultan Mosque in Beşiktaş district in Istanbul saying “it is possible to launch an operation against PKK” but refused to confirm if such an operation would take place in the near future.
"Turkey is always ready to carry out joint operations against PKK with Iraq but we cannot openly announce the date for such operations," the president told reporters.
"We may go there of a sudden," Erdogan added, using a famous phrase he said before Turkey carried out operations in northern Syria.
The PKK terrorist group managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in mid-2014 on the pretext that it was protecting the local Yazidi community from Daesh. Since then, the PKK has reportedly established a new base in the area for its logistical and command-and-control activities besides their main headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar visited Iraq earlier this week to hold meetings with top Iraqi officials and said Turkey was ready to provide assistance to Baghdad and Erbil administrations “to get rid of PKK.”
Turkey has long stressed that it will not tolerate threats posed to its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take the necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group. Ankara previously noted that if the expected steps are not taken, it would not shy away from targeting terrorist threats, particularly in Sinjar.
