Ankara regularly leads raids against the positions of this Kurdish group, which he describes as “terrorist”.
Le Monde with AFP
Turkey announced, Monday, April 18, having launched a new air and terrestrial offensive against Turkish Kurdish rebels established in northern Iraq. The Minister of Defense, Hului Akar, said that commandos, drones and attack helicopters had launched the offensive against the Kurdistan workers’ party (PKK) in three regions close to the Turkish border .
“A large number of terrorists have been neutralized,” he said, ensuring that the operation would gain in magnitude “within hours and days to come”. The minister did not specify how many soldiers were involved in the offensive who, according to his words, was triggered on Sunday night.
A spokesman for the PKK, who did not wish to be identified, evoked “intense fighting between the Turkish army and the HPG [People’s Defense Forces],” the party’s military wing. “The Occupation Army [name given to the Turkish army by the PKK], who tried to disembark troops by helicopters, also tried a terrestrial breakthrough,” he said.
Visit of the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Iraqi Turkey regularly leads raids against PKK positions, qualified as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies, which has basics and training camps in the Sinjar region as well as in mountainous areas Iraqi Kurdistan.
This precise military operation was intended to thwart a large-scale attack of the PKK against Turkey, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense. But local media has been evoke such an operation for weeks.
The offensive was launched two days after a visit to Turkey from the Kurdistan Prime Minister of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, which suggests that it would have been made aware of the intentions of Ankara. Mr. Barzani said, at the end of his interviews with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that he was in favor of “enlargement of cooperation to promote security and stability” in northern ‘Iraq.
The Government of Iraqi Kurdistan maintains a complicated relationship with the rebels of the PKK, whose presence hinders commercial relations with Turkey. The Turkish army offensives have also accentuated the tensions between Ankara and the Iraqi central government in Baghdad, which accuses Turkey not to respect the territorial integrity of the country.