Turkey vows to keep attacking PKK in Iraq
Foreign ministry spokesman says Ankara will invoke its ‘legitimate right to self-defence’ if Baghdad ‘does not do what’s necessary;’ Turkish ambassador summoned to protest air raids
ISTANBUL: Turkey will keep striking KURDISH PKK ighters In northern Iraq, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, a day after Baghdad formally complained that repeated Turkish air strikes violated its sovereignty and endangered civilians.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Saturday that Turkey expected neighbouring Iraq to fulfill Its responsibilities In Combatting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. He says Turkey will invoke its “legitimate right to self-defence” if
Iraq “does not do what’s necessary.”
Iraq summoned Turkey’s ambassador on Friday to protest Turkish air raids on Iraq’s Sinjar and Makhmour mountains, where the PKK operates. The group has waged an insurgency inside Turkey for more than three decades but also fought against Daesh group in Iraq.
The Turkish Defence Ministry says Thursday’s strikes targeted PKK bases that supply Kurdish positions in northern Syria.
The Turkish military said on Friday it killed eight Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) militants, prompting Iraqi authorities to summon the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad.
Turkey regularly hits PKK bases across its southern border, saying the militants use the remote and mountainous northern Iraqi region as a base for deadly attacks inside Turkey, where the outlawed group has waged an insurgency since the 1980s.
President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a ground offensive in northern Iraq earlier this year. This week he also announced an imminent operation against a Kurdish militia in
neighbouring Syria. The Us-backed YPG MILITIA, WHICH HAS BEEN IGHTING DAESH in Syria, controls Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey.
Ankara says it is an extension of the PKK and poses a direct threat to Turkey.
“The activities of the PKK terrorist organisation in the territory of Iraq and Syria have become a national security issue for Turkey,” Aksoy said.
He said the government in Baghdad had a duty to prevent Iraqi land being used as a base for attacks on neighbours, and described Friday’s
air strikes as an act of self-defence which Turkey carried out because Iraq would not act.
“These operations in the ight against terrorism will continue as long as terror organisations nest on Iraqi soil and as long as Turkey’s security needs require it to,” Aksoy said.
The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. It has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast that has killed about 40,000 people.