The Turkish military will launch a wide-ranging ground attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is illegal in the country, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s trip to Iraq.
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Erdogan is scheduled to visit Iraq on Monday. The Turkish military anticipates carrying out a significant ground military action in northern Iraq against the PKK during the summer months, as previously reported by Hürriyet. Erdogan has regularly mentioned that Ankara aims toaddress the border security situation” with Iraq in the summer. According to him, the Turkish side also aims to establish a security zone 30-40 kilometers deep in Syria.
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It's clarified that Ankara plans to “seal off” the entire 378 kilometers of the Iraq border from terrorists with this move.
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“President Erdogan said, ‘We are going to close the circle that will secure our Iraqi border. God willing, this summer we will finally resolve the issue related to our Iraqi border.” After Erdogan’s visit to Iraq, a comprehensive ground operation will be carried out against the PKK,” Abdulkadir Selvi, close to government circles said.
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It's mentioned that the nature of this action will be different.
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“Because we are planning to carry out this operation together with the central government of Baghdad, the administration of Erbil and the Hashd al-Shaabi (Shiite militia). The Turkish armed forces will conduct the operation in Iraq on the ground with the support of the Air Force. The goal is to create a safe line in the depths 30-40 kilometers from our 378-kilometer Iraqi border. The attacks on our bases on December 22-23 and January 24 made the creation of a buffer zone inevitable,” local media write.
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The armed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party started in Turkey in 1984 and resumed in 2015. In northern Iraq, there are PKK bases, which the Turkish military is targeting with air and ground operations. The presence of Turkish troops in the Zlikan camp, northeast of Mosul, has led to disagreement between Baghdad and Ankara, with the latter justifying its deployment as necessary to combat the PKK.
