ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The PKK expects there will be major conflict with Turkey very soon, with a senior leader warning of a “hot summer” ahead. "Of course, we are in a state of war against the Turkish army. The escalation is in the upcoming days. We can say we are expecting a hot summer with Turkey,” Bahoz Erdal, known as the doctor within PKK ranks, told Saudi Arabian daily Okaz in an interview published Wednesday. Turkish forces are marching on the PKK’s Qandil headquarters in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. They have pushed at least 27 kilometres into Kurdistan. The PKK’s umbrella group, the Kurdish National Congress (KNK), issued a similar warning. “There are increasing signs of an imminent full-scale invasion of Iraqi Kurdish territory, including the mountainous Qandil region of northern Iraq, in an attempt to further encircle and strangle the only place of freedom in the region,” read a KNK statement published by ANF news. They note that Kurdish representatives have brought their concerns to world leaders, but received no response, which has “emboldened” Turkey. Turkey’s prime minister said earlier this week that they have doubled their military presence in the Kurdistan Region. And on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isik told Haberturk TV that “Turkey has moved from defense to offense in the fight against terrorism.” Though conflict appears inevitable, Erdal said he believes the old formulas within the Middle East won’t solve problems and a new system that encourages co-existence is needed. He argued that the Kurdish issue can only be settled politically. Erdal also revealed there have been some ties between his organization and the Syrian Kurdish YPG, but insisted they are distinct organizations. “The People's Protection Units [YPG] emerged due to the Syrian situation. The Kurdish youth, like the other areas, organized themselves and founded the People's Protection Units. We, as a party, didn't found these units,” Erdal said. Turkey considers the YPG a branch of the PKK and has launched military operations against the force in northern Syria. The PKK is a named terror organization in Turkey. The YPG and the political party PYD follow the philosophy of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan but have also repeatedly denied Turkey’s claims that they are organizationally tied to the PKK. Ocalan himself has strong ties to Syria, spending 20 years in the country. Erdal said that many Kurdish youth from Syria have joined the PKK’s ranks over the years and some moved to northern Syria when the self-autonomous Kurdish enclave of Rojava emerged. These youth helped with the formation of the YPG, using the expertise they had gained within the PKK, “but the Protection Units aren't a branch of the Worker's Party,” Erdal stressed. The YPG, under the flag of the SDF, are a key ally of the US-led global coalition fighting ISIS in northern Syria. Erdal admitted that the PKK did provide the YPG with some weapons and military advice during the siege of Kobane. “This is something we don’t deny. We aided the People’s Protection Units in Syria clearly and intensely during the Daesh [ISIS] attacks. We provided them with ammunition and military advice to develop their methods of protecting their areas,” he said. The 2014-2015 fight for Kobane saw Kurdish forces unite and, with coalition backing, serve ISIS its first major battleground defeat.
