ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A “full” Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) return to the Qandil Mountains as per a 1992 agreement could see the Kurdistan Region come to the defense of the group in talks with Turkey, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) spokesperson told Rudaw on Monday.
“The 1992 agreement was not for the PKK to be present in Gara, Metina, Haftanin, Shingal, and Makhmour. They were set to be at Qandil, at the old bases of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),” Mahmood Mohammed told Rudaw’s Bestoon Khalid.
“We have not gone to Qandil because we believe in the agreement, and have not opposed their presence in Qandil. Even now, if they gather all their forces and go to Qandil, then we would even have talks with Turkey and say that they are there as per an agreement,” he added.
In 1992, the newly formed Kurdish government, composed of the KDP and the PUK, made an agreement with the PKK to allow them to stay in the Qandil Mountains, where the PUK had previously set up bases against the Baath regime.
However after years of conflict, the PKK is now present in many areas in the Kurdistan Region, which has at different times attracted opposition from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) as it believes that the PKK does not respect the institutions of the Kurdistan Region and gives Turkey an excuse to enter its borders.
“The PKK not only does not do what the KRG says, in fact they do not even claim the legitimacy of the Kurdistan Region’s institutions, including the parliament,” Mohammed said. “The solution is for the PKK to change its stance against the Kurdistan Region, and take the fight out of here and not give Turkey an excuse to further come into the Kurdistan Region."
Clashes between the PKK and Peshmerga forces, often affiliated with the KDP, have time and time again raised fear of a civil war, with some even believing that the KDP would side with Turkey to fight the PKK.
“We have no decision to fight PKK with Turkey nor do we believe in such approach,” the spokesperson said.
However, Mohammed reiterated that the PKK has no right to power in the Kurdistan Region.
“They are Kurds, but they do not share power here with us, this place has its own rule.”
The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization. For decades, Turkish forces have pursued the PKK within the Kurdistan Region’s borders.
Turkey has launched a series of operations against the PKK in recent years, with the most recent beginning in April. Duhok’s Metina area, on the Turkish border, is the focus of Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, and Operation Claw-Lightning targets the Avashin and Basyan areas further east.
Civilian populations and the environment have been devastated by the conflict.
This year, seven civilians have been killed, several injured, and 20 villages emptied.
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A parliamentary report issued last year concluded that at least 504 villages have been emptied across the Kurdistan Region since 1992, and hundreds of people have been killed. In Duhok alone, 366 villages have been abandoned since 1998.
According to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the Turkey-PKK conflict, there have been 144 fatalities so far this year. The dead are 33 Turkish soldiers, 103 PKK fighters, and eight civilians. The majority of the casualties this year have occurred in the Kurdistan Region.
Since the decades-long conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, at least 5,464 people have been killed, including 549 civilians.
