ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Ankara’s defense minister visited Turkish troops based in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, meeting with commanders leading ongoing operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the ministry announced on Sunday. An official in Baghdad said he was not aware of the visit.
Minister Hulusi Akar, his chief of staff, and land forces commander together “visited the Bilic Tepe Base Area in the north of Iraq,” reads a ministry statement.
They were briefed on ongoing operations against the PKK in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.
“Operations Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt are going successfully,” Akar said, claiming that 44 PKK fighters had been “neutralized so far,” meaning they have been killed, injured, or captured.
In late April, the Turkish military launched new operations against the PKK, focusing on the Metina and Avashin areas near Duhok’s northern border with Turkey.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu reportedly said Ankara will establish a new military base in the strategic Metina area that would block the movement of PKK fighters, limiting their access to Turkey and Syria. Turkey already has at least 37 “military points” within the borders of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Rudaw English reached out to Iraq’s foreign ministry for comment on Akar’s visit across the border. "I had no idea about this until right now when you told me about it," said spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf.
Local Kurdish officials say Turkey has made advances in both operations, deploying troops within three kilometers of Kesta village. Intense clashes have terrified villagers and forced families to flee their homes.
The PKK is an armed group that has struggled for increased rights for Kurds in Turkey for decades. Ankara considers it a terrorist organisation. The group has had a presence in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains since the early eighties.
Most of the PKK’s camps in the Kurdistan Region are located in Duhok province, which borders Turkey. Ankara frequently crosses the border with air and ground campaigns to pursue the PKK.
The local population has suffered from, at times, intense clashes in and around their villages. According to official figures, 366 villages have been emptied due to Turkey-PKK clashes in Duhok since 1988, a dozen of them in the past year.
Turkey’s latest advancement into the Kurdistan Region and Akar’s visit comes nearly two months after Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, called on Turkey to respect Iraq’s sovereignty and borders. The ambassador’s comment to Rudaw raised tensions between Ankara and Tehran.
At least seven Turkish soldiers have been killed in the latest operations.
