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Kurdistan
Diyar Ghareeb, a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader, was killed in an airstrike by Turkish forces on Qandil. Photo: Roj News
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region's Security Council (KRSC) on Tuesday denied accusations by what it termed “media close to PKK” that it was involved in the Sunday assassination of senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) member Diyar Ghareeb.
“In the past few days, some media close to the PKK have unfairly accused security agencies in the Kurdistan Region of complicity in the assassination of one of their leaders,” Kurdistan Region Security Council, the Region's top security body, said in a
statement on Tuesday.On Sunday, both Turkey and the PKK announced the death of Diyar Ghareeb, a member of the General Leadership Council in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a PKK political umbrella organization.
Turkey claimed to have assassinated the senior PKK member in an airstrike on Qandil back on June 27th, while the PKK claimed the assassination actually took place on July 5.
Senior PKK members have made accusations of collaboration and “treachery” by Kurdish security forces in the Region.
PKK’s Executive Committee on Monday released a statement vowing to avenge the death of Ghareeb. It also claimed that there had been “collaborators and spies” in the operation, claiming “treacherous forces” were involved in the attack.
On Tuesday, Mustafah Qarasou, a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)’s executive board, was cited by the PKK-affiliated news outlet Firat News Agency (ANF) as saying that Turkish forces assassinated Ghareeb using “servants and spies.”
The Kurdistan Region’s Security Council claimed that the accusations by PKK were spread in Kurdistan Region media for “political interests.”
“We at the Security Council in the Kurdistan Region reject the entirety of the accusations. Despite the misleading efforts of these media outlets, they can’t hide the fact that the PKK’s presence in some areas of the Kurdistan Region is the main reason for fighting and instability to the Kurdistan Region,” the Security Council added.
The Council reiterated calls made by the Kurdistan Regional Government for the PKK to stay from villages and vacate the Region altogether. “We assert the truth that an already free Kurdistan does not need freeing,” it added.
Ghareeb’s assassination came as part of the large-scale Operation Claw being conducted by Turkish forces in areas of the Kurdistan Region where the PKK are currently headquartered, which began on May 27.
The PKK and Turkish state have been locked in a decades-long, often armed, conflict, resulting in the death of roughly 40,000 people, including civilians.
A ceasefire deal reached in 2013 lasted for more than two years before deadly fighting once again resumed in the Kurdish provinces of southeastern Turkey.
Some 4,472 people have been killed since the peace process fell apart on July 20, 2015, according to the most recent figures from the International Crisis Group (ICG).
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