The KDP “has nothing to do with this war and has not taken any action against the PKK to fight it or not,” party spokesperson Mahmoud Mohammed said on Thursday.
Turkey launched a new operation, dubbed Claw Eagle-2, against the PKK on Wednesday, deploying forces to Duhok province’s Gara Mountain. At least three Turkish soldiers were killed in the first days of clashes.
The PKK, an armed group fighting for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey, has its base in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. Turkish forces frequently cross the border to carry out air and ground operations against the group. Local civilians are often caught in the crossfire and hundreds of villages have been emptied during decades of fighting.
A PKK umbrella group, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), on Thursday accused the KDP of coordinating with Turkey in its latest offensive. “Undoubtedly, conducting a ground operation would not be possible without the consent or support of the KDP,” read a KCK statement published by PKK-affiliated media ANF. “The guerrilla areas have been surrounded by KDP troops for two to three months anyway. The Turkish state has carried out this attack in the context of this encirclement.”
The two parties have vied for dominance for decades. Late last year, KDP-affiliated forces were deployed to the border region with Turkey and at least one Peshmerga was killed.
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KDP spokesperson Mohammed said the PKK was the cause of the problem. “In fact, it is the PKK that has dragged the Turkish army into the region and brought the problems, destruction, and instability,” he said.
“The PKK is well aware that if the [KDP] party had really been involved in those wars, the PKK would have been in a worse position,” he added.
He reiterated Erbil’s stance that the PKK should withdraw from the Kurdistan Region in order to end the risk to the local population.
