ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) warns that its armed forces will now fight against what they describe as the fascism of the Turkish ruling party everywhere following Turkey’s recent airstrikes against a PKK-affiliate group in the Shingal in the Kurdistan Region and some Kurdish fighters in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).
In a statement, the PKK says its armed wing, the People’s Protection Force (HPG) and its female counterpart YPJ-Star will be deployed to where they are needed.
It grouped together the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and ISIS as ones who have the same goal of crushing the will of the Yezidi people in Shingal, and the people of Syria.
“After the occupation of Jarablus and al-Bab, and the April 24th attack in Shingal and Rojava [Syrian Kurdistan], the PKK has the right to carry out its struggle against the fascism of the AKP and MHP wherever they are,” a statement from the PKK read, as published by its media affiliate ANF News Agency Thursday evening.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA), backed by Turkish armed forces captured the two Syrian cities of Jarablus and al-Bab from ISIS in late 2016, and early 2017,respectively.
The People's Protection Units (YPG) in Rojava also aimed at the two cities that are close to Turkey’s southern border.
“...the HPGP and the YPJ-Star will be present wherever they are needed,” the PKK declared, raising expectations that they may engage in armed fight against the Turkish forces in Kurdistan Region, and in Syria.
It said that the Turkish airstrikes, which the PKK said happened on Monday while in fact it was on Tuesday, coincided with the anniversary of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks that started on April 24, 1915.
The Turkish air force carried out simultaneous air strikes against the PKK-affiliate group Shingal Protections Units (YBS) and the US-backed YPG on April 25 citing what it described as the elimination of threats against the Turkish national security.
The Turkish fighter jets also bombed a Peshmerga position last Tuesday in Shingal that was in close proximity to the YBS units, killing six Peshmerga and injuring another eight.
Turkish President Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim both called the Kurdish President Masoud Barzani on Tuesday, expressing their condolences over the killing of Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in Shingal, emphasizing that the strike happened by “mistake” and that it was not “intentional.”
The United States whose forces are supporting the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria in their drive against ISIS said that the attacks were not approved by the US-led coalition in Iraq or Syria. The US revealed that the Turkish military informed them only 20 minutes before the attacks.
Turkey also said that they informed the Kurdistan Regional Government beforehand.
The PKK insisted that the attacks could not have happened if it did not have green light from regional and international powers, Kurdish authorities in Erbil.
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