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Turkey conducts military Terrorism airstrikes on Kurdish people in northern Iraq

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The Turkish Armed Forces on Dec. 13 conducted airstrikes in northern Iraq’s Sinjar and Mount Karacak regions, Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing the Defense Ministry.

According to an official statement, the air operation was conducted to “neutralize PKK/KCK/PYD/YPG and other terrorist elements.”

Ankara considers the YPG as the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US.

“The operation targeted housing facilities, shelters, caves, tunnels, and storage units used by terrorists that threaten our country, nation, and border security,” the statement said.

In the planning and implementation stages of the operation, the statement continued, Turkey exercised due caution to prevent civilian casualties and damage to civilian property, and to protect the environment.

Fahrettin Altun, Communications Director of Turkish Presidency, said in a Twitter post that a successful air operation targeted Sinjar and Mount Karacak, which are among the “important” centers of terror elements.

“This operation dealt a blow to terror and it was a message to terror supporters,” he added.

Iran rebuffs Turkish offer on PKK

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“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is banking on Iran’s support for a Turkish offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the Qandil Mountain range bordering Iran and Iraq, although questions remain about the scope of the operation and the extent of Iranian backing.”

Semih Idiz explains, “Hopes were raised in Ankara that cooperation between Turkey and Iran over the Kurdish issue would increase after both countries rejected the results of the independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq in September 2017.”

But in an embarrassing retort to Erodgan and his ministers, who hyped the prospect of cooperation in Qandil, Iranian military spokesman Gen. Abulfazil Shekarchi said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran thinks military action against the territory of another country without permission from its legitimate government, with the excuse of combating terrorism, is illegal. … Iran will never support initiatives that will damage the sovereignty of neighboring countries.”

Idiz adds, “Like Russia — Turkey’s other “partner” in Syria under the Astana process — Iran also maintains that only foreign troops invited by the Syrian and Iraqi governments are legally present in those countries. Ankara counters by arguing that Baghdad and Damascus have lost control over parts of Iraq and Syria used by the PKK and the YPG, and says this has left Turkey with no choice but to act unilaterally in order to ward off the existential threat to the country’s security from these groups. … Iran’s own war against the PKK-affiliated Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan also fueled these hopes. Iran’s ongoing fight against this group, however, has not prevented Tehran from having a different policy on Turkey’s fight against the PKK or the YPG.”

“Ankara and Baghdad also remain at odds over the presence of the Turkish military in Bashiqa near Mosul. Iraq has repeatedly called on Turkey to pull back its forces there, a demand Ankara has refused to meet so far, citing the threat from the PKK,” Idiz writes.

“Pragmatism and a shared dislike of the West may impel Ankara and Tehran to maintain the appearance of good ties presently,” Idiz concludes. “Many expect, however, differences over Syria and Iraq to increase in time, because Turkey and Iran are ultimately on different sides of the Middle East’s active and growing sectarian fault line.”

PKK releases Turkish agents’ ‘confessions’ about Paris murders of three female members

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The murders of three female members of the PKK in Paris five years ago were planned by Turkey’s intelligence service and would have received “high ranking” approval, according to statements attributed to two Turkish agents being held by the PKK in the Kurdistan Region.

Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan, and Leyla Soylemez were killed in Paris in January 2013. The PKK has accused Turkey of being behind their deaths.

The only suspect, a Turkish citizen named Omer Guney, died in custody in December 2016, just a month before going to trial. He had denied involvement in the killings.

On Wednesday, the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), the PKK umbrella body, released statements from two Turkish intelligence (MIT) agents in their custody saying that the murders were committed by the MIT and received high level approval.

Approval would have to come from the director of the agency, captured MIT agent Erhan Pekcetin said, according to a statement published by ANF, a PKK-linked media outlet.

“I don’t think that he will decide himself, he will ask the president. Because these actions can create international problems,” he said, noting that peace talks between Ankara and the PKK were ongoing at the time of the murders.

Pekcetin also stated that Guney was involved.

Pekcetin and Aydin Gunel, “senior officials” from MIT were seized by the PKK in the Kurdistan Region last summer. The PKK released their photographs and details last week.

Thousands of Kurds held a march in Paris on Saturday demanding “truth and justice” for the deaths of the three women. Some also changed slogans against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had met French President Emmanuel Macron in the city the day before.

Source: http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/10012018

Kurdish Fighters PKK Neutralized Two Turkish soldiers in southeast

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Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are seen during a gunfight with Turkish security forces in Turkey’s southern city of Nusaybin

The Turkish military has announced the death of two of its soldiers in an attack by the  Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country’s troubled southeastern region.

A statement by the military said the soldiers were killed during ongoing security operations in the mountainous Semdinli district of Hakkari province near the Iraqi border on Monday, adding that another soldier was also wounded.

The attack came a day after the Turkish General Staff announced that a soldier had been killed and two others injured when a hand grenade was detonated by accident in northern Iraq.

The wounded soldiers were reported to have been taken to hospital but they are not in critical condition.

PKK  regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey plans charges against Turkish peace academics in Germany

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Gagrulenet Illustration

Turkish prosecutors have prepared charges against academics living in Germany. The Turkish academics signed a petition against military operations against Kurdish militants.

Turkish prosecutors are preparing to open criminal procedures against nearly one hundred academics and intellectuals living Germany, German media NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Sunday.

The Turkish academics, some of whom have already received legal notices, will be charged with “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” the media outlets reported.

In early 2016, 1,128 Turkish and international scholars signed an open petition, “We will not be party to this crime,” condemning Turkish security forces’ operations against the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) youth wing in dozens of cities in the predominately Kurdish populated southeast.

Known as “Academics for Peace,” the group called for an end to “deliberate and planned massacre,” open-ended curfews and human rights abuses committed during months of security operations in 2015 and 2016. They also demanded the resumption of peace talks with the PKK.

Hundreds of security forces, PKK militants and civilians were killed in months of military operations that destroyed several towns. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced. More than two years on, security operations continue and some towns face curfews.

Erdogan targets Turkish citizens abroad

A number of academics are already on trial in Turkey and several hundred more lost their jobs for signing the petition. About 100 of the signatories fled to Germany, where some took up academic positions.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a torrent of accusations against the academics at the time, deeming them terrorists and demanding punishment.

More than one hundred academics in Turkey have already received identical indictments. Now more are being sent out to Turkish academics living in Germany.

The indictments relate to alleged crimes tied to the publication of the petition, not engaging in violence, according those seen by NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Istanbul’s top prosecutor accuses the signatories through their words of intending to present the Turkish state as an “illegitimate, destructive force” and legitimizing the violence of the PKK. Making terrorism propaganda carries up to a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in Turkey.

FourTurkish security personnel killed & eight guards injured in operation against Kurdish PKK in Turkey’s east

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Two Turkish military personnel and two security guards were killed early Saturday during an operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)  (outlawed in Turkey) in the eastern province of Agri, province’s governorship told Anadolu Agency.

The governor Suleyman Elban added that eight security guards were also injured in the same operation in the province’s Dogubeyazit district.

The operation reportedly came after PKK militants killed three migrants Monday and injured seven others.

Ankara silent on Turkish agents allegedly caught in Iraq assassination plot

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Armed Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party stand behind a barricade during clashes with Turkish forces, Bishil, Diyarbakir, Sept. 28, 2015

By Amberin Zaman,

A Kurdish militant group claimed today that it has captured Turkish intelligence officers. Diyar Xerib, a Kurdish leader linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said the PKK had “arrested” two Turkish nationals working for Turkey’s national spy agency MIT, but had refrained from publicizing the incident so as not to create problems for the local government.

“No doubt the PKK can publish news about the arrests of the MIT officials who wanted to make the area a place to carry out their dirty operations, the biggest of which was to assassinate a prominent PKK official,” Xerib told the pro-PKK Roj news outlet.

News that the PKK had captured Turkish intelligence officials first surfaced last week. Accounts vary but according to several Iraqi Kurdish news organizations, the Turkish spies had traveled to Sulaimaniyah, the de facto administrative capital of the eponymous province in the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The men were said to be planning to assassinate a senior PKK figure, most likely top field commander Cemil Bayik, and ended up ensnared themselves. Bayik occasionally travels to Sulaimaniyah for meetings as well as for medical treatment.

Eyewitnesses report spotting the burly guerrilla commander there in a grey business suit but without a tie.

The mountainous region bordering Iran is controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The PUK has cordial relations with the PKK. The Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party is closely allied to Turkey.

Xerib did not provide any details about where or when the alleged MIT agents were apprehended. He did, however, threaten to release photographs of the men and unveil their identities. It’s not clear what if anything the PKK is demanding in exchange for their release. The PKK has held Turkish citizens, including soldiers, in the past. The rebels usually release them unharmed amid a blaze of publicity calculated to showcase their strength.

The Turkish government remains silent on the matter, neither denying nor confirming that any Turkish officials have fallen into PKK hands. Fearing official reprisal, the Turkish media has largely followed suit. If the story of a botched assassination proves to be true, it will be a huge embarrassment for the Turkish government. The Aug. 23 expulsion order for the PUK’s long-time Ankara representative Behruz Galali suggests it may well be.

Iraqi Kurdish officials told Al-Monitor on condition that they not be identified by name that reports confirmed that two Turkish nationals had been seized by the PKK on Aug. 5 in the Dukhan area near Sulaimaniyah. One of the officials described the reports of the alleged plot to murder Bayik as “far fetched.”

The Turks had traveled from Turkey to Erbil and were driven to the Sulaimaniyah area. The officials said Turkey had failed to inform the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) about their planned mission but had then sought its help to free the men. Turkey is accusing the PUK of leaking information about the MIT operatives to the PKK. The PUK denies any knowledge of the scheme.

Saadi Ahmad Pira, a veteran PUK official, told the Voice of America that Galali’s expulsion from Ankara followed “a failed operation.” He asserted that the PUK had received no prior notification from the Turkish authorities, saying only, “There was an act, an intelligence operation conducted by Turkey. It was not successful. Not only was it not successful, it even ended with damage inflicted on the Turks.” He declined to elaborate.

Pira noted, however, that Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was in Erbil on Aug. 23, had raised the matter in a meeting with him and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, whose ailing father Jalal remains notionally in charge of the fractious PUK.

There are unconfirmed reports that Turkish consular services in Sulaimaniyah have been suspended since Aug. 24. Al-Monitor was unable to reach Turkish officials for comment.

Some analysts scent a connection between Turkey’s actions and a planned referendum on Iraqi Kurdish independence. Turkey says it wants the KRG to cancel the vote planned for Sept. 25.

One of Turkey’s biggest objections to the referendum is that it will cover the disputed areas, notably the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which the Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad both claim for their own. Kirkuk is home to a large ethnic Turkmen population with strong kinship ties to Turkey. Ankara has sought to mobilize the Turkmens to advance its own political agenda in Iraq with mixed results. The PUK currently controls much of Kirkuk, where PKK fighters also joined in the fight against advancing Islamic State militants in 2014.

Another theory making the rounds is that the the Turkish government may seek imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s help in bringing the MIT agents back to Turkey. The PKK leader has remained off limits ever since April 2015, when the latest round of peace talks between the government and the PKK collapsed.

Turkey has long sought to either capture or kill high value PKK targets and has asked the United States for help in locating them. Turkey is believed to have renewed the request during Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ visit to Ankara on Aug. 22. The idea was floated during the Barack Obama administration and is being mulled by the current one.

Few believe that eliminating the PKK leadership would have a lasting impact on the group, which has been fighting the Turkish army, NATO’s second largest, for the past 33 years.

Past efforts to dismember the PKK have ended in failure. The PKK did experience internal fissures after Turkey netted Ocalan in 1999 with American help. A group of dissenting rebels led by Ocalan’s brother Osman sought to seize control of the outfit but were forced out. Some believe that driving a wedge between it and its sister organization in Syria, the People’s Protection Units — the United States’ top partner in the campaign against IS — can weaken and ultimately unravel the PKK.

Amberin Zaman is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse who has covered Turkey, the Kurds and Armenia for The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and the Voice of America.

Kurdish fighters PKK bombing kills 2 Turkish soldiers in Batman province

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At least two Turkish soldiers have been killed in a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bomb attack in the country’s southeastern province of Batman.

The Saturday blast took place as the PKK detonated a road bomb as a military convoy was passing through a rural area in the province’s Sason district.

The soldiers succumbed to their wounds after being moved to a local hospital.

Turkish security forces have launched a ground and air operation to hunt down the militants across the region.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Turkey: Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK attacked and killed Three Turkish soldiers and seven were wounded

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pkk attack and kill turkish soldiers Three soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari and the eastern province of Erzurum on June 17.

PKK  detonated a hand-made explosive placed on a field during the passing of security forces in the Güven Dağı region of Hakkari. Two soldiers were killed and another seven were wounded in the explosion. Five PKK militants were also neutralized during the operation. Earlier in the day, one soldier was killed during an armed clash with PKK militants in the rural of the Şenkaya district of Erzurum. According to a statement from the governor’s office, the soldier was wounded during the clash but later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. It added that three PKK  were killed in the operation.

Separately, two PKK militants were killed by a drone strike during a security operation in northern Iraq on June 17.

According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, Turkish security forces used drones to target PKK militants in the Nirva Seytu Mountain region.

Erdogan says Turkish strikes on KURD PKK in Iraq Sinjar coordinated with Massoud Barzani

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ANKARA,— Turkish President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that airstrikes against Kurdish PKK-affiliated militants in Sinjar was coordinated with Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic party KDP leader Massoud Barzani, Reuters reported.

Turkey will not let northern Iraq’s Sinjar region become a base for Kurdish PKK militants and will continue military operations there and in Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) “until the last terrorist is eliminated,” Erdogan told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We are obliged to take measures. We must take steps. We shared this with the U.S. and Russia and we are sharing it with Iraq as well,” Erdogan said in an interview in the presidential palace in Ankara.

“It is an operation that Massoud Barzani has been informed about.”

Turkish planes bombed Kurdish fighters in Iraq’s Sinjar and in Syrian Kurdistan on Tuesday, in a widening campaign against groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Erdogan said he regretted the death of several members of the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, also deployed in Sinjar, during the Turkish operation and made clear that Turkey’s action was “absolutely not an operation against the peshmerga”.

Turkish warplanes also bombarded the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northeastern Syria. The spokesman for the YPG said that 20 YPG members had been killed as a result of Turkish airstrikes in the Mount Karacok area of northeastern Syria.

In total Turkish warplanes hit 39 suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a one-hour aerial bombardment on the mountains of Sinjar and Karacok.

Tensions between the Peshmerga force of the KDP party and the Shingal Protections Units (YBS), an armed group affiliated with the PKK based in the Yazidi region of Shingal (Sinjar), sharply escalated earlier in March when the two sides entered an armed confrontation.

Clashes break out in the district of Sinune in Sinjar on March 3 after Turkey-backed Barzani Roj Peshmerga were deployed to the area that is controlled by the YBS.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the resulting conflict since then.

A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974, and has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.