Iraqi MP Abbas Sarout, a member of the nation’s defense committee, told reporters on Friday that the “blatant Turkish incursion” into northern Iraq was unacceptable, and that chasing down PKK members was just “an excuse.”
Sarout says Turkey does not have permission to deploy large numbers of troops into Iraq, and urged the government to take diplomatic measures to protect Iraqi sovereignty.
This has been an ongoing problem for Iraq since the 2003 US occupation, as Turkey has been intermittently coming into the country to hunt Kurds of various stripes ever since. Iraq’s central government has objected, but that’s usually the beginning and end of the exchange. Turkey has reported the latest operations a success, but that’s at most a brief prelude to announcing another operation.
Thirteen Turkish hostages were reported executed in northern Iraq over the weekend, leading Turkish officials to promise to retaliate. They refused to say if the hostages were killed during a botched rescue attempt.
You can always find an MP to say what we want to hear.
It is easy to gloss over what is happening in Kurdish populated areas in the Middle East. It was the father of the current Iraqi Kurd leader, Barzani, that coordinated with Turkey, to prevent deliberate infiltration of Turkish PKK fighters just as Syria has been infiltrated. And the porous borders made it easy to move fighters and weapons.
Iraqi Kurds had a rude awakening following Kurdish participation in US liberation of Sinjar, to liberate Yazidi from ISIS. Following liberation, US allowed PKK fighters to get into town, but prohibited Peshmerga Iraqi Kurds. Barzani made that public. US was shocked by Peshmerga decision to hold referendum for independence — as US could not support them. Iraq took advantage of the referendum to assert control of airports and borders — for the first time since Saddam Hussein. Peshmerga Kurds stood by as Iraqi army took over Kirkuk and Sinjar, ousting PKK. Turkey has two bases in Iraq, and it is clear that they are there to prevent PKK from taking roots in Iraq.
Now Iraq controls border, but it is a difficult geography, and smuggling is on going. On Syrian side — Turkish border is now controlled from Syrian side by joint Russian-Turkish patrols.
Turkey will not attempt to control militancy within its territory until PKK militants are prevented from taking roots in both Iraq and Syria.