Photos of Turkish military vehicles and soldiers in the village of Barmiza in Sidakan went viral on social media. Soldiers were seen talking with villagers and sharing a meal with them. The images drew strong condemnation from Kurds condemning Turkey’s incursion across the border, apparently unopposed by the Kurdish or Iraqi governments.
Sidakan mayor Ihsan Chalabi told Rudaw, “The force had asked for cooperation from the villagers, but they refused.”
“They stayed in the village for just two hours, asking people to cooperate with them. But the villagers refused and thus they left the village.”
Chalabi did not specify what sort of assistance the Turkish forces had asked for.
He said the villagers decided not to assist either side – the PKK or the Turkish army – in order to prevent their village from becoming a battleground.
Ankara announced on Saturday that its forces had made a 26-27-kilometer incursion into Kurdistan Region territory in an operation against the PKK, which has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains of Kurdistan.
Turkey has long been engaged in an on-and-off conflict for decades with the PKK – an armed group fighting for the rights of Kurds in Turkey but considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. There have been a number of civilian casualties this year in Turkish strikes in the Kurdistan Region.
Officials in Baghdad and Erbil have condemned Turkey’s offensive and have called on the PKK to leave the region.
Some KRG lawmakers have called on the parliament to convene a special session to discuss the matter.
