ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq has set up military outposts across Duhok province to prevent further Turkish advancement into the Kurdistan Region, an Iraqi border commander said on Wednesday, several days after an unauthorized visit from the Turkish foreign minister to Turkish troops in Duhok.
“We immediately set out to open [check] points on Iraqi territory against the areas of incursion, such as Kani Masi and in areas in Duhok province,” Hamid Abdullah Ibrahim, a border guard commander told Rudaw on Wednesday.
“The state is serious about reinforcing the First Command in order to stop Turkish advancement towards Iraqi land, preventing the movement of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the region, and end the dispute that has caused us a big problem in the past years,” he added.
This comes after Ankara’s defense minister Hulusi Akar visited Turkish troops based in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, meeting with commanders leading ongoing operations against the PKK, the ministry announced on Sunday. Iraq’s foreign ministry spokesperson said he was not aware of the visit.
Iraq’s foreign ministry on Monday summoned Turkey’s top diplomat over the country’s “continued violation” of Iraqi sovereignty, including the “uncoordinated” trip by the Turkish defense minister.
Prior to Akar’s visit, Kurdish officials had warned that Turkey had made advances further advances into the Kurdistan Region, deploying troops within three kilometers of Kesta village in Duhok’s Amedi district.
Turkey regularly bombs villages in the area on the pretext of targeting the PKK, a Kurdish armed group fighting for the greater rights of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
On April 23, Ankara launched new operations against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. The Metina area, on the border, is the focus of Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, and Operation Claw-Lightning targets the Avashin and Basyan areas further east.
Turkey has established a number of military outposts in the Kurdistan Region since the mid-1990s to reportedly fight PKK guerillas, increasing its cross-border footprint in recent years. Since June 2020, Turkey has launched three major air and ground operations, establishing new outposts deep inside the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey deployed forces and launched another operation in February in Duhok province’s Gara Mountain against suspected PKK positions, dubbed operation Claw-Eagle 2.
Ankara launched Operation Claw-Eagle mid-June last year, with warplanes launching airstrikes in northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Two days later Turkey launched Operation Claw-Tiger, deploying commando forces to the Haftanin area of the Kurdistan Region against the PKK.
Last July, the Turkish presidency’s Directorate of Communications published a map claiming to have established 37 “military points” on the Kurdistan Region side of the mountainous frontier and in the urban centres of Erbil, Duhok, Zakho, and Soran. Turkish officials do not usually make such information public and the map was quickly removed.
