ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Farmers in Duhok’s Mount Gara area are unable to tend to their animals and fields as a conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rages nearby and their villages have been targeted.
“People cannot leave Chamanke in order to visit their villages for farming purposes. Our villages are 4-5 kilometers away from Chamanke,” farmer Jambali Omar told Rudaw’s Ayub Nasri on Friday.
Chamanke is located 15 kilometres from Mount Gara where on Wednesday Turkey launched a new operation, dubbed Claw Eagle-2, against the PKK.
Heavy clashes were ongoing on Saturday morning and PKK-affiliated media Firat News Agency (ANF), citing fighters, reported the PKK had “besieged” Turkish soldiers on the mountain.
Alend Amir, mayor of Chamanke, told Rudaw, “Seven villages of Chamanke sub-district have been bombarded by Turkish aircraft.” There are no reported casualties as the residents had already left the villages, though many animals have been left behind.
“We hear the sound of warplanes all the time. The bombardment is really stressful,” said another local farmer Ahmed Abdullah.
The PKK, an armed group fighting for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey, has its base in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. Turkish forces frequently cross the border to carry out air and ground operations against the group. On Saturday, Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, accompanied by senior military commanders, visited Sirnak province, across the border from the Kurdistan Region, to inspect the Turkish army's Operations Center that is directing Operation Claw Eagle-2, according to a statement from the defense ministry.
Kurdish-led forces across the border in Syria condemned Turkey’s operation, saying it is affecting the Kurds’ fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
“The risk posed by Turkish activities in Rojava and KRI [Kurdistan Region of Iraq] is threatening the gains of Kurdish people as a whole, disrupting stability in the region, preparing ground for a potential resurgence of ISIS terrorism, and is creating a negative impact on the state of the fight against ISIS,” read a statement from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), published by Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
The SDF “considers the attacks on Kurdistan Region of Iraq to be of great concern and we once again reiterate that we will continue to take the same stance as in the past against ISIS terrorism and Turkish expansionism in the region,” it added.
It called on the global coalition against ISIS “not to remain silent in the face of atrocities and attacks by Turkey that is threatening the stability in our region.”
Both the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces and the SDF are key allies of the US-led global coalition in the fight against ISIS.
The US embassy in Ankara on Friday said they were “saddened” to hear of the deaths of three soldiers of NATO-ally Turkey, killed on Mount Gara by PKK “terrorists.”
The PKK claims the Turkish casualties are higher, putting the number of deaths at more than 30 in addition to tens of injuries. The armed group has yet to release figures of its own casualties, but denies Turkish defense ministry claims that 37 fighters have been “neutralized,” a term it uses to refer to persons killed, injured, or captured.
Peshmerga ministry denies involvement in PKK-Turkey clashes
Turkey’s military operation has riled already tense relations between the PKK and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) that controls security forces in Duhok province.
The KRG’s deputy Peshmerga minister on Friday slammed as “baseless” an allegation from the PKK that Peshmerga forces were cooperating with Turkey. “The operation which is being conducted on Mount Gara is absolutely not related or done in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government or the Peshmerga forces,” Sarbast Lazgin told Rudaw’s Bestoon Othman late Friday.
“If the Peshmerga forces want to fight, they will do so overtly – no matter against whom. They do not need to fight secretly or in disguise,” he added.
A PKK umbrella group, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), on Thursday accused the KDP of coordinating with Turkey in the offensive.
“Undoubtedly, conducting a ground operation would not be possible without the consent or support of the KDP,” read a KCK statement published by ANF.
“The guerrilla areas have been surrounded by KDP troops for two to three months anyway. The Turkish state has carried out this attack in the context of this encirclement,” added the statement, referring to Peshmerga forces in KDP-dominated Duhok province.
Later in the day, KDP spokesperson Mahmoud Mohammed denied the accusation, saying his party “has nothing to do with this war and has not taken any action against the PKK to fight it or not.”
On Friday, the PKK’s armed wing, People’s Defense Forces (HPG), said that claims about KDP involvement are not true.
“We do not have any evidence about the involvement of the KDP forces in the Gara operation. Such information is wrong,” the HPG stated.
The KDP and PKK have had thorny relations for decades. The ruling KDP and the KRG accuse the PKK of creating insecurity, using the Kurdistan Region as a safe haven to attack Turkey, prompting retaliation from Ankara and clashes that have led to residents fleeing hundreds of villages.
In late 2020, tensions between them escalated over control of Kurdistan Region’s border regions, especially in Duhok province. A reported mediation from Kurdish politicians and leaders appeared to de-escalate the situation.
