ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) does not want war with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but it is worried that the PKK's presence and its conflict with Turkey will damage the Kurdistan Region, KRG spokesperson Jotiar Adil has told Rudaw.
"We in no way want an intra-Kurdish war... the Kurdistan Region will not be party to any fight," Adil told Rudaw's Bestoon Khalid in an interview aired on June 15, 2021.
Renewed tensions between the PKK and the KRG, in particular the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have sparked concerns that conflict may break out between them.
The PKK has also said it does not want a fight. War between Kurds "is a red line," Zubeyir Aydar, a board member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that includes the PKK, told Rudaw English in a recent interview.
A senior member of the PKK, Murat Karayilan, has warned that Turkey wants to see the KDP and PKK turn on each other.
Turkey launched two military operations against the PKK in northern Duhok in late April. The PKK, an armed group fighting for greater rights of Kurds in Turkey, has bases in the Kurdistan Region's mountains and Turkish forces regularly pursue the group on both sides of the border. Kurdish civilians get caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of villages in the Kurdistan Region have been emptied over decades of conflict, dozens of civilians have been killed, and the environment has been devastated.
On June 5, five Peshmerga were killed on Mount Matin in northern Duhok. The Peshmerga blamed the PKK, who denied the allegation.
Adil said the KRG wants the fight moved outside its borders. "If the PKK leaves, there will be no excuse left for the Turkish military to come and set up bases in the Kurdistan Region. As long as the PKK stays there, these issues will remain," he said.
The Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq is the only constitutionally recognized Kurdish entity in any of the four countries with Kurdish populations, and it has an international presence. Adil said the KRG is worried that the Region will be damaged by the PKK-Turkey conflict.
"We believe that this force's presence serves as an excuse for the Turkish military, and the main objective of it in our opinion is to weaken the Kurdistan Region as an entity," Adil said.
"The cause of the PKK is not in Kurdistan Region or Iraq. It is in Turkey. Their presence here has a political reason, and in our opinion, their policies are against the Kurdistan Region," he added.
Aydar said the PKK belongs in the Kurdistan Region, asserting that Kurds should not define themselves by the international borders imposed on them. "PKK is not a foreign force, but a Kurdistani one," he said, adding the PKK respects the achievements and institutions of the Kurdistan Region and "wants to protect and develop them."
