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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, was summoned by the Iraqi foreign ministry on Thursday, a day after Turkish jets attacked two suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq.
Baghdad accused Ankara of violating its airspace, but Turkish officials insisted the strikes were justified under international laws guarding the right to self-defense.
Turkish jets launched two separate strikes on Wednesday – one in the Kurdistan Region’s Rawanduz district and another near a refugee camp in Makhmour, 60 km southwest of Erbil city.
Ankara claims it “neutralized” four PKK fighters in Rawanduz, while the PKK put the number at three.
Turkish authorities use the word “neutralized” to imply targets were killed or captured.
In a statement, Iraq’s foreign ministry said it summoned Ambassador Yildiz on Thursday “on the background of a Turkish army fighter plane violating Iraqi airspace, and bombing a refugee camp near Makhmour that claimed the lives of two women.”
The foreign ministry did not specify whether the women were armed.
Turkey has not confirmed any casualties in the attack near the camp, but Bewar Amin, the head of the camp, claimed three civilians were killed.
“Three civilian women were killed by the Turkish airstrike today near Makhmour camp,” Bewar told Rudaw on Wednesday. “Two women were killed immediately by the airstrikes, and another woman succumbed to her grave injuries and passed away later on.”
The Iraqi foreign ministry earlier condemned the strike, saying Turkish attacks “will not contribute to ensuring Turkey’s security, and are not in the interest of security and stability in the region.”
‘Terror nest’
Speaking to Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA), Yildiz confirmed he had been summoned by the Iraqi foreign ministry and had told Iraqi officials the attacks were carried out in accordance with international law.
“I told my counterparts that Turkey’s operations against the PKK targets in northern Iraq are sourced from international law and the United Nation’s legitimate defense requirement,” he said, in comments published by HaberTurk.
“Turkey will continue using its legitimate defense right as long as the PKK threat against Turkey from Iraq is not ended,” the ambassador added.
Regarding the attack near the refugee camp, the ambassador said: “I told my counterparts Makhmour camp has been turned into a terror nest, and that this has to be resolved as soon as possible.”
Makhmour camp hosts more than 12,000 Kurdish refugees who have fled persecution by the Turkish state, largely in the 1990s. The camp has a governing council and an armed force, the Makhmour Protection Units, established in 2014 when ISIS militants attacked the area. The units are believed to have ties to the PKK.
The PKK is headquartered in the Qandil Mountains of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, near the border with Turkey and Iran. The group fights for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey, but is seen by Ankara and its Western allies as a terrorist organization.
Turkey routinely launches land and air operations against the PKK within its borders, inside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and in the territories disputed between the Region and Iraq’s central government, such as Shingal and Makhmour. It also regularly targets Kurdish forces in northern Syria, accusing them of also fostering ties with the PKK.
The decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people on both sides, including civilians, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).
A ceasefire came into effect in 2013 during a short-lived peace process, which lasted until July 2015, when the talks collapsed.
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