Civilians in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region are once again finding themselves in the line of fire after Turkey launched another major operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group there.
The PKK began its armed insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, claiming to fight for suppressed Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey. It has maintained a presence in Iraqi Kurdistan for decades to support this armed campaign. On several occasions, Turkey launched airstrikes and even cross-border incursions in an attempt to rout the group from its Qandil Mountain stronghold. Despite this, the PKK has been able to retain an active presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In January 2019, an angry group of Iraqi Kurds gathered to protest at a Turkish military base in Sheladize, in the Amedi region in Iraqi Kurdistan’s western Duhok province, which borders Turkey. The protests were in response to the killing of six civilians in the area by Turkish airstrikes that were ostensibly targeting the PKK. By the time the protest ended, two demonstrators were dead and part of the Turkish base was on fire.
The incident was unprecedented. While the locals did target the Turkish base, most of them also oppose the PKK presence in their area. Although Turkish airstrikes rarely killed such a large number of civilians before that incident, they had already rendered hundreds of villages and farmland uninhabitable. Locals quite simply want to be left alone and for Turkey and the PKK to fight their battles elsewhere or make peace.
Eighteen months after that incident in Sheladize, Iraqi Kurds want the same thing as they once again find their lives in danger.
“We demand from both sides, the Turkish government and PKK militants, to keep their fight away from us and leave us alone. We have suffered enough throughout history,” said one villager who’s area is presently threatened by clashes.
In mid-June, Turkey stepped up its campaign against the PKK by launching Operation Claw-Eagle. Airstrikes targeted alleged PKK targets in the devastated Yazidi homeland of Sinjar, a refugee camp in Makhmour as well as Qandil Mountain. The airstrikes were described as the “largest ever” to strike the region. Turkish commandos also carried out cross-border raids.
Innocent Kurdish civilians once again find themselves in the crossfire. Several have been killed and many more displaced. Villages in Zakho are once again being emptied as a result of Turkish airstrikes. Officials in the area estimate that a staggering 361 villages have been emptied over the last 20 years as a result of airstrikes and clashes. Today, airstrikes are destroying homes, farms and killing livestock. In Sheladize alone, an airstrike killed four civilians. Over 100 acres of agricultural land has gone up in flames and as many as 50,000 people around Zakho are living in constant fear for their lives.
In Iraqi Kurdistan’s eastern Sulaimani region an airstrike, likely Turkish, targeted a pickup truck in the Kuna Masi tourist resort. An amateur video showed the sudden moment of impact from the perspective of children and their parents in a nearby pool, which sent everyone running in terror.
Airstrikes closer to such major cities in Iraqi Kurdistan is a worrying new development in the conflict. Last October, a Turkish drone assassinated two PKK members at a resort just outside Sulaimani city. Local security forces reported that “two senior PKK cadres, Jamil and Damhat, were savagely targeted on Mount Azmar in a resort area and among civilians.”
Such strikes are likely to continue. Operation Claw-Eagle is the latest phase of the broader Operation Claw that Turkey launched back in May 2019. The campaign has become the longest continuous Turkish operation against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan to date. The Turkish military is also establishing and maintaining several forward operating bases (FOBs) across the region. While it claims that these FOBs are temporary, Turkey’s actions demonstrate that it’ll likely maintain its expanded military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan indefinitely, or at least until it can finally afflict a decisive defeat against its long-time arch-enemy.
The PKK isn’t likely to leave the region at the behest of Turkey or even local Kurdish authorities, which invariably insist that the Kurdistan region must not be used as a launchpad for attacking any of the neighbouring states. The group has invested too much in the region to simply pack up and leave. Also, the terrain and various caves throughout Qandil Mountain will likely remain the most reliable base for the PKK, allowing it to survive increasingly lethal Turkish attacks.
As a result, this conflict is likely to drag on indefinitely much to the detriment of the increasing number of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.