For Turkey, the PKK rebels are terrorists that it wants to destroy. That is why it is expanding the fight against the PKK more and more into northern Iraq. Civilians are paying the price.
Relatives in Baghdad mourn a victim of the artillery attack on a tourist destination in Kurdistan on July 20.
The student Abbas Alaa just got married a few days ago. The newly married couple from Baghdad traveled with a group of tourists to the Kurdish north to spend their honeymoon in the mountains with their waterfalls. Along with dozens of other tourists, Alaa and his wife enjoyed the coolness under the shade of trees at a popular tourist destination near the Iraqi-Turkish border. Youngsters were enjoying themselves in the water when an artillery shell hit the complex. Alaa died instantly.
In addition to the student, at least eight other tourists were killed in Wednesday’s attack, including two sisters, aged 12 and 16, and a girl just one year old. In addition, dozens of people were injured. They are the youngest casualties in the war between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
One of the longest running conflicts in the Middle East
This has now lasted almost 38 years, making it one of the longest-running conflicts in the Middle East. It has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, most of them among the Kurds. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come to terms with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is blamed for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in recent months he has been unforgiving towards the Kurds. The prominent politician Selahattin Demirtas, MPs and mayors have been in prison for years with no prospect of release.
Since the failure of the last attempt at a peaceful solution in 2015, the army has systematically expanded the fight against the PKK to northern Iraq, where the rebels have numerous bases and their headquarters. The Turkish attacks have increased massively in the past year, like the Survey by the organization Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled) shows.
Between April and December 2021, the organization recorded more than 1,100 clashes between the Turkish army and the PKK in Kurdish northern Iraq, especially in Dohuk province, where the tourist destination attacked on Wednesday is located. The majority of the “clashes” were Turkish air and drone attacks. Attacks continued to escalate this year. Since the start of a renewed Turkish offensive in mid-April Acled has already recorded more than 1200 armed incidents in Dohuk province. The organization now classifies the region as a high-risk area.
Without regard to losses
The Turkish attacks repeatedly claim civilian deaths. Since the peace efforts ended in July 2015 according to the organization Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which documents each case, at least 138 civilians have been killed, more than half of them in the Dohuk area. However, the Turkish army does not shy away from attacks on targets that are far from the border.
On May 21, a drone bombed a vehicle belonging to suspected PKK militants in a village near Chamchamal, east of Kirkuk. When the local village chief and his brother-in-law wanted to take the seriously injured fighters to a hospital, they and the PKK fighters were killed in another drone attack. A few weeks later, Turkey attacked the small town of Sinune in the Sinjar region with a drone. Yazidis live in Sinune who survived the mass murder of the minority by the Islamic State (IS) eight years ago. were killed a 12 year old boy and his grandfather and other civilians injured.
After the death of nine tourists in an artillery attack, angry anti-Turkey protests erupt in numerous Iraqi cities, such as here in Mosul.
Last year, a drone attack on a hospital in the Sinjar region claimed at least four lives. Ankara justifies the action in the area with the presence of Yazidi fighters allied with the PKK. While Turkey watched the IS murders, they risked their lives to save the Yazidis.
Close cooperation with the Barzani family
Parakhe, the place where the tourists were killed, has been attacked several times by the Turkish army in recent times. This has established several large and dozens of smaller bases in the region. Ankara blames the PKK for the attack last Wednesday. According to research by the Bellingcat platform, however, there is much to suggest that the artillery shells were fired from a Turkish post.
There are several Turkish military outposts set up in the last two years throughout the region. These two near the site of attack have a clear line of sight on the tourist resort, as can be shown with Google Earth Pro 2/ pic.twitter.com/hIMPK3V5EP
— Wim Zwijnenburg (@wammezz) July 23, 2022
So far, Turkey has been able to rely on the Barzani family, which controls the area, to voice at best muted criticism. The establishment of the bases, deforestation and the construction of a road network for the purpose of fighting the PKK have been carried out in close cooperation with their Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in recent years. In the past few days, however, the state’s prime minister, Masrur Barzani, has sought to close ranks with Baghdad. In a joint statement Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Barzani sharply condemned “Turkish aggression against Iraq”.
According to the Iraqi army chief, Turkey has 4,000 soldiers stationed in Kurdistan. In Baghdad and other central Iraqi cities, demonstrators demanded their departure. Shiite militiamen threatened to attack. However, Ankara has numerous means to put the Iraqis under pressure, for example the water supply or economic ties.