(Istanbul) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday the imminent end of the Turkish armed forces’ “Operation Claw-Lock” in northern Iraq and Syria, saying he had “locked in” the Kurds of the PKK.
These statements come after a resurgence of Turkish military operations in autonomous Kurdistan, denounced this week by Baghdad despite a recent rapprochement between the two capitals.
“We will complete the lockdown of the area of operation in northern Iraq very soon,” the head of state said, telling young graduates of the Military Academy in Istanbul that “serious blows have been dealt to the terrorist organization” of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We will complete the missing points of the security belt along our southern border in Syria,” the president also announced, saying he was “determined to eliminate any structure that could pose a threat to our country along the borders with Iraq and Syria.”
PHOTO CEERWAN AZIZ, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
In armed struggle against the Turkish authorities since 1984, the PKK is classified as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union.
Turkey launched Operation Lock Claw in April 2022 to secure its border with northern Iraq, from where it accused the PKK of launching attacks against Turkish territory.
“The separatist organization has become incapable of acting within our borders. In Iraq and Syria, it is completely trapped,” Erdogan assured: “We are everywhere on their backs, with our soldiers, our police, our gendarmes and our intelligence agents.”
“Safety Corridor”
In an interview with the media PoliticoTurkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler reiterated this week his country’s “determination” to create a “security corridor along the borders with Iraq and Syria to rid the region of terrorists.”
In armed struggle against the Turkish authorities since 1984, the PKK is classified as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union.
The Turkish Defense Ministry announced on Friday that a soldier was killed and another injured in “the explosion of an improvised device” in northern Iraq, blaming the PKK.
For its part, Iraq this week denounced new incursions by the Turkish army into its territory in autonomous Kurdistan, in the north of the country, attesting to a resurgence of military operations by Ankara against PKK fighters over the past several weeks.
Baghdad and Ankara grew closer this spring after Iraqi authorities quietly declared the PKK a “banned organization.” President Erdogan visited Baghdad in April, while demanding greater involvement from his neighbor in the fight against its enemies.
PHOTO BASSEM TELLAWI, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the al-Shaab presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, October 11, 2010.
The Kurdish fighters have rear bases in autonomous Kurdistan, which has also hosted Turkish military bases for 25 years.
Regarding its border with Syria, Ankara launched Operation Claw-Sword in November 2022 with a series of airstrikes: they targeted positions of the PKK, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian army in the north of Syrian territory.
The strikes were carried out in retaliation for an attack in the heart of Istanbul that left six dead, and which the government blamed on the PKK, which the latter denied.
Turkey has military bases in northern Syria, to “protect its border” and prevent the establishment of a “corridor of terror”, in Mr Erdogan’s words in 2019.
The latter has, however, expressed a desire for rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to whom he has repeatedly appealed, even assuring on July 7 that he could invite the latter “at any time”, a gesture of reconciliation after the rupture between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the war in Syria in 2011.