Mourning and angry, Iraq buried on Thursday the victims of artillery fire attributed to Turkey which killed nine civilians the day before in recreational gardens in Kurdistan, a tragedy which has aggravated tensions between the two neighboring countries.
Baghdad has accused Turkish forces of carrying out the strikes, while Ankara has denied responsibility, pointing the finger at Turkish Kurdish insurgents from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), classified as a “terrorist” group by Turkey and its allies. Westerners.
Transported by military plane from Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, the nine coffins covered with the national flag and wreaths of flowers were welcomed at Baghdad airport by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi.
The head of government met the families at the airport, according to his services. Relatives of the victims have recovered the bodies to organize the burials, which will mostly take place in the holy city of Najaf as Shiite tradition dictates.
Thursday was declared a day of national mourning, and Iraqi public opinion is furious in the aftermath of the tragedy, which left 9 dead and 23 injured, in the district of Zakho.
Most of the victims are Iraqi tourists from the south or the center, who are used to fleeing the scorching summer heat to find a bit of freshness in the mountainous region of the north, on the Turkish border.
Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador on Thursday to deliver “a letter of protest”, according to a press release, Iraq “calling on Turkey to settle its internal problems far from Iraq’s borders and without harming its people”.
A shock “
In a house in Baghdad, Nour is one of the friends who came to offer their condolences for the death of Abbas Alaa. A 24-year-old engineer, married for barely a week, Abbas was with his wife in Kurdistan for their honeymoon. “His wife is injured,” laments Nour.
When the family returns from the airport with the victim, the audience breaks down in tears, some laying their heads on the coffin for a final farewell.
“It’s a shock for his friends, his relatives, until now we can’t believe it”, drops Nour.
Turkey has had dozens of military bases for 25 years in Iraqi Kurdistan and regularly launches military operations against the PKK in northern Iraq.
These operations on Iraqi soil complicate relations between the Iraqi central government and Ankara, one of Iraq’s leading trading partners.
Thursday morning, near a center for issuing Turkish visas in Baghdad, placed under high police protection, a few dozen demonstrators demanded the expulsion of the Turkish ambassador, according to an AFP photographer.
“In Turkey and at the embassy, we tell them enough is enough,” said one of them, Ali Yassine. “It is useless, pacifism, we want to burn down the embassy, the Turkish ambassador must be expelled. Our government is doing nothing,” castigated the 53-year-old man.
Burnt Turkish flags
On Wednesday evening and Thursday, similar demonstrations took place in the country, in Kirkuk north of Baghdad, or in Kerbala or Najaf, large Shiite cities south of the capital.
Turkish flags were burned and trampled on, while portraits printed by protesters called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “terrorist”.
Baghdad has hardened its tone by demanding the withdrawal of Turkish armed forces from all Iraqi territory, even if in fact the status quo should prevail.
Iraq also announced “the recall of the Iraqi charge d’affaires to Ankara for consultations, and the stopping of the procedures for sending a new ambassador to Turkey”, according to an official press release.
German diplomacy condemned the attack, calling for “urgently shedding light on the circumstances and responsibilities” of the shootings.
Paris denounced an “indiscriminate strike” against “a recreation area”, recalling “its attachment to the sovereignty of Iraq and the stability of the autonomous region of Kurdistan”.