KCK accuses KDP of giving Turkey location of PKK fighters killed in Iraqi Kurdistan
QANDIL MOUNTAINS,— The Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Civaken Kurdistan-KCK) on Friday accused the Barzani clan’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of passing information to the Turkish military that led to a deadly airstrike on a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) camp in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Wednesday.
Over the last few weeks, the area around the village of Zini Warte has been the focus of ongoing tension between the KDP, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the PKK, with multiple armed units encamped within a few hundred meters of each other. The village is located in a strategic area between KDP-controlled Erbil governorate, PUK-dominated Sulaimani governorate, and the PKK’s headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.
“A team of three guerrillas went to the KDP’s fixed point in Zini Warte and told them that it was wrong to remain in the area and asked them to leave,” the KCK said in a statement, referring to a Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs-controlled force that includes members of both the KDP and PUK that was ordered into the area by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in late March.
A PUK-affiliated Peshmerga unit is also deployed nearby.
After delivering the message to the ministry Peshmerga unit, the KCK said that the PKK fighters remained in the vicinity of the Peshmerga position, using a temporary camp that they had not previously used.
“A day after that visit, Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes on the place where those three guerrillas were staying,” the statement said, before directly accusing the KDP of communicating the location of the temporary camp to the Turkish military.
As a result, three PKK fighters were killed, the statement revealed.
KCK is the political umbrella group that includes the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
”Placing KDP forces in Zini Warte is declaring war against the guerrillas and the KDP applies ‘leave here’ pressure on the guerrillas because of the demands of Turkey,” the statement continued, using guerrillas to refer to the PKK.
The KDP routinely faces criticism that it is too close to Ankara.
The Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Barzani family has close ties with the Turkish government, which is an important economic and political partner of KDP, and opposes PKK
“The KDP and Turkey have agreed to outflank Qandil and it is expected that Turkey will attack Qandil at a suitable time. That is why the KDP has increased its forces near the guerrillas’ places,” the statement added.
Earlier on Friday, KRG Prime Minister Barzani said that the ministry Peshmerga unit was deployed initially to block smugglers from bringing people into Iraqi Kurdistan Region in violation of border controls designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus and placed blame on the PUK for escalating the situation when it deployed its own forces to observe several days later.
The PKK, a Marxist group, took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur, northern Kurdistan) for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Turkey routinely launches land and air operations against the group at home, in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and in Iraq’s disputed territories of Shingal and Makhmour. It also attacks Kurdish forces in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), accusing them of fostering ties with the PKK.
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