A Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet. Photo: wikimedia
Dr. Diyari Salih | Exclusive to Ekurd.net
Recently, Turkey has targeted the PKK’s fighters spreading in the northern parts of Iraq. This week, it conducted airstrikes to destroy their presence in Makhmour camp, located near Erbil. That behave led to different reactions from the Iraqi side. Therefore, we are wondering whether this Turkish policy will end this problem in favor of all players.
Turkey has a long history of conflict with the PKK. They have fought each other inside Turkey for contradicted projects. Turkey wants to preserve the geographical unity of its terrains and to keep applying its strategic view confirming that modern Turkey must stay as a strong and integrated country. By contrary, the PKK has been working for the independence of the Kurdish people from the Turkish state to create their Kurdish state. Thus, Ankara says that it cannot tolerate with the PKK, and it will continue to brand this group as a terrorist organization threatening the Turkish national security.
Justice and Development Party, the leading party in Turkey, insists that PKK represents a danger that must be dealt with in Turkey and in the other places where it is now existing. This means that Turkey does not wait for any permission from others to conduct such a mission. And thus, it is trying to have a presence in the northern parts of Syria and to keep its soldiers in the camp of Ba’ashiqa, in Mosul city. It believes this is the only strategic way to contain the threat of this organization.
Though considered a great regional power, Turkey, as it seems, does not desire to admit that post-2003 Iraq suffers from a complicated situation that needs creative solutions so that it can participate in the efforts being made to solve the problem of the PKK.
In 2014, when Da’ish controlled 40% of the Iraqi territories, Baghdad was ready to cooperate with any player to face that menace, which was unexpectedly stretching on the maps of the region. Therefore, it unofficially accepted the role of the PKK as a potential ally in that war in which that group managed to expel Da’ish out of Sinjar, where radical Islamic fighters had committed dire crimes against the innocent people. That event turned the PKK into a real savior in the eyes of the locals. Hence, Baghdad could not have the ability to put the PKK and Da’ish on an equal footing. This is what Turkey cannot digest.
Baghdad has unstable relations with Erbil and thinks that the PKK can be a source of balance to the ambitions of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani. Thus, some political actors in Baghdad imagine that the PKK must stay in that part of Iraq as it might be an important partner in the game of contesting against the Turkish interests in Mosul and Kirkuk. This, for sure, will make the picture more confused from the geopolitical perspective.
Baghdad today suffers from a geopolitically embarrassing situation. It still has fears of the reemergence of Da’ish, It has not frozen its problems with Erbil, and it does not trust the Turkish promises towards the Iraqi future. Thus, it feels that it is trapped in the middle of all these doubts. What makes matters worse is that the international godfather of the new Iraq, the USA, is presently looking at Iraq as a failed state rather than an ally. This might create an impression in Turkey that the time has come to play the role it has been dreaming about in these parts of Iraq without any sort of deterrence.
In a response to the latest Turkish raids, Iraq’s ministry of foreign affairs summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad, Mr. Fatih Yildiz, to express on its refusal to the Turkish policy towards this case. Iraq always condemns the military solution to the problems affecting its position in regional equations. The Turkish diplomat replied to the Iraqi side by saying that his country will continue targeting the PKK in Iraq as international law gives it the right to do so. This completely contradicts the Iraqi constitution which emphasizes the necessity of protecting Iraqi sovereignty from any external aggression.
Iraq continually repeats that it does not allow any player to use the Iraqi land to terrorize the neighbors. Baghdad well knows that this is the best way to avoid various consequences that it can’t overcome alone. Therefore, it has declared that now it has no formal relations with the PKK, which was demanded by the Iraqi government to leave Sinjar city and return to the mountains of Qandil.
To solve this problem by depending on the peaceful approach, Baghdad has asked Ankara to have comprehensive negotiations with the support of the UN to find a way out of this maze. A compromise can be reached if Turkey wants to sit on the table with these parties as they all share the same fate. The collective view of the security issues after the age of COVID-19 will be more visible in the international and regional relations. The geopolitical scene among Turkey, Iraq, and the PKK is no exception to this rule. Who stands against this kind of political commitment must afford to bear the results of its position that will destabilize the whole area.
Diyari Salih is an Iraqi academic with a Ph.D. in Political Geography from the University of Baghdad and a Post-Doctorate in International Relations from the University of Warsaw. His research focuses on geopolitical issues in Iraq. He tweets at @DiyariFaily
The views expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.
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