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While Turkish forces are reportedly preparing to launch a new series of attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan against positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a recent analysis by Erdoğan Altan from Mezopotamya Agency asserts that special forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Turkish units including contractors have been dispatched to 87 military posts across the region.
Noting that Turkey was not able to get a result from the military operation that started almost a year before in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and that the Turkish forces had to withdraw from many points of disembarkation, Altan argued that such deadlock has led the diplomatic traffic between Ankara and Erbil (Hewlêr) to intensify.
Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar and Undersecretary of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MİT) Hakan Fidan held meetings in Iraqi Kurdistan, followed by the visit of Nêçîrvan Barzani to Ankara, where he met with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Altan noted that it was expected that Turkey would widen the scope of its military operation and increase offences together with KDP forces. There are reports that the KDP had grounded the Roj Peshmergas and the Gulan and Zêrewanî forces in the Heftanîn region approximately ten days ago and that the dispatching was not limited to Heftanîn but that the purpose was to establish 87 military posts across the region. KDP forces and contractor forces linked to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were already being dispatched; Altan also conveyed that intelligence agents of MİT were also being placed in points established, especially in Bradost, Lelikan, and surroundings lead by Peshmerga Assistance Force First Commander Sihan Barzani.
Altan noted that it was being argued that the real purpose of the requests of Erdoğan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey for contact with the USA, allegedly concerning the war in Ukraine, was to get approval for the new operation to be launched. Mesut, Nêçîrvan and Mesrur Barzani were also involved in these efforts to get approval from the USA, who, seeking to distance the North and East Syrian Autonomous Administration from PKK, will quite likely give such approval.
