International relations analyst Mihemed Nûrdîn, in an interview with Hawar News Agency, shared his perspectives regarding Turkey’s recent Gare military offensive in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He stated that Ankara will engage in all possible attacks in order to weaken the Kurds. Turkey constantly attempts to keep the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) under pressure via cross-border military operations.
“Turkey tries to keep the PKK away by a so-called ‘security belt’ on the border. This is the general purpose of the attacks against Iraqi Kurdistan. Ankara tries all possible attacks to weaken the Kurds. The last Gare operation was also a part of that plan. In particular, they want to disconnect Qandil from Sinjar and northeastern Syria”, he said.
Nûrdîn criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government and international powers for not taking a stand against the attacks of the Turkish government. ”The US remained silent to the Turkish state’s attacks on Iraq. Besides, the US also cooperates with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). As for the positions of Europe, we can say that they are against the military operations against the PKK. However, they only issue some statements”, he said.
The reason for such silence from ‘international public opinion’ is related to Turkey’s refugee politics, states Nûrdîn. “Do not forget that refugees are used as a threat by the Turkish state against Europe. The Turks in Europe and the election strategies for each country also provide grounds” for explaining this silence, he said.
Nûrdîn stressed that not all Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan share the same political ideology: ”The positions of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PKK are not the same. Undoubtedly, this divergence of the Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan plays an important role in facilitating the Turkish state’s attacks on the region. Thus, the weakness of the Iraqi central government and the disintegration of the Kurdish parties in northern Iraq allowed the Turkish state to carry out these attacks”, he said.
”The disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil (Hewler) paves the way for Ankara to violate the sovereignty of Iraqi Kurdistan. To stop the attacks on Iraq, the Erbil and the Baghdad governments should stand together and defend international laws against the attacks coming from the Turkish side”.
