The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has taken control of both the Kurdistan region of Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, and Bafel Talabani’s Sulaymaniyah-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday.
Çavuşoğlu was asked, during the interview with pro-government AHaber, about the helicopter crash in north Iraq last month that claimed the lives of 9 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) anti-terrorism units. In response he repeated claims that the PKK, and the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria are supported by the United States and other Western countries.
The Syrian Kurdish groups form the backbone of US-led coalition forces fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS). Turkey argues that the SDF and the armed YPG are affiliated to the PKK.
“Talabani’s party buys those helicopters from France and allocates them for terrorist use,” Çavuşoğlu said. “The United States controls the airspace. Therefore, the United States is aware of those flights. That is the gist of the incident,” he added.
Çavuşoğlu said Turkish intelligence did not know whether the Kurdish groups, that Turkey views as terrorists, also own military planes.
“Which airport do they use? The Sulaymaniyah airport. An international airport. They are using an airport used by everybody. A civilian airport. And now the PKK has managed to diffuse even those places,” Turkey’s top diplomat said.
“The PKK has now taken control of everybody in Sulaymaniyah, particularly the party of Talabani. And slowly it [PKK] has infiltrated not only into the party, but into the administration, into the airport and other strategic places,” Çavuşoğlu said.
The minister added that due to increasing PKK activity in Sulaymaniyah, last week Turkey had closed its airspace to flights to and from Sulaymaniyah.
Çavuşoğlu told AHaber that senior PUK officials deny the party’s relations with the PKK. “But, as I have said before, other people in the party we are in contact with tell that the PKK now has taken the party completely under its control,” he said.
Calling the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan a “seriously disturbing one”, Çavuşoğlu said that PKK and affiliated groups are “legitimate targets” for Turkey, no matter where they are based.
The minister said that Turkey would continue operations against PKK targets both in Iraq and in Syria.
“As you know, there are several strategic targets in Syria,” Çavuşoğlu added.
The minister did not mention an explosion that took place at Sulaymaniyah airport on 7 April, for which the government in Baghdad demanded an official apology from Ankara.
SDF’s commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi was at Sulaymaniyah airport at the time of the explosion, which, according to the Kurdish-led group, was caused by a Turkish drone attack. US military personnel were also present in the convoy at the time of the explosion.
