Duran Kalkan, a top Kurdish political figure, has described Turkey’s attacks launched on Iraqi Kurdistan on 3 July as a de facto annexation. Kalkan emphasised the resistance of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters and the Kurdish people against Turkey’s buffer zone and annexation aims.
Kalkan stated that Turkey started its cross-border invasion attacks in Syria and Iraq in August 2016. He highlighted that the novelty of Turkey’s current attack lies in the easy movement of Turkey’s armoured units, tanks, and vehicles through roads under Iraqi and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) control.
According to Kalkan, as a result of months-long diplomatic negotiations with the KDP and the Iraqi government, Turkey has launched an offensive on Iraqi Kurdistan using its armoured units. He asserted, “The administration there is increasingly under de facto Turkish rule, leaving the KDP and the Iraqi administration. This is annexation. De facto annexation is being developed.”
Kalkan recalled that Turkey’s cross-border attacks in 2016 followed a meeting between Masoud Barzani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. Similarly, he noted that the 3 July attacks began after Barzani’s meetings in Baghdad.
Kalkan noticed that Turkey is bombing and evacuating villages with the approval of the Iraqi and KDP governments, attempting to place regions such as Duhok, Hakurk (Xakurkê), Avaşin, Zap, Metina (Metîna), and Haftanin (Heftanîn) under Turkey’s military and administrative control.
Turkey, Iraq, and the KDP aim for a de facto annexation with a buffer zone of approximately 20 kilometres in Iraqi Kurdistan, Kalkan stated. He asserted, “However, there is a great resistance of the guerrillas against this.”
He highlighted that “the guerrillas and patriotic Kurdish people will continue to resist the occupation of Kurdistan and Turkey’s genocidal attacks in the pursuit of Kurdish freedom.”
Concluding, Kalkan stressed, “The resistance of the guerrilla, the attitudes of the people of Bashur and Iraq, the Kurdish people and the public will determine the outcome of this annexation attempt.”
Kalkan, who is a senior figure in the PKK, appeared on video in front of a picture commemorating the four martyrs of the 1982 hunger strike in Diyarbakır (Amed) military prison. Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Kemal Pir, Akif Yılmaz and Ali Çiçek starved themselves to death in the historic fast. The words of Durmuş, who initiated the strike from a Turkish courtroom, ring true today. He said: “they cannot extinguish the spirit of resistance in our people. The struggle for independence and freedom, led by the PKK, will ultimately achieve victory.”
