When the PKK starts targeting Barzani
If the PKK fails to heed calls to abandon its current aggressive policies, KRG Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani's administration will be obliged to use force against the PKK to dislodge it from Qandil and Sinjar
For years, Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) administration in northern Iraq has been preaching to Turkey that problems between Ankara and the PKK should be settled through dialogue and not the use of force.
Barzani has even offered his offices to help mediate between Turkey and the PKK to end the violence that has claimed more than 50,000 lives since the 1980s.
The cooperation between Turkey and Barzani dates back to the 1990s when northern Iraq was declared a safe no-fly zone for the Kurds against the Saddam Hussein regime. In those days the PKK terrorist organization, which was fighting a war of secession, created bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq, much to Barzani's dismay of using the rough terrain, the PKK settled in the massive mountain area. Turkey and Barzani tried to dislodge the PKK more than 25 times during the 1990s but failed. Barzani lost 3,000 of his peshmerga forces in the process.
In the early 2000s, Barzani fell at odds with Ankara. Turkey pushed Barzani to continue the military campaign against the PKK and Barzani kept on telling Turkey that the military solution had failed and that dialogue was needed to end Turkey's problems with the Kurds and thus allow the PKK to leave the Qandil Mountains. Added to this was the fact that the military-controlled governments between 1997 and 2002 shut the doors on Barzani, which further antagonized the Iraqi Kurds.
The situation continued to worsen until 2007 despite the fact that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power simply because the military refused to allow him to lead the policy on northern Iraq. Once the military influence on Turkish policy making ended after Erdoğan's landslide victory in 2007 and the army was sent back to the barracks, things started improving.
In recent years Barzani has been welcomed in Ankara with high honors and relations between Turkey and the KRG led by Barzani has been excellent. Yet the PKK has continued to be a thorn in these relations. Barzani refused to opt for a military solution against the PKK, which has in years gained ground especially in the Sulaymaniyah region of the KRG. The PKK has established close relations with the opposition Goran movement, which has gained strength in Sulaymaniyah and with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Jalal Talabani.
Meanwhile, Goran and the PUK have fallen at odds with the Barzani administration thus creating dents in the much lauded Kurdish union in northern Iraq.
Things have been further complicated after Daesh invaded Mosul and then turned on Irbil. Irbil was saved thanks to Turkish military intervention and the coalition forces led by the U.S. Later on Daesh invaded the Sinjar province west of Mosul and started massacring the Yazidi people. Barzani's peshmerga forces went to rescue Sinjar, however, the PKK also sent its militants to the region to give a helping hand to the Barzani forces.
However, after liberating Sinjar the PKK forces that came from Qandil and neighboring Syria refused to leave and started setting up their own administration in Sinjar much to Barzani's dismay.
Since then Barzani has been strongly criticizing the PKK for its presence in northern Syria and in Sinjar. Barzani thinks the PKK is trying to close in on the KRG from the east, south and west and trying to replace his regime with its own administration like the one in northern Syria that has performed ethnic cleansing and killed every Kurdish politician who failed to comply with its demands and Stalinist ideology.
KRG Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani has said in recent interviews that if the PKK fails to heed calls to abandon its current aggressive policies, his administration will be obliged to use force against the PKK to dislodge it from Qandil and Sinjar. The Americans have also been making similar statements. So Barzani has also seen that seeking "dialogue" is an empty gesture. This means the conditions are becoming ripe for Turkey and the KRG to start inflicting deadly blows on the PKK in northern Iraq.
Barzani has even offered his offices to help mediate between Turkey and the PKK to end the violence that has claimed more than 50,000 lives since the 1980s.
The cooperation between Turkey and Barzani dates back to the 1990s when northern Iraq was declared a safe no-fly zone for the Kurds against the Saddam Hussein regime. In those days the PKK terrorist organization, which was fighting a war of secession, created bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq, much to Barzani's dismay of using the rough terrain, the PKK settled in the massive mountain area. Turkey and Barzani tried to dislodge the PKK more than 25 times during the 1990s but failed. Barzani lost 3,000 of his peshmerga forces in the process.
In the early 2000s, Barzani fell at odds with Ankara. Turkey pushed Barzani to continue the military campaign against the PKK and Barzani kept on telling Turkey that the military solution had failed and that dialogue was needed to end Turkey's problems with the Kurds and thus allow the PKK to leave the Qandil Mountains. Added to this was the fact that the military-controlled governments between 1997 and 2002 shut the doors on Barzani, which further antagonized the Iraqi Kurds.
The situation continued to worsen until 2007 despite the fact that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power simply because the military refused to allow him to lead the policy on northern Iraq. Once the military influence on Turkish policy making ended after Erdoğan's landslide victory in 2007 and the army was sent back to the barracks, things started improving.
In recent years Barzani has been welcomed in Ankara with high honors and relations between Turkey and the KRG led by Barzani has been excellent. Yet the PKK has continued to be a thorn in these relations. Barzani refused to opt for a military solution against the PKK, which has in years gained ground especially in the Sulaymaniyah region of the KRG. The PKK has established close relations with the opposition Goran movement, which has gained strength in Sulaymaniyah and with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Jalal Talabani.
Meanwhile, Goran and the PUK have fallen at odds with the Barzani administration thus creating dents in the much lauded Kurdish union in northern Iraq.
Things have been further complicated after Daesh invaded Mosul and then turned on Irbil. Irbil was saved thanks to Turkish military intervention and the coalition forces led by the U.S. Later on Daesh invaded the Sinjar province west of Mosul and started massacring the Yazidi people. Barzani's peshmerga forces went to rescue Sinjar, however, the PKK also sent its militants to the region to give a helping hand to the Barzani forces.
However, after liberating Sinjar the PKK forces that came from Qandil and neighboring Syria refused to leave and started setting up their own administration in Sinjar much to Barzani's dismay.
Since then Barzani has been strongly criticizing the PKK for its presence in northern Syria and in Sinjar. Barzani thinks the PKK is trying to close in on the KRG from the east, south and west and trying to replace his regime with its own administration like the one in northern Syria that has performed ethnic cleansing and killed every Kurdish politician who failed to comply with its demands and Stalinist ideology.
KRG Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani has said in recent interviews that if the PKK fails to heed calls to abandon its current aggressive policies, his administration will be obliged to use force against the PKK to dislodge it from Qandil and Sinjar. The Americans have also been making similar statements. So Barzani has also seen that seeking "dialogue" is an empty gesture. This means the conditions are becoming ripe for Turkey and the KRG to start inflicting deadly blows on the PKK in northern Iraq.