Shkoi Kirdistan-
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) released a statement calling for a halt to Turkey’s new operations in the Kurdistan Region, reported independent Turkish news outlet Bianet on Monday.
A written statement from the party’s Central Executive Committee criticized Turkey’s air and land operations in the area, which they note have been conducted since 1983 in the name of “border security”, saying that such operations only escalate war and conflict.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish military launched new operations against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region. The Metina area, on the border, is the focus of Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, and Operation Claw-Lightning targets the Avashin and Basyan areas further east.
Metina is a strategic area for the PKK, and the presence of Turkish military bases there will likely limit their movement between Qandil and Syria and between the Kurdistan Region and southeastern Turkey.
The PKK is an armed Kurdish group that has fought the Turkish state for decades, seeking increased rights of Kurds.
The HDP called the operations a “mistake.”
“The country is going through an economic, social, and political crisis. War, conflict, and guns don’t serve its people,” the statement reads.
Ankara’s defense minister Hulusi Akar visited Turkish troops based in the region on Saturday. Iraq summoned the top Turkish diplomat over the minister’s “uncoordinated” trip.
A total of six Turkish soldiers have been killed in their latest incursion into the Kurdistan Region, including two announced by the defense ministry on Friday.
