Turkey arrests 718 Kurds in response to clashes with the PKK
The Erdogan government has arrested up to 718 people of Kurdish origin on Turkish territory in response to the ongoing disputes between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey. This crackdown is intended to cover up the recent failure of its troops in northern Iraq during Operation Eagle Claw 2, in which, according to official sources, three Turkish soldiers lost their lives.
Defence Minister Hulusi Akar announced the end of the operation launched on the 10th of this month. He has also vouched for the deaths of 13 civilians who, he says, were "kidnapped and executed by the PKK". "I wish we could have taken our 13 citizens out of the region alive. But the killers martyred these unarmed innocents in a massacre," Minister Akar said. Although party sources consulted by Al Ain say that the 13 included members of the intelligence, police and army, and that they were killed by friendly fire during the military operation. Meanwhile, the armed group gives a version similar to the latter, claiming that they were killed during Turkish aerial bombardments. On the other hand, they put the number of soldiers killed in the "Eagle Claw 2" operation at 50 and hundreds wounded.
The losses caused by these attacks led two Kurdish parliamentarians to speak out on social media. One of them, Umar Faruk Girgirlioglu, posted that relatives of captured PKK soldiers came to see him two and a half years ago to "get help in their safe return". He added that "If there was an atmosphere of peace, it is possible that they would be alive, but the government officials never thought of such a thing". Meanwhile, Kurdish MP Hoda Kaya also took to Twitter to share his outrage at the events: "The families of these soldiers knocked on the door of the parliament several times. But you all shut the door in their faces, except for me and my colleagues. Those who have closed their doors in front of these families are now trafficking in the blood of their children".
Girgirlioglu and Kaya's publications have not gone down well with the Turkish government and have prompted Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration to open an investigation against the two MPs from the Peoples' Democratic Party, which is the third largest force in Turkey's National Assembly.
Turkish troops' attacks on Iraqi territory are not only having consequences on the battlefield, but also in the back office. The so-called "violations of sovereignty of territory and airspace" by Iraq have been a constant feature of Erdogan's country for years in its efforts to eliminate the PKK. The establishment of bases together with the deployment of ground troops for almost two years - May 2019 - has meant that hostility has not ceased on the border between Iraq and Turkey, with one of the most important hotspots of conflict being Gara, the region where the 13 civilians of Turkish origin were executed.
