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Turkey steps up bombing of Kurdish targets in Iraq
Wednesday 29 July 2015 09.31 BST
Turkish fighter jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week, a government official said, hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a peace process had become impossible.
The F-16 jets hit six targets in Iraq and were scrambled from an air base in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the official said.
Turkey began bombing PKK camps in northern Iraq last Friday in what government officials have said was a response to a series of killings of police officers and soldiers blamed on the Kurdish militant group.
On Tuesday, fighter jets also bombed PKK targets in the south-eastern Turkish province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq, after an attack on a group of gendarmes.
The PKK has said the air strikes, launched virtually in parallel with Turkish strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria, rendered the peace process meaningless. But it has stopped short of formally pulling out.
Erdogan, however, said on Tuesday that the peace process had become impossible and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to the militants of immunity from prosecution, a move aimed squarely at the pro-Kurdish opposition.
Parliament is due to discuss the military operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as Erdogan’s call for the lifting of immunity, in a closed session later on Wednesday.
Erdogan initiated negotiations in 2012 to try to end a PKK insurgency, largely fought in the predominantly-Kurdish southeast, that has killed 40,000 people since 1984. A fragile ceasefire had been holding since March 2013.
Western allies have said they recognise Turkey’s right to self-defence but have urged the Nato member not to allow peace efforts with the PKK to collapse.
While deeming the PKK a terrorist organisation, Washington depends heavily on allied Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State in Syria.
The leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition called on Wednesday for an immediate halt to hostilities on both sides.
“Hostilities should immediately come to a halt,” Selahattin Demirtaş told reporters, calling on all parties to act with “common sense”.
ac038331-15c0-4553-917b-316dc8eaf86e-102
Members of the Kurdish community hold a rally outside the Turkish embassy in Paris to protest against the Turkish air force attacks on the PKK military campaigns in Syria and northern Iraq.
Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA
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Wednesday 29 July 2015 09.31 BST
Turkish fighter jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week, a government official said, hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a peace process had become impossible.
The F-16 jets hit six targets in Iraq and were scrambled from an air base in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the official said.
Turkey began bombing PKK camps in northern Iraq last Friday in what government officials have said was a response to a series of killings of police officers and soldiers blamed on the Kurdish militant group.
On Tuesday, fighter jets also bombed PKK targets in the south-eastern Turkish province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq, after an attack on a group of gendarmes.
The PKK has said the air strikes, launched virtually in parallel with Turkish strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria, rendered the peace process meaningless. But it has stopped short of formally pulling out.
Erdogan, however, said on Tuesday that the peace process had become impossible and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to the militants of immunity from prosecution, a move aimed squarely at the pro-Kurdish opposition.
Parliament is due to discuss the military operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as Erdogan’s call for the lifting of immunity, in a closed session later on Wednesday.
Erdogan initiated negotiations in 2012 to try to end a PKK insurgency, largely fought in the predominantly-Kurdish southeast, that has killed 40,000 people since 1984. A fragile ceasefire had been holding since March 2013.
Western allies have said they recognise Turkey’s right to self-defence but have urged the Nato member not to allow peace efforts with the PKK to collapse.
While deeming the PKK a terrorist organisation, Washington depends heavily on allied Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State in Syria.
The leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition called on Wednesday for an immediate halt to hostilities on both sides.
“Hostilities should immediately come to a halt,” Selahattin Demirtaş told reporters, calling on all parties to act with “common sense”.
ac038331-15c0-4553-917b-316dc8eaf86e-102
Members of the Kurdish community hold a rally outside the Turkish embassy in Paris to protest against the Turkish air force attacks on the PKK military campaigns in Syria and northern Iraq.
Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
