ERBIL, Kurdistan Region \u2013 Turkey would like to work more closely with Iraq to combat \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s Ambassador to Iraq Fatih Yildiz said Ankara wishes Baghdad would work better to take \u201cjoint action\u201d against \u201cthose terrorists,\u201d while discussing the Turkish army\u2019s offensive against the PKK.<\/p>\n
“Frankly speaking, we have come a long way in terms of their cooperation. And KRG is one of our major partners in terms of addressing that threat to Turkey,\u201d he said of the Kurdistan Regional Government.<\/p>\n
Yildiz was speaking at the annual Middle East Research Institute (MERI) forum in the Kurdistan Region capital.<\/p>\n
He reiterated an oft-repeated Turkish stance that their war against the PKK is an anti-terror one, not anti-Kurdish.<\/p>\n
“When it comes to our Kurdish friends, Kak Masoud [Barzani] once said: ‘I’m not an enemy of the Turkish state, I’m a friend of Turks.’ So I can repeat the same thing for here as well. We are friends of Kurds and we are not an enemy of any potential Kurdish entity that we are talking about. I am here now with my own two feet in a Kurdish entity that we are referring to and we totally agree with the fact that Kurds are an essential ingredient in all these geographies which Kurds have in their hands \u2013 ranging from Syria to Iran to Turkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Turkish army is combatting Kurds in three countries. In Turkey, at least 4,166 people have been killed on all sides, including civilians, since the conflict reignited in July 2015, according to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n
Turkish forces, backing Syrian proxies, have conducted two military offensives in northern Syria, targeting what they allege is a branch of the PKK. Ankara has threatened to extend its front eastward, starting with Manbij.<\/p>\n
In the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, Turkish jets regularly bomb alleged PKK positions. Turkey also launched a ground offensive earlier this year, with the aim of striking PKK headquarters in the Qandil mountains.<\/p>\n
Politically, Turkey\u2019s pro-Kurdish party HDP has accused authorities and the judiciary of targeting the party and its supporters because of their opposition to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n
The party is gearing up for planned March 2019 local elections, hoping to win back the positions of some 100 pro-Kurdish mayors that were ousted and replaced with trustees deemed loyal to Erdogan\u2019s party, AKP.<\/p>\n
Yildiz sought to distance the war against PKK from the Kurdish question in Turkey.<\/p>\n
“Turkey has come a long way when it comes to addressing the Turkish citizens who have the Kurdish ancestry,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n
He denied that the policy against \u201cPKK terrorism\u201d in anyway \u201cdispossess\u201d reforms related to the Kurdish population.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly speaking, it’s got nothing to do with PKK,\u201d he said, adding that the biggest victims of the PKK are Kurds themselves.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that Turkey \u201cis a work in progress,\u201d pointing to ongoing reforms, but stressed \u201cTurkey is a friend of the Kurds and has its own citizens who are Kurds.\u201d<\/p>\n