Turkey says it will make Baghdad, Erbil and Damascus peaceful

Turkey will make Baghdad, Erbil and Damascus peaceful, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

“Under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we will make Erbil, Baghdad and Damascus peaceful, just as we have made Diyarbakir, Sirnak and Hakkari,” Soylu said during an opening ceremony held in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Diyarbakir province on Sunday, T24 reported.

Turkey has been locked in a war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group fighting for Kurdish autonomous rights in Turkish soil almost for four decades. Tens of thousands of people, mostly Kurds have died during the conflict. 

In 1987, Turkish government declared a state of emergency (OHAL) in predominantly Kurdish populated southern and southeastern provinces in order to “combat terrorism and ensure security” in these provinces. Shortly after it came to power in 2002, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) proclaimed the end of the OHAL, however, according to human rights organizations, while the emergency rule ended in name, it continued in practices.

The state of emergency initially included 8 provinces; Bingol, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hakkari, Mardin, Siirt, Tunceli and Van. Later, it came into effect in Adiyaman, Bitlis, Mus, Batman and Sirnak, rising the number of provinces under the emergency rule to 13.

Turkey’s war against PKK was not limited to the borders of the country, but it also expanded to Northern Syria and Northern Iraq.

Turkish military has carried out three military operations into northern Syria since 2016 to combat Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a US-backed militant group that Ankara sees as an offshoot of the PKK. The YPG is allied with the West in a fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), forming the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Turkey also frequently conducts military operations into Northern Iraq where PKK maintains its main headquarters.

The governments of Damascus and Baghdad, as well as the Erbil administration (the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, KRI) oppose Turkey’s military operations in their soil, declaring it illegitimate.