How will Sinjar crisis end as tensions mount between Baghdad, Ankara?
Ankara's insistence on combating the Kurdistan Workers Party may push Baghdad to take the lead on cleansing northern Iraq of the Kurdish militia, a scenario that presents a new internal crisis in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
BAGHDAD — Turkish troops in northern Iraq have begun building military bases to confront the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to an April 3 report by Al-Hurra TV that included video footage of construction. This comes after Turkish troops reportedly advanced about 6 miles into Iraqi territory last month in order to fight the PKK in the northern regions of Iraq.
On March 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked about eliminating the PKK fighters in the Iraqi city of Sinjar during a conference held by the Justice and Development Party in Ankara, despite the Turkish government’s earlier pledge to respect Iraqi sovereignty.
Erdogan also announced that Turkey “is gearing up to start cleansing Ain al-Arab [which the Kurds call Kobani], Tell Abyad, Ras al-Ain and Hasakah in Syria from terrorist elements and getting ready to enter Sinjar at any moment.”
Meanwhile, a high-level Iraqi delegation visited the Turkish capital to hold talks on the fight with the PKK, according to Jabbar al-Yawar the secretary-general of the peshmerga forces.
