ANKARA — During his first official visit to Iraq as Turkey’s new foreign minister, Hakan Fidan on Wednesday called on Baghdad to list the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization.
Speaking alongside his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, at a joint press conference in Baghdad, Fidan said his country expected Baghdad to list the PKK as a terrorist organization. “Ignoring borders between Iraq and Syria, the terrorist organization seeks to unite the two regions through a terror corridor it set up,” he told journalists in reference to Syrian Kurdish groups.
The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for self-rule inside Turkey and is headquartered in mountainous northern Iraq.
“The PKK is a terrorist organization that has been occupying Sinjar, Mahkmur, Qandil and many other Iraqi regions,” Fidan said.
