ANKARA: The escalating tension between Baghdad and Irbil following Monday’s wide-ranging military operation launched by the Iraqi army to regain control of oil fields and military bases in Kirkuk could have serious repercussions for Turkey’s Iraq policy.
Reports and images showing members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) freely roaming the streets of the northern Iraqi city amid insistent calls from ethnic Turkmen groups to oust the militant group accelerated Ankara’s reaction.
Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Monday emphasizing that Ankara will stand with the central government in Baghdad “to end the presence of PKK in Iraqi territories.”
“We welcome the Iraqi government’s statement that no tolerance will be shown to PKK members in Kirkuk and that the mobilization of these groups will be considered an act of war,” the ministry said. The statement urged the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “not to make another mistake” by allowing a PKK presence in the region because it “will be held responsible if it lets the PKK find shelter.”
Turkey’s interest in Kirkuk derives mainly from its ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural and historical ties with the Turkmens, who are the third-largest ethnic group in the city, as well as from its perception of the threat from the expanding PKK presence there.
Bilgay Duman, an expert on Iraqi affairs at Ankara-based think tank ORSAM, said any step that Baghdad takes to eradicate the PKK will be warmly supported by Ankara.
“Turkey would not directly intervene in the region. But if the PKK becomes much more active in its positions in Sinjar, west of Mosul, Turkey may conduct a joint operation with the Iraqi central government,” Duman told Arab News.
“However,” he added, “Turkey would not prefer a deepening of the conflict in the region between the KRG and Baghdad because any security and power vacuum is likely to be filled by the PKK as well as by Daesh, which is still active in the region.
“For this reason, Ankara may play the role of mediator between the Iraqi government and the KRG in order to appease the tension. It may also raise the problems of Iraqi Turkmens in this process, especially following the change in demographics in the region,” Duman continued. “However, that would surely depend on (the KRG’s) willingness to meet Turkey’s main demand, which is the cancellation and withdrawal of all steps taken following the independence referendum held on Sept. 25.”
Turkey’s National Security Council also convened on Monday, under the chairmanship of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and recommended the government close airspace to flights from northern Iraq.
Ali Semin, a Middle East expert from Istanbul-based think tank Bilgesam, said Turkey should not stay silent and miss the opportunity to activate its Iraqi policy in line with the unfolding regional dynamics, although it has so far followed a “wait-and-see” policy by not closing its borders to Kurdistan even after the independence referendum.
“The regional balances are in favor of Ankara. In the first stage, Turkey may support Turkmens on political and diplomatic fronts. It can also provide military and logistical support to the Iraqi central government as part of joint counterterrorism efforts,” Semin told Arab News.
“The PKK’s presence in the region legitimizes Ankara’s use of its right to cross-border intervention in line with its decades-long security cooperation with Baghdad, like it did before several times in the Qandil mountains where PKK bases are located,” he added.
Semin also underlined that, in light of the shifting regional balance of power, Turkey may give its support to Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), a group of mainly Shiite militias that also incorporates Turkmen forces.
“Ankara has three priorities: Preventing oil-rich Kirkuk’s inclusion in the KRG, protecting Turkmen groups in the region, and stopping the independence process of Kurdistan,” Semin said. “Therefore, it can design new alliances that favor these three elements in consideration of its evolving relationship with political groups in Baghdad. Following the independence referendum, (Kurdish President Masoud) Barzani lost his major ally, Ankara, which now takes every possible opportunity to improve its ties with the Iraqi central government. Therefore, the escalation of tension in Kirkuk is disadvantageous for the Kurds who have ignited an ethnic conflict between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens.”
Speaking to reporters at the Parliament on Monday, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ozturk Yilmaz, called for Kirkuk to be granted special status whereby Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds would be entitled to equal representation.
Ankara backs Baghdad in Kirkuk operation against PKK
Ankara backs Baghdad in Kirkuk operation against PKK
Iraq begins repatriating Syrian soldiers amid border security assurances
DUBAI: Iraq has begun the process of returning Syrian soldiers to their home country, according to state media reports on Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Qais Al-Muhammadawi, deputy commander of joint operations, emphasized the robust security measures in place along Iraq’s borders with Syria.
“Our borders are fortified and completely secure,” he said, declaring that no unauthorized crossings would be permitted.
Muhammadawi said that all border crossings with Syria are under tight control, stating: “We will not allow a terrorist to enter our territory.”
Turkiye won’t halt Syria military activity until Kurd fighters ‘disarm’
ISTANBUL: Turkiye will push ahead with its military preparations until Kurdish fighters “disarm,” a defense ministry source said Thursday as the nation faces an ongoing threat along its border with northern Syria.
“Until the PKK/YPG terrorist organization disarms and its foreign fighters leave Syria, our preparations and measures will continue within the scope of the fight against terrorism,” the source said.
Hamas says Israeli strikes in Yemen ‘dangerous development’
GAZA: Palestinian militant group Hamas said Thursday that Israel’s strikes in Yemen after the Houthi rebels fired a missile at the country were a “dangerous development.”
“We regard this escalation as a dangerous development and an extension of the aggression against our Palestinian people, Syria and the Arab region,” Hamas said in a statement as Israel struck ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen after intercepting a missile attack by the Houthis.
Separated for decades, Assad’s fall spurs hope for families split by Golan Heights buffer zone
- Golan Heights is a rocky plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981
- US is the only country to recognize Israel’s control; the rest of the world considers the Golan Heights occupied Syrian territory
MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights: The four sisters gathered by the side of the road, craning their necks to peer far beyond the razor wire-reinforced fence snaking across the mountain. One took off her jacket and waved it slowly above her head.
In the distance, a tiny white speck waved frantically from the hillside.
“We can see you!” Soha Safadi exclaimed excitedly on her cellphone. She paused briefly to wipe away tears that had begun to flow. “Can you see us too?”
The tiny speck on the hill was Soha’s sister, Sawsan. Separated by war and occupation, they hadn’t seen each other in person for 22 years.
The six Safadi sisters belong to the Druze community, one of the Middle East’s most insular religious minorities. Its population is spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. The US is the only country to recognize Israel’s control; the rest of the world considers the Golan Heights occupied Syrian territory.
Israel’s seizure of the Golan Heights split families apart.
Five of the six Safadi sisters and their parents live in Majdal Shams, a Druze town next to the buffer zone created between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria. But the sixth, 49-year-old Sawsan, married a man from Jaramana, a town on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, 27 years ago and has lived in Syria ever since. They have land in the buffer zone, where they grow olives and apples and also maintain a small house.
With very few visits allowed to relatives over the years, a nearby hill was dubbed “Shouting Hill,” where families would gather on either side of the fence and use loudspeakers to speak to each other.
The practice declined as the Internet made video calls widely accessible, while the Syrian war that began in 2011 made it difficult for those on the Syrian side to reach the buffer zone.
But since the Dec. 8 fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, families like the Safadis, are starting to revive the practice. They cling to hope, however faint, that regime change will herald a loosening of restrictions between the Israeli-controlled area and Syria that have kept them from their loved ones for so long.
“It was something a bit different. You see her in person. It feels like you could be there in two minutes by car,” Soha Safadi, 51, said Wednesday after seeing the speck that was her sister on the hill. “This is much better, much better.”
Since Assad’s fall, the sisters have been coming to the fence every day to see Sawsan. They make arrangements by phone for a specific time, and then make a video call while also trying to catch a glimpse of each other across the hill.
“She was very tiny, but I could see her,” Soha Safadi said. “There were a lot of mixed feelings — sadness, joy and hope. And God willing, God willing, soon, soon, we will see her” in person.
After Assad fell, the Israeli military pushed through the buffer zone and into Syria proper. It has captured Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain, known as Jabal Al-Sheikh in Arabic, on the slopes of which lies Majdal Shams. The buffer zone is now a hive of military and construction activity, and Sawsan can’t come close to the fence.
While it is far too early to say whether years of hostile relations between the two countries will improve, the changes in Syria have sparked hope for divided families that maybe, just maybe, they might be able to meet again.
“This thing gave us a hope … that we can see each other. That all the people in the same situation can meet their families,” said another sister, 53-year-old Amira Safadi.
Yet seeing Sawsan across the hill, just a short walk away, is also incredibly painful for the sisters.
They wept as they waved, and cried even more when their sister put their nephew, 24-year-old Karam, on the phone. They have only met him once, during a family reunion in Jordan. He was 2 years old.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts in the heart,” Amira Safadi said. “It’s so close and far at the same time. It is like she is here and we cannot reach her, we cannot hug her.”
Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch
- ‘What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive’
- Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins
THE HAGUE: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.
Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The 184-page Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel which meant Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-liter-threshold for survival, the group said. Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
