The PKK has been concerned in an on-and-off armed insurgency in opposition to Turkey since 1984. | Photograph credit score: Reuters
Turkey stated on Thursday it had agreed a army cooperation pact with Iraq that may embrace joint coaching and command centres in opposition to Kurdish separatists, and Baghdad stated it is going to ban the PKK as a celebration.
“We are going to increase our cooperation to the best degree because of the joint command and coaching centres included on this settlement,” stated Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan after assembly his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Ankara.
He welcomed “Iraq’s rising consciousness of the PKK.”
The Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion, or PKK, has been concerned in an intermittent armed insurgency in opposition to Turkey since 1984.
Thought of a “terrorist organisation” by Turkey, america and the European Union, the PKK has bases in northern Iraq from the place it launches assaults in opposition to Turkey.
Mr Hussein stated the presence of PKK forces in northern Iraq represents “a hazard to the Kurdistan area and different Iraqi cities” and poses a menace to Iraqi society.
The Kurdistan area of northern Iraq stretches alongside the border with Türkiye.
“The Iraqi authorities has determined so as to add the PKK to the record of banned events,” he added.
Mr Hussein stated that along with preventing militant organisations, the discussions additionally touched on the problem of defending their borders in opposition to smuggling and unlawful migration.
The pact comes after indicators of a thaw in relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which have been strained by a Turkish army operation in opposition to the PKK in northern Iraq.
Turkey’s Overseas Ministry stated a joint safety coordination heart might be arrange in Baghdad and a joint coaching and cooperation heart in Bashiqa, close to the northern Iraqi metropolis of Mosul.
