Reducing the terrorist group PKK to a pale shade of itself within its territory, Türkiye is resolute about wiping it out abroad. Yet, the group still has a foothold in Iraq and Syria. Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler pointed out this fact in an interview. Güler implied that “Iranian” and “American” friends of his country were giving free room to the group that is most active in Türkiye’s southern neighbors.
“We give the location of (PKK terrorists) to our Iranian friends, but they reply that they checked them out and could not find them. This is not a good approach to this matter. This disturbs us,” Güler said in a televised interview on Thursday. He was referring to PKK terrorists fleeing into Iran through the Turkish border and underlined that they provided concrete data to Iran through surveillance of terrorists by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Güler also expressed criticism of the United States without openly naming the country. “Some friends claim (YPG) is a force separate from PKK. They claim they give (military equipment) to YPG, not PKK,” he told broadcaster CNN Türk. “But they were caught red-handed. Two helicopters piloted by YPG members trained by (U.S. forces) collided and this revealed their involvement. They paused the pilot training (for YPG), but they are still involved in support (for YPG),” he said.
The YPG has grown stronger in the region, particularly in Syria’s Deir el-Zour province, home to Syria’s largest oil wells, thanks to material support from the United States.
The issue strains Turkish-U.S. ties as Ankara repeatedly warned its NATO ally against aiding terror elements that threaten its national security, something Washington continues to do despite promising to remove the group from the Turkish border area.
Türkiye continues regular operations against the YPG presence in Syria. Ankara has launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations since 2016 across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019 – operations that the U.S. opposed.
Ankara is now focused on Iraq for a major offensive against PKK, which is expected to take place this summer. Güler visited the country twice in the past two months, first with the foreign minister and intelligence chief and later accompanied President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the latter’s landmark visit to Baghdad, the first in over a decade. In Thursday’s interview, Güler said they wanted to maintain good relations with “historical neighbor” Iraq while highlighting the fact that PKK settled in Iraq’s north and continued its activities there for years. He noted that the terrorist group crossed the border from Iraq to carry out attacks in Türkiye. “Hence, we have to eliminate the terrorism at its source. We switched from intermittent operations to regular operations,” he said.
Güler pointed out that the PKK’s activities led to the evacuation of some 800 villages in Iraq and ruined the lives of civilians living there. “Iraq did not call PKK a terrorist group in the past, but after a string of meetings, they redefined it as a banned organization,” he said. Güler said PKK also freely moved in northern Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Türkiye has warned PUK not to endorse the terrorist group. “You have to rid yourself of this terrorist group if you want peace. We are ready to help if you want,” he said.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the U.S., and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency. The conflict was long fought mainly in rural areas of southeastern Türkiye but is now more focused on the mountains of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, where PKK militants are based. Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says it is protecting its borders. The intention is to establish a 30-40 kilometer security corridor to secure its southern borders completely. Türkiye has since 2019 conducted a series of cross-border operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, dubbed "Claw," the latest of which is the ongoing “Claw-Lock.”
