Turkey Launches Attack on Kurdish Militants in Iraq
Turkey Launches Attack on Kurdish Militants in Iraq
(Bloomberg) --
Turkey airlifted commandos into northern Iraq, stepping up its military drive against autonomy-seeking Kurdish militants after its parliament kicked out two pro-Kurdish lawmakers on separatism charges.
The incursion, announced early Wednesday, comes two days after the Turkish air force conducted one of its biggest airstrikes against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq. Turkey characterized that attack as retaliation for recent militant assaults on the army by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has used northern Iraq as a springboard in its decades-long war for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.
The military operations are taking place amid renewed tensions with the pro-Kurdish political party HDP, whose members attempted this week to march to the capital, Ankara, to protest parliament’s ejection of two of its lawmakers on June 4 following their conviction on ties to the PKK. The government has deployed riot police to disperse Kurdish protesters around the country.
Turkey ratcheted up its pressure on the PKK -- which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union -- and closely affiliated Kurdish forces in Syria after the latter won U.S. backing for leading the campaign to rout Islamic State. Last year, the Turkish government reached separate agreements with the U.S. and Russia to keep Kurdish fighters in Syria away from its border.
The struggle with Kurdish separatists has cost Turkey more than $400 billion since 1984, according to government estimates, and left tens of thousands dead. The war has also stained the country’s human rights record.
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