Turkish Operation Increases Conflict Among Kurds in Iraq

WASHINGTON - In recent weeks, Turkey has intensified its military operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, leading to skirmishes and increased tensions between two significant armed Kurdish groups in the mountainous enclave. Yesterday, I made clear to Turkish officials that any attack targeting civilians at Makhmour refugee camp would be a violation of international and humanitarian law. I’m deeply concerned about violence near the camp today and call on all sides to respect the rights of refugees.

While the possibility of another Kurdish civil war such as the one Iraqi Kurds witnessed in the 1990s seems remote, the deaths of several Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in an alleged PKK attack earlier this month have raised alarms among observers. The slain officers were affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which rules the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north. The source of the renewed tension, analysts say, is escalation by the Turkish military, which has deployed ground troops and sophisticated weapons such as drones, and pressured PKK militants to seek safer hideouts under the KRG's jurisdiction. The PKK blames the KRG for advancing its troops to areas long understood to be PKK zones. "Relations between KRG and PKK have always been delicate, but not as dangerously threatened as they are today," said Ceng Sagnic, a Washington-based analyst on Kurdish affairs who previously served as the coordinator for the Kurdish Studies Program at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv.