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Turkey has launched operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in both Qandil and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said on June 11.
“We’ve started anti-terror operations [Ankara says the PKK is a terrorist group] in Qandil and Sinjar. We’ve destroyed 14 important targets with our 20 aircraft,” Erdogan said adressing locals in the province of Nigde.
“Our target is to drain the biggest swamp,” the Turkish president continued hinting to the region of Qandil, which is believed to be one of the key PKK-held areas in northern Iraq.
Turkish top officials have repeatedly threated that Ankara is going to expand its military operation against the PKK to Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq. Erdogan’s June 11 statement is an indication that Turkey is slowly doing this.
According to some experts, Erdogan is using operations of the Turkish Armed Forces against Kurdish armed groups in northern Iraq and northern Syria as a tool of gaining additional public support inside Turkey ahead of the June 24 presidential election. So, intensification of the Turkish actions in this field is expected soon.
