The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) are establishing a new military base in a high altitude area in the province of Hakkari, which borders Iraq, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported on March 28 citing security sources.
According to the report, the installation is being established in the framework of operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It’s located at Balkaya Mountain at the altitude of 2,400 meters in the Semdinli district.
Earlier this month, Turkish top officials, including President Erdogan, threatened that the TAF may start a military operation against the PKK in northern Iraq in the near future.
The PKK is a Kurdish armed separatist group. It operates in northern Iraq, northern Syria and southern Turkey and is involved in a long-standing insurgency against the Turkish state. The PKK de-facto seeks to establish an independent Kurdish state, that will include large areas of Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Just recently, the TAF captured the Syrian northern city of Afrin from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara describes as a PKK branch.
