Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday (December 17th) called on Iraq to intensify the fight on its territory against the Kurdish militiamen of the PKK, during a visit to Ankara by Iraqi Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi.
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Turkey regularly conducts air raids against PKK rear bases in the mountainous areas of northern Iraq, where it has set up training camps and weapons caches.
Special forces sometimes lead small incursions.
Turkish operations, the most recent of which took place in June, are causing tensions with the Iraqi government, but Mr Erdogan repeated over and over that his country intends to "
deal
" with the PKK in northern Iraq if Baghdad was "
not in a position to do so
".
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has rear bases in northern Iraq, has been carrying out bloody guerrillas on Turkish soil since 1984, which has left more than 40,000 dead.
It is classified as a "
terrorist
" group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
"
We have agreed to continue the fight against our common enemies
," Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara alongside Kazimi, citing in particular the PKK but also the Islamic State (IS) group.
“
Our region will not know peace until terrorism is crushed.
Our fight will continue until the eradication of terrorist gangs
, ”he added.
Kazimi, who was making his first visit to Ankara since taking office in May, for his part affirmed that Baghdad "
condemns any action harming Turkey or leaving Iraqi territory to attack Turkey
".
"
No group will be allowed to use Iraqi territory to threaten its neighbors,
" he said.
"
We are working with Turkey to deal with these groups, be it ISIS or any other organization threatening regional security
."
"
We recently took important steps in this direction in Sinjar (northern Iraq) and we also prevented these groups from entering Iraq across the border with Syria,
" he added.