Ankara confirms agreement with Baghdad to destroy the PKK, ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s expected visit to Iraq. This as a potential Turkish offensive against the Kurdish militant group which maintains bases in Iraq looks likely.

Fresh off the heels of a Putin landslide victory to control the European Superpower for six more years while continuing an illegal war inside the borders Ukraine, now his southern counterpart Erdogan is emboldened to exterminate the ethnically indigenous Kurdish peoples.

Who are the PKK

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK is a Kurdish political and military organization  which historically operated throughout what was once called Kurdistan.

“Kurdistan” was as an administrative entity inside the Ottoman Empire. It had a brief existence of 17 years between 1847 and 1864.

The state was controlled under the initiative of Koca Mustafa Reşit Pasha during the Tanzimat period (1839–1876) of the Ottoman Empire. 

Now the Kurds are primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkeye and northern Iraq. The Kurds are a displaced people living in a region that is controlled by Turks and Arabs.

Kurdish–Turkish Conflict

Since the early 1980’s, the PKK has been involved in warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Several ceasefires have occurred between 1993 and 2015 but were limited and short lived.

Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state for many years, the idea dissolved as the possibility of a sovereign state began to diminish.

A few decades ago the goals for the PKK changed. It went from seeking autonomy to instead simply advancing increased political and cultural rights for the Kurds living within Turkeye.

Current talks between Turkish Ministers and their Iraqi counterpart seek to focus on further destroying the Kurdish people who are indigenous to the region.

The two countries will initiate the military campaign under the banner of “counter-terrorism, security, and military cooperation” according to a statement carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Turkeye and Iraq Partnership

Turkeye has been seeking greater cooperation with Iraq in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

The PKK is designated as a Kurdish separatist group. It has waged an insurgency against Turkeye since the 1980s and is banned there where they are considered indigeous.

The PKK is not designated a terrorist organization in Iraq. However it is banned from launching military operations against Turkeye from Iraqi territory.

The PKK, still has a strong foothold in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. This is where the central Iraqi government does not have much influence or control.

This is also the region that Turkeye wants to launch its military campaign against the Kurds.

A statement issued by the two countries “stressed that the PKK organization represents a security threat to both Turkey and Iraq” and that its presence in Iraq “represents a violation of the Iraqi constitution.”

The partnership of nations also “consulted on the measures that must be taken against the organization.”

Erdogan is expected to visit Iraq in April, 2024. The visit will occur after Turkish local elections on March 31 and after the Islamic religious month of Ramadan.

The Turkish president has said that his country is determined to end PKK’s presence in Iraq this summer.

Turkish Aggression

For its part Turkeye has launched military strikes against PKK targets in Syria and Iraq. Targets are only suspected of being affiliated with the PKK.

Leadership in Baghdad has complained that these military campaigns by Turkeye inside Syria and Iraq are a breach of its sovereignty.

The military strikes by Turkeye against the Kurds have escalated in recent months. This is after PKK attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq in December and January left 21 Turkish soldiers dead.

Local Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria have stated that many Turkish strikes targeted civilian infrastructure rather than military bases. The attacks by the Turks cut off electricity and water supplies in wide areas held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

The adviser for national security affairs to Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said in a televised interview that Iraqi authorities would like to combat the PKK.

Stating Baghdadi leadership would consider taking the same approach to the PKK as they did to Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in northern Iraq.

The presence of the Iranian dissidents inside Iraq had become a point of tension with Tehran. This is especially true with the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza which Iran fuels with Hezbollah and Hamas.

Previously, Iran and Iraq had reached a unilateral agreement to disarm the Kurdish dissident groups and relocate their members from military bases to displacement camps.

In northern Iraq, Turkeye has partnered with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). This is the largest and most powerful political party in Iraqi Kurdistan and its Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The partnership is designed for the Turkish government to obtain more information about PKK movements as well as to secure areas it has cleared away from of PKK militants.

PKK Alliances

The PKK, meanwhile, is forging its own alliances with Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups also known as Hashd al-Shaabi.

Hashd al-Shaabi is currently at odds with Ankara and is exercising increasing decision-making authority within the ranks of its affiliates in Syria, primarily the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkeye sees as an extension of the PKK.

Turkish aggression against the PKK could result in a wider conflict that includes, Iran, iraq, Syria and other regional players.

Unfortunately for Turkish leadership taking on the PKK may prove to be less advantageous to regional security and more detrimental to Turkish land sovereignty if the campaign turns into a full-scale regional war.