The president of the Iraqi self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, called for an end to the violence on all sides, and in a statement posted Wednesday implicitly accused the Kurdish rebels of provoking the two countries.
Since 1984, Turkey has been fighting the rebels of Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, who use northern Iraq as a base for hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets. Along the Iranian border, Kurdish rebels from the Iranian Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK have battled Iran for years.
Both rebel groups are seeking autonomy in their countries.
This summer Iran has sporadically shelled PEJAK bases deep inside Iraqi Kurdish territory, and Turkey has in recent days carried out a barrage of airstrikes that it says have killed as many as 100 rebels in one of their strongest offensives ever.
“The presence of armed PEJAK and PKK members in the mountainous border areas provides an excuse for our two neighboring countries to commit these attacks,” Barzani said in the statement.
He said that if the groups continue to use violence and Iraqi territory as bases from which to attack Iran and Turkey it “will lead to the spread of violence to the Kurdistan Region and this will not in any way help the legitimate Kurdish question.”
In Ankara, Iraq’s ambassador to Turkey, Abdul Amir Kamil Abi Tabikh, suggested that his country would not object to any ground incursion by Turkish troops to chase the rebels “as long as the operation is in line with the bilateral treaties.” It was an apparent reference to security cooperation agreements between the two countries.
“Turkey’s safety means Iraq’s safety,” Turkey’s Anatolia news agency quoted the ambassador as saying.
Iraqi officials have been loath to criticize Turkey or Iran too harshly. They have little ability to protect their own borders.
Turkey and Iran are both major trading partners and hold great influence in the Kurdish region as well as the rest of Iraq. Kurdish officials have in the past called on the rebels to lay down their arms, but they’re hesitant to actively go after their fellow Kurds.
The rebels have popular support in the Kurdish region. Wednesday, nearly 400 people gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Irbil, the capital of the three-province Kurdish region, to denounce the Turkish airstrikes.