Kurdistan Region–PKK conflict

History[edit]

The PKK and the Peshmerga, both the KDP and PUK wings, have fought against each other many times until today. When the PKK was founded in 1978, its actions were mostly just in Turkey, however when a coup took place in the eighties which heavily cracked down on the PKK, its fighters fled to Syria and Iraq, what is now the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Initially, the PKK convinced the KDP, which ruled most of Iraqi Kurdistan, to sign a deal in 1983 allowing the PKK to control over some areas bordering Turkey. However, relations between the KDP and PKK went downhill when the PKK began demanding governance in the Kurdistan Regional Government and more territorial control in KDP-ruled areas as it kept fighting Turkey and wanted more influence in the Kurdistan Region.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]}


During the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, Iran and Turkey, as well as Iranian, Iraqi, American forces were drawn into the fighting. On good terms with the PUK at the time, the PKK began attacking KDP Peshmerga and members of the KDP. The PKK moved to the Qandil Mountains after the war ended. The worst fighting of the entire Kurdish civil war started on October 13, 1997. Hundreds were killed and thousands were displaced. Turkey backed the KDP, due to them both trying to push PKK out of Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey even intervened on the side of the KDP and saw it as an opportunity to attack the PKK. Turkey also warned the PUK to stop cooperating with the PKK. On September 25, 1997, Turkish forces launched Operation Dawn. They had the goal of forming a ceasefire between the KDP and PUK while destroying PKK camps. The operation resulted in heavy PKK and Turkish casualties, but Turkey once again failed to push out the PKK from northern Iraq. A cease-fire was negotiated between the PUK and KDP, which the PUK began opposing the PKK.^[19][20] The PUK's Jalal Talabani, previously an ally to the PKK, later gave the PKK an ultimatum to "disarm or leave Iraq".^[21]


The United States and Turkey have both collaborated with the KRG against the PKK on many occasions.^[1] Israel holds a positive image of the KRG and opposes the PKK.^[2]


Saddam Hussein, who had openly supported the PKK-allied PJAK in the past, had also allegedly supported the PKK too.^[8] A spokesman for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry stated that the PKK was a "tragic legacy from the Saddam regime"^[22] The PKK was also accused of "continuing Saddam Hussein's policy" by a Duhok politician.^[23]


In 2000, after Abdullah Öcalan's arrest, the PKK and PUK had a major clash. The PKK later left the cities and began only being active in the rural areas doing ambushes. On 3 separate occasions on July 29, 2015, October 28, 2020, and January 18, 2022, the PKK attacked the KRG-Turkey oil pipeline. In 2014, the Peshmerga abandoned a piece of land on the mountains of Zini Warte in Erbil.^[24] The PKK later took that piece of land. The KDP deployed its Peshmerga forces back to the area in 2020. The KDP argued it only left the area to fight the Islamic State in the south, but the standoff was eventually resolved by the KDP withdrawing its forces.^[24] Masoud Barzani accused the PKK of taking advantage of the Peshmerga's conflict with ISIS in order to “invade” parts of the Kurdistan Region bordering Turkey, “instead of supporting the Kurdistan Region experiment.” On June 5, 2021, the PKK ambushed 5 Peshmerga soldiers in Duhok, killing them. According to the KRG, the PKK had occupied 515 villages in the Kurdistan Region as of 2015. Of these, 304 come under Duhok province, while 177 were in Erbil and 34 in Sulaymaniyah. In a statement on February 27, 2021, Masoud Barzani emphasized that the Kurdish authorities could not rebuild 800 villages because of the PKK, adding they would not tolerate the group's presence in the region.^[24]


On 20 May 2014, the KDP arrested many PÇDK members during operations in Erbil, Duhok, and Zakho. A few days before the operation, the Kurdistan Regional Government banned the PÇDK after they protested in front of the Kurdistan Region Parliament to commemorate a massacre of PKK members by the KDP in Erbil in 1997, during the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War.^[25]


During the 2017 Sinjar clashes, the Peshmerga-backed Peshmerga Roj clashed with the PKK-backed YBŞ.^[26]


During the 2022 Sinjar clashes, the KRG and the PKK backed different sides.^[27][28][29]


In 2022, the Deputy Minister of Peshmerga, Sarbast Lazgin released a statement to the Kurdistan 24 channel, saying that "some of Iraq's PMF, the Government of Syria, and the Lebanese Hezbollah are allied with PKK, they support each other and work together toward the same goals. This alliance has an open route all the way from Syria, through Sinjar, Mosul, Kirkuk, and to Iran, which is under control of PMF, The PKK has military bases near Chamchamal District, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, from where they cooperate with the groups that launch rockets on Erbil, We, the KRG, have repeatedly called on the PKK to stop its armed operations in the Kurdistan Region." He also stated that the PKK fighting has no impact on Turkey, and all it does is drag the Turkish Army deeper into the Kurdistan Region.^[5] Jotiar Adil, the official spokesman of the Kurdistan Region, stated that "we ask all foreign military groups, including the PKK, to not drag the Kurdistan Region into any kind of conflicts or tensions, the PKK are the main reason that pushed Turkey to enter our territories in the Kurdistan Region. Therefore, we think the PKK should leave, we are not a side in this long-standing conflict and we have no plans to be on any side."^[30]


A representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the Iraqi Armed Forces, Command General Abdul-Khaliq Talaat, stated that “Sinjar will not be stable as long as the PKK and the other outlawed armed militias stay there" and he called on the Iraqi government to work with the KRG in order to remove the PKK.^[31]