Erdogan says Turkey killed 38 PKK fighters in Shingal

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said his country “neutralized” 38 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region’s Sinjar (Shingal) district, state media reported.

The Ankara government uses the vague word “neutralized” to refer to Kurdish fighters’ casualties—those wounded or killed in action.

It was not immediately clear when Turkey attacked Shingal or if its air force conducted airstrikes on the region it has been threatening with a ground invasion.

There has not been any confirmation from Kurdish sources nor has there been an announcement regarding any operations against PKK in Shingal by the Turkish army which on a daily basis releases details of its actions inside Turkey and in neighboring countries, Iraq and Syria.

Erdogan said the figure he provided belonged to the “last two days.”

“If the Iraqi central government does not clear PKK from Shingal, we will do so,” he said, threatening to “go further.”

“At the moment, our troops are doing what is necessary, if need be, first I, then our nation will all go [to fight],” he declared.

Shingal was the scene of a 2014 genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS) on the ethnoreligious Kurds of Yezidi (Ezidi) faith.

The PKK found a foothold there after coming down from its mountain bases on the Iraq-Iran border to back the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to open a corridor to safety for the Ezidis.

Its presence there also led to intra-Kurdish tensions, with the Kurdistan Region demanding its withdrawal from Shingal after its liberation from IS.

The Turkish army has lately increased its incursions into the Region in pursuit of PKK fighters who have been engaged in a decades-long guerrilla war against successive Ankara governments for the attainment of Kurdish rights, including self-rule.

The military on Wednesday posted pictures of troops operating in the mountainous areas of Khwakurk and Kanirash of Kurdistan’s Erbil Province.

Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed that Ankara had reached a deal with Iraq’s federal government to conduct joint operations against the PKK’s strongholds in the Qandil mountains.

His Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari rejected the statement from Ankara, saying Baghdad would not allow the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany