Baghdad, Erbil MPs tour border areas to assess security threat from Turkey-PKK conflict
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A parliamentary delegation made up of lawmakers from Iraq's national parliament and their counterparts in the autonomous Kurdistan Region conducted an inspection tour of areas along the northern border with Turkey to assess current security threats amid an escalation of fighting between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The visit comes a few days after an attack blamed on the PKK in a rural, mountainous area of Duhok province that killed five members of the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga forces and wounded seven others.
Read More: PKK rocket attack in Duhok kills 5 Peshmerga, injures 4
On early Tuesday morning, a Peshmerga soldier on duty in the Zakho district of Duhok was killed by apparent PKK sniper fire.
Read More: Peshmerga killed by suspected PKK sniper fire while on duty in Zakho
"Border areas have not enjoyed security and stability since the nineties of the last century and have become the arena of conflict that has claimed many lives," Shno Ashqi, a member of the regional parliament in Erbil, told Kurdistan 24.
The PKK, headquartered in the Kurdistan Region's Qandil Mountains, has been locked in a decades-long conflict against Ankara over Kurdish rights in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides.
Ashqi explained that the visiting dignitaries' aim was to assess damage caused by recent intensified fighting between the PKK and Turkey as part of efforts to find a solution to the violence that has cost thousands of Kurdistan Region residents their lives, homes, and livelihoods.
"Protecting the sovereignty of territory and borders is primarily the responsibility of the Iraqi government because the Kurdistan Region is still part of Iraq," she continued, criticizing Baghdad for inaction.
The lawmaker added that the joint delegation will submit a report with recommendations for action to both the federal and regional governments.
"What is happening between the PKK and Turkey in the border areas is a flagrant violation of the territory of the Kurdistan Region and the residents who live there," Ashqi concluded.
"These conflicts must end."
Editing by John J. Catherine