Kurdistan Region calls on PKK, Turkey to stop endangering civilians

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region on Wednesday renewed its demand that Kurdish factions like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that are fighting in protracted conflicts against the regimes of neighboring countries to cease operating from within the autonomous region's borders because of the significant and damaging effects it has on local populations.

"Several areas in Kurdistan have been subjected to frequent bombardment for a while now; this is not new," said Interior Minister Reber Ahmed during a joint press conference alongside the governors of Erbil and Dohuk provinces. 

“For years, we have been calling on neighboring countries and opposition parties to address their problems through dialogue instead of fighting within the Kurdistan Region, making civilian-populated areas "an arena for conflict."

The PKK 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.

The group is headquartered in the Kurdistan Region's Qandil Mountains, mostly in rural areas along the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Officials from both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly called on Turkey and the PKK to take their fight away from areas populated by civilians, thousands of whom have been displaced, suffered damage to their farms, livestock, or other property.

Others have suffered serious injury or even death as a result of skirmishes or Turkish bombardment of suspected PKK positions.

Ahmed stressed that fighters loyal to either the PKK's, as well as other Kurdish parties fighting Iran or Syria, are the main reason for bombing these areas, so "it is necessary that they move their headquarters to other places outside the provinces of the region."

On Tuesday morning, Turkish jets bombed villages in Penjwen, located in the Kurdistan Region's Sulaimani province.

Read More: Drone strikes hit remote areas in Sulaimani province’s Penjwen district

Penjwen's mayor told Kurdistan 24 at the time that the attack targeted the rural villages of Kani Miran, Homara Senan, and Wirya Awa.

Editing by John J. Catherine