MESOPOTAMIA NEWS KURDISH NORTH IRAQ : BARZANI’S BROTHER WARNS / CONTRA ERDOGAN

Whenever Turkey has occupied a piece of territory, it has never withdrawn from it: Adham Barzani

Adham Barzani, the cousin of KDP party leader Massoud Barzani, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2020.

SULAIMANI, Iraqi Kurdistan region,— Speaking about the ongoing military campaign by Turkey in Iraqi Kurdistan region, former head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Leadership Council in Sulaimani Adham Barzani said on Saturday that, whenever the Turkish state has occupied a piece of territory, it has never withdrawn from it.

Barzani argued that Iraqi Kurdistan is facing another military occupation and environmental genocide by the Turkish army.

Adham Barzani, the cousin of KDP party leader and the head of Iraqi Kurdistan-ruling Barzani clan.

The Barzanis have close ties with the Turkish government, which is an important oil, economic and political partner of KDP, and opposes PKK.

Kurdistan Region Government is completely turning a blind eye to the Turkish operations and the silence is evidence of their support to the Turkish attacks, according to experts.

Turkey routinely conducts operations in the Kurdistan region and northern Iraq, establishing a network of bases and launching far beyond its borders. It justifies its actions as necessary to combat the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has conducted a decades-long insurgency for Kurdish rights and autonomy and has bases in the region.

There have been no reported civilian casualties since Ankara launched Operation Claw-Lightning on April 23, 2021, but at least twelve civilians have been killed in Turkish airstrikes since Ankara launched Operation Claw-Eagle last June.

Over the past month of the new operation, hundreds of villagers have been displaced and several have been wounded, including two shepherds in Duhok governorate who were hurt in Turkish shelling on Wednesday.

Airstrikes and cross-border raids often destroy or drive people off valuable grazing and agricultural land, sparking fires that burn crops.

Adham Barzani called on the United Nations and Iraq’s federal government to limit Turkey’s occupation of parts of the Kurdistan region.

He demanded Turkey resolve its dispute with the PKK inside Turkey itself.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make over 22.5 million of the country’s 82-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.

A large Kurdish community in Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan, and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey.