MESOPOTAMIA NEWS “READ ARTICLE”: US general says US will not help Turkey to attack PKK from air

by 28/03/2018 09:55     –  Brigadier General Andrew Croft, the deputy commanding general for Air and the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, told reporters on Tuesday that the United States will not help Turkey in it’s air campaign against the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkey frequently carries out airstrikes against alleged PKK positions on the border of Iraq and Syria.

On the night of 21 March, overnight Turkish airstrikes killed four civilians camping in rural areas for Newroz celebrations in the Choman district of the Kurdistan Region, 160 kilometers northeast of Erbil.Brigadier General Andrew Croft has been in Baghdad now for more than 10 months working in the headquarters of the Coalition Joint Force Land Component Command (CJFLCC). He said he has seen ‘no change in activity up in northern Iraq from Turkey’, following threats of Turkey to attack the PKK in Sinjar, Iraq.

“Any actions the Turks would take in northern Iraq is something that the Turkish government, obviously, would coordinate with the government of Iraq.  But I’ve seen no change at all in northern Iraq with respect to those comments that were made,” Brigadier General Andrew Croft he said.Moreover, he said the US would not provide assistance to Turkey from air to fight PKK in the future. “That is between the government of Turkey and the government of Iraq purely,” he said.“So, obviously, the government of Turkey has concerns about the PKK.  But what they do in northern Iraq is going to be a government-to-government coordination not involving the coalition,” he added.

“I don’t know exactly where the PKK is in relation to Sinjar.  I know they’re in the vicinity of Sinjar, but as far as the exact locations on the ground, I couldn’t tell you exactly where that is,” he said in response to a question on Sinjar.

“From the air perspective, that is not an area that we are going to go into, because it’s a counter-ISIS fight that we’re in,” he said.“What happens in Sinjar is up to the government of Iraq to — to move forces as required to stabilize that area,” he concluded. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a report released on 19 March shows an overview of key human rights violations against Kurds in the Kurdish majority southeast of Turkey. It includes allegations of sexually assault against Kurdish women, killing and imprisonment of civilians, torture, razing and demolitions of buildings and towns in the southeast.“That allegations of human rights violations and abuses in South-East Turkey are massive and serious, and require efficient and prompt investigations at the national level and independent verification from international observers,” the OHCHR said.The HDP, parliament’s second-largest opposition party, has called for the end of Turkey’s operation in Syria and the revival of peace talks between the government and the PKK.Such talks have been frozen since a ceasefire broke down in July 2015, and the largely Kurdish southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the insurgency began.

“Give up on war policies that lead to pain and destruction. The solution is not in fighting, it is in peace,” HDP politician Pervin Buldan said in February. www.mesop.de