SOUTH KURDISTAN (IRAQ) MESOPOTAMIA NEWS DOCUMENTS : Turkey Promises Campaign Against PKK in Neighboring Iraq

7 June 2018 – MESOP  – The Turkish military is pledging a campaign to remove positions of the PKK in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday that Turkey is determined to remove the PKK presence, “We are going to reach the source of terrorism before it comes to us.”

The military said that it has advanced about 25 km (16 miles) into northern Iraq towards Mount Qandil, and that special forces have deployed to join the offensive, which has established bases for tanks, helicopters, and armed drones.  Mount Qandil has been the PKK’s main headquarters since the 1990s after it moved from training grounds in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told journalists on Monday that Iraqi Kurdistan will cooperate with the campaign, “The PKK is an enemy of Erbil [the center of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government as well.” www.mesop.de