Türkiye will carry out a large ground operation on the borders of Kurdistan and will not storm Sinja

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[size=52]Türkiye will carry out a large ground operation on the borders of Kurdistan and will not storm Sinjar[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Turkey may wait a short time until it storms the Iraqi border by land to pursue the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an operation described as the largest in 40 years. Ankara gave Baghdad a deadline - expiring soon - to expel the Workers' Party opposed to Turkey before the start of the military operation, which is believed to include Sulaymaniyah Governorate and the city of Sinjar, north of Mosul, to a lesser extent.[/size]
[size=45]It is assumed that the expected operation is approved by the Iraqi authorities, while the situation remains unclear in Sinjar, which is run by a mixture of militants affiliated with the “PKK” and Iraqi factions.[/size]
[size=45]Two weeks ago, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, was in Baghdad and signed more than 20 agreements and memorandums of understanding in the field of economy, education and security.[/size]
[size=45]As part of the visit, “Erdogan gave Baghdad a deadline before he carried out a large-scale ground attack inside Iraq to pursue the Workers’ Party,” according to a senior political source.[/size]
[size=45]The source, who requested to remain anonymous, confirmed to (Al-Mada) that “this deadline was among the conditions that preceded the visit of the Turkish President,” which was postponed for more than a year.[/size]
[size=45]The source does not know exactly when the deadline granted to the Iraqi government will end, but according to Turkish media, the expected operation will take place during this summer.[/size]
[size=45]According to the Hurriyet newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government, preparations began with an agreement with Baghdad to implement the expanded operation through rounds of meetings between Turkish and Iraqi officials.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper indicated that the operation would completely close the 378-kilometre-long Turkish-Iraqi border and tighten the noose on PKK militants to a depth of 40 kilometres.[/size]
[size=45]The Workers' Party, due to Turkish persecution operations at home, moved to Iraq in the 1980s, while Saddam's regime did not welcome these groups and allowed Turkey to pursue the Workers' members for a distance of 5 kilometers inside Iraqi territory.[/size]
[size=45]According to military reports, since the 1990s, Turkey has entered the north of the country more than 30 times to pursue the Workers' Party, but it failed every time to put an end to the group.[/size]
[size=45]Turkey launched more than 4,000 attacks on Iraq in six years, from August 2015 until January 2021, according to a United Nations report.[/size]
[size=45]According to Hurriyet newspaper, a large-scale ground operation will be carried out in the area where the “Claw-Lock” operation is currently being implemented, which began in April 2022 and is still ongoing.[/size]
[size=45]According to estimates by non-governmental organizations, the Turkish attacks claimed the lives of at least 129 civilians in northern Iraq and injured 180 others, from 2015 until July 2022.[/size]
[size=45]Ankara had entered into negotiations with the Labor Party, but they collapsed in 2015, according to Ghazi Faisal, a former diplomat, in an interview with Al-Mada.[/size]
[size=45]In the same year, it was revealed that there were about 1,000 Turkish soldiers and tanks in the Zilcan camp, north of Bashiqa. Baghdad said at the time that these forces had entered without approval.[/size]
[size=45]According to unofficial statistics, Turkey deploys about 7,000 soldiers, including officers and soldiers, who penetrate up to 100 km deep into Iraqi territory and have 11 military bases and 19 camps. The senior political source says that Türkiye “is forced to coordinate with Iraq because it cannot attack through Syria.”[/size]
[size=45]He continues: “In Syria, the road will be long to the areas of influence of the Workers’ Party, and Ankara must confront the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) there.”[/size]
[size=45]Erdogan had confirmed in statements last March, before his visit to Baghdad, that Turkey was close to completing the cordon that would secure its borders with Iraq. He added: “During next summer, we will have resolved this issue permanently.”[/size]
[size=45]Details of the attack[/size]
[size=45]It is believed that Ankara will focus the expected attack on Mount Qandil, which is the stronghold of the Workers’ Party in Iraq, and is located at the meeting point of the Iraqi-Iranian-Turkish border, extending about 30 kilometers deep into Turkish territory, and about 150 kilometers away from Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]But Turkish newspapers say that “Sulaymaniyah will be part of the attack,” and that there are political parties and non-governmental organizations in the city working for the “PKK.”[/size]
[size=45]The semi-official Turkish Anadolu Agency indicated, in a previous report, that the Workers’ Party in Sulaymaniyah receives “identity cards” and “military training.”[/size]
[size=45]The report confirmed that this caused “Türkiye to suspend flights to Sulaymaniyah Airport” since last year.[/size]
[size=45]The senior political source believes that “Sinjar will be part of the attack, but it will not be stormed by land. Rather, it will be subjected to air strikes, while there will be extensive ground operations on the borders of Kurdistan.”[/size]
[size=45]The Workers' Party has run Sinjar since 2016, and prevents federal forces from entering the city under any reason.[/size]
[size=45]Abdul Qadir Sinjari, a former deputy governor of Nineveh, told Al-Mada: “The Workers’ Party leads Sinjar under the names of many factions whose names we can no longer enumerate, in addition to the PMF factions.” In Fayda, north of Sinjar, the district director there handles daily transactions, but in the city there is “no administrative official,” according to what Sinjari says.[/size]
[size=45]The Labor Party had helped fight ISIS during the occupation of Sinjar in August 2014, and after that it created shadow factions, with the number of militants in the city estimated at about 10,000 fighters now.[/size]
[size=45]In the government of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in 2020, what was known as the “Sinjar Agreement” was concluded to manage the city, but it has not been implemented yet.[/size]
[size=45]The senior political source says, “Iran controls Sinjar and uses the city to put pressure on America and Kurdistan.”[/size]
[size=45]According to Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asaib, the Sinjar agreement took place in the Al-Kadhimi government and was legally proven to be “inapplicable.”[/size]
[size=45]However, Washington still supports this agreement. Last Saturday, US Undersecretary of State Ezra Zia, who was visiting Baghdad and Kurdistan, said that her country “supports the full implementation of the Sinjar Agreement.” The agreement included 3 axes (security, services, and normalization by returning the displaced).[/size]
[size=45]According to Sinjari, “two-thirds of Sinjar’s population are displaced,” noting that most of the remaining residents of the city receive “modest salaries from the Workers’ Party.”[/size]
[size=45]In return, groups linked to the party receive weapons and salaries from the Popular Mobilization Forces, according to former officials in Sinjar.[/size]
[size=45]The senior political source confirms that “there are complex alliances between the Workers’ Party and the Mobilization Forces.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding his question: How will the PMF allow its ally in Sinjar to be bombed? He answered, “The bombing occurs almost daily, and there are economic deals and water in exchange for the liquidation of the Workers’ Party.”[/size]
[size=45]Turkey concluded with Iraq and two Gulf states (Qatar and the Emirates) a development road project, a project that the Hezbollah Brigades feared, according to the latest statement issued by the faction.[/size]
[size=45]The political source says: “Baghdad will intervene in changing the status of Sinjar after these developments. The matter is easy and could be resolved by telephone if Iran agrees.”[/size]
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