Turkey says it will stage raids with Iran against Kurdish rebels

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told state media about the plan without elaborating.

• US warns Turkey not to buy Russian S-400 missile systemtoday
• US trade curbs with Turkey at odds with ‘mutual objectives’yesterday
• Turkey’s courts tackle remaining coup-related trialsyesterday
• US to end preferential trade status for India, Turkeyyesterday

Turkey and Iran will carry out a joint operation against Kurdish rebels, according to Ankara’s interior minister.

Turkey has battled the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) for decades, while Iranian security forces have fought its affiliate, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Both groups have bases in neighbouring Iraq.

“God willing, we will carry out a joint operation against the PKK together with Iran,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told state media.

Turkey and many of its Western allies have listed the PKK as a “terrorist” group.

Soylu did not specify the details of the suggested operation, or the time and location. Al Jazeera did not get a response to Soylu’s comments from the Iranian authorities.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously said a joint operation would be conducted against the groups’ hideouts in Iraq.

Keep Reading

• Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
• Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
• Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
• Councils defy govt fire tender directive

In 2017, Erdogan also said a joint Turkish-Iranian operation against Kurdish fighters was “always on the agenda”.

He added that the two countries’ military chiefs discussed how to work against Kurdish fighters, but Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied that at the time.

The PKK has waged a three-and-a-half decade violent campaign seeking independencefrom the Turkish state, a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead.

More recently, it sought more autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

The Turkish military has often bombed PKK bases in Iraq’s mountainous regions.

Despite backing opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, both neighbours, which see themselves as historically powerful regional leaders, have recently been working with Russia towards a political solution to the crisis.

Turkey backs moderate Syrian rebels in the conflict while Russia and Iran are the Syrian government’s principal foreign allies.

Ankara has conducted two military operations in Syria in the past three years targeting the Syrian Protection Units (YPG) fighters and its political wing, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which it considers “terrorist groups” with ties to the PKK.