By Bekir Aydogan
ERBIL (AA) – The PKK terrorist organization recently increased its multifaceted terrorist acts by attacking Peshmerga forces and police officers, kidnapping civilians, targeting diplomatic missions, and inciting peaceful protests to violence in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
The terrorist organization, disturbed by the Baghdad-Erbil agreement of Oct. 9, 2020, which will end its presence in Sinjar, is trying to spread the instability it has created in the occupied regions to the north of Iraq with terrorist acts and to divert attention from Sinjar.
The PKK also accuses the Erbil administration of collaborating with Turkey in its successful anti-terror operations in northern Iraq and attacks Peshmerga forces in the KRG.
- Attacks on Peshmerga
PKK’s recent attack on Peshmerga forces took place early Tuesday in the Derkar district, northwest of Dohuk, the district head Adib Jafar said in a statement, adding: “A Peshmerga member was shot dead by a PKK sniper.”
On Monday, the PKK set up an ambush in the Hanesur region near the Sinjar district of Mosul, Iraq, and kidnapped two Peshmerga.
Five Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack by the PKK terror group in Iraq's northern Dohuk province. The fatalities occurred in an ambush set by PKK terrorists in the Amadiya district, Serbest Lezgin, the KRG deputy minister of Peshmerga affairs, said in a statement.
Lezgin also previously said the terrorist organization YPG/PKK attacked the Peshmerga forces with heavy weapons over the Syrian border on the night of Dec. 15, 2020, adding that the international coalition forces led by the US have been providing weapons and various aids to the YPG/PKK for years under the name of fighting the terrorist organization Daesh/ISIS.
- Attacks on police officers
Last year in October, the General Directorate of Public Security in Erbil said in a statement that Gazi Salih Ilhan, the public security head at the Serzer border gate along the Iraq-Turkey border, was killed by the PKK.
The terrorist organization also injured two KRG police officers responsible for the security of oil and gas resources in its attack in Chamanke on Nov. 4, 2020.
Members of the terrorist organization PKK attacked the KRG police responsible for the security of oil and gas resources in the Chamanke district on Nov. 5, but no casualties or injuries were reported.
- Kidnapped civilians
On April 18, a civilian in Erbil was injured in an explosion of a TNT placed on a road by the PKK.
On Nov. 17, 2020, PKK kidnapped two people in the Verte sub-district of Erbil's Revanduz district.
It was reported that the families whose children were kidnapped by the terror group in Halabja, Iraq, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 8, 2020 to save their children.
Ezidis in Sinjar also organized demonstrations to call for the Iraqi central government to save their kidnapped children from the PKK and end its presence in the region.
- Attacks on diplomatic missions
The terrorist organization also targets diplomatic missions in the region to tarnish the KRG’s international image.
The KRG Security Agency reported on Oct. 26, 2020 that at least 12 suspects with links to the PKK were caught planning to attack a foreign diplomatic mission in Erbil and assassinate its members.
The PKK also killed Turkish diplomat Osman Kose in a restaurant in Erbil on July 17, 2019.
- Village occupations
KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, in a statement on Feb. 27, said 800 villages could not be rebuilt due to the PKK’s occupation in those villages, and said they will not tolerate the PKK’s presence in the region.
“Sometimes farmers are denied access to their land. They are often even expelled from the villages. So, we hope this situation does not escalate. We hope that the PKK will understand that its military presence in this region will not serve anyone. We will certainly not tolerate this,” he said.
- Attempt to make Sinjar a 'second Qandil'
It is stated that as the Sinjar agreement between Baghdad and Erbil has not been implemented, the PKK maintains its presence in the region and tries to turn the district into a "second Qandil."
The PKK takes the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq as its stronghold and is active in many cities and towns. It occupies a large number of villages in the region and launches attacks on Turkey's interior.
KRG officials, on the other hand, are criticizing that Ezidis cannot return to their homes due to the PKK's presence in the region and that the reconstruction of the region is prevented.
The PKK first started to deploy in the region, using the Daesh/ISIS attack on the Sinjar district as an excuse, where the majority of Ezidis live.
After 2014, it continued to exist in many regions, especially Mount Sinjar, with the terrorists it brought from Syria and Qandil.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum in the region, the PKK announced in January 2015 that it had declared a "canton" in Sinjar. Then the terrorist organization attempted to seize the local government through political organization with the so-called public assemblies it established in the region.
Although Peshmerga forces recaptured the Sinjar district center and its surroundings from Daesh/ISIS in November 2015, the PKK's activities in the region continued. The organization, which built camps for the terrorists it brought to the region, recruited Ezidi children it had kidnapped in these camps.
- Provocations in peaceful protests
In December 2020, in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja, nine people, including a Peshmerga, lost their lives and dozens were injured in the demonstrations where the KRG government was protested due to the delay in civil servant salaries.
Masrour Barzani, in his statement on Dec. 9, said people from Syria and outside of the KRG were infiltrating the demonstrators, implying that the terrorist organization PKK was behind the violence.
Implying that those who resorted to violence during the demonstrations were members of the terrorist organization PKK, Barzani said: "There were Syrian citizens and people from outside the KRG among the demonstrators. A group infiltrated the demonstrators and changed the direction of the protests and attacked the party and public buildings. It's not a form of demand for rights and salary," he said.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.