Barzani calls on PKK to 'move battlefield' from Iraqi Kurdistan region
The leader of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has suggested that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) should leave the country's northern semi-autonomous region amid ongoing Turkish airstrikes against positions of the militant group.
The office of President Masoud Barzani of the KRG put forward the demand in a Saturday statement, saying the move is necessary for the prevention of civilian casualties.
"The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) must keep the battlefield away from the Kurdistan region in order for civilians not to become victims of this war," the statement said.
The statement came after reports that several civilians were killed in a Turkish airstrike against the PKK militants in northern Iraq.
he Turkish government started the airstrikes against purported positions held by the ISIL Takfiri militants in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq in the wake of the July 20 bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, not far from the border with Syria and close to the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria. Over 30 people were killed in the terrorist attack.
The official Turkish news agency, Anatolia, on Saturday said, without giving a source for the figure, that the airstrikes have so far taken about 260 lives on the part of the PKK. The militant group, however, says the number is much lower.
The strikes have also reportedly killed and injured several civilians.
Despite some differences between Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and the PKK, the militants have long been allowed to take shelter in the mountainous regions on the Iraqi side of the border.
The Kurdish leader, meanwhile, called for the resumption of the peace process between the PKK and the government in Ankara.
The PKK has been engaged in a militancy in southeastern Turkey for decades in a bid to gain self-rule.
Following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, a shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by the PKK.
The government in the Iraqi Kurdistan region has good relations with Turkey, which is considered a major investor and trading partner for the semi-autonomous region.
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