A pro-Turkish map of the situation in northern Iraq. Source: twitter.com/suriyegundemien
Turkish forces have entered 26-27km deep in northern Iraq in the framework of the military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the area, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on June 3.
Ankara sees Kurdish militias operating in northern Syria and northern Iraq as a threat to its national security and describe them as terrorist groups. The PKK is the main among these groups.
On June 4, Soylu revaled that Turkey keeps its right to launch a military operation to against the PKK in the Qandil Mountains where one of the PKK HQs is located.
“Qandil is not a distant target for us anymore. Right now, a lot of positions have been seized there, especially in the northern Iraq region,” Soylu told the state-run news agency Anadolu in a televised interview. “Timing is what is important for us right now… Qandil will be made a safe place for Turkey, no one should doubt that.”
Besides the land advance, the Turkish Air Force also carries out airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq.
Another area of the Turkish concern is northern Syria. According to Ankara, US-backed Kurdish YPG and YPJ forces operating there are the local branch of the PKK.
On June 4, the US State Department announced that Turkey and the US had endorsed a roadmap for the northern town of Manbij. The town is controlled by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF is a brand created by the US-led coalition to provide support to the YPG/YPJ and some small non-Kurdish units allied with them. Anakra wants Kurdish forces to withdraw from the Manbij area and has repeatedly threatened them with a military operation.
“First Turkey and the U.S. will work on details of the roadmap to rid Manbij, Syria of the YPG/PKK terror group,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said after a meeting with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo.
He added that there is a specific date and it depends on the steps taken in the field. However, according to Cavusoglu, the plan will be implemented in less than six months.
The foreign minister revealed that the road map would would focus on the removal of YPG/PKK forces from Manbij, the removal of YPG/PKK affiliated individuals from local governing organizations as well as setting up joint US-Turkish patrols and a new local governing administration.
Is that darker grey area on the right side of the map Iran ? Anyone.
That is Iran …….. close up and personal!!
Ahh yes, the most beautiful women in the world live there. It is no wonder that Iranian men are so proud and free.
Yes
Any prime minister or president by supporting the child butchers Netanyahu and Israel is in fact declaring himself the child butcher and thief……..
you have a very short memory and a very poor judgement, in who and what you love kid.
Erdogan & Turkey are playing with Fire in dispatching Turkish Forces 27 Km deep inside Northern Iraq with Erdogan & Ankara threatening to launch an attack on Kurds in the Qandil Mountains.
I love it. Erdogan clean that area as soon as possible from US and NATO proxies and integrate Iraq. I support Erdogan strategy.
Just a show for the elections if you ask me. only way to clean the areas is to make joint operation with SAA + Iranians. PKK terrorists are in full cooperation with US-Israel.
Erdogan cannot do anything until Assad, Iraq and Rouhani are not agreed.
He can, has one try at list, but has to pay consequences and that isn’t good to be “everybody’s darling” aka all shall bomb you (each for his reasons), but for Turkey would be the same as they would be a Coalition against him :)) So he has to look NOT to anger RUSSIA, IRAN and now.. ASSAD. Both Assad and Erdogan (and I suppose the Irakis, too) would quietly but sure, get rid of that MOSSAD-asset YPG (Barzani)
irrelevant. US does not permit Turkey to go into bed with them. Besides, Turkey is in good terms with Israel.
Erdogan have no diplomatic relation with the child butcher Netanyahu.
presume you have not read this – check only the facts listed there and then we talk : http://qr.ae/TUpXFl
Erdogan will receive S-400 and SU-57 soon from Russia. Is this good news for Israel and US the child butchers? Erdogan building first two nuclear reactors in Turkey, is this good news for child butchers Israel and US?
For long time Pakistani governments were child butchers when they were ally with US and Israel but due to trump now Pakistan has left US and Israel. The Middle East politics changed with Pakistan. Pakistan is now ally with Iran, N. Korea, China and Russia. Pakistan have stopped buying military hardware from US. Now Pakistan buying SU-35, SU-57, S-400 and T-90 tanks from Russia. Pakistan also produces their own fighter jets, tanks missiles and nukes. Now only Saudi regime work as a child butcher for US and Israel.
PKK TERRORISTS, my a## They are humble KURDS, caught between COLONIAL f*uking INTERESTS. The BRITS lied to them, asked them to upraise against the Ottoman Empire, PROMISED THEM a KURDISTAN on the “freed territories”… and then BETRAYED THEM => the Brits found OIL around MOSSUL ..
The are just LOSING, that#s all. Like the Palestinians. The KURDS were there for over 8,000 years, are the lost HITTITES that fought against RAMSES-II..
Sallah-ad Din ( Salahadin, the Conqueror of Jerusalem from the Crusaders and then defended against Richard Lionheart King of England) was Sultan of EGYPT (Cairo)… but in fact he was KURD, did you know that?
where do you read this half-bull crap. Kurds and brits are ok and well known as you said but 8000 years? Well thats a bit of a stretch man!
brits betrayed kurds? how abt kurds betraying ottomans instead? now, us/israel will betray kurds? how abt kurds betraying Turkey since 1980’s and recently Assad in the syrian war instead? (Assad called them terrorists but Turkey still wouldnt be friends with Assad cause of NATO ties with US and -as I gave the link on other comment- Turkish commitments to Israel.
lets be honest in interpreting facts please.
No they are not. They are just another Iranian people. So what?. Kurds always been bloodthirsty dogs. They were bloodthirsty dogs for arabs ,then for the Turks ,then for the americans and now for Israrl and Us again. Nothing but mercenery dogs!
Yes Salahadin was Kurdish and I was surprised at the time I read this, just as Alexander the Great was Macedonian.
I think the British betrayed the Arabs (Sykes-Picot) and attempted to create a Kurdish state carved out of the former Ottoman Empire via the extremely harsh Sevres Treaty (1920). This was a miscalculation as the treaty served to unite the Turks behind Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and his Nationalist Party.
Ataturk proved as brilliant in diplomacy as he had proven himself in battle. Diplomacy and superior Turkish strategy and tactics on the battlefield won The Turks a National homeland based on Anatolia with Ankara as the capital. The foreign troops, particularly Greek, were ejected, leaving the Sevres Treaty dead in the water, along with the hopes of a Kurdish State. The Sevres Treaty was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, dashing Kurdish hopes and Britain in no position to alter this outcome.
I think Turkish experience with foreign intervention and occupation would have Erdogan more sympathetic to Syria’s plight but it seems opportunism has won the day in this free for all.
critical election for Erdogan coming up in less than 20 days – June the 24th.
He’d better not try to cross the Border to the East and enter Iran unless he wants a major War to break out!!
irrelevant + there’s no such intention. of course the day will come eventually for NATO to attack Iran with probably using Turkey on the front line, if Turkey Iran and Syria do not fully cooperate,
Only in your wildest wet dreams. NATO forces have been degraded by Diversity in the last decade or so and are not in a fit state to conquer a country like Iran.
LOL Iran is a 30 day blitzkrieg.
You read correct before trying to throw jokes.
You should realise that it is necessary to be fluent in a language before you seek to be a Clever Dick in said language Eako.Baran.
That won’t stop Bolton trying it in which case, US Forces are designed to lose themselves to carnage
Major PKK bases are not in Qandil for some time now. They are relocated to Sinjar Mountains.
PKK is mostly in the Western border of Syria with Turkey, there in North-Irak and NE-Syria are the Mossad-Kurdish YPG-guys. Remember KOBANI? And how the Turks stopped the Kurds to enter from Turkey to the (by ISIS) besieged city 5 miles-away from the Turkish border ? Only the US-intervention by Erdogan permitted these YPGs to send ~250 fighters THRU Turkey to Kobani to help the PKK ( I guess Israel asked the USA and the USA Turkey.. There were STILL some relations “on stand-by” between Israel and Turkey..
Israel-Turkey relations have always been more-than-good. check:
http://qr.ae/TUpXFl
Don’t worry, the IRAKI Arabs around there aren’t even irritated of that move. They get rid of the YPG, what the US-Army wouldn’t do for them. (YPG-leader Barzani is a MOSSARD-asset since the ’70s)
Wrong. Iraqi Arabs are stupid if they think Turkey will leave. They will stay and keep this whole land for themselves. It will not go back to Iraq unless Iraq fights a war for it.Us and Turkey have made a dirty deal.
hey are you drunk??? barzani is the enimy of YPG he is THE LEADER OF KDP
no prop
ypg retreating from Manbij…..seems that the threats from the Sultan were taken very seriously by all parts involved. this will only fuel his arrogance …a very dangerous player there
Everybody runs there, thru Irak and Syria, how he wants, what?
send adu azreal to the turk .thene the turks are cry baby,s.
Ottoman Orcs are rapacious! They are invading countries right and left!
A particular gentleman in Ankara whose relatives made a small fortune transporting and peddling oil for IS is the most rapacious of all. He believes he is a latter-day Kemal Ataturk but may have his ass presented to himself in a sling if he thinks he can cross the Iranian border ………. “No country is free unless it is democratic” said Mustafa and quite clearly, the 21st Century version has every intention of ensuring that Turks will not be free although, unlike Ataturk, who lived and died as a soldier Erdogan is no soldier and no fighting man.