The Quiet Conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan
Erbil Qayseri Bazar, Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, April 20, 2024
For weeks, the Turkish Military has waged war against a militant group in Iraqi-Kurdish territory, and the Kurdish government remains silent.
By: Daniel Miller
In the 1970s, the witty American novelist Gore Vidal coined the phrase “The United States of Amnesia” to illustrate how quickly the American public forgets significant contemporary events as their attention is directed elsewhere. He largely blamed the media for exploiting American credulity by prioritizing sensationalism over substance and protecting corporate interests. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the internet has been inundated with an endless barrage of news from around the world that directs people’s focus using algorithms.
A recent example of this amnesia is that the attention paid to Israel’s genocide in Gaza was diverted after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. One of the craziest events in American history was soon forgotten when President Biden finally announced that he was ending his campaign. The assassination attempt was two weeks ago, and it already seems like it’s been two years.
All of these events, along with a lack of press freedom in Turkey, have limited the amount of coverage on Turkey’s military’s quiet campaign in northern Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG).
The Turkish military has been waging war in the KRG against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a nationalist militia group whose leader is imprisoned and whose members are primarily scattered throughout southern Turkey. But many PKK members also operate in the remote areas of the Zagros Mountains that divide Turkey from Iraq’s autonomous region, thus de facto annexing those areas for themselves, a reality that doesn’t sit well with the KRG government.
If you are unfamiliar with this dynamic, don’t worry, it gets even more complicated, but I will try to explain the situation in a historical context. The Kurdish people are the world’s largest ethnic group without a state of their own – around 35 million people – most of whom are scattered throughout northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and western Iran. They were left divided this way largely due to an uprising in Turkish nationalism after expressing discontent with the way the Western Powers carved up the rump Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Throughout the past hundred years, the Turkish government has refused to acknowledge the existence of the Kurdish people, resulting in constant persecution and very little government representation. There are currently two Turkish political parties that represent the collective interests of the Kurdish people. The first is the anti-capitalist People’s Democratic Party (HDP), and the second is the PKK, whose formation is illegal in Turkey.
The PKK was formed in 1978 by Abdullah Öcalan, whose insurgency efforts from 1984 throughout the 1990s have kept him in a Turkish prison since 1999. Later internationally recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and other Western powers, the PKK violated the latest ceasefire agreement in 2015, after a series of rioters accused the Turkish government of supporting the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) against the People’s Defense Unit (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish militant group. Since then, tensions have remained as high as the summer temperatures.
Iraq’s relationship with the Kurdish people isn’t quite the same as Turkey’s, but it does rhyme. Ever since British puppet King Faisal I broke his promises to recognize Kurdish rights and autonomy, tensions have remained high between Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish capital city. However, Iraq’s new constitution stipulates that the president must be of Kurdish descent, a move that seems reasonable given the abject fear and terror the Kurdish people endured from Saddam Hussein.
But to make things a little more complicated, the KRG is also unofficially divided between territory controlled by two family dynasties – the Talibanis in the south and the Barzanis in the north. While Erbil serves as its capital, the fealty of the autonomous region’s military, known as the Peshmerga (meaning “those who face death”), is split between north and south. The city of Sulaymaniyah lies just two hours southeast of Erbil and serves as the headquarters for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whereas the dominant force in Erbil is the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). This divide is so palpable that the two militaries rarely communicate with each other.
This power struggle between the two families has greatly inhibited progress in forming an independent Kurdistan for generations. There have been times when they collaborate against common enemies, but the perpetual animosity between the two has also resulted in betrayals and backroom dealings. It seems plausible that these are the reasons why Erbil has so far remained silent about Turkey’s encroachment on Kurdish sovereignty while Iraq has officially condemned the move, including Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, the first lady, and wife of President Abdul Latif Rashid.
“The Turkish army has carried out an operation,” wrote Peshmerga General Osman Muhammed via a translated WhatsApp interview. “They are looking for the PKK and [we] want to keep them away from the border. The PKK has created problems for the people and the government. [They do] not want the region to see peace. The war is between Turkey and the PKK. The PKK has been warned several times not to create problems on the borders. They don’t heed that call. We demand that this war be removed from the borders of the Kurdistan Region.”
A resident in Erbil, who chose to remain anonymous, said that the “KDP does not like the PKK at all, and they are on good terms with Turkey. Meanwhile, the PUK, in Sulaymaniyah, have kind of good relations with the PKK. It’s always like this; whatever these guys support, the other supports [the opposite]. They want to stand against them. It’s always like this.”
While we can’t say with certainty whether or not Erbil tacitly supports the Turkish assault against its militant rival group, I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to take this information and form your own opinion.
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