Turkey sets up checkpoints within Kurdistan Region, residents say

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish armed forces have established checkpoints within the Kurdistan Region in areas of Duhok near the Turkish border, creating obstacles for locals caught up in Ankara’s most recent military operation.

“When I was returning home, I was asked for my identification card at the checkpoint in Turkish, but I did not understand,” a resident of Kani Masi village, Amedi district, Duhok, told Rudaw on Monday on the condition of anonymity.

Residents are being asked to show identification, the source added.

“Later one of the soldiers asked me in Kurdish. I said I do not have it with me … they said ‘go, but bring your identification card with you next time’,” he said.

Turkey’s checkpoint is near the Balave and Belizani villages on the main road between the Bamarni and Kani Masi subdistricts about 57 kilometers northeast of Duhok city.

Rudaw has learned that the Turkish army has begun operations near Kani Masi and Mount Metina in Duhok province. The soldiers patrol the area with heavy weapons and have created several similar checkpoints.

Turkey has yet to announce the operation, but it has recently increased its military incursions to curb stated threats from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) along its border with the Kurdistan Region.

The PKK is a pro-Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. 

The recent escalation in attacks is a part of Turkey’s plans to eradicate the Kurdish group along its southern border with the Kurdistan Region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in March that Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by the summer.

“This summer, we will have permanently resolved the issue concerning our Iraqi borders,” Erdogan said at the time, and called on everyone in the region to respect Ankara’s security strategy, “Otherwise, they will be the cause of the tensions that will arise.”

Iraqi and Turkish security delegations have held several meetings to address the border security issue. In March, the Iraqi and Turkish foreign ministries issued a joint statement after a meeting in Baghdad. “Both sides stressed that the PKK organization represents a security threat to both Turkey and Iraq, and it is certain that the presence of the organization on Iraqi territory represents a violation of the Iraqi constitution,” read the statement.

Iraq banned the PKK and the two sides discussed measures against the group.

Ankara’s security concerns were also a topic of discussion between Iraqi and Turkish officials during the Turkish president’s visit to Iraq in April. 

“We told them [Turkey] that the [Iraqi] National Security Council describes the PKK as a prohibited party,” Bassem al-Awadi, the spokesperson for the Iraqi government, told Rudaw at the time.

"Each member of the PKK in Iraq is considered a political asylum seeker, but they will be banned from partisan and political work as well as bearing arms," Awadi said.

Officials in Baghdad previously have condemned Turkey’s operations, citing Iraqi sovereignty. Their overtures, however, have not halted Turkey’s cross-border incursions, which are a violation of international norms and law.

Turkey’s Claw-Lock operation was launched in northern Duhok province in April 2022, with the goal of targeting PKK positions in Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan areas. Ankara at the time said the goal of the operation was to remove the PKK from the border areas and cut off its access to mainland Turkey.

Turkey has carried out over 800 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province so far in 2024, according to data from Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization and conflict monitor tracking Ankara’s operations in the Kurdistan Region. 

 

Nasir Ali contributed to this report