Over the last few weeks, the area around the village of Zini Warte has been the focus of ongoing tension between the KDP, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the PKK, with multiple armed units encamped within a few hundred meters of each other. The village is located in a strategic area between KDP-controlled Erbil governorate, PUK-dominated Sulaimani governorate, and the PKK’s headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.
“A team of three guerrillas went to the KDP’s fixed point in Zini Warte and told them that it was wrong to remain in the area and asked them to leave,” the KCK said in a statement, referring to a Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs-controlled force that includes members of both the KDP and PUK that was ordered into the area by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in late March.
A PUK-affiliated Peshmerga unit is also deployed nearby.
After delivering the message to the ministry Peshmerga unit, the KCK said that the PKK fighters remained in the vicinity of the Peshmerga position, using a temporary camp that they had not previously used, NRT reported.
“A day after that visit, Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes on the place where those three guerrillas were staying,” the statement said, before directly accusing the KDP of communicating the location of the temporary camp to the Turkish military.
As a result, three PKK fighters were killed, the statement revealed.
The KCK is a political umbrella group associated with the ideology advanced by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and is often used to communicate messages from the PKK.
”Placing KDP forces in Zini Warte is declaring war against the guerrillas and the KDP applies ‘leave here’ pressure on the guerrillas because of the demands of Turkey,” the statement continued, using guerrillas to refer to the PKK.
The KDP routinely faces criticism that it is too close to Ankara, which is an important economic and political partner of the KRG.
“The KDP and Turkey have agreed to outflank Qandil and it is expected that Turkey will attack Qandil at a suitable time. That is why the KDP has increased its forces near the guerrillas’ places,” the statement added.
Earlier on Friday, KRG Prime Minister Barzani said that the ministry Peshmerga unit was deployed initially to block smugglers from bringing people into the Kurdistan Region in violation of border controls designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus and placed blame on the PUK for escalating the situation when it deployed its own forces to observe several days later.
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