The PKK has brought Turkey to the Kurdistan Region, brought the country on fire, and destroyed it, the secretary of the KDP Politburo Fazil Mirani said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA).

On June 15, Turkey began a combined air and ground campaign in the Kurdistan Region and northern Iraq, which it said is designed to target the PKK. At least five civilians and an uncertain number of PKK and Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) fighters have been killed since then.

The PKK has been fighting a decades-long conflict against the Turkish government, which has claimed the lives of an estimated 40,000 people and casualties in the ranks of the PKK and Turkish army and security forces.

Mirani also said that the threats of the PKK on Turkey has come to an end, but that threats of the PKK to Turkey will be from Syria and Iraq, adding that France and other countries need to know that Turkey has not come to control Mosul, but that it has come to remove the threats of the PKK outside of its country.

He added that “we will neither be a lawyer of the PKK nor of Turkey, but that is the reality,”

Regarding France President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Baghdad on September 2, and his meeting with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Mirani said that he is “sure that the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani had told Emmanuel Macron new things”, things that neither he knew nor anyone has ever told him.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani characterized his meeting with Macron as “constructive” in a tweet.

“I am grateful for France’s continued support and its strong ties with people of the Kurdistan Region. I look forward to further developing our strong relations with France,” he added.

“A wide-range meeting will be held between the [KDP] and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK] soon, but currently we are waiting for the [PUK],” he said regarding the relations between the two parties, adding that there is a will for a meeting of all the political parties in the office of the Kurdistan Region Presidency.

Reporter’s code: 50101