Referring to the continuation of operations in the Matina region, Yurkey Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said at a meeting of the executive board of the Justice and Development Party on Friday that Turkey intends to establish a military base in the Matina region in northern Iraq to control the Qandil crossings.
Qandil is a mountainous region in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers' Party has bases there.
Reacting to the government's decision on Turkey's intention to settle in Iraqi Kurdistan, People's Democratic Party (HDP) Foreign Affairs Commission spokesman Heshyar Ozsoy said: " the decision by Turkey is nothing new,"
Ozsoy said in an interview with Salman Guzel Yuz from the Mesopotamia News Agency that "We do not know to what extent the United States supports and cooperates with Turkey, but it should not surprise us if it supports Turkey."
Referring to the role of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in this regard, Ozsoy said, "There is a serious debate as to whether the KRG supports such an operation only at the level of intelligence or it does it in action as well. The Turkish government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the United States, are likely to coordinate at a certain time. I say this cautiously because I do not have accurate information, but the indicators claim such a situation."
"Although Turkey's excuse for this operation is to fight the PKK, many Iraqi Kurdish politicians now think that the only target of this operation is not the PKK and Turkey is settling in Kurdistan gradually," the HDP official added.
Mr. Ozsoy went on to say that "Another reason behind the operation is that it plans to severe ties between Iraqi Kurdistan and northern and eastern Syria. If Turkey can reach an international agreement on this issue, that is, succeed here with the support of the United States and the Iraqi government, it can move forward to the next stage. This is an attack on all the achievements of the Kurds in the Middle East. The attack targets Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan), Iraqi Kurdistan and the PKK."
Reporter's code: 50101