Iraq asking Turkey to apologize for Sulaimaniyah airport attack
The Iraqi government has called on Turkey to apologize for an attack on an airport in the country’s northern Kurdish region, denouncing what it called a “flagrant aggression” against its sovereignty in the area.
The demand on Saturday came as a Turkish Defense Ministry official told the Reuters news agency that no Turkish Armed Forces operation had taken place in that region in recent days.Iraq’s presidency said the attack on Friday took place in the vicinity of the Sulaimaniyah airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. It blamed Turkey for the attack and said Ankara had no legal justification to continue “intimidating civilians under the pretext that forces hostile to it are present on Iraqi soil”.
“In this regard we call on the Turkish government to take responsibility and present an official apology,” it said.
Turkey conducts military operations in Iraq and Syria against Kurdish-led forces, which it views as terrorists allied with the PKK. The recent attack on Sulaimaniyah airport, where Mazloum Abdi was present, was condemned by him and caused damage to the airport’s fence. The attack came after Turkey closed its airspace to aircraft traveling to and from Sulaimaniyah due to intensified PKK activity, and it has escalated tensions between Iraqi Kurdish government parties.
A statement from the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, which is primarily controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, appeared to blame the PUK for Friday’s events. It accused them of provoking an attack on the airport and using “government institutions” for “illegal activities”.Ankara has close ties to the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which is the largest party in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and is dominant in the regional capital, Erbil.
Its rival, the PUK, has closer ties to the PKK and is dominant in Sulaimaniyah.
Fendi, reporting from Erbil, said, “The presidency of the Iraqi Kurdish region has called on the two parties to stop exchanging accusations and to investigate the circumstances of this recent shelling.
“This tense atmosphere between the two sides of the Kurdish Regional Government comes at a time when the airspace in Turkey remains closed to flights coming from Sulaimaniyah airport, and at a time when many say the differences between both parties of the government should come to an end …. as people here get ready for legislative elections scheduled for later this year,” he added.