Ankara in Talks with Tehran over Strikes on PKK Positions: Erdogan
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara has been in talks with Tehran about its strikes on PKK positions in Iraq’s Qandil mountains.
Erdogan said on Saturday that he had discussed the issue with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and that the two agreed to maintain regional security, Reuters reported.
He made the remarks after Turkish fighter jets targeted a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) meeting in Iraq's Qandil mountains.
Turkish government forces have also been deployed in a region some 20 kilometers inside northern Iraq, not far from Qandil. Northern Iraq’s Qandil mountains are situated close to the border between Iran and Iraq.
Turkey has also been in talks with Iraq about the potential offensive but Erdogan said on Saturday that Ankara will wait to see a new government formed in Baghdad following May’s election there before continuing talks.
Turkey has conducted frequent airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq. It previously carried out cross-border operations in the region in the 1990s and 2000s. A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants in 2015 in the wake of a large-scale Turkish campaign against the group.
