The blazes of the conflict between the PKK and Turkish military have also reached Iraqi Kurdistan, as the Turkish military conducted intense air raids against the PKK, which in one case led to the death of at least eight civilians in the village of Zargali.
If there were any hopes that Ankara might seek a new approach after the November elections, Turkish fighter jets dashed them as they conducted intensive air bombardments of the PKK inside Iraqi Kurdish territory on Nov. 2 and Nov. 5, and most recently on Nov. 20.
Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu also delivered a strong and uncompromising message.
"Terrorist groups like the PKK should not be part of the peace process," Sinirlioglu said defiantly during a panel Nov. 4 in Erbil with Iraqi Kurdistan's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani. He did not elaborate on whom Turkey would take as its partner for resolving the country's long-standing Kurdish question.
The escalation of the conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK has put the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq in a tough position, adding another potential element of instability to the difficult circumstances it is already grappling with.
The Iraqi Kurds are faced with the threat posed by IS along a frontier of over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and are gripped with a serious economic crisis. The spillover of the PKK-Turkish conflict into Iraqi Kurdish territory presents another major challenge for the KRG.
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