Politics

Pipelines and PKK: Iraq and Turkey step up cooperation

Iraq and Turkey share an extremely important strategic relationship, but multiple unresolved issues continue to create friction between the two

AFP

A visitor at the Mahkmour refugees camp in Arbil, northern Iraq, look at photographs on October 29, 2009 of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerillas killed during fighting at a memorial center built in their honour.

Pipelines and PKK: Iraq and Turkey step up cooperation

Shelly Kittleson

last update on 30 May 2023

Istanbul: On 27 May, Iraq hosted a conference on a major regional transportation project that will cost an estimated $17 billion and will link Iraq to Europe via Turkey.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani presented the project in front of transport ministers from Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

The conference came a few days after Iraqi soldiers reportedly sustained minor injuries when stones were thrown at them as they began building a fence around a camp accused of giving refuge to terrorists in the northern part of the country.

This attempt (on 20 May) by Iraqi forces to exert greater control over who – and what, including weapons – goes into and out of the infamous refugee camp in the Makhmour area seems like one of several signs of increasing collaboration and trust between Turkey and Iraq.

PKK remains thorn in side of Iraq-Turkey ties

The camp has officially housed Turkish Kurdish refugees for decades. However, it has long been under de facto control of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), multiple officials in the Kurdistan region have told this journalist in reporting from the ground since 2014.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2021 called it an “incubation centre for terrorism”.

Iraq and Turkey are major trade partners and commerce between the two countries has grown in recent years.

Iraq’s two largest rivers – the Tigris and the Euphrates – both originate in Turkey. Iraq has been classified by the UN as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to climate change and the health and wellbeing of its population depends to a great deal on the country’s access to water supplies.

Shelly Kittleson The Euphrates River is shared by Turkey and Iraq. Al-Qaim district, Iraq. April 22, 2023.

And while counter-terrorism efforts between the two countries against Islamic State fighters and leaders has resulted in numerous kills and captures, the Iraqi government and security forces have long been perceived to be more hesitant about explicitly calling the PKK a terrorist organisation and cracking down on their presence in the northern part of the country.

This remains a source of friction, as does Turkey’s continuing targeting of PKK operatives in cross-border operations that it deems necessary to protect itself.

The Iraqi government is seemingly hesitant to crack down on the PKK in the north of the country. This remains a source of friction, as does Turkey's continuing targeting of PKK operatives in cross-border operations

Years of trust-building

Former Iraqi ambassador to Turkey Hassan al-Janabi noted in comments to Al Majalla on 22 May that relations between Iraq and Turkey had long been "complex" and "strategic".

During his 2019-2020 term as ambassador to Ankara, he said, "I worked tirelessly with my Turkish counterparts" to advance relations through "dialogue and open channels of communication and understanding".

He added that he saw relations between the two countries as having "moved forward politically, economically and diplomatically" both when he was ambassador to Turkey and when he was water resources minister between 2016 and 2018, noting that "we achieved [a] much higher level of trust".

As one example, he said: "We paved the way for a presidential visit by President Erdogan to Iraq in October 2019, including a special visit to Karbala and Najaf", noting that "the visit did not take place due the Iraqi popular protest in October 2019".

Iraqi counter-terrorism expert Hisham al-Hashimi, who this journalist met with and interviewed multiple times in both Iraq and Turkey over several years, had — prior to his assassination in Baghdad in July 2020 — often discussed joint operations between Turkey and Iraq.

Shelly Kittleson Iraqi counter-terrorism forces in a base in the western Anbar desert. March 1, 2022.

He had said that the beneficial relationship between them had enabled the tracking down of key IS leaders, as well as the gathering of useful intelligence on their movements and financial support.

Multiple security officials have, in the years since, confirmed this ongoing counter-terrorism collaboration and its importance.

Pipeline problems but grand projects on the horizon

In late March, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani paid his first official visit to Turkey since taking office the previous October. The focus was on increasing economic cooperation between the two countries as well as a major transit project presented on 27 May.

The Development Road project, also referred to as the Dry Canal project, is a road and rail network that will link Iraq's southern city of Basra and the Grand Faw Port with the Turkish border and then through routes onwards to the port of Mersin and Europe.

Iraq's prime minister called it "an economic lifeline and a promising opportunity for the convergence of interests, history, and cultures", adding that it will "make our countries a source for modern industries and goods."

Erdogan has said that the project has the potential to become the "new Silk Road of our region".

Iraq and Turkey share an extremely important strategic relationship, but multiple unresolved issues continue to create friction between the two.

On 23 May Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said Iraq was still waiting for a response from Turkey to resume its northern oil exports through its semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to Turkey's port of Ceyhan.

Shelly Kittleson Iraqi counter-terrorism forces conduct an operation in the Western Anbar desert. Near Rutba, Iraq. March 3, 2022.

Iraq had asked Turkey to resume pipeline flows on 13 May.

While Turkey has stated that a technical team is assessing the pipeline for possible damage resulting from a major earthquake in February that devastated the region, exports were halted on 25 March after an arbitration ruling by the the International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration (ICA) in Paris that ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion for unauthorised exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government between 2014 and 2018.

This pipeline has been targeted by PKK multiple times, including in January 2022.

'Illegal actions' in Makhmour camp

The camp where Iraqi officers were met with violence on 20 May is located in an area claimed by both the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government. Attempts have been made for years to address the issue of resulting security gaps.

The Iraqi Security Media Cell noted on Twitter following the incident that the actions of the military had "aimed to ensure the safety of all those inside the camp from the illegal actions of some of them that lead to destabilisation and peace in the country and harm Iraq's relationship with its regional environment."

The PKK has been fighting a war against Turkey for decades and is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.

The PKK maintain training camps and bases in northern Iraq near the Turkish border from which they send fighters and other operatives into both Turkey and Syria.

At a forum in recent weeks in Baghdad, an observer remarked to Al Majalla on the use of the "Kurdistan Workers Party" by a top Iraqi security official in a speech to refer to the PKK without affixing the words "the terrorist group" or the "gangs"— as is instead common for Iraqi security statements to use when referring to the Islamic State (IS).

A number of central government security officials in Baghdad, Nineveh and Kirkuk had, over the past year, voiced frustration to this journalist about continuing PKK activities. One asked this journalist for information on the group, since – he claimed – that "Western journalists know more about the group than we do".

A number of central government security officials in Baghdad, Nineveh and Kirkuk had, over the past year, voiced frustration to this journalist about continuing PKK activities. One asked this journalist for information on the group, since "Western journalists know more about the group than we do".

'Iraqi central government long urged to act'

While officials questioned about the Makhmour incident on 20 May declined to comment, one senior Turkish official had told this reporter in late 2022 that the "sustainable stability, security and prosperity of Iraq is crucial" and that Turkey prefers "to see an Iraq that is able to cope with PKK and other terrorist organisations on its own".

Multiple military and government officials in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have also, over several years, voiced frustration with the Iraqi central government not doing what they saw as Baghdad's duty to deal with an international terrorist group crossing into and out of the country at will.

In early 2022, Saad al-Jayashi, security advisor at the Iraqi National Security Advisory at that time, told the Kurdistan region's media outlet Rudaw that "the PKK camp, the refugee camp in Makhmour, has gone through several stages" but that Iraq had "lost control of this camp" during the period of fighting IS in the 2014-2017.

Shelly Kittleson Heavily damaged buildings in the northern Iraq city of Sinjar, where the outlawed PKK maintains a presence and influence. May 30, 2022.

"The government has treated them as per the constitution because the new Iraqi constitution is a clear one. It bans Iraqi territory from being used as a base, corridor or a launchpad to attack the neighbouring countries," he added.

A security plan had been drawn up and a budget allocated, he said, noting that it included "a fence and [observation] towers as well as CCTV".

Jayashi had told the outlet at that time that there were 13 schools in the camp but that the government had been unable to ascertain "what curriculum they teach and who teaches" it.

Over a year later, the 20 May attempt to build this fence as an initial move was met with violence.

New border crossing opens as one with Syria closes

A new border crossing opened between Iraq and Turkey on 10 May. Though a decision had been made a decade prior to do so, the emergence of IS and the years of war against the international terrorist group had led to a postponement.

The border crossing is between Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Hakkari and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq's Erbil province near the Zet village.

It is the first international border crossing between the Erbil province and Turkey and the third between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Turkey. Only the crossing between Turkey's Sirnak and the KRI's Ibrahim Khalil is currently open to trade.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organisations operating in north-eastern Syria were informed on 11 May by KRG officials that the Fishkhabur-Semalka border crossing between north-eastern Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was closed "until further notice".

Shelly Kittleson Peshmerga base in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. August 2, 2022.

The PKK-linked, Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) controls the Syrian side of the border.

NGO staff and others were allowed to cross back into the KRI for the next week. However, by 20 May the border had closed entirely. Photos circulated in the days before of cars lined up for kilometres in the rush to get out.

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