Authorities in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah on Thursday banned four organizations accused of affiliation with the PKK terrorist group.
The four organizations include two groups and a media production house, according to the METRO center for press freedoms.
PKK terrorists have several strongholds in Iraq’s northern autonomous region, controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike the terrorist targets.
Ankara and Washington both deem the PKK a terrorist organization, which is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror aimed at establishing a so-called Kurdish self-rule. The group also occupies Sinjar and Makhmour.
Authorities in Sulaymaniyah, the Iraqi Kurdish region’s second city, have been accused of leniency toward PKK activities.
Türkiye often criticizes the PKK’s gaining footing in Sulaymaniyah and warns that “further measures” would be taken if the city’s administration continues to tolerate terrorists.
But the Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the PKK terrorists.
Col. Salam Abdel Khaleq, the spokesperson for the Kurdish Asayesh security forces in Sulaymaniyah, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the bans came “after a decision from the Iraqi judiciary and as a result of the expiration of the licenses” of these groups.
PKK violence was initially raging in rural regions of southeastern Türkiye, but the terrorists have moved a large chunk of operations to northern Iraq since 2019 after successive Turkish operations. Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there and regularly targets the PKK.
Türkiye’s cross-border operations into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara wants Baghdad’s cooperation in eliminating the terrorist group “at its roots” and preventing the formation of a terror corridor along its borders.
In March, following a visit to Iraq by top Turkish officials, federal authorities in Baghdad classed the PKK as a “banned organization.”
By mid-August, Baghdad and Ankara had signed a military cooperation deal to establish joint command and training centers with the aim of fighting the PKK.
Türkiye, however, wants Iraq to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group fully.
KRG President Nechirvan Barzani recently urged implementation of the Sinjar agreement signed with the country’s central government, demanding that the PKK and all other illegal groups leave the town, liberated from Daesh in 2014 yet occupied by the PKK a year later.