SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Baghdad to summon Turkey envoy over death of Kurdish protester
Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019
Iraq on Sunday said it would summon the Turkish ambassador over the death of a Kurdish protester after Turkish troops opened fire on demonstrators in the country's northwest.

On Saturday night, Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region of northwestern Iraq to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment.

Witnesses said Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators, causing casualties and damage.

Iraq's foreign ministry on Sunday denounced the incident, saying one person was killed and several others wounded when Turkish forces "opened fire on citizens in the Shiladzeh area".

"The foreign ministry will summon the Turkish ambassador to hand a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated," it added.

Turkish forces are deployed in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region and often carry out raids and air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a "terrorist" group by Ankara.

On Saturday, the Kurdish regional government said it was "saddened" by the casualties and material damage at Shiladzeh but only referred to an "incident" without mentioning Turkey or the protest.

Footage distributed by activists appeared to show protesters setting Turkish military vehicles on fire.

Turkey's defence ministry said one of its bases was attacked after "provocation by a PKK terror group," resulting in some damage to vehicles and other equipment.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the PKK was "troubled" because Ankara was hitting its "terror nests".

"They are provoking the local community. And we know that the PKK is behind this (the attack)," he told reporters in the southern city of Antalya.

Cavusoglu said he had spoken to the prime minister of autonomous Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, who reportedly told him authorities would conduct a "comprehensive investigation".

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, but also operates bases in the Qandil mountain area of Iraq's Kurdish region.

In December, Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's "repeated" air strikes as a "violation of its sovereignty".

Turkey has pressed Iraq to play a bigger role in fighting the PKK, and last month announced deeper bilateral cooperation on the matter.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Detection of ancient water ice suggests interstellar origins predating the Sun
Missing Matter in Universe Found
What if the Big Bang wasn't the beginning? Our research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole

24/7 Energy News Coverage
World Bank lifts ban on nuclear energy financing
Waymo leads autonomous taxi race in the US
MXene infused printed nanogenerator advances ecofriendly wearable energy systems

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Israel, Iran exchange more deadly airstrikes on fifth day of conflict
Amid Israel-Iran war, Nimitz aircraft carrier to join Vinson in Middle East
B61-13 gravity bomb reaches first production milestone ahead of projected timeline

24/7 News Coverage
China expands disaster monitoring with launch of Zhangheng 1B satellite
Heat tolerant crops achievable but require long timelines and major investment
S.African president blames climate change for 'catastrophic' floods



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.