Xinere- Southern Kurdistan: Yesterday it was the Turkish warplanes that heavily were bombing Kurdistan, today is the turn of the Iranian artilleries. The Kurdish city Xinere has been shelled since this morning by Iranian artilleries. Xinere, in the Iraqi Kurdistan territory, has been the scene of heavy raids by two foreign armies.
The raids have been justified by both the Turkish and Iranian Army as being within the context of their operations against the Kurdish guerrillas of the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK)
While sources close to the PKK have confirmed that it suffered no losses, the people living nearby have indeed been affected by the raids. In the last 10 days at least 2 civilians have died and 9 others have been wounded.
The Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) was founded in 1973 as the result of the continuous and systematic oppressions and the denial of the Kurdish nation by the occupying powers of Kurdistan. The PKK took up arm in 1984 since all the possible political and diplomatic means applied for 11 years in between 1973-84 proved exhausted. The PKK however declared its first unilateral ceasefire in 1993 since it believed the arm struggle hit its targets. Since 1993 to date the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires in 6 different occasions and called upon Ankara to solve the Kurdish problem in a peaceful democratic procedure.
Despite the facts that the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires and also it sent peace groups in two different occasions yet the PKK is considered as a ‘terrorist’ organization by Ankara and the US. It also continues to be on the blacklist in EU despite the court ruling, which overturned the decision to place the Kurdish freedom movement on the EU’s terror list “By labelling PKK as a terrorist organisation, the EU and the US are giving the Turkey a green light to target its civilians. They give the Turkish government a free hand to do what it will, a mother of Kurdish martyr said”.
It should be noted that after 1954, apart from the Korean war, 1949-52 and the invasion of Cyprus, 1974, the Turkish Army operations have continued to be exclusively against the Kurds.