IRAQ, — The Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay visited Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq last week and met with the region’s president Massoud Barzani. He was reported to be appealing for their cooperation to fight against the Kurdish resistance movement, PKK.
Today a top Iraqi commander said that Iraqi Army has no capability to fight Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.
Speaking to Rudaw.net, Iraq’s Army Chief of Staff Babakir Zebary said that the Iraqi Army has no capability and readiness to fight the PKK. “I believe any move against PKK without coordination with the Kurdistan region is going to fail, he said”.
Zebary also said that the Kurdish problem in the Northern Kurdistan (southeast Turkey) would not be solved if Turkey does not negotiate with the PKK. “One of the problems of Turkey is that it has yet not realized that it should sit down with the PKK. It still views the group as a terrorist and has not granted a general amnesty for PKK members, Zebary said.”