Between 10 and 14 February this year, the Turkish military conducted intense air strikes on the Gara mountains, in Iraq, followed by a special forces air assault before withdrawing. When the Turkish forces withdrew, dozens of militants, a few soldiers and 13 Turkish hostages of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had died. The operation’s objective had been to free them.
The operation was partially driven by Turkish domestic political considerations: A successful rescue of the hostages would have given a boost to the coalition of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whose popularity is waning. Two days before the operation started, President Erdoğan even announced he would have good news for the nation within a few days. Prematurely, as it turned out.
The raid also continued the regionalization of Ankara’s fight with the PKK by, once again, taking it onto Iraqi territory and by targeting a key transit area between Sinjar and Qandil in Iraq where the PKK headquarters are located, and Al-Hasaka in Syria, held by the PKK-linked People’s Protection Units (YPG). The raid was enabled by the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of the Barzani family – Turkey’s main Kurdish ally due to their tight economic linkages that include oil exports.
