Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Iraq bans PKK as security ties with Turkey gain momentum. The decision comes after the high-level talks between Turkish and Iraqi officials in Baghdad.
Iraq National Security Council has banned the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an armed campaign against the Turkish forces for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey.
The decision was disclosed on Thursday in joint Iraqi-Turkish statement issued after a high-level security meeting in Baghdad.
“Turkey welcomes the Iraqi National Security Council’s decision to designate the PKK as a banned organization in Iraq,” said the statement shared on both the Turkish and Iraqi foreign ministries’ websites.
The PKK, which is listed as a terror outfit by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, is headquartered in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, where Turkey conducts routine airstrikes and holds hundreds of military outposts.
