Iraq’s first lady blasts Turkey’s assault against PKK in Kurdistan Region

Amberin Zaman

Jul 18, 2024

Iraq's new first lady and Iraqi-Kurdish politician and writer Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed receives a bouquet of flowers during her husband's inauguration and handover ceremony as the new Iraqi president at al-Salam Palace in the capital Baghdad on Oct. 17, 2022. — Iraq's new first lady and Iraqi-Kurdish politician and writer Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed receives a bouquet of flowers during her husband's inauguration and handover ceremony, at al-Salam Palace in the capital, Baghdad, on Oct. 17, 2022. — AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images

Iraq’s first lady sharply condemned Turkey’s ongoing military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the Kurdish- administered north of the country. Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, wife of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, took to Twitter on Wednesday to spout her anger amid reports that Turkish troops had penetrated 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) into Iraqi territory, in a fresh offensive that was mounted in early July to encircle PKK fighters holed up in the mountainous Metina and Gare region lying south of the Turkish border.

Ahmed echoed claims that some 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) of agricultural land had been burned and thousands of civilians had been forced to flee their homes as a result of the Turkish airstrikes, with some 602 villages, including those populated by Assyrian Christians, under threat. The Iraqi public is entitled to know whether “there is any agreement between Ankara and Baghdad, or Ankara and Erbil, which permits a neighboring country to treat Iraq as its own territory,” she said. "If there is such an agreement, then public outrage should be directed at Iraqi or Kurdish authorities."

We’ve learned that 20,000 dunams (20 square km) of agricultural land have been burned as a result of Turkish bombardment, with reports that in one village alone, 55 percent of agricultural land has gone up in smoke.
— Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed (@firstladyofiraq) July 17, 2024

Ahmed’s comments come nearly a week after a meeting of Iraq’s National Security Council, which issued a watery statement on July 10 denouncing “the interventions and violations by Turkish forces in shared border areas.” Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have been criticized for their silence in the face of Turkish attacks. The PKK says the KDP is directly involved in the campaign. “Turkish technical elements are now embedded inside KDP peshmerga [fighter] units stationed behind our forces. They relay intelligence to advancing Turkish troops,” said a PKK commander briefing Al-Monitor on the latest situation via WhatsApp. The KDP denies it is taking part in the operations.