Iraq’s foreign minister calls for disarmament of ‘PKK elements’ in the north

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Sunday called on Kurdish separatist fighters who have withdrawn to the country’s north after waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey to disarm.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, began laying down its arms in July in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq after withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq as part of a peace effort with Ankara.

But armed “PKK elements” remain in northern Iraq, notably in Sinjar and Makhmur, according to Hussein.

Speaking on Sunday during a joint news conference in Baghdad with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Hussein said: “We support the agreement between Turkey and the PKK and look forward to the implementation of this agreement and the resolution of the PKK issue.”

He said the matter of the “PKK elements” in northern Iraq was discussed with Fidan.

Turkey hopes that the PKK will end its armed operations in Iraq and withdraw from there, as well as in parts of Iran and Syria, Fidan said.

“We are working closely with Iraq, and I thank both Iraq and the Kurdistan region for their cooperation in this regard,” he said.

Sabri Ok, a member of the Kurdish umbrella organization, the Kurdistan Communities Union, this week said all PKK forces in Turkey were being withdrawn to areas in northern Iraq “to avoid clashes or provocations.”

Hussein said 26 bilateral memorandums of understanding were being signed related to energy and security, as well as a critical water rehabilitation agreement, following talks last month.

Flights between Iraq and Turkey are set to resume on Monday, ending a suspension that lasted over two years, an official at Sulaymaniyah International Airport told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, bringing to an end four decades of hostilities with Turkey, The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.