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BAGHDAD — Turkey’s international minister on Thursday rejected accusations that his nation’s navy carried out lethal strikes on vacationers in northern Iraq yesterday, as households of the killed Iraqis buried their family members and Baghdad took steps to place stress on Ankara.
Talking with Turkish state broadcaster TRT, Mevlut Cavusoglu stated Turkey was prepared to cooperate with Iraqi authorities to make clear the “treacherous assault.”
Iraq’s authorities summoned Turkey’s ambassador in protest and the parliament known as a session to debate the Turkish assault. Caskets carrying the our bodies of victims have been flown from the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run northern area to the Iraqi capital for burial.
The area’s president, Nechirvan Barzani, laid a wreath on one of many caskets and helped carry it onto a navy airplane. On the Baghdad airport, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi obtained the useless and met with the households of these killed, providing his condolences. He promised the wounded can be taken care of.
The entire casualties have been Iraqis; a toddler was amongst these killed. Cavusoglu provided to convey the wounded to Turkey for medical therapy.
There remained a discrepancy over the variety of these killed in Wednesday’s assault on a vacationer resort within the district of Zakho: Iraq’s navy stated eight folks died however 9 caskets have been loaded onto the navy airplane. Over 20 folks have been additionally wounded.
Turkey denied it was behind the assault, and Cavusoglu claimed it was a “smokescreen” aimed “at stopping Turkish navy operations within the area.”
“We didn’t conduct any assault in opposition to civilians,” he stated and insisted that Turkey’s “struggle in Iraq has at all times been in opposition to” the outlawed Kurdistan Employees Social gathering, or PKK.
In Baghdad, mourners carried the coffin of Abbas Abdul Hussein, a 30-year-old Iraqi who was amongst these killed in Zakho.
Hussein had simply gotten married 5 days earlier, his cousin Mentioned Alawadi stated, demanding the federal government “provoke deterrent measures in opposition to Turkey by shutting down the embassy, reducing commerce, political and financial relations.”
The assault catapulted into the highlight Turkey’s ongoing navy operations in opposition to Turkey’s Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq — a difficulty that has lengthy divided Iraqi officers. With deep financial ties between the 2 international locations, many hesitate to break relations with Ankara.
Baghdad and Ankara are additionally divided on different points, together with the Kurdish area’s impartial oil sector and water-sharing. However within the aftermath of the assault, anger in opposition to Turkey is mounting on the Iraqi avenue.
Dozens of protesters gathered within the neighborhood of Waziriah, exterior a constructing that previously housed the Turkish mission in Baghdad, holding indicators that stated: “Turkey’s assaults on civilians is a criminal offense in opposition to humanity.”
The Turkish Embassy in Iraq cancelled visa appointments for the day.
Turkey continuously carries out airstrikes into northern Iraq and has despatched commandos to help its offensives focusing on the PKK, which has bases within the mountainous area. And although civilians, largely native villagers, have been killed up to now, Wednesday’s assault marked the primary time that vacationers visiting the north from elsewhere in Iraq have been killed.
In April, Turkey launched its newest offensive in northern Iraq, a part of a collection of cross-border operations that began in 2019 to fight the PKK.
The Iraqi authorities condemned Wednesday’s assault as a “flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty,” convened an emergency nationwide safety assembly and ordered a pause in dispatching Iraq’s new ambassador to Ankara. Additionally Thursday, the International Ministry in Baghdad summoned Turkey’s ambassador and handed over a “protest be aware.”
Parliament was to convene on Saturday to debate the Turkish assault. Al-Kadhimi accused Turkey of ignoring “Iraq’s steady calls for to chorus from navy violations in opposition to Iraqi territory and the lives of its folks.”
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the European Union, has led an insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984 that has killed tens of hundreds of individuals.
Ankara has pressed Baghdad to root out the PKK from the Kurdish area. Iraq, in flip, has stated Turkey’s ongoing assaults are a breach of its sovereignty.
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Related Press author Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
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