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Turkey has always had ambitions for northern Iraq: Pundit

A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inspects a crater reportedly caused by a Turkish airstrike on July 29, 2015, in the Qandil region, northern Iraq. (AFP)

Press TV has interviewed Ibrahim Mousavi, a political analyst from Beirut, on a call by Turkish academics on the government to restore peace by enforcing a ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

 

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

 

Press TV: Give us your thoughts on the calls by the academics insisting on the restoration of ceasefire with the PKK?

Mousavi: When you talk about this voice, you talk about a voice of wisdom that is trying to find a middle line between what is going on. You have now the clashes taking place. You have the strikes against the PKK. You have the operations and the firing back of these attacks against PKK by launching operations against the army and against the Turkish security forces.

So these academics came to voice out their wisdom and to try to mediate in between the two parties in such a way as to bring settlement to the crisis that has erupted recently. We know that there had been a kind of time when appeasement has been installed. I can talk about a temporary settlement, but a long one indeed has been there.  Now with the developments in Turkey, especially after the continuous intermingling and the continuous meddling of the Turks in the Syrian attacks, we have so many different developments.

We know very well that the Kurdish forces have gained an upper hand in the war and in the battle against the so-called ISIL, against the Daesh, and the Takfiri groups. This has brought them into a point where they could enjoy more and more freedom to exercise their own authority, their own self-autonomy, at one point. So this is something that would not fall in a good way to the Turkish government. That is why there had been a lot of attacks and there had been reprisals by the PKK.

The academics are trying to make middle line in order to bring them together again and in order to install settlement that will bring an end to these continuous clashes.

Press TV: Many observers have shown a lot of skepticism with regards to Turkey’s actions in Syria and Iraq. They state that Turkey is not after battling specifically ISIL or the PKK, but they have ulterior motives with that regard. Your take.

Mousavi: Absolutely. This is something that has been proved by history, by academics. The literature is full of things, is full of positions regarding the Turkish interference, even the Turkish ambitions, when it comes to Iraq and when it comes to Syria. We have been able to see what happened when the so-called ISIL captured and seized Mosul. We know very well that the Turkish authorities have always had their ambitions on the northern part of Iraq. They also have their ambitions in order to make a zone that would not allow the Kurds to make any kind of state, say in Syria, as well. They do not want to see this happening because this is going to make a lot of problems for the Turkish governments. So when you talk about turning a blind eye from the Turkish government to the Daesh, to the ISIL, to the Takfiri groups, it is proved; it is everywhere; it has been voiced by so many different Western governments and by many journalists that the Turks are giving the way for the Takfiri groups in order to use the Turkish territories as a logistic base in order to go to Syria or to Iraq.


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