SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday the refugee camp of Makhmour must be cleared of “Kurdish militants”.
Cavusoglu said in a press conference that clearing the region of militants was the Iraqi government’s responsibility, but that Turkey would do it alone if it had to, Reuters reported.
He added that Turkey was in talks with Iraqi officials over the matter.
His comments came after a Turkish drone bombed the camp on Saturday, killing three people.
The strike on the camp which houses thousands of Kurdish refugees from Turkey took place three days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraq that Turkey would “clean up” the refugee camp which it says provides a haven for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Erdogan said June 3 that Makhmour, a camp 180 km south of the Turkish border, was an “incubator” for militants and must be tackled.
Turkey has taken its decades-old conflict with the PKK deep into northern Iraq, establishing military bases and deploying armed military drones against the fighters in their mountain strongholds.
Most of the operations have focused on territory up to 30 km (20 miles) from the border. But Makhmour lies further inside Iraq, and Saturday’s strike on the camp prompted dozens in Sulaimani city to march in protest.
The camp was established in the 1990s when thousands of Kurds from Turkey crossed into Iraq.
Makhmour was targeted by Turkish air strikes a year ago, although there were no reports of casualties at the time, but a senior Turkish official said it was now a priority for Ankara.
