Iran Denies Involvement in Turkey’s Operation against PKK

The source, however, said, “The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will severely counter any group that intends to create insecurity in our country.”

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said earlier on Monday that Turkey and Iran had carried out a joint operation against PKK militants.

“We started carrying out an operation with Iran against the PKK on our eastern border this morning (and) will announce the result,” Turkey’s news agency Anadolu quoted Soylu as saying.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

In January 2018, Ankara launched a cross-border military operation inside Syria, code-named Operation Olive Branch, with the declared aim of eliminating the Syrian Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The YPG forms the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-Damascus alliance of predominantly Kurdish militants supported by the United States.

Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization and the Syrian branch of the PKK.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.

Iran has had its own struggle with the PKK’s Iranian offshoot, the so-called Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which has waged several terrorist attacks in western Iran over the past years.

The terror group carries out attacks in parts of Iran’s West Azarbaijan province which borders Iraq, Turkey, and Armenia.

Two weeks ago, high-ranking Iranian and Turkish officials in a meeting in Ankara underlined that continued cooperation between the two countries in war on terrorism in the region is a necessity.

The meeting was held between Iranian Deputy Interior Minister for Security and Law Enforcement Affairs Hossein Zolfaqari and Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Monday March 04.

During the meeting the two officials conferred on the recent developments in Iraq and Syria as well as the situation of refugees and the measures adopted by the trans-regional countries, emphasizing the need for continued cooperation in fighting terrorist groups and organized crimes and establishment of security and tranquility in the region.

Soylu, for his part, underscored as highly vital cooperation between Tehran and Ankara to resolve the problems and prevent security incidents in the region and the world.

In a relevant development last year, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan in a meeting in New York City called for joint efforts to combat terrorism in the world and the region.

During the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual session in New York, the Iranian and Turkish presidents explored avenues for broadening of mutual cooperation in fighting terrorist groups.

The Iranian president pointed to the importance of Iran-Turkey-Russia cooperation on Syria, and said that Iran was fully prepared to help resolve the Syrian crisis, specially in Idlib, within the framework of tripartite cooperation with the help of Turkey.