Turkey urges Iran to halt attacks on Kurdish groups

When Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz landed in Tehran earlier this month to attend the funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he received a warm welcome from officials of the Islamic Republic. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also hosted Yilmaz and his delegation during the visit. Pezeshkian thanked Turkey for helping to prevent an Israeli plan to foment an armed insurrection by Kurdish groups in western Iran, a source familiar with the visit told Middle East Eye. Senior Turkish officials had sought to convince their US counterparts that the plan, devised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was unrealistic and could threaten Turkey’s national security. US President Donald Trump indirectly suggested on several occasions that Ankara had even considered entering the war to prevent the emergence of another Kurdish separatist entity on its borders, following its experience in Syria. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Several people familiar with the matter told MEE that Ankara had also conveyed another message to Tehran: stop attacking Kurdish groups in the region. They said Ankara was concerned that, following the failure of the Kurdish insurgency plan, further Iranian action against Kurdish groups in Iran and Iraq could push them into Israel’s arms. It was relatively easy for Turkey to convince Washington that arming the Kurds was a bad idea. Senior Trump aides were highly sceptical of Netanyahu’s regime-change proposal at the White House, including the notion that Kurdish forces could mount a ground invasion of Iran. The CIA director reportedly used one word to describe Netanyahu’s regime-change scenarios: “farcical”. “In other words, it’s bullshit,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly said. But now, Ankara is deeply invested in its peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and further Iranian action in Iraq where the group is present could undermine the sensitive process. Fears of Iraqi Kurdistan spillover The Turkish government plans to introduce draft legislation in parliament on Monday that would pave the way for former PKK militants to return to Turkey within six months. The partial pardon would offer non-violent PKK cadres an opportunity to reintegrate into society. Maintaining calm across the region is essential to implementing this roadmap peacefully. When the US reached out to Iraqi Kurdish leaders earlier this year to join an armed insurrection against Tehran backed by Mossad and the CIA, they found themselves in a quandary. 'The extension of the Iran-Israel rivalry into Iraqi Kurdistan and the re-emergence of the Kurdish card at the centre of the regional power struggle would directly undermine Turkey’s long-term security calculations' - Mehmet Alaca, Turkish expert on Iraq The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the ruling party in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, is led by the Barzani family and has a sister organisation in Iran, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), which was reportedly set to lead the proposed effort. However, Kurdish leaders had little reason to trust Washington after what had happened to the Kurds in Syria, who were abandoned by the US in favour of a new Damascus government earlier this year. Kurdish sources told MEE that the US-Israeli plan also envisaged the Peshmerga, military forces of the autonomous region of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional National Authority, joining the uprising because Washington did not trust the PDKI’s capabilities. Erbil, however, was not enthusiastic. Mehmet Alaca, a prominent Turkish expert on Iraq, said increased Iranian military pressure could inadvertently push Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, such as the PDKI, Komala and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), closer to the West, particularly Israel. “The Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has hosted these groups for many years, would bear the greatest cost of such a development,” he told MEE. “Besides risking the transformation of the region into a new front in the Iran-Israel rivalry, this scenario could make the balance between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) [in Iraq], the party led by the Talabani family, even more fragile. It could also provide Tehran with a justification for further expanding its influence in the region on security grounds.” Iran has bombarded PDKI camps in northern Iraq since the war began in late February. Alaca said Turkey had sought to minimise the destabilising impact of Iranian influence in northern Iraq by courting the traditionally pro-Iranian PUK, which normalised relations with Ankara earlier this month through an official visit to Turkey. “Following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, the KDP and PUK, despite their intense rivalry on numerous issues, adopted a common position that Iranian Kurdish opposition groups should not become involved in the Iran conflict,” he told MEE. “For Turkey, the most critical dimension is the peace process and the new security architecture it is seeking to build for the post-PKK era. “The extension of the Iran-Israel rivalry into Iraqi Kurdistan and the re-emergence of the Kurdish card at the centre of the regional power struggle would directly undermine Turkey’s long-term security calculations.”