On January 7, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported that the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that the Turkish Air Force carried out air strikes in the areas of Medina, Ghara, Hakuk, Kandir and Athos in northern Iraq, blowing up 15 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in these areas.
Turkish attacks on Kurds are a common occurrence, especially recently, Turkish air strikes against Kurdish targets in northern Iraq and northern Syria are common, but this time Turkey's military operations are very different. As reported by the Greek Pentapostagma** on January 6, when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was still visiting Turkey, they bombed Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, allies of the U.S. military.
On January 5, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkey** Erdogan held an hour-long meeting in Istanbul on a new visit to the Middle East, with the participation of Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey's national intelligence organization, Erdoğan's chief adviser Akiif Kagatay Kirić, and U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake. Blinken also held a two-hour meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. After that, Blinken will visit Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and other countries.
Since the United States launched a military operation in Syria, the U.S. military has formed an alliance with the Kurds, the U.S. military provides them with a large amount of ammunition, and even provides training business, these Kurdish forces act as the vanguard of the U.S. military in Syria, encircling and suppressing for them, but the Kurds and Turkey are feuding.
For more than 35 years, the PKK's campaign of terror against Turkey has resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 Turks, including women, children and infants. They often hide in northern Iraq or northern Syria, planning attacks against Turkey.
As the saying goes, it depends on the owner to beat a dog! Turkey's bombing of US allies in the presence of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is clearly an expression of displeasure to the US leadership. Turkish political analysts also pointedly pointed out that the airstrike was carried out while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was still in Turkey. The implication is that Turkey's air raids were deliberately bombed to the Americans, which is quite a bit of a shock.
It is worth noting that just one day before Blinken arrived in Turkey, on January 4, the Turkish Ministry of Defense also announced that in the past week, the Turkish army eliminated as many as 36 Kurdish militants, including those hiding on the northern border of Iraq and Syria, and in the whole of 2023, a total of 2,237 Kurdish militants died at the mouth of Turkish gunpoint.
Blinken's visit to Turkey was intended to ease Turkish-US relations and coordinate Turkey's pace with the United States on more international affairs.