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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Baghdad Summons Turkish Envoy over Death of Kurdish Protester

Turkey regularly carries out air strikes against PKK fighters. (Getty Images)

Baghdad announced on Sunday that it will summon the Turkish envoy following the death of a Kurdish protester over the weekend after angry demonstrators stormed a Turkish military camp.

The Turkish troops opened fire at the Kurdish demonstrators, who were protesting the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment.

Witnesses said Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators, causing casualties and damage.

Iraq's foreign ministry on Sunday denounced the incident, saying one person was killed and several others wounded when Turkish forces "opened fire on citizens in the Shiladzeh area".

"The foreign ministry will summon the Turkish ambassador to hand a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated," it added.

Turkish forces are deployed in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region and often carry out raids and air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a "terrorist" group by Ankara.

What originally started as a peaceful protest Saturday turned violent when the protesters stormed the Turkish camp.

A number of protesters were wounded when the troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowd.

The mob managed to burn two tanks and other vehicles, residents and Kurdish officials said.

Turkey's defense ministry said one of its bases was attacked after "provocation by a PKK terror group," resulting in some damage to vehicles and other equipment.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the PKK was "troubled" because Ankara was hitting its "terror nests".

"They are provoking the local community. And we know that the PKK is behind this (the attack)," he told reporters in the southern city of Antalya.

Cavusoglu said he had spoken to the prime minister of autonomous Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, who reportedly told him authorities would conduct a "comprehensive investigation".

The Kurdish government in Erbil in northern Iraq condemned the storming of the camp, accusing "saboteurs" of instigating the incident, a veiled reference to the PKK, a rival of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) that dominates the Erbil government and has a working relationship with Turkey.

Erbil said it had sent its forces to the area to calm the situation.

In December, Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's "repeated" air strikes as a "violation of its sovereignty".

Turkey has pressed Iraq to play a bigger role in fighting the PKK, and last month announced deeper bilateral cooperation on the matter.

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