The Foreign Relations Committee of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) released a statement refuting the accusations of the Iraqi Interior Ministry that a PKK-affiliated group was responsible for the fires in the Kurdistan Region.

The KCK statement released on Monday includes the following:

“It has been claimed by some media outlets that the forces behind the fires in the provinces of Kirkuk, Hewler (Erbil), and Duhok were a group affiliated with the with the PKK. We reject these accusations of having conducted these fires. It is known to society that these attacks have been carried out by MIT (Turkish intelligence service) and Parastin (KDP intelligence service).

With its resistance, principled and decisive stance from the past to the present, the PKK is a power that the peoples of Kurdistan and the Middle East recognize, trust, and honor. The PKK, which has taken the right attitude wherever there is a threat and injustice against society, is today waging a fierce and relentless war against the Turkish colonialists that try to occupy and annex Iraq and southern Kurdistan step by step. With the means and support provided by the KDP administration, the soldiers of the occupying Turkish army disrespect our people in Zakho, Duhok, and Hewler and are now openly conducting their once covert military operations. The occupying Turkish army is blocking Iraqi roads in broad daylight, forcibly conducting identity checks, arresting people, forcing them to migrate, and even martyring them through drone and artillery attacks.

Against these crimes of the occupying Turkish army, which continue to increase every day, the KDP continues to play a collaborationist role, while the Sudani government remains unresponsive and silent. The freedom guerrilla of Kurdistan is resisting against these occupation attacks against southern Kurdistan and Iraq by using all the means at its disposal. The fascist Turkish state is suffering a heavy defeat despite the use of countless banned weapons and chemical bombs against the guerrilla, the commission of all kinds of war crimes, and the introduction of the most advanced technologies into the service of the Turkish army. The occupying Turkish army, which has difficulty deploying at the locations it has occupied so far, only conducts transportations under Iraqi and KDP uniforms.

It is a pity that the Iraqi Ministry of Interior has disclosed such a statement, while our movement is waging a great resistance against these occupying attacks. When ISIS attacks started in Iraq, it was our movement that mobilized with all its strength to protect the Iraqi people and the Kurdish people, without a single agenda of self-interest. It took an active part in the liberation of Erbil, Makhmur, Kirkuk, Shengal (Sinjar), and Mosul from ISIS. It paid a heavy price for this cause, and the then Iraqi Prime Minister thanked our movement for it. The allegations that we burned the bazaars and markets of the people of Kirkuk, Erbil, and Duhok, which we did our best to protect against ISIS attacks and gave martyrs in the process of doing so, is slander and manipulation. We entrust the Kurdish and Iraqi people who watched our forces fight to protect them, to decide whether these allegations are true or not.

We call on the Iraqi state and the Ministry of Interior to act more responsibly in the face of MIT’s directives, to be more responsible towards these false allegations targeting our movement, and to disclose the identities of the true culprits. We also call on the democratic and resistant Iraqi peoples to take the necessary attitude against such lies and to take action against any step or discourse that legitimizes the Turkish occupation.”