Is Turkey pushing Iraqi Kurds towards a new civil war?

Turkey Abroad

Turkey is risking the start of a new intra-Kurdish conflict in northern Iraq by pushing the regional government to deepen its involvement in Ankara’s campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), pro-Kurdish activist Sarah Glynn told Ahval News in a recent podcast. Glynn, who recently wrote that Turkey risked pushing Iraqi Kurdistan towards a civil war in an article for Open Democracy, believes that this desire is not an implausible one because it would be the only party to benefit. Using its deepening ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), local peshmerga units have clashed heavily in the last year with PKK militants who have long operated out of Iraq’s mountainous north.