Iraq requests Turkish clarification on closure of Suleimaniyah airspace

Kurdistan Regional Government officials say ties with Turkey are not affected

Smoke billowing in the town of Chiladze following a Turkish offensive targeting rebels in the north's autonomous Kurdistan region in April 2022. AFP

Iraq has requested clarification from Turkey regarding the closure of airspace with Suleimaniyah, a key city in the northern Kurdish region, officials told The National on Thursday.

Ankara on Wednesday halted flights to and from the northern Iraqi city, citing increased activity by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkey, the US and the EU have designated the group a terrorist organisation.

The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said it is seeking clarification from its Turkish counterpart on the move.

“We have no indications of any security risks for flights to and from Suleimaniyah,” a spokesman for the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, Jihad Kadhim, told The National.

“We have asked them to explain the reason behind their decision,” Mr Kadhim added.

“The rest of the airspace is open and operating normally.”

An official in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) declined to comment on the closure of the airspace but told The National that the move will not affect ties with Ankara.

Flights have not been disrupted and the airport's activity is running as usual, the official said.

The PKK rebel group has bases in northern Iraq from which it has launched attacks against Turkey in a decades-long push to gain greater autonomy for the Kurdish people.

The conflict between the Turkish army and the PKK in Iraq escalated in the 1990s, when Turkey launched a number of ground operations in northern Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.

Since then, Ankara has launched several military operations in Iraq against the group.

Last month, two helicopters crashed in the northern city of Duhok, killing at least nine people.

The helicopters allegedly carried PKK militants and members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to the Iraqi Kurdish-run counterterrorism agency and KRG officials.

The crash had killed Sharfan Kobani, one of the SDF's senior military officers and commander of anti-terrorism forces.

Reasons for the crash remain unclear.

“The group of anti-terrorism unite headed to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as part of the activities and efforts to fight Daesh cells and exchange security and military expertise,” said a statement by the SDF.

The SDF has spearheaded the fight against ISIS in Syria and drove the group from its last stronghold in the country in 2019.

Shortly after the crash, KRG Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani, told a meeting of foreign diplomats that a group linked to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is one of the ruling political parties and is based in Suleimaniyah, bought the two helicopters.

“How and why these helicopters reached the Syria Democratic Forces is what we don't know. Why they were there, that needs more investigations,” Mr Barzani said.

Mr Barzani belongs to the ruling political party the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) that dominates the capital Erbil.

The party has had its differences with the PUK over the years.