Turkey is invading the Kurdistan region of Iraq – and the world has hardly   blinked  20/04/2022    https://medyanews.net/turkey-is-invading-the-kurdistan-region-of-iraq-and-the-world-has-hardly-blinked/   journalist and columnist Sarah Glynn evaluates Turkey's invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan 

Bit by bit, Turkey has been invading, and effectively colonising, large areas of a sovereign neighbouring state, but their attacks have been deemed hardly worthy of a headline, let alone international censor. Indeed, Turkey acts with Western knowledge and approval. As a strategic NATO ally, Turkey is exempt from criticism, but – more than that – Turkey has dressed up its invasion as a fight against terrorism. The ostensible targets of its attacks are the bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Iraqi mountains; and the United States and its allies have followed Turkey’s lead and their own political prejudices to label the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

Turkey’s invasion of Iraq is much more than a “counter-terrorism operation”, and – as mentioned – the designation of the PKK as a terrorist organisation is being questioned too. Legally, as ruled by the Belgian courts, the PKK is a non-state actor in an armed conflict against the Turkish state– and so liable to the rules of war, not criminal law. The PKK has been signed up to the Geneva Convention since 1995. They have long been seeking a peace agreement that would allow Kurds in Turkey to live with dignity, and have instigated many ceasefires in the hopes of seeing a negotiated solution. They also played a major role in freeing Iraq and Syria from ISIS. International law allows a role for liberation movements; however, the United States and its friends will not allow a role for a movement that defines itself against liberal democracy and that is actively engaged in building an alternative communitarian society with grass-roots democracy.

Kurds everywhere – including very many people in Iraq who are angry at the role being played by their government – are very concerned about what is happening. There have been protests in European cities, where an oft-repeated chant is the call for a political solution for Kurdistan. Kurds in Scotland are preparing a protest too