Reuters. Turkey has not carried out any attacks targeting civilians in Iraq's Dohuk province, where a strike killed eight and wounded 23, and Iraqi authorities must not fall for this "trap," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday (July 21), Reuters.
Turkey on Wednesday rejected claims by Iraqi officials and state media that it had carried out an attack on a mountain resort in the northern Dohuk province.
Iraq summoned Ankara's ambassador to Baghdad over the attack and its state agency said the government will call back its charge d'affaires in Ankara.
Cavusoglu told state broadcaster TRT Haber the Turkish military operations in Iraq have always been against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), saying the attack on Dohuk was also carried out by what he called terrorists.
Turkey regularly carries out air strikes in northern Iraq and has sent commandos to support its offensives as part of a long-running campaign in Iraq and Syria against militants of the Kurdish PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara regards both as terrorist groups.
Cavusoglu said reports blaming Turkey for the attack were attempts by the PKK to hinder Ankara's counter-terrorism.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which in the past was mainly focussed in southeast Turkey, where the PKK sought to create an ethnic homeland.
In an interview with TRT Haber, Cavusoglu also said talks between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations on resuming Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea are going well so far, adding he was hopeful about reaching a deal.
