Britain must “act now” to prevent another Turkish bloodbath, Peace in Kurdistan said yesterday, calling for immediate action as Ankara launched a major new offensive against Kurds.

The British-based campaign group warned that unless urgent action is taken there will be more suffering and “an enormous loss of lives.”

PIK accused the governments of Britain, Europe and the US of “sustaining a Turkish state policy that brings death and destruction to the Kurds and the people of the Middle East.”

“This tacit support will undoubtedly rebound on the citizens of Europe themselves, as we have seen through Turkish support for jihadists, including Islamic State, and fascist organisations which it uses as auxiliaries to commit terrorist attacks and wage war,” it said in a statement.

Turkey launched its long-anticipated military invasion in the early hours of Tuesday morning with fighter jets and drones bombing villages in the Gare mountains region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Soldiers have also mobilised as part of a ground invasion and are currently engaged in skirmishes with guerrilla fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who are fighting to repel the invading forces.

The Turkish Defence Ministry said it had launched Operation Claw Eagle 2 to “neutralise the PKK and other terrorist elements from northern Iraq” to ensure security along the Turkish-Iraqi border.

The attack comes just a month after the Defence Minister Hulusi Akar visited Baghdad and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) controlled city of Erbil, the regional capital.

“Co-operation and co-ordination against the PKK plays a very important role. We are ready for every possible co-ordination with Iraq,” Mr Akar said during his visit.

The US has pressed Baghdad and Erbil to work together with Iran in joint operations against the PKK, with KDP leader Masoud Barzani agitating for war since November last year.

But his aggressive stance, which included sending thousands of peshmerga forces to the Qandil mountains and the Medya Defence Zones, were met with a lukewarm response. 

All opposition parties including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Communist Party of Kurdistan formed a united anti-war front against Mr. Barzani’s plans.

The latest Turkish aggression came just a day after the unelected mayor of Sinjar (Shengal) the site of the 2014 Yazidi genocide at the hands of Isis, called on the Iraqi government to assert control over the area and demanded the PKK leaves with Turkey threatening to invade.

It is part of a longer-term plan to create a so-called Sunni corridor splitting off progressive Kurds in Rojava from their allies in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran. 

Part of the plan sees the US promoting the Barzani-led Kurdish National Council (ENKS) as a pole of attraction in northern Syria to allow the growth of a more compliant administration there in opposition to the more radical PKK-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD).

PIK said that the Turkish “neo-Ottoman expansionism” and use of violence comes at a time of “mounting protest inside Turkey at the repressive, sectarian and racially intolerant policies of the government” - a reference to the month-long Bogazici resistance.

“The Turkish government intends to destroy every manifestation of the Kurds until they are either totally subdued or they are annihilated. 

“President Erdogan has rejected every attempt to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey and the Middle East, choosing to undertake a military answer instead. The consequence is suffering and an enormous toll of lives,” the statement continued.

But PIK insisted that the military expansionism couldn’t take place without the connivance of NATO, the US and Britain which continue to sell Turkey arms, despite accusations of war crimes in Rojava and against Kurds inside its own borders.

Turkey remains a “priority market” for the British government’s arms export unit and has licensed some £1.3 billion in weapons sales since May 2013.

In addition, Campaign Against Arms Trade reported that 114 Open Individual Export Licences (OIELs) were issued for exports to Turkey, allowing for unlimited deliveries of the equipment specified in the licence.

Last month ANF reported on a six-year secret history of British supplied technology that fuelled Turkey’s rise to a global drone superpower with the production and sale of equipment needed to fire missiles.

And the group hit out at the recent post-Brexit trade deal signed between Britain and the US which was condemned as “a deal of shame” by campaigners and the Trades Union Congress (TUC). It said such agreements are treated by Mr. Erdogan’s government as “an embrace and acceptance of its legitimacy and status.”

“There must be political, diplomatic and economic measures taken against the Turkish government to stop its relentless and escalating violence,” PIK said. “The first step must be forcing the Turkish government to negotiate with the Kurds and their imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The UK, Europe, the US and NATO should have acted years ago before this monstrosity could grow and inflict the damage it has done - act now."

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