Baghdad calls for disarmament of ‘PKK elements’

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called on Kurdish separatist fighters who have withdrawn to the country’s north after waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey to disarm.

Speaking during a news conference in Baghdad with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Hussein noted that armed “PKK elements” remain in northern Iraq, notably in Sinjar and Makhmur.

"We support the agreement between Turkey and the PKK and look forward to the implementation of this agreement and the resolution of the PKK issue," Hussein said.

According to Fidan, Turkey hopes that the PKK will end its armed operations in Iraq and withdraw from there, as well as in parts of Iran and Syria.

“We are working closely with Iraq, and I thank both Iraq and the Kurdistan region for their cooperation in this regard,” Fidan said.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, began laying down its arms in July in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq after withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq as part of a peace effort with Ankara.