euronews Last updated: 21/07/2022

In the aftermath of an artillery barrage inflicted on a tourist location in northern Iraq by unknown perpetrators on July 20, 2022, the Turkish language page of the internet news site, euronews, carried a report of the incident, the last updated version of which was the following day and the one on which this post is based.

The euronews report follows (as translated/paraphrased by loc):

The attack, which was carried out in the Zaho region of Dohuk province in northern Iraq, on the border with Türkiye, took the lives of nine persons, two of whom were children. For its part, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the attack was “terror organization-sourced,” while Baghdad accused Türkiye of openly violating Iraq’s sovereignty. The White House announced that it was following developments; Germany condemned the attack.

Iraq declared a country-wide day of mourning because of the attack in which another 30 persons were wounded.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs used the attack, which it had declared to be the work of a terrorist organization, as a springboard to justify the country’s war against terror. At the same time, it charged Baghdad with being influenced by the propagandistic statements of “a treacherous terrorist organization,” when it accused Turkiye of violating Iraq’s sovereignty, and invited Iraqi officials to cooperate “to bring out into the open the real perpetrators of this sad event.”

The Iraq government reacted sharply toward Ankara after the attack by recalling its charge d’affaires as well as calling for Turkey to withdraw its forces that were on Iraqi territory. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa El Kazimi holds Turkiye responsible for the artillery attack in northern Iraq.

The euronews report noted that Mushir Bashir, an official of Zaho district, told the AFP [Agence France-Presse] that the victims of the armed attack were “Iraqi Arab tourists who were coming from central and southern Iraq with children.” On the other hand, according to the euronews report, a source from the Turkish Ministry of Defense told the AFP that “there has been no news concerning artillery fire having taken place.”

Euronews further noted that health officials in Zaho shared information that in the attack nine persons were killed and 23 persons wounded. It was reported that among those who died were at least three women and two children.

For Ankara’s official response, the euronews report cited the statement made by Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu:

“Once again, we wish mercy from Allah for our nine brothers who have passed away. For the wounded we wish healing. If necessary, we also said that we could bring the wounded to Turkiye. Of course, news has also come out connected with this attack accusing and defaming Turkiye. In the statement that we made we clearly refuted this. The whole world knows that Turkiye has never carried out an attack directed at civilians. We are continuing our fight against terrorism in a manner appropriate to international law and yesterday, as soon as this news arrived, we immediately had consultations in our relevant institutions, shared information and, according to the information we received from the Turkish Armed Forces, there has been no such attack directed at civilians. Our target has always been the PKK or, in Syria, the YPG/PYDV terror organizations.”

[Comment: Çavuşoğlu’s phrase “there has been no such attack directed at civilians” is merely weasel-wording to skirt the issue of the artillery shelling per se, i.e., that the civilians killed in the attack that was targeting ‘terrorists’ were ‘collateral damage.’]

The euronews report brought the incident down to the local, man-in-the-street level by interviewing Iraqis who were protesting in front of the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad:

Citing the AP: euronews reported protester Muhammed Ali as saying, “The places you hit are civilian areas where there are children, men, and women. Why are you arranging air attacks on a resort?” Another protestor, Savid Kasim, said, “A message to this Prime Minister, Mustafa el Kazimi, is: When there is such a violation after this by Iran, Turkiye or any other country, as we stood against ISIS as the Iraqi people, so we will stand against them. This is a message to Turkiye: If a solution isn’t found by tomorrow, we will close all Turkish companies.” [Comment: Certainly so much bravado threatening to boycott Turkish business, but the sentiment is real.]

The euronews report also included statements made by two Turkish political parties in opposition to Erdogan’s ruling AKP party:

In a tweet, in which he expressed condolences to the families of the victims, the leader of the liberal Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Ali Babacan, said that “Turkiye must cooperate completely with Iraqi authorities for clarifying this event.”

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) compared the July 20, 2022 mortar strike to the Roboski massacre of December 28, 2011, in which 34 Kurdish civilians, who were smuggling gasoline and cigarettes along the Iraq-Turkey border, were killed by a Turkish Air Force bombing strike.

“Bombing civilian residential areas is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Turkiye is also a direct party to international agreements that prohibit this.

Power – politically and legally – is responsible for this massacre which will go down in history as a second Roboski massacre. At the same time, this massacre is adding up to an attack on another country’s sphere of sovereignty.

The perpetrators and those who made the decision must absolutely be prosecuted and the requirement of law and humanity fulfilled. As a party that is fighting for a region and world where there are no wars and conflicts, we repeat yet again that it is necessary that cross-border military operations and attacks be stopped as soon as possible and to condemn this massacre in the harshest way.

In addition, owing to a bill being passed by parliament that opened a door to this massacre, we publicly demand that the speaker of parliament immediately call an emergency meeting of the General Assembly with this agenda item.”

[Comment: The HDP statement was careful not to implicate the Turkish Armed Forces directly as the perpetrators. However, its tone and underlying message give indications in that direction. The animosity between the HDP and Erdogan’s ruling AKP party runs deep; in recent elections, several HDP mayors were removed from office by Erdogan for allegedly having ties to the PKK.]