Hürriyet: Turkish army gears up for major military operation in Iraq

The Turkish armed forces are planning a large-scale military ground operation in northern Iraq against militants of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Hürriyet newspaper claims that an agreement was reached with Iraqi central and local authorities in this regard.

"First of all, a large-scale ground operation will be carried out in the region where the Pençe-Kilit operation took place. Before the operation, an agreement was reached with the Iraqi central administration and the administration in Erbil, which is controlled by the Barzani family," wrote Abdulkadir Selvi, a columnist close to government circles.

The anticipation of the operation in northern Iraq began with President Erdogan's statement after a cabinet meeting.

"We will complete a circle that will protect our Iraqi borders," Erdogan said. He then added: "I hope that this summer we will complete the issue of our Iraqi borders".

Sun Tzu in his book "The Art of War" says, "If war is inevitable, the attempt should be to overwhelm the enemy quickly, with a thorough assessment of their strengths and weaknesses." One of the countries that knows this best is Türkiye, which has been conducting cross-border operations since the 1990s.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, MIT chief Ibrahim Kalın and Defence Minister Yaşar Güler have prepared the infrastructure in Baghdad and Erbil.

Hakan Fidan and Ibrahim Kalın are currently in the US. The main issue Fidan and Kalın discussed with their counterparts was the operation to be carried out in Iraq and Syria.

According to the newspaper, Ankara expects the operation to "close" all 378 kilometres of its border with Iraq to terrorists.