Iraq withdraws from Islamic Solidarity Games over Zakho attack

The Iraqi Olympic team announced on Sunday that it will withdraw from the Islamic Solidarity Games set to take place in Turkey next August in protest of the recent bloody bombardment of the Duhok governorate.

The Iraqi National Olympic Committee (NOC) has decided to withdraw from the upcoming Islamic Solidarity Games in protest of the bloodshed of innocent lives in Zakho, in line with the recommendations of the Iraqi parliament in its last emergency session,"  Iraq's Olympic committee said.

"The decision of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee was in line with the Iraqi state system and its parliamentary and governmental bodies, as it is part of the demands of the Iraqi people," it added.

The tournament will start on August 9 in Konya, Turkey.

The recent deadly Turkish rocket attack on one of Zakho's tourism resorts in Duhok, where 9 Arab tourists were killed and 22 others from Iraq’s central and southern governorates were injured. read more

International and local officials and organizations have strongly condemned the Zakho attack through protests, attacks on the Turkish embassy in Baghdad and Turkish visa application centers, calls to boycott Turkish products, and anti-Turkey hashtags on social media.  

Turkey has carried out cross-border offensives of varying magnitude allegedly against the PKK for decades. However, in recent years, it's begun to establish more of a sustained presence in a growing number of bases and checkpoints dotting the mountains of the Kurdistan Region despite calls from Iraqi authorities to stop these actions. 

The Turkish army launched its latest operation dubbed Operation Claw-lock last April which is targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) hideouts in the mountainous areas of Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan in Duhok province. The operation is the fourth stage of Ankara’s Claw operations against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region, with the first stage starting in 2019.

The PKK is an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Thousands of acres of land have been burnt and many villages have been evacuated due to Turkish bombings, and even civilian casualties have fallen due to the continuous Turkish operations in the Kurdistan Region. The Turkey-PKK conflict has killed at least 597 civilians, and 226 “individuals of unknown affiliation” since July 2015, according to the International Crisis Group. 

The Turkish military has also developed a network of roads connecting the military bases and Turkish territory to facilitate resupply and reinforcement and strengthen their matrix of control over the occupied areas. From the mountain emplacements, Turkish artillery began firing on civilians living in and working on the agricultural lands in the valleys.

The Islamic Solidarity Games is a multi-sport event held every four years between countries that are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The first edition of the competition was held in Saudi Arabia in 2005.



PUKmedia