Turkish flights to Sulaimani International Airport will remain halted as long as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) maintains its relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkey’s Defense Minister said on Wednesday.

In an interview with the government affiliated HaberTurk, Yaşar Güler said that both Ankara and Baghdad are dissatisfied with the continuing relations between the PUK and the PKK.

He deemed the relationship between the two parties as “unfortunate”, adding that “the Iraqi government is also disturbed by this. Although our President, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, and I have discussed this issue many times, the relevant authority in the PUK continues his activities on this issue.”

The Turkish government blames the PUK for having strong relations with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its military backbone, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara labels to be the Syrian wing of the PKK despite the group on several occasions claiming that they only share ideology with the PKK.

In December, Turkey extended a ban on flights from and to Sulaimani airport from Turkish airspace by six months. The flight ban was first initiated in April 2023, with Ankara claiming it was due to intensified PKK activity in the province.

When asked about the reopening of flight to Sulaimani International Airport, Güler said that while Ankara and Baghdad are trying to combat the PKK, it is “unacceptable” for the PUK to get closer to them.

He added that the best course of action would be for the PUK to cut all ties with the group and stand with Turkey and Iraq.

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council earlier this month decided to dissolve three political parties due to their affiliation to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), ordering the closure of all their offices and seizure of all their assets.

The Judicial authority’s decree, upon the request of Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qassem al-Araji, ordered the dissolution of the Yazidi Democratic Freedom party, the Democratic al-Nidhal Front party, and the Kurdistan Free Society party.

The Iraqi Prime Minister last month directed all state institutions to officially rebrand the PKK as the “banned PKK” in all affairs of state.

After a high-level delegation from the Turkish government visited Baghdad in March, Baghdad announced that they have officially categorized the PKK as a threat to its security and classified it as a banned group in the country.

The PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades, the group, designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, uses mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region as shelter and often engages in direct armed conflict with Turkey.

Turkey has for years launched several rounds of an operation dubbed Claw Operation against positions of the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. The latest in the series of operations was launched in April 2022, dubbed Operation Claw Lock, which aims to end the group’s presence in the region.