Turkey’s military launched an air operation in northern Iraq against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for Kurdish political autonomy in Turkey for four decades.

The attack began hours before public protests in Turkey led by the country’s main pro-Kurdish political party, which were due to start on Monday.

Turkish warplanes launched the air strikes, involving F-16 aircraft, on military positions of the PKK in the Makhmour and Sinjar regions of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said late on Sunday.

Last week, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) announced that it would be holding the marches between June 15 and June 20 to protest the stripping of the parliamentary immunities of HDP deputies Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları, along with that of a member of the main opposition party, earlier this month.

The prominent politicians were arrested on espionage and terror charges. Güven and Enis Berberoğlu, who is a parliamentary deputy for the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), have since been released pending trial.

The marches were set to start from the northwestern province of Edirne, where many HDP politicians including former co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş are imprisoned, and the southeastern province of Hakkari, an HDP stronghold.

Although the arrests have served as a catalyst for the protests, the HDP said that the party would be demonstrating against countless injustices against Kurdish politicians and civil society, including the sacking of several HDP mayors on terrorism charges following last year’s local elections.

Ahval