TURKISH Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced Turkey and Iran are preparing joint operations against Kurdish militants in south-eastern Turkey.

“God willing, we will carry out a joint operation against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] together with Iran,” Mr Soylu told state media.

Details about the suggested operation have not been announced.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously said they will be targeting Kurdish forces hiding out in Iraq.

In 2017 Mr Erdogan was quoted as saying a joint Turkish-Iranian operation against Kurdish forces was “always on the agenda.”

He added that the two countries had been in talks to discuss how to work against the Kurds, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guards denied this at the time.

Turkey has been battling the PKK since the 1980s until a ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK was called in 2013.

Peace talks took place between the government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan but was abandoned by the government arbitrarily after two years.

The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been fighting against the clerical regime for the right to self-determination in Iranian Kurdistan since 2004.

Many of its members have been arrested and executed by the Tehran government.

“The terrorist organisation is going through the most difficult period in its history,” Mr Soylu added in his speech to the pro-government Anadolu news agency.

Crucial local elections are due to be held at the end of this month in Turkey.

Mr Soylu’s declaration of this operation can be seen to hinder the support for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) by linking them to the PKK, which Turkish authorities perceive as a terrorist organisation.