IRAQ. Kurdistan. December 1, 2014. A monument erected in honor of fallen PKK fighters overlooks the Qandil Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the 1990s, during some of the deadliest years of the PKK-Turkey conflict, the PKK set up bases across the rugged Qandil Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan,near the border of Iran. Since then, Turkey has periodically carried out air strikes in Qandil, aiming to hit the thousands of fighters who train and live in the moutain. But the PKK fighters in Qandil operate in various pockets of the mountain, and often live in caves, making it near impossible for Turkish jets to precisely target them. On several occasions, Turkish jets accidentally hit Iraqi Kurdish villagers living in the area instead. This prompted tensions between the the regional Iraqi Kurdish government and Turkey. In recent years, Turkey and the PKK have embarked on a fragile peace process, which has spared Qandil some of the heavy shelling of earlier years. But events in Syria and Iraq this past summer, in particular Turkish sensitivities to the PKK's increasingly prominent role in fighting the Islamic State and PKK allegations that Turkey was at times conspiring with IS to bring about the fall of Kobani, have strained the peace process. If the process collapses, the relative calm in Qandil may break as well.