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ANKARA, July 20 (AFP) - 11h47 - Ankara is
running out of patience with a safe haven that armed
Turkish Kurd rebels enjoy in northern Iraq, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, renewing his
warning of a possible Turkish military incursion
into the area, press reports said Wednesday.
"We have a certain degree of tolerance for the
moment, but we cannot continue like this much
longer," Erdogan told reporters accompanying him on
a trip to Mongolia, the daily Hurriyet reported.
"We must put the PKK problem behind us," he said,
referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party,
blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United
States and the European Union.
The PKK, which has stepped up violence in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast over the past few months,
took refuge in the mountains of northern Iraq after
a unilateral ceasefire it declared in 1999 in its
war with Ankara.
The militants began sneaking back into Turkey after
they called off the truce in June 2004, saying
Ankara's reforms to expand Kurdish freedoms were
inadequate.
Erdogan said he raised the issue with both US
President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari when he met them in June and May,
respectively.
He complained that Washington has failed to respond
in kind to the support Ankara gave to US-led efforts
against terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan,
after the September 11 attacks, the daily Milliyet
reported.
"While Turkey has been so open (in its support), the
United States has yet to take the least action
against PKK infiltrations into Turkey, except for
intelligence-related efforts," Erdogan said.
On Tuesday, the Turkish army's number two said
Washington had ordered the arrest of senior PKK
commanders in Iraq.
Erdogan argued that international law gives Turkey
the right to make military incursions into northern
Iraq in self-defense against the PKK if the Iraqi
authorities fail to act.
"Turkey can conduct such an operation in line with
international rules," Milliyet quoted Erdogan as
saying.
"No doubt, Turkey will do this after consulting the
Iraqi authorities," he said. "But the time may when
it will do it without consulting. Why? Because this
is an internationally recognized right."
The army said Tuesday that 105 soldiers and 37
civilians have died in PKK-related violence over the
past year. It did not give the number of PKK
militants killed in the same period.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since
1984 when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule
in the southeast.
AFP
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