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ANKARA, July 20, 2005 (AFP) - 16h41 - Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday that
Ankara is running out of patience with a safe haven
that armed Turkish Kurd rebels enjoy in neighboring
northern Iraq as the militants said they were ready
to fight the Turkish army if it enters the region.
"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 responded with a threat to turn northern
Iraq into a "quagmire" for the army if it launches
cross-border operations to clean up on guerrilla
camps there.
"We are prepared for a possible attack. ... We will
make it fail and turn (northern Iraq) into a
quagmire for the forces that will carry it out," a
statement by the PKK's military wing said.
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 on the
grounds that Ankara's reforms to expand Kurdish
freedoms were inadequate.
The PKK statełent was published Wednesday on the
Internet site of the Germany-based MHA news agency,
which is close to the rebels and regularly publishes
their statements.
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," the Milliyet newspaper quoted
Erdogan as saying.
"No doubt, Turkey will do this after consulting the
Iraqi authorities," he said. "But the time may come
when it will do it without consulting. Why? Because
this is an internationally recognized right."
Erdogan said he raised Turkey's concerns 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, 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, General
Ilker Basbug, said Washington had ordered the arrest
of senior PKK commanders in Iraq.
He said 105 soldiers and 37 civilians have died in
PKK-related violence over the past year, without
giving 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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