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Kurdish rebels claim Turkey preparing for
incursion into Kurdistan-Iraq
23.4.2006
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ANKARA, April 22,
(AFP) , - Turkey's main armed Kurdish rebel group
alleged on Saturday that the army was preparing for
an incursion into neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan to
hunt down its militants, and warned that Ankara
would suffer from such a move.
The warning from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) followed Turkish press reports that
thousands of additional troops had been deployed in
the southeast of the country to intensify operations
against Kurdish rebels, who have increasingly begun
to infiltrate the region from across the border in
northern Iraq.
"We believe the preparations are for a cross-border
operation into northern Iraq," Zubeyir Aydar, the
head of KONGRA-GEL, the PKK's political wing, told
AFP in a telephone interview from Brussels.
"There are only a few thousands (PKK) guerillas at
most in southeastern Turkey. It does not make much
sense to move so many troops and equipment into the
region for them," he said.
Aydar stressed that PKK rebels had made the
necessary preparations and would "continue their
struggle on the basis of active legitimate defence"
against a possible cross-border operation.
"Turkey will suffer from such an operation. It would
only lead to more death and pain," he added.
Turkey says an estimated 5,000 PKK militants have
found refuge in the mountains of northern Iraq since
1999, when the group declared a unilateral truce
following the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Violence in the southeast, which has a majority Kurd
population, has increased markedly since June 2004,
when the PKK called off its five-year truce and the
rebels started to cross the border for attacks on
Turkish soil.
Turkish newspapers reported on Friday that the
Turkish military had dispatched an additional 10,000
troops to the southeast for security operations,
bringing to 50,000 the total number of soldiers
there.
The reinforcements had been deployed in areas along
the borders with Iran and Iraq, the press said.
Prior to the US-led occupation of Iraq, the Turkish
army carried out frequent incursions into northern
Iraq to pursue the PKK.
Since the Iraqi war, Ankara has repeatedly urged the
United States to crack down on PKK bases in northern
Iraq. But Washington says its troops are swamped by
violence in other parts of the country.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984,
when the PKK, blacklisted by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union, took up arms for
self-rule in the southeast.
AFP
Southeastern Turkey: Northern Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
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