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Turkey: Iraq to take measures against
Kurdish separatists
2.8.2006
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ANKARA, August 2,
-- Turkey has high hopes that Iraq and the
United States will soon act to curb separatist
Turkish Kurd rebels based in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq), the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The apparent optimism in Ankara came after it
threatened last month to consider cross-border
military operations into neighboring Kurdistan
(northern Iraq) to crack down on bases of the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) if Iraq
and the United States failed to do so.
"Iraq has recently given us information about the
measures it foresees to stop the activities of the
PKK terrorist organization in Iraq," foreign
ministry spokesman Namik Tan told a press
conference.
"At the end of the day, the PKK will definitely be
defeated," he said. "We will see this very clearly,
very soon."
Turkey says the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by
both Ankara and Washington, uses northern Iraq as a
springboard for attacks on Turkish territory and
enjoys unrestricted movement in the Kurdish-run
region where it easily obtains weapons and
explosives.
Ankara, Tan said, wants to increase cooperation with
both Washington and Baghdad against the PKK, which
has notably stepped up violence in Turkey over the
past year.
"The stronger our cooperation grows, the sooner
concrete results will be seen," he said. "We have a
strong expectation that the concrete results of this
cooperation will begin to emerge soon."
The spokesman declined to say what measures Baghdad
was considering against the rebels.
The United States has been reluctant to pursue the
PKK in northern Iraq, arguing that allied forces are
overwhelmed by violence in other parts of the
country and that military action in the north could
destabilize the relatively calm region.
It has warned Turkey against unilateral cross-border
action, urging its NATO ally to seek coordinated
efforts against the PKK with Washington and Baghdad.
Thousands of PKK militants have moved to northern
Iraq since 1999, when the group declared a
unilateral ceasefire after the capture of its leader
Abdullah Ocalan, now serving a life sentence for
treason. The truce was called off in June 2004.
At least 94 PKK rebels and 58 members of the
security forces have been killed this year,
according to an AFP count.
Kurdish militants have also claimed responsibility
for 11 bomb attacks in urban centres across Turkey
this year, in which nine people were killed and
nearly 140 injured.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984,
when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the
European Union and the United States
AFP
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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