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Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraqi
Kurdistan frontier
18.8.2006
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Kurds flee homes as Iran
shells Iraq's northern frontier
Qandil Mountain, Kurdistan-Iraq, August 18,
2006, -- Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks,
artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers
with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears
to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities
of Kurdish rebel bases.
Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the
northern frontier region after four days of shelling
by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had
also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory.
Some displaced families have pitched tents in the
valleys behind Qandil Mountain, which straddles
Iraq's rugged borders with Turkey and Iran. They
told the Guardian yesterday that at least six
villages had been abandoned and one person had died
following a sustained artillery barrage by Iranian
forces that appeared designed to flush out
guerrillas linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
who have hideouts in Iraq.
Although fighting between Turkish security forces
and PKK militants is nowhere near the scale of the
1980s and 90s - which accounted for the loss of more
than 30,000 mostly Turkish Kurdish lives- at least
15 Turkish police officers have died in clashes. The
PKK's sister party in Iran, the Kurdistan Free Life
Party (Pejak), has stepped up activities against
security targets in Kurdish regions. Yesterday,
Kurdish media said eight Iranian troops were killed.
Rostam Judi, a PKK leader, claimed yesterday that no
operations against Turkey or Iran were being
launched from Iraqi territory. "We have fighters
across south-eastern Turkey. Our presence in Iraq is
purely for political work."
Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the
government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases
inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted they are
considering a large-scale military operation across
the border. They are said to be sharing intelligence
about Kurdish rebel movements with their Iranian
counterparts.
"We would not hesitate to take every kind of
measures when our security is at stake," Abdullah
Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, said last week.
There has been sporadic shelling of the region since
May but officials worry that concerted military
action against PKK bases in Iraq could alienate
Iraqi Kurds and destabilise their self-rule region,
one of few post-invasion success stories. Some
analysts say Ankara and Tehran may be trying to
pressure Iraq's Kurds, afraid that their de facto
independent region would encourage their own Kurdish
population.
Khaled Salih, the spokesman for the Kurdistan
Regional Government in Erbil, said: "We condemn the
shelling and urge the Iraqi government to demand the
neighbours to respect our sovereignty."
Despite its support base in Turkey's impoverished
south-east, the PKK is regarded by Ankara,
Washington and the EU as a terrorist organisation.
Mr Judi said the PKK was seeking a peaceful and
democratic solution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey,
and would welcome mediation from the US or Iraq's
Kurdish leaders.
Last week, the Iraqi government said it had closed
offices run by PKK sympathisers in Baghdad, and
another office was shut by Kurdish authorities in
Erbil.
The US is also to appoint a special envoy to find a
solution to the PKK problem, but that may not be
enough. Ilnur Chevik, editor of the New Anatolian
newspaper in Ankara, said: "There is huge public
pressure on the Turkish government to take action."
But he doubted whether Turkish forces would mount a
full-scale invasion."The build-up of troops is
designed to say to the Americans and the Iraqis, the
ball is in your court." Tehran was also taking
advantage of the situation, he said, "to show Turkey
that it was taking action against its shared enemy,
while the US, Turkey's ally, has done nothing".
Meanwhile those displaced wonder when they can
resume a normal life. "We know that the PKK are
around here," said Abdul-Latif Mohammed, who fled
the village of Lowan with his family. "But they live
in the mountains. So these bombs just hurt us poor
farmers."
The PKK's separatist campaign in southeastern Turkey
has claimed nearly 37,000 lives since 1984 when the
PKK launched its fight for independence or autonomy
for the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast of
Turkey.
guardian co.uk
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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