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Turkish PM urged to invade Iraqi Kurdistan
9.10.2007 |
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Upsurge in Kurdish PKK attacks raises pressure on
Turkish prime minister to order Iraqi Kurdistan
invasion
October
9, 2007
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came
under intense pressure last night to order an
invasion of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' following the
deadliest attacks for over a decade on the Turkish
military and civilians by separatist Kurdish PKK
guerrillas.
Mr Erdogan, who has resisted demands from the
Turkish armed forces for the past six months for a
green light to cross the border into Iraqi
Kurdistan, where the guerrillas are based, called an
emergency meeting of national security chiefs to
ponder their options in the crisis, a session that
some said was tantamount to a war council.
A Turkish incursion is fiercely opposed by
Washington since it would immensely complicate the
US campaign in Iraq and destabilise the only part of
Iraq that functions, the autonomous Kurdistan region
in the north.
Two Turkish soldiers were killed yesterday in booby
trap explosions laid by guerrillas of the Kurdistan
Workers' party (PKK) - fighters classified as
terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the European
Union. Those casualties followed the killing of 13
Turkish soldiers in the south-east on Sunday when
PKK forces outgunned a Turkish unit of 18 men
without sustaining any casualties, according to the
Kurds.
The Turkish media described the toll from the
attacks as the worst in 12 years in a conflict
spanning several decades that has taken almost
40,000 lives.
Mr Erdogan is known to think little of the invasion
option, making the pragmatic calculation that it
would probably fail. Western diplomats in Ankara
agree that an invasion could be counter-productive.
The Turkish military raided Iraqi Kurdistan dozens
of times in the 1990s but were unable to suppress
the insurgency.
After a cabinet meeting dominated by the Kurdish
conflict, Cemil Cicek, the Turkish government
spokesman, said yesterday: "What is at issue here is
how much any action we decide to take would bring us
closer to a result." He did not rule out an invasion
but queried its "usefulness".
The prime minister, however, is being challenged by
the army command, which earlier this year demanded
his authority to invade. He is also vulnerable to a
mounting public clamour to act because of the
upsurge in guerrilla activity and the heavy
casualties being suffered. Hardline Turkish
nationalists entered parliament in Ankara following
elections in July and they are also baying for
Kurdish blood.
Following the soldiers' deaths on Sunday, Mr Erdogan
signalled a shift in policy without specifying how.
"Our campaign against terrorism will continue in a
different manner," he said. The Turkish military has
just declared 27 "security zones" on the Iraqi and
Iranian borders off-limits to civilians, suggesting
to some that it might be gearing up for an invasion.
But despite the rising violence, Mr Erdogan has
opted for politics in his attempts to defuse the
conflict with the Kurds. His Justice and Development
party (AKP) enjoyed a stunning success among the
Kurdish minority, concentrated in the south-east, in
the July elections and he has also focused on
political pacts with Baghdad to get the better of
the guerrillas.
Last week Iraqi and Turkish interior ministers
signed an accord aimed at combating the PKK by
trying to cut the rebels' funding and logistics, and
agreeing to extradite captured "terrorists". The
accord, however, took three days to thrash out;
Turkish insistence on a "hot pursuit" formula,
allowing cross-border raids, was denied, and
scepticism is high as to whether Baghdad can
deliver.
Officially, Ankara refuses to recognise or deal with
the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, although there
have been back-channel attempts over the past year
to engage with Massoud Barzani, the president of the
Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Mr Erdogan's options are also constrained by strong
US hostility to an invasion. While Turkish public
opinion has been strongly anti-American since the
2003 liberation of Iraq, much of the logistical
support for the US troops goes to Iraq via Turkey.
Relations are also under severe strain because of US
congressional moves to brand the 1915 massacres of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as "genocide".
Mr Erdogan sent aides to Washington yesterday to
lobby Congress on the "genocide" resolution. Ankara
is also warning that it could block the logistical
support to the US in Iraq if the resolution is
passed.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Turkey is home to over
25 million ethnic Kurds. The PKK was founded in the
1970s and is committed to the creation of an
independent Kurdish state in a territory which it
claims as Kurdistan.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
guardian co.uk
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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