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Turkey issues fresh warning of military
incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan
9.10.2007 |
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October
9, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey on Tuesday threatened a
military incursion in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' as
part of stepped up measures against Kurdish rebel
bases in the region.
The government said in a statement that it had given
orders allowing for all legal, economic and
political measures, "including a cross-border
operation if necessary," against a "terrorist
organisation in a neighbouring country".
The statement was taken to refer implicitly to the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Iraq.
Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had met
senior government and military officials to discuss
tougher action against the PKK -- listed as a
terrorist group by Ankara and much of the
international community -- after the rebels killed
15 soldiers in weekend attacks.
Ankara says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern
Iraq and obtains weapons and explosives there for
attacks across the border.
It has also accused Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and
even supporting the rebels.
The Turkish military has long sought authorisation
to strike against PKK bases in northern Iraq but the
government has held back pressure from the United
States, which does not want its Iraqi Kurdish allies
forced into confrontation with the Turkish army.
Turkey and Iraq signed an accord last month to
combat the PKK but failed to agree on a clause
allowing Turkish troops to engage in "hot pursuit"
against rebels fleeing into Iraqi territory, as they
did regularly in the 1990s.
Many observers here doubt whether the embattled
Baghdad government, which has virtually no authority
in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', can cajole the Iraqi
Kurds into action against the PKK, whose 23-year
armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey has
left more than 37,000 dead.
A PKK ambush on Saturday killed 13 soldiers in
southeast Sirnak province bordering Iraq, the worst
losses the army has suffered against the rebels
since 1995.
Another soldier was killed in a clash with the
rebels Saturday and one early Monday in a
remote-controlled landmine explosion.
The attacks followed the killing of 12 people,
mostly civilians but including anti-PKK Kurdish
"Village Guard" militia, in an ambush on a minibus
in Sirnak on September 29.
Tuesday's government statement said rising PKK
violence was due to a series of economic, social and
political measures that had improved the living
conditions of the country's sizeable Kurdish
community, leading the PKK "to lose popular support"
in the southeast.
Under European Union pressure, Turkey has in recent
years broadened Kurdish cultural freedoms and lifted
emergency rule in the southeast of the country.
The July 22 parliamentary elections saw Erdogan's
Justice and Development Party considerably increase
its support in the region at the expense of the
country's main Kurdish political movement, the
Democratic Society Party.
The PKK is branded a terrorist organization by the
U.S. and the European Union. 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.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq'.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. Turkey
is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
AFP
**
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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