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Turkey pledges strong response to Kurdish
PKK attack
22.10.2007
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Turkey vows to defeat Kurdish PKK rebels after
deadly clashes
October
22, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkey said Sunday it was ready to pay
any price to win victory over Kurdish separatists
after 12 soldiers and 32 rebels were killed in heavy
clashes near the tense border with Iraqi Kurdistan.
The warning was issued in a statement following
emergency talks between Turkish civilian and
military leaders, chaired by President Abdullah Gul,
to determine Turkey's response amid threats of a
military strike against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
bases in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
"Although it respects Iraq's territorial integrity,
Turkey will not tolerate that 'terrorism' be aided
and abetted and will not be afraid to pay, whatever
the price may be, to protect its rights, its
indivisible unity and its citizens," said the
statement.
"The fight against the separatist terrorist
organization will be waged with determination until
the very end," it added, using the official jargon
for the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by
Ankara, US and EU.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his
government was ready to use its parliamentary
authorization to send troops into Iraq, but added
that it would do so only on the right conditions.
"We will not hesitate to act on the appropriate
military grounds," he told a press conference in
Ankara after the high-level talks.
Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said earlier in
Kiev, after talks with US Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, that Ankara did not have urgent plans to
cross the border.
Erdogan added that he had urged US action to stamp
out PKK bases during a telephone conversation with
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who appealed
for a more time.
The United States strongly opposes any unilateral
Turkish action in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'
as a move that could destabilize that relatively
calm region. The Iraqi Kurds are the strongest
allies the US has in the area.
In Washington, US President George W. Bush pledged
cooperation with Turkey against the PKK threat and
urged Iraq to deal with PKK attacks from its
territory.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
denounced the PKK attack just hours after the Iraqi
parliament passed a motion condemning Turkey's
threat to stage a raid in Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders said they would rebuff an
attack on their territory.
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.
The Turkish general staff said in a statement that
fighting erupted in a mountainous region in the
southeastern province of Hakkari after PKK rebels
infiltrated from Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' and
attacked soldiers on patrol shortly after midnight
Saturday.
Sixteen Turkish soldiers were wounded in the
fighting near the village of Daglica, almost on the
Iraqi border in Hakkari province.
Clashes were continuing, with helicopters providing
air cover, the army said. Troops were monitoring the
rebels' escape routes and heavy artillery was
pounding 63 likely targets, it said.
The general staff first reported 23 PKK rebels
killed, then increased the number to 32, bringing
the total number of dead in the fighting to 44.
Hours after the Hakkari attack, 17 civilians were
injured in a mine blast also blamed on PKK rebels.
The injured were travelling in a minibus which drove
over the mine near Daglica, Turkish sources said.
Ankara says some 3,500 PKK fighters are based in
northern Iraq where they are able to obtain weapons
and are supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders, a charge
the Iraqi Kurdish administration strongly denies.
Earlier this week, Erdogan said he expected Baghdad
to shut down all PKK camps on its territory and hand
over rebel leaders.
But Iraq's president Jalal Talabani said on Sunday
that Baghdad was unable to meet the demand.
"PKK's leaders are in Kurdistan's rugged mountains.
The Turkish military... could not annihilate them or
arrest them, so how could we arrest them and hand
them to Turkey?" he asked at a news conference in
Erbil.
Faced with rising rebel violence, Turkey says it is
running out of options other than military action,
with neither the United States nor Iraq doing enough
to stamp out the rebel bases.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms fighting for self-rule in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
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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