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Turkish army clashes with Turkey's Kurdish
PKK rebels, 15 reported killed
29.10.2007
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October
29, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey,-- The Turkish army killed 15
PKK Kurdish militants Sunday as Ankara geared up for
crucial talks with the United States to tackle a
simmering crisis over Turkey's rebel bases in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
The militants were killed in a large-scale operation
in the mountainous eastern province of Tunceli as
some 8,000 troops, backed by helicopter gunships,
assaulted rebel positions, the CNN Turk news channel
reported.
Local officials confirmed an operation was under way
against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
but declined to give casualty figures until it is
over.
Tunceli is far from the Iraqi border where clashes
have recently intensified, triggering Turkish
threats of an incursion into Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq', where the Turkey's Kurdish rebels
take refuge.
The military has killed 65 rebels in operations
since a PKK ambush near the frontier a week ago left
12 soldiers dead.
The army has massed forces and military equipment
along the border and F-16 fighter jets are ready for
"orders to strike," Turkish media say.
A recent flurry of diplomatic activity to head off
military action was to continue with talks between
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish
officials in Ankara on Thursday.
Rice will then attend a multilateral conference on
Iraq in Istanbul.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari is also
expected at the conference and may hold bilateral
talks with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan, a
Turkish diplomat said.
The United States is opposed to a Turkish incursion,
wary of fresh turmoil in conflict-torn Iraq.
The crisis has put Washington in an awkward position
between two allies -- NATO member Turkey and the
Iraqi Kurds, who run Kurdistan region 'northern
Iraq' but are reluctant to confront their ethnic
brethren from the PKK.
Iraqi Kurdistan president Massud Barzani urged
direct talks with Turkey Sunday, but Ankara has
already said it will only speak with the Baghdad
government.
"Let us sit down together to resolve the Kurdish
question," Barzani told AFP. "I am not an enemy of
Turkey, but I do not accept the language of force."
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani.
Ankara has never, and still does not, recognize the
KRG and refuses to meet with its representatives in
any official capacity. That reflects Ankara's fear
that any international respect shown to the
autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region would only
embolden Turkey's own Kurdish minority to seek
similar home-rule status.
Turkey accuses the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and
even supporting the PKK, Kurdish authorities in
Kurdistan region strongly reject the claim.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Foreign minister Babacan warned during a visit to
Iran that Turks had "lost their patience" over what
Ankara views as the impunity with which the PKK
operates out of bases in northern Iraq.
"We can use diplomacy or we can resort to military
means... All of these are on the table," he said.
But his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki,
whose country has its own restive Kurdish minority
and is also fighting PKK-linked militants
infiltrating from Iraq, stopped short of voicing
support for a Turkish incursion.
"There are various ways" of curbing the militants,
Mottaki said. "We hope our cooperation will allow us
to solve this as soon as possible."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush in
Washington on November 5, warned Saturday that
Ankara "will launch an operation when it will be
necessary, without asking for anybody's opinion."
The Turkish threat has loomed larger since Ankara
dismissed Iraqi proposals to curb the PKK as
unsatisfactory after crisis talks here Friday.
The talks were held in a tense atmosphere and saw
some harsh exchanges, a Turkish diplomat said.
When Babacan pressed for the closure of PKK camps,
Iraqi officials argued that the bases were in remote
rugged mountains difficult to access.
Babacan responded bluntly that "if journalists are
able to find the camps then you can certainly find
them too," the diplomat said.
The foreign media has recently run interviews with
PKK militants from their bases in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'.
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', Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
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)
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