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U.S. spy U2 planes watching Iraqi
Kurdistan-Turkish border
31.10.2007
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October
31, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- American U2 reconnaissance
planes have been flying over the Turkey-Iraq border
to observe military movements, said three U.S.
military sources Wednesday.
Word of the flights comes a day before top-level
meetings between U.S. and Turkish government
officials and prior to a regional conference aimed
at easing tensions between Ankara and Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels across Turkey's border with Iraqi
Kurdistan.
Turkey -- which shares its Incirlik air base with
U.S. forces -- is a key member of NATO and acts as a
vital conduit for U.S. military supplies.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed Wednesday
that U.S. military and intelligence communities are
sharing information with Turkey to help them fight
members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who
have made cross-border attacks. |
American U2 reconnaissance planes have been flying
over the Turkey-Iraq border to observe military
movements, said three U.S. military sources
Wednesday. |
"We are assisting the Turks in their efforts to
combat the PKK by supplying them with intelligence,
lots of intelligence," said Pentagon press secretary
Geoff Morrell.
"The key for any sort of military response from the
Turks or anyone else is having actionable
intelligence and that's a pretty high standard, and
we are making efforts to help them get actionable
intelligence," he told reporters
"Actionable" intelligence refers to information that
can be acted upon, such as information that
pinpoints the location of a target for a military
strike.
Turkey has threatened to launch a full-scale
offensive if Iraqi officials and Kurdish leaders in
Iraq fail to neutralize the PKK. U.S. and Iraqi
diplomats have been working to restrain Turkey from
such a response. Recent limited fighting in
southeastern Turkey has spilled over to Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice is set to meet with Turkish officials in Ankara
and President Bush holds talks in Washington with
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Also, a conference of regional officials, including
Iraq, is scheduled Thursday and Friday in Istanbul.
Earlier this month, proposed legislation in the U.S.
Congress prompted Turkey to threaten to restrict
U.S. access to Turkish airspace or cut off access to
the air base at Incirlik. Some lawmakers wanted a
vote on legislation that would have officially
declared that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in World War I was "genocide."
Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States
and warned of repercussions in the growing dispute.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's 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.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
CNN | Reuters
**
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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