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Turkish tanks advancing near border with
Iraqi Kurdistan
16.11.2007
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November 16, 2007
Duhok, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',-- Turkish
tanks were seen advancing towards the Iraqi
Kurdistan borders on a background of Turkish threats
to raid northern Iraq to hunt down fighters of the
Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
holed up in mountainous areas on the Iraqi side of
the joint frontiers, border guards and witnesses in
Duhok said on Friday.
"More than 17 Turkish tanks drew near three
kilometers from the district of Zakho, close to the
Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkish borders," Col. Hussein Tamr
said.
Eyewitnesses from the village of Qargula, western
Zakho, said they saw Turkish tanks near the borders
where their village lies on Friday morning. |
Turkish tanks on Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkey border |
The crisis on the Iraqi Kurdistan-Turkish borders
unprecedentedly flared up recently after the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is
banned in Turkey, escalated operations against
Turkish forces. Fighters of the PKK had killed,
wounded and captured more than 40 Turkish soldiers
lately.
After the PKK escalations, the Turkish government
received the thumbs up from parliament to carry out
a military operation against the PKK inside Iraqi
Kurdistan region territories.
An official source in the Border Guard forces told
VOI last week that 15 artillery shells fell on areas
near the Aisel river that separates the Iraqi
Kurdistan-Turkish borders but caused no casualties.
Warplanes, believed to be Turkish, had bombarded
several village in Duhok province.
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. www.ekurd.net
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani.
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Kurdistan region government (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
large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status. www.ekurd.net
Ankara fears that if the oil-rich Kirkuk joins
Kurdistan, the Kurds will have the economic
foundation they need for an independent state.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdish city and it lies just south
border of the Kurdistan autonomous region. Based on
Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be held in
late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish
province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
VOI
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