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Turkish army build-up fuels anxiety on Iraqi
Kurdistan border
30.5.2007 |
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Turkey Builds Up Forces On Iraqi Kurdistan Border
May
30, 2007
Ankara, Turkey, -- Turkey sent more tanks to
its border with Iraq on Wednesday in a military
build-up that is fuelling U.S. concern about a
possible incursion into Kurdistan region (northern
Iraq) against Kurdish PKK rebels.
A group of 20 tanks loaded on trucks emerged from
army barracks in Mardin near Syria and headed
towards the Iraqi border in southeast Turkey,
already the scene of a major army offensive against
rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Speculation about an imminent incursion into Iraq
has grown since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said
last week he saw eye to eye with the army over
possible military action, despite unease in the
United States, Turkey's NATO ally, about such a
move.
There was also anxiety along the border in southeast
Turkey, where many Kurdish villagers form part of a
state-backed militia which fights alongside the army
against the PKK rebels.
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Turkish soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint near
the southeast Turkish town of Cizre, some 60 km (37
miles) from Turkey's Habur border gate to Kurdistan
region-Iraq, May 29, 2007 |
"We support the operations in the mountains here
because the PKK made us suffer a lot. I lost 10
people from my family," said Nadir Karadeniz, an
official in the village of Gorumlu, located near a
military base just a few kilometers from the border.
But there was reluctance to take the fight into the
Iraqi mountains, where thousands of PKK fighters are
based, given the strong opposition from Iraqi
Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani - a respected figure
among Turkey's own Kurds.
"I don't think it would be good to go into northern
Iraq because Barzani said he would not accept
Turkish soldiers there," Karadeniz said, before a
military jeep arrived in the village and told
journalists to leave the area.
Military operations are currently focused on the
rebels already inside Turkish territory. Security
forces killed 10 PKK fighters in clashes across the
southeast on Tuesday.
The United States has repeatedly urged Turkey not to
send troops into Iraq because it says it will only
complicate the situation. The two countries have
agreed various measures, including financial ones,
to try to curb the PKK.
CLOSE LINKS TO KURDISTAN-IRAQ
Local concerns are focused on the impact of an
incursion, which would hurt relations between Turks
and Kurds, and also on the economy of the
impoverished region, closely linked with Kurdistan
region (northern Iraq) in trade terms as well as
ethnically.
"This (operation) would mean great suffering, great
losses and a blow to the harmony between Turks and
Kurds," said Muhsun Kunur, mayor of the town of
Silopi, around 15 km from the official border gate
to Iraq.
The prospect of an operation has also stirred
tensions between Turkey and the United States.
On Tuesday, Turkey formally asked Washington to
avoid any further violation of its airspace after
two U.S. F-16 warplanes
briefly flew into Turkish airspace
near the Iraqi border.
On the other hand, on May 24 a military source from Iraq's Kurdistan region said , two
Turkish warplanes
violated Iraqi Kurdistan autonomous
region airspace near the borders with Turkey.
"Two Turkish warplanes violated today the Kurdistan
region airspace for a distance of ten kilometers
inside the Iraqi territories," the source, who asked
not to be named.
The Turkish warplanes flew over Kurdish villages
west of Zakho in Kurdistan (northern Iraq), the
source added.
U.S. diplomats said the incident was an "accident"
but Turkish media said it was intended to send a
message to Ankara not to send its troops into Iraq.
But pressure within Turkey for an incursion is
growing after a suicide bombing in the capital
Ankara last week killed six people and injured
scores more. Authorities blamed the attack on the
PKK, which denied any involvement.
A day later, six soldiers were killed when their
vehicle was blown up by a landmine believed to have
been planted by the separatist guerrillas.
Erdogan feels the need to act tough ahead of
national polls due in July. On Tuesday, he
reiterated his frustration over the failure of U.S.
and Iraqi government forces to crush the PKK rebels
in Iraq despite Ankara's regular appeals for action.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and 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.
Against this backdrop and given the military
build-up, locals in Silopi see an operation as
increasingly likely.
"We see a 90 percent chance of them crossing over.
They are now stationed on the border," said
hairdresser Sadik Pusat, 32.
"If the military goes into northern Iraq we will
have to leave our lives here and migrate to the
West."
Reuters | AP
** 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.
Many Kurds were given political asylum in European
countries, notably in the 1990s, when Ankara's
heavy-handed policies against the Kurdish minority
put its human rights record under international
spotlight.
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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