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Turkey requests used Helicopter gunships
from U.S. to fight Kurdish PKK rebels
28.1.2008
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January 28, 2008
WASHINGTON- ANKARA , -- Turkey, which
urgently wants attack helicopters to help fight
Turkey's separatist Kurdish PKK militants near its
border with Iraqi Kurdistan, recently asked
Washington to sell about a dozen of the U.S.
military’s own gunships, officials from both sides
said. “To meet our short-term requirement, we would
like to buy a number of attack helicopters that are
presently in the U.S. military’s inventory,” one
senior Turkish military official said.
One U.S. business source familiar with Turkish
defense matters said the Turkish military
particularly was interested in buying the AH-1W or
another version in the Cobra family, manufactured by
Bell Helicopter Textron,www.ekurd.net
Fort Worth, Texas, from
the U.S. Marines. Turkey’s Army also operates the
Cobras. A Turkish procurement official said the
military wants to acquire around a dozen Cobra
gunships. |
AH-1W |
The United States had not formally responded to the
request by press time, and it was not clear if any
such helicopters were available for sale. U.S.
Marines are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Turkey last spring made a similar but informal
inquiry, and at the time the U.S. government was not
willing to declare that its military had attack
helicopters available for transfer to the Turks,”
the U.S. business source said. “But since then, the
political climate has greatly improved between the
two nations.”
After attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
rose in September and early October, Ankara
threatened to send its Army into neighboring
northern Iraq, where the PKK has bases.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who staunchly opposed
a unilateral and large-scale Turkish incursion,
pledged at an early November meeting with visiting
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
provide actionable intelligence to help the Turks
strike specific PKK targets in Iraq.
Since then, Turkish aircraft repeatedly have struck
PKK positions in Iraq, including the group’s
headquarters on Qandil Mountain, more than 60 miles
south of the border. The Turkish attacks came with
Washington’s apparent blessing, and Turkey’s
civilian and military leaders have praised “the
United States’ help against terrorism.”
The PKK is on the defensive partly because of harsh
winter conditions, but may relaunch attacks in
Turkey in a few months, as it has in recent springs.
The Turkish Army uses attack helicopters against the
PKK, and currently is operating seven AH-1W Super
Cobras and some other earlier versions of the Cobra
family.
The U.S. business source said Turkey also has shown
some interest in the U.S. Army’s AH-64D Apache
Longbow attack helicopter. But the Turkish military
official said the Army had no infrastructure to
support the Apache’s maintenance, and that the Army
prefers the Cobras.
Boeing, maker of the Apache, has said several times
in past years that it is willing to provide Turkey
with new AH-64s through the U.S. Foreign Military
Sales program. Turkey launched an ambitious but so
far unsuccessful bid for joint production of attack
helicopters in the mid-1990s,www.ekurd.net
and selected Bell
Helicopter Textron in a 2000 tender. But Turkey’s
procurement agency canceled that program in 2005
after five years of talks with Bell failed due to
major disputes on price and technology transfer.
The procurement office then launched a fresh tender,
won last year by the Italian-British AgustaWestland,
maker of the A129 Mangusta International. Boeing and
Bell boycotted that competition, claiming Turkey’s
request for proposal was not compatible with U.S.
export laws.
Turkey and AgustaWestland last August signed a
contract for the $2.7 billion program’s first 30
platforms, but the project already has run into
problems, and at best the first helicopter may be
delivered in 2014. A large portion of the price will
go to two Turkish companies, the main local
contractors: Tusas Aerospace Industries and Aselsan,
both based in Ankara.
The contract now faces a probe after an opposition
lawmaker earlier this month filed an investigation
motion questioning several technical hurdles as well
as Turkish procurement authorities’ agreement to an
unusually high advance payment of 50 percent. The
government has not yet replied to the motion.
“These are serious allegations,” one Ankara-based
defense analyst said. “They may put the
AgustaWestland deal into uncertainty. And I
understand the military doesn’t want to waste more
time when it’s bogged down with fighting
terrorists.”
Iraqi Kurdistan 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.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish 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. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK for a Kurdish homeland in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded an
end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
The group is listed as a "terrorist" organisation by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
defensenews com
**
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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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