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Turkish raids kill dozens in Iraqi
Kurdistan; Zebari warns of destabilisation
24.2.2008
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February 24, 2008
CIZRE, Kurdish Southeastern region of Turkey,
-- Turkish troops killed 35 PKK Kurdish
militants and destroyed rebel hideouts in Kurdistan
region in 'northern Iraq' on Saturday, as Iraq's
foreign minister warned the three-day-old offensive
risked destablising the region.
The death toll brings to 79 the number of Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) militants killed since Turkey
launched the offensive on Thursday evening to purge
rebels from Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', a Turkish
military statement said.
It added that two soldiers died in Saturday's
clashes, bringing the total losses to seven.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned in a
BBC interview that Turkey's ground offensive should
end quickly before it destabilises the region.
"This is a limited military incursion into a remote,
isolated and uninhabited region," Zebari said.
"But if it goes on, I think it could destabilise the
region, because really one mistake could lead to
further escalation."
He added that the Iraqi government had only been
informed "in the last minute" before the raid.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and
much of the international community, threatened
retaliatory attacks inside Turkey unless the
offensive is halted.
"If not, we will move the theatre of combat to the
heart of Turkish cities," PKK spokesman Ahmed Danis
told AFP.
The Turkish military suggested the actual PKK death
toll was higher because it did not include militants
killed in bombings or by artillery fire.
"Air Force planes, helicopter gunships and artillery
fire destroyed terrorist refuge facilities... at
different locations,www.ekurd.net
together with large
amounts of ammunition and explosives stored inside
them," the statement said.
PKK positions, including anti-aircraft defence posts
in the snow-bound mountainous region, were also
destroyed, it said.
"The operation is continuing with determination," it
said, adding that clashes were underway at four
locations as of Saturday afternoon.
PKK leaders said 22 soldiers and two rebels had been
killed, according to reports from the Firat news
agency, considered a rebel mouthpiece.
Some of Saturday's most intensive air raids targeted
the Qandil mountains, a major PKK stronghold along
the Iraqi Kurdistan-Iranian border,www.ekurd.net
and many militants were
killed, unnamed sources told the semi-official
Anatolia news agency.
There were intensive clashes on the ground in the
Zap region, another prominent rebel hideout, and the
Turkish army was sending reinforcements according to
Firat.
Turkey's forces also bombed targets around Al-Amadiyah,
an Iraqi Kurdistan mountain town about 10 kilometres
(six miles) south of the border, an Kurdistani
border guard told AFP.
In Cizre, a small border Kurdish town on the Turkish
side, soldiers patrolled hills along the frontier
and dozens of armoured vehicles shuttled on the
roads.
The Turkish military claimed the operation spread
panic among the PKK, which is believed to have been
caught by surprise by an offensive launched while
snow was thick on the ground, and that its leaders
were fleeing southwards into Iraq.
Turkish incursions, which were frequent in the 1980s
and 1990s, were usually launched during the spring
thaw when PKK militants began to sneak into Turkey
from their winter bases in the rugged mountains.
In Ankara, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan sought to
soothe Iraqi protests and Western misgivings over
what was the largest ground incursion into Iraq by
Turkey for years.
"The only target... is the PKK terrorist
organisation," he told reporters. "Turkey is the
strongest supporter of Iraq's territorial integrity
and political unity."
Ankara says an estimated 4,000 PKK rebels are holed
up in northern Iraq and use the region as a
springboard for attacks on Turkish territory as part
of their campaign for self-rule in Kurdish-majority
southeast Turkey.
More than two decades of conflict have claimed at
least 37,000 lives.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave
assurances Friday that "the target, purpose, size
and parameters of this operation are limited."
The soldiers will return home "in the shortest time
possible as soon as they achieve their objectives,"
he said.
Iraqi exports of 300,000 barrels of oil per day
through Turkey had not been affected, the Iraqi oil
ministry said.
Turkish troops briefly entered Iraq on December 18
to stop a PKK unit from infiltrating Turkey. Five
air raids on PKK targets in the region were also
conducted since mid-December with US intelligence
assistance.
The United States said it was notified of the
incursion beforehand and urged Ankara to limit the
strikes to "precise targeting of the PKK" and to
withdraw its soldiers in as short a time as
possible.
One Turkish soldier was killed Saturday by a
landmine explosion blamed on the PKK in Bingol, a
Turkish province far from the Iraqi border.
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.
Over 39,000 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 rebels.
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, ranting them full
political freedoms.
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, 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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