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Turkey 'sends missile batteries to Syria border', Kurdish PKK
flag at Syrian Kurdistan border |
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Turkey 'sends missile batteries to Syria
border', Kurdish PKK flag at Syrian Kurdistan border
28.6.2012 |
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Photo: AA •
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Kurdish PKK rebels flag at Syrian Kurdistan border.
Photo: DHA
June 28, 2012
ANKARA,— Turkey has sent missile
batteries, tanks and troops to the border with Syria
as a "security corridor", almost a week after the
Syrian downing of a Turkish military jet, media
reports said Thursday.
There was no official confirmation of the military
moves, which came after Turkey warned branded its
former ally as a "clear and imminent threat"
following Friday's attack over the Mediterranean.
About 30 military vehicles accompanied by a truck
towing missile batteries left a base in the
southeastern province of Hatay for the border, about
50 kilometres (30 miles) away, the Milliyet
newspaper reported.
Footage aired on state-run TRT showed dozens of
military vehicles loaded with army personnel,
reportedly on the move for the volatile border, in a
convoy that included low altitude air defence
systems and anti-aircraft guns.
Taraf newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the
deployments represented the establishment of a "de
facto security corridor" on Turkish soil.
The moves follow the downing of a Turkish Phantom
F-4 jet by Syrian fire over the eastern
Mediterranean on Friday in what Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said was a "heinous attack".
Erdogan vowed Tuesday that any hostile Syrian
movement towards the border would be "treated as a
military target," hinting at a harsher retaliation
for any future border violations.
Turkey has described Syria as a "a clear and
imminent threat" but Erdogan said Wednesday that
Ankara had no intention of attacking its neighbour.
In a separate deployment, several trucks loaded with
armoured tanks were sent to the frontier in the
province of Sanliurfa after a Kurdish PKK rebel flag
was hoisted in a Syrian village,www.ekurd.net
in Syrian Kurdistan (Western Kurdistan) just across
the border, provincial media said.
The flag, which reportedly belonged to a Syrian wing
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was
taken down early Thursday, the Anatolia news agency
said, citing local witnesses.
Turkish officials have frequently accused Syria of
aiding the PKK after Ankara's ties with Damascus
broke down, saying many recent attacks targeting
Turkish security forces were carried out by rebels
infiltrating from Syria.
Turkish media have interpreted the mass deployments
both as a means to intimidate Kurdish rebels, whose
activities have increased in recent months, and as a
strategy to challenge Syria, which shares a
910-kilometre border with Turkey.
Turkey's powerful army has not confirmed the
deployments, but earlier dismissed reports that it
was "on alert" after the downing of the jet, whose
two crew members are still missing.
Erdogan was once a friend and ally of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad but relations have broken
down since the revolt erupted in Syria last year,
sending more than 33,000 refugees across the border
into Turkey.
The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem,
Turkey has always refused saying that it will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered ass 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara and U.S. The PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Copyright © respective author or news agency,
AFP | ekurd.net | agencies
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