Kurdish Prez: Any Turkish Incursion Means All Out War
Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdish territory would be a declaration of war, the region’s leader said yesterday.
President Barzani gave the warning as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20 Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was using its grievances with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds in their largely autonomous region.
“If they invade or if there is any incursion, it means war,” Mr Barzani said at his offices on the outskirts of Arbil. “If they attack our people, our interests, our territories then there will be no limit because everything is subject to that incursion.”
He urged Turkey to solve the problem through dialogue, not guns. “If they take a peaceful approach, then we are ready to help as much as we can . . . The unfortunate thing is that they are not allowing other . . . options. They insist on war as being the only means to solve that problem.”
Turkish Army sources said that their troops had killed 20 Kurdish guerrillas yesterday in a large operation involving 8,000 soldiers with air support in the eastern province of Tunceli, 370 miles from the Iraqi border. Other reports put the toll at 15.
Adding to the tension, a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk. The city is due to have a referendum on whether to become part of Kurdish-run northern Iraq, further boosting the Kurds’ power base.
Ankara feels threatened by Kurdish fighters, who use camps in Iraq’s mountainous Kurdish region for attacks on Turkey. It has demanded the extradition of PKK leaders – a request that Iraq says is unrealistic – and is threatening an incursion.
Mr Barzani said that the problem of the PKK, which began an armed campaign in 1984 to secure better rights for Kurdish people living in Turkey, could not be solved through violence.
“We are ready to cooperate with Turkey, provided that Turkey will not only go for a military solution,” he said, adding that he opposed the build-up of 150,000 Turkish troops.
He also hinted that Turkey had another reason for its tough stance on the PKK, which is not a new problem. “I am about to be convinced that the PKK is only an excuse,” he said. “The continuous, direct threats of Turkey against the Kurdistan region and its behaviour has created a doubt, leading us close to the conviction that exactly this is the aim. The Kurdistan region is the target, otherwise why should we be involved in the fight between Turkey and the PKK?”
A sharp rise in clashes between Turkish soldiers and the outlawed group in recent weeks has left scores dead, increasing pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, to take more action. The PKK says it is holding eight soldiers prisoner.
The United States, Iraq and other countries have been pressing Turkey to refrain from cross-border military operations. A military campaign could destabilise one of the few stable areas in Iraq and leave the United States in an awkward position with key allies: Turkey, a member of Nato, the Baghdad Government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurds in the north.
Mr Barzani said that talks with Washington and other allies centred on the desire to avoid conflict, although he acknowledged that the US-led coalition had the overall responsibility of protecting Iraq under a UN resolution. “To what extent they [the United States] will stay committed to that is the question, but we do not want to embarrass the Americans,” he said. “We are not asking them for military help, we are asking them to help so that we defuse the tensions so that the war will not take place.”
Mr Erdogan is due to meet President Bush on November 5 and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is expected in Ankara on Thursday for talks with Turkish officials.
Mr Barzani also expressed a strong desire to avoid a return to a period of Kurdish tensions with Turkey, Syria and Iran – countries where Kurds have settled – and emphasised the need to recognise the rights of millions of Kurds. “It is better for all of us to sit down together, reach an understanding. We are also a nation, we exist, we have a right to live,” he said.
The President urged the PKK to honour the ceasefire and to release the eight Turkish soldiers being held.
“They should stay away from violence. They should adopt a peaceful approach, a peaceful solution.”
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PPK is an marxist leninist group founded in 1974 to establish a kurd state. Their flag has the soviet union hammer & sickle in it for God sakes.
October 28th, 2007 at 8:49 pmMutual suspicions 1998
Ankara has alleged that Kurdish PKK rebels sought refuge on Iranian territory, while Tehran has said anti-Iranian groups have been operating in Turkey.
There have been recent diplomatic and Turkish press reports that the PKK has established bases over the border inside Iran, though Tehran denies this.
Iran is also extremely wary of Turkey’s growing military and political relationship with Israel, as well as its close ties with Washington.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:14 pm(My point of analysis is Iran and the PKK are in the same bed and Mr Barzani position is suspicious)
Turkey and Iran at odds 1989
Irritating as Iran may be to Ankara, it is a neighbor, and an Islamic one at that. It is also this country’s sixth-largest trading partner, accounting for $1.2 billion in exports and imports last year. The Turks have long endured Iranian slights - such as a refusal by Teheran dignitaries to visit the Ataturk mausoleum in Ankara - that they would never tolerate from Europeans. This time, too, the Turks swallowed a healthy measure of pride. Although the Foreign Ministry called in the Iranian Ambassador for a lecture on noninterference in Turkey’s internal affairs, the reaction essentially was wary and low-keyed.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:29 pm“Iran and the PKK are in the same bed and Mr Barzani position is suspicious”
I didn’t mean it like that..LOL
October 28th, 2007 at 9:52 pmI bet they get naked