dantes76
30-01-2007, 21:16
Turkey mulls 'invading' Iraq
By Jonathan Gorvett in Istanbul
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group and continues to fight it in the southeast [EPA]
Turkey's parliament went into secret session this week to debate sendingtroops to invade and occupy northern Iraq for security purposes.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in the confrontation between the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army – about 400 last year alone, according to Turkey's Human Rights Association.
Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said: "Northern Iraq is the only place in the world where a terrorist group can operate without being pursued."
"If the Iraqis and the US are not prepared to take action over this, then we must."
Oymen referred to bases in northern Iraq belonging to the PKK which has been fighting Turkish troops since the 1980s to try to establish a separate Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Northern Iraq has been effectively independent of Baghdad's control since the early 1990s.
Casualties mounting
The PKK have bases around Kandili mountain in northern Iraq, and despite requests from Turkey for Iraqi and US occupation forces to attack these bases, Turkey says nothing has been done.
"The US are doing nothing and the Kurdish authorities are doing nothing," Oymen said.
"But we have the right to secure our borders – and if they act against an intervention by Turkish troops, then we must take the necessary action in response."
US officials deny that they have been inactive. On January 17, US and Iraqi Kurdish troops moved in on the Mahmur refugee camp in northern Iraq, which Turkey had long claimed was a PKK training and recruiting camp.
However, the troops said they did not find any weapons or explosives.
At the same time, Nicholas Burns, the US under-secretary of state for political affairs, said that the US was "trying to find what can be done to stop PKK attacks on the Turkish military" without the need for any further "resort to the use of force".
[...]
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/85808B77-58B8-4C00-866C-7F38FEB253A7.htm
By Jonathan Gorvett in Istanbul
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group and continues to fight it in the southeast [EPA]
Turkey's parliament went into secret session this week to debate sendingtroops to invade and occupy northern Iraq for security purposes.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in the confrontation between the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army – about 400 last year alone, according to Turkey's Human Rights Association.
Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said: "Northern Iraq is the only place in the world where a terrorist group can operate without being pursued."
"If the Iraqis and the US are not prepared to take action over this, then we must."
Oymen referred to bases in northern Iraq belonging to the PKK which has been fighting Turkish troops since the 1980s to try to establish a separate Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Northern Iraq has been effectively independent of Baghdad's control since the early 1990s.
Casualties mounting
The PKK have bases around Kandili mountain in northern Iraq, and despite requests from Turkey for Iraqi and US occupation forces to attack these bases, Turkey says nothing has been done.
"The US are doing nothing and the Kurdish authorities are doing nothing," Oymen said.
"But we have the right to secure our borders – and if they act against an intervention by Turkish troops, then we must take the necessary action in response."
US officials deny that they have been inactive. On January 17, US and Iraqi Kurdish troops moved in on the Mahmur refugee camp in northern Iraq, which Turkey had long claimed was a PKK training and recruiting camp.
However, the troops said they did not find any weapons or explosives.
At the same time, Nicholas Burns, the US under-secretary of state for political affairs, said that the US was "trying to find what can be done to stop PKK attacks on the Turkish military" without the need for any further "resort to the use of force".
[...]
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/85808B77-58B8-4C00-866C-7F38FEB253A7.htm