Turkey has plans to move against Iraq Kurds -Gul

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Turkey has plans to move against Iraq Kurds -Gul
29 Jun 2007 06:58:09 GMT

ANKARA, June 29 (Reuters) - Turkey has prepared detailed plans for
a cross-border operation into Iraq against Kurdish rebels and will act
if U.S. or Iraqi forces fail to tackle them, Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul was quoted as saying on Friday.

Ankara has on many occasions threatened to send troops into mainly
Kurdish northern Iraq to hunt down thousands of militants from the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use the region as a base
from which to attack targets inside Turkey.

"The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The
government knows these plans and agrees with them," Gul told the
Radikal newspaper in an interview.

"If neither the Iraqi government nor the U.S. occupying forces can
do this (crush the PKK), we will take our own decision and implement
it," Gul said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2962805.htm

[wellst0nev0ter]

1. "All Options Are On The Table"

Turnaround is fair play, I say.

[sam sarrha]

2. it will be a disaster.. the Turks haven't had a Genocide in while and will F everything up

they will start a Regional holy war and drag us into it by association

[David__77]

3. I think they're bluffing.

I cannot see the Turkish army betraying its paymaster in Washington by openly defying orders. If it did so, I'd be really, really surprised.

I imagine people are thinking the same thing in DC, which is why this bluffing attempt won't work.

[Tempest]

4. They have already attacked inside Iraq territory

All it's going to take is another large bombing inside Turkey like last weeks and all hell is going to break out.

And Turkey doesn't rely upon the U.S. for much, hasn't for some time now.

[Eugene]

5. Leader says Kurds to fight back if attacked-radio

Source: Reuters

Leader says Kurds to fight back if attacked-radio
29 Jun 2007 18:50:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

BERLIN, June 29 (Reuters) - Masoud Barzani, the head of
the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, warned on
Friday of a "catastrophe" if Turkey attacked his territory
and vowed that Kurds would defend themselves.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was quoted as saying
on Friday that Turkey has prepared detailed plans for a
cross-border operation into Iraq against Kurdish rebels
and will act if U.S. or Iraqi forces fail to tackle them.

"We will defend ourselves against any state that attacks us,"
Barzani said in an interview with Germany's Deutsche Welle
public radio.

"I hope that Turkey doesn't mean these threats seriously
because that would be a catastrophe for the entire region,"
Barzani added, according to a German transcript of the
interview.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29205380.htm

[cal04]

6. Turkey warns of plans to invade northern Iraq

· Call for US to move against Kurdish guerrillas
· PKK behind bombings in Ankara, say authorities

Turkey has prepared a blueprint for the invasion of northern Iraq and will take action if US or Iraqi forces fail to dislodge the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from their mountain strongholds across the border, Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul has warned.

"The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them," Mr Gul told Turkey's Radikal newspaper. "If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this , we will take our own decision and implement it," Mr Gul said. The foreign minister's uncharacteristically hawkish remarks were seen as a response to pressure from Turkey's generals, who have deployed some 20,000-30,000 troops along the borders with Iraq, and who are itching to move against the rebels they say are slipping across the border to stage attacks inside Turkey.

Among other things, Turkish military planners have been working on a scheme to establish a buffer zone on Iraqi soil to try to stop the rebels' movements.

The US and the EU regard the PKK as a terrorist outfit, but Washington is nervous of any military operations by its Nato ally that could destabilise Iraq's Kurdistan region. There are fears too that any instability in the north could play into the hands of Iran, facing growing problems with its own Kurdish population.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2115284,00.html

[Eugene]

7. US military warns Turkey off Iraq raid

Source: Agence France-Presse

US military warns Turkey off Iraq raid

Tue Jul 3, 3:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military warned Turkey Tuesday
against destabilizing northern Iraq by carrying out a threatened
cross-border raid on Kurdish rebels.

The US armed forces have a "great relationship with the military
of Turkey," said Brigadier General Perry Wiggins, deputy director
for operations of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

But he cautioned: "As the secretary of defense (Robert Gates)
has said, any disruption up in northern Iraq would not be helpful
at this time."

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Friday his country had
drawn up plans for an eventual incursion into neighboring northern
Iraq to pursue rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) taking
refuge there.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070703/pl_afp/usturkeyiraqkurds_070703195655

[Coes]

8. "fight them over there, so we won't have to fight them over here"

That slogan just started making sense, from the perspective of the Turks that is.

Turkey's General Staff voiced on Friday its determination to fight terrorism and said it had had an unquestionable right to respond as it saw fit to attacks by Kurdish militants. The statement, posted on the General Staff's Web site, also referred directly to comments by army chief General Yasar Buyukanit two months ago, in which he called on the government to allow troops to cross into northern Iraq to crush the rebels.

"The Turkish Armed Forces have an unshakeable determination to fight terrorism and it is an incontrovertible reality that we will respond to these kind of attacks," the statement said.

On Monday, seven paramilitary police were killed when PKK rebels attacked their headquarters in Tunceli province in eastern Turkey in the deadliest single strike in about a year.

© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)