http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=116576Ex-PKK terrorist says northern Iraqi camps evacuated
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists have evacuated their mountain camps in northern Iraq due to fears that Turkey could carry out a cross-border operation, a former member of the group said in testimony to state authorities.
"The organization has evacuated all its mountain camps, and members deserted down to the plain in the face of a probable cross-border operation," the former member, identified as A.D., was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in his testimony to state prosecutors in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. A.D, nicknamed Şahin, faces charges of membership in a terrorist organization. He recently surrendered to security forces after spending four years in PKK camps in northern Iraq. Turkey is pressing the United States to crack down on PKK bases in northern Iraq, but there have been few examples of success in US efforts against the group, designated as a terrorist organization by Washington and the European Union. The perception in Turkey that the United States has ignored Turkish concerns about the PKK's operations in Iraq has increased pressure on the Turkish government to order military operations against the PKK in Iraq. The PKK has escalated attacks this year, killing at least 67 soldiers so far. More than 110 terrorists were killed in the same period.
Turkish Ambassador in Washington Nabi Şensoy told reporters on Wednesday that US weapons have been turning up in the hands of the PKK and blamed Iraqi Kurdish authorities for this. Şensoy blamed in particular Massoud Barzani, who heads the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq, for actively backing the PKK by providing logistical support and weapons.
A.D. said those members of the PKK who escaped from the organization are being provided shelter in the facilities of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Barzani. A.D. said he had stayed for 15 days in such a camp after fleeing the PKK and was advised by KDP officials not to return to Turkey and to remain in northern Iraq instead. A.D. also said six people from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), often accused of having organic links with the PKK, had visited his PKK camp in northern Iraq and brought small presents to residents of the camp.
Statements from Turkish officials that Turkey would carry out a cross-border operation to tackle the PKK threat have further strained relations with Iraqi Kurds, who have pledged to respond to such a move with force.
An Iraqi Kurdish news report said on Thursday that Barzani met with leaders of Kurdish political parties in the northern Iraqi city of Salahaddin to discuss a possible Turkish cross-border operation.
Turkey vs. Iraq?
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4378 Turkey vs. Iraq?
Richard May | July 12, 2007
Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org
While Capitol Hill battles the White House over Iraq, another battle is brewing in the Middle East. In the last week the Turkish military has moved 140,000 troops from across its country to the southern border with Iraq. These troops represent an invasion force meant to prevent the continued terrorist activities of the Kurdish minority that use northern Iraq as a safe haven. Turkey has previously voiced its intent to attack elements of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) after repeated bombings and recent attacks on civilians in the south of Turkey. If Ankara chooses to use military force in the north of Iraq now, the results would be dire for the future security and stability of Iraq.
The effects of Turkey conducting military operations in northern Iraq would undermine the fragile security environment that currently exists in two major ways. First, the Kurdish soldiers that are operating in Baghdad as part of the U. S. military “surge” would be tempted to abandon their posts in order to protect their homeland in the north. Second, because Turkish troops would not likely remain for long in the north of Iraq, the remaining PKK fighters could regroup and continue to use northern Iraq as a base of operations for its recent offensive attacks in Turkey. Iraq would have difficulty meeting either of these challenges. To face both simultaneously would only exasperate and quicken the destabilization of Iraq and the region.
Northern Iraq is more than just another piece of territory for Kurds. It is a homeland: it is Kurdistan. For decades Kurds have fought to secure northern Iraq in order to build a Kurdish nation, a nation that finally seems within reach. However, Kurds are also an essential part of the future of Iraq. Most recently, the Kurds have sent three brigades of the Iraqi Army from the north, comprised of a vast majority of Kurdish soldiers, into Baghdad to assist in security operations as part of the surge of U.S. forces. These three brigades represent about 10,000 soldiers and are an essential part of the strategy for securing Baghdad. This number does not even account for the other Kurdish soldiers that are serving in other units in Baghdad. Were Turkey to attack Kurdistan, these soldiers would undoubtedly leave Baghdad to defend their homeland, choosing Kurdistan over Iraq. The loss of these 10,000 indigenous, well-trained soldiers would threaten the already tenuous security situation even more.
If Turkey did invade northern Iraq, the incursion would not lack precedent. In 1995 and 1997, Turkey used 35,000 soldiers to conduct raids against the PKK. In both cases they remained in Iraq for fewer than 60 days and did not completely eradicate the Kurdish elements that they claimed were responsible for conducting attacks. A future invasion would be similar: a short incursion with limited success. Indeed, an incursion by Turkish forces against PKK elements would violate the new perception of territorial sovereignty that has grown in Kurdistan since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
While most Kurds in northern Iraq are not members of the PKK, a perceived violation of territorial sovereignty of Kurdistan would unify the Kurdish population to either support the PKK to a greater extent or develop an increased Kurdish independence movement. Without the support of the Kurdish population, especially their military, the unity and stabilization of Iraq will be severely inhibited, requiring either more U.S. military forces to fill in the gaps left by the Kurdish troops or instigating a civil war that could spread throughout the region. The Kurdish population is one of the only stable influences in Iraq and the loss of their support would reverberate throughout Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Turkey’s invasion of Iraq would have limited benefits for Turkey and disastrous implications for Iraq. The violation of state sovereignty that a Turkish incursion represents would present the Iraqi government as ineffectual and unable to protect its own borders. Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, would be forced into a difficult position, having to choose between his ethnic group and his country. Turkey would gain little more than a minor disruption of PKK activity and would ultimately foster increased hostility from the Kurdish community, including the possibility of establishing an open policy of support for Kurdish separatists in other countries.
The only foreseeable solution is for a joint U.S.-Turkish-Kurdish agreement that focuses on addressing the PKK elements and not Kurdistan as a whole. Turkey will not likely be pacified by a political agreement alone and will demand evidence of action against the PKK locations. If the United States does expect to stop an invasion, an agreement with Turkey must be negotiated soon. While cooperating with Turkey will be distasteful to many Kurds, it will not be nearly as insulting as an outright invasion. A Turkish invasion will force the Kurds to choose between Kurdistan and Iraq. And in this choice, Iraq will lose out.
Iranian Forces, Kurdish Guerrillas Clash
http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?contentGUID=91fccc1b-752f-4c05-8700-267e0e481f40 Iranian Forces, Kurdish Guerrillas Clash
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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Iranian artillery shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages Thursday as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border, officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan said.
It was the third day of shelling in two areas along the border in northern Iraq, said Jabbar Yawer, spokesman for the Kurdistan protection forces, or Peshmerga. Residents of the areas said the bombardment had not caused casualties but had killed farm animals and started a fire on a mountain.
Iranian shelling in the Peshdar region, 60 miles northwest of Sulaimaniyah, hit areas as far as 18 miles from the border, said the regional governor, Hussein Ahmed. He said many of the area's 1,000 families had fled for protection.
The other region hit by shelling lay farther north, near the Hajji Umran border crossing, 65 miles north of the city of Irbil, Yawer said. He said the shelling began with an incursion by Kurdish guerrillas into Iran on Tuesday that sparked clashes with Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
"We are not with either side, and we will not allow the lands of Iraqi Kurdistan to become a battlefield in which civilians in Kurdish villages are the victims," he said.
The Free Life Party is a breakaway faction of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as PKK, which is dominated by Turkish Kurds but also had Iranian Kurd branches. Its fighters have sparked Iranian shelling into Iraq several times over the past two years, most recently in June.
Turkey has increasingly threatened to take action in northern Iraq, complaining that the Kurdistan government and U.S. forces are not doing enough to stop PKK fighters carrying out attacks on Turkish soil.
Turkey: Kurds have U.S. weapons
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-turkey_madhanijul12,1,3473840.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=3&cset=true Turkey: Kurds have U.S. weapons
Envoy makes claim as troops reported along Iraq border
By Aamer Madhani
Washington Bureau
Published July 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Turkey's top diplomat in Washington said Wednesday that American weaponry has been found in the hands of Iraq-based Kurdish fighters captured while sneaking across the border to carry out attacks against Turkish civilians and military forces.
Ambassador Nabi Sensoy said he does not believe the United States is supplying weapons directly to fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party, a group better known as the PKK that for years has fought for an independent Kurdistan within Turkey. The American weapons, Sensoy suggested, may be coming from supplies provided by the U.S. military to the Iraqi government.
The allegation comes at a time when Iraqi officials have reported that Turkey's army is building up its forces along the two countries' shared border.
Sensoy pointed to the weaponry that has been found on PKK fighters as emblematic of the U.S. and Iraqi officials "not doing enough" to stop the PKK from staging attacks out of northern Iraq and said his government reserves the right to carry out military action to stop the guerrillas.
"People are simply saying: 'If the United States government feels itself to have the right to intervene in Iraq in order to protect itself from terrorists, Turkey should be able to protect its people and its country from the threat and actual activity from a terrorist organization,'" the ambassador said.
http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3203&Itemid=28 Turkey: threats of incursion into Iraq increase
Thursday, 12 July 2007
On April 12, the chief of Turkey's General Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, announced that the military was ready to stage a cross-border operation into Iraq to put down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. The only thing holding it back was authorization from the government and parliament.
Since then, there has been a constant stream of rhetoric from military officers and opposition politicians seeming to agitate for action.
Recently, the government has also weighed in. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed that Turkey had drawn up a plan for a possible incursion into Iraq.
So has the balance tipped and can we expect Ankara to launch an assault in coming days? Not necessarily, say observers, but Gul's statement is a clear sign the government is under pressure.
Iraq: Turkish Incursion Into Northern Iraq Could Backfire
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/07/1389c950-2be8-4e00-98ff-7b49a7204399.html Iraq: Turkish Incursion Into Northern Iraq Could Backfire
By Sumedha Senanayake
Turkey has demanded U.S. and Iraqi action against PKK bases in Iraq (file photo)
(AFP)
July 11, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Ankara had a plan in place for military incursions into northern Iraq to destroy Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases there.
His statements were the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive comments coming out of Turkey, warning the U.S. and the Iraqi government that if they do not curb PKK activities in northern Iraq, Turkey will have no choice but to carry out unilateral military action.
Iraqi Kurdish officials have reacted to the Turkish warnings and the massing of Turkish forces along the border with increasing alarm.
A Turkish incursion based on the principle of fighting terrorism sets a dangerous precedent for Iraq's neighbors. Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, who are widely believed to be involved in Iraq behind the scenes, may be emboldened to follow suit.Iraq's Kurdish Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari issued a statement on July 9 expressing his deep concern over intelligence estimates of more than 140,000 Turkish troops currently stationed on the border. He urged restraint and called for a diplomatic solution to the tensions.
The Pentagon disputed the numbers cited by Zebari, while Turkey had no comment. Zebari may have exaggerated intentionally, to focus greater international media attention on the Turkish threats in the hope of forcing Turkey to back down. In any case, it shows that he takes the Turkish threats seriously.
Setting Dangerous Precedent
Turkey: US Weapons in Guerrilla Hands - 140,000 soldiers on the border
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/11/ap3903217.html Turkey: US Weapons in Guerrilla Hands
By DESMOND BUTLER 07.11.07, 10:29 AM ET
Turkey's ambassador to Washington said Wednesday that U.S. weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
Nabi (nasdaq: NABI - news - people ) Sensoy said that the United States is not doing enough to influence Kurdish politicians in key positions in the Iraqi government to crack down on the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, which has been fighting for an independent Kurdistan within Turkey for decades. He said that Turkey has been pressing the United States to ensure that U.S. weapons supplied to Kurdish forces within the Iraqi army are not funneled to the PKK.
He did not suggest that the U.S. has been supplying the PKK directly. But he accused Kurdish members of the Iraqi government of allowing the group to operate in northern Iraq and to stage cross border attacks into Turkey.
U.S. officials have said they are working closely with Turkey to combat the PKK but that their focus in Iraq is in combating insurgents opposing U.S. forces. The United States considers the PKK a terrorist group and has taken steps to cut off its international financing. But U.S. officials have had few examples of success against the PKK in Iraq to point to in answering Turkish concerns.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6767972,00.html Will Turkey Invade Northern Iraq?
Monday July 9, 2007 10:16 PM
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press Writer
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Reports that Turkey has massed a huge military force on its border with Iraq bolstered fears that an invasion targeting hideouts of Kurdish rebels could be imminent. But how deeply into Iraq is the Turkish army willing to go, how long would it stay and what kind of fallout could come from allies in Washington and other NATO partners?
All these questions weigh on Turkey's leaders, who have enough on their hands without embarking on a foreign military adventure. Turkey is caught up in an internal rift between the Islamic-rooted government and the military-backed, secular establishment, less than two weeks ahead of July 22 elections that were called early as a way to ease tensions in a polarized society.
A military operation could disrupt Turkey's fragile democratic process by diverting attention from campaign topics such as the economy, and raise suspicion about whether the government and its opponents are manipulating the Iraq issue to win nationalist support at the polls.
On Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Turkish television that Turkey would take whatever steps were necessary if the United States fails to fulfill its pledge to help in the fight against Kurdish rebels, but he appeared reluctant to order an invasion before the elections.
``We are seeing with great grief that America remains quiet as Turkey struggles against terrorism. Because there were promises given to us, and they need to be kept. If not, we can take care of our own business,'' Erdogan said. ``We hope there won't be an extraordinary situation before the election. But there'll be a new evaluation after the elections.''
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