Turkish PM threatens to invade northern Iraq - 250,000 men in the region

[seemslikeadream]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2788616.ece


By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil, Iraq
Published: 21 July 2007

Turkey's Prime Minister has threatened an invasion of northern Iraq if, after the Turkish election on Sunday, talks fail with Iraq and the US on curbing the activities of Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

Turkish artillery has been firing increasingly heavy barrages at villages in the north of Iraqi Kurdistan. After three Turkish soldiers were killed and five wounded by a mine laid by PKK guerrillas last week, some 100 shells exploded around the border town of Zakho, forcing residents to flee.

The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyib Erdogan, said the PKK fighters had been using northern Iraq as a base to make attacks.

He said there would be a tripartite meeting with the US and Iraq after the election but if Turkish demands were not satisfied, an invasion was on the agenda. "Whatever is necessary could be done immediately," he said. "We are capable enough to do it." Mr Erdogan's hard line is geared to the Turkish election tomorrow in which his Justice and Development Party (AKP is fearful of losing votes because it is being portrayed as not acting firmly enough against PKK guerrillas. It wants to stop the far-right Nationalist Party, which is demanding an incursion in Iraq, getting the 10 per cent of the vote that it needs to win seats in parliament.

The PKK has about 4,000 fighters hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq. It has escalated its attacks in largely Kurdish south-east Turkey, but these are pinpricks as Turkey has an army of 250,000 men in the region. Nevertheless, the question of how to deal with the PKK has become a central issue in the election.

[Disturbed]

1. Will Busholini say "Bring it on"?

I hope this dangerous situation can be resolved via diplomacy.

[Mojorabbit]

2. I am worried

the whole region is going to go up in flames.

[Esra Star]

3. You're right, the destabilising effect of the Iraq invasion might

result in more destabilisation. The Turkish Kurd problem is real.
The question is what next? So much unrest.
One thing's for sure, if the US pulls out......conflagration.
And who knows where that will end.
Like Col Powell said:- "You break it, you've bought it."
sigh

[Wiccan Warrior]

6. Bu$h may get his Armageddon

but what they STILL FAIL to realize is that Jesus said"I will come as a thief in the night you will know not when I come" so with that said from the Son of God how can Bu$h say he will bring it when it is not his to bring who is the Snti-Christ now....ummmmm that would be Bu$h I saw horns on his head since he was elected.

[demoleft]

4. Tragic perspective...

...I read the report on BBC.
Did I miss something in the news, or Europe is busy in different things other than definitely entering seriously the diplomatic matter?
I feel Europe is there to stand and watch. And this worries me a lot.

[seemslikeadream]

5. I wonder who's side georgie is on?

But he doesn't read the papers so maybe no one has told him about the "situation", the Kurds who we went there to give them freedom and democracy or the Turks, our "good" friends and drug partners