Turkey Attacks PKK Positions Inside Iraq

Source:Reuters

Turkish warplanes and troops attacked Kurdish rebels inside Northern Iraq this week, security sources said on Wednesday.

Turkey moved more troops to the mountainous border, keeping up pressure on the Iraqi Government to honour promises to crack down on an estimated 3,000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use the region as a base.

"Further 'hot pursuit' raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today (Wednesday)," a military official said. "We are reinforcing our troops near the border at Silopi and Uludere with men drawn from other parts of the country,"

Thirty four PKK rebels were killed in the sorties and all Turkish troops involved in the operations were now inside Turkey. Turkish military sources claimed.
But Abdul Rahman Jaderji, a PKK spokesman in northern Iraq, told Reuters there had been no direct fighting between the two sides since clashes on Sunday in which 12 soldiers were killed.

However Ankara wants to hold back from any major incursion for now to give diplomacy a chance. The Turkish official described as a "final chance" for diplomacy a planned visit by an Iraqi delegation to Ankara on Thursday. At Turkey's request, the team will be headed by Iraqi Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim. It will also include Iraq's National Security Minister Shirwan al Waeli.

"The prime minister has indicated this meeting could produce economic sanctions, for example, cutting off electricity to northern Iraq or the closure or slowing down of traffic at the Habur border gate," said Suat Kiniklioglu, an AK Party spokesperson said

Northern Iraq depends heavily on Turkey for power, water and many food supplies. Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has infuriated Turkey by refusing to act against the PKK. He has said his peshmerga fighters would resist any Turkish incursion.

Both the US and Iraq fear a major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could destabilise the whole region. But Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is under heavy public pressure to take tough action, especially since Sunday's deaths.

Turkey, which has NATO's second biggest army, has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, along the mountainous border in preparation for a possible large-scale strike. It is also straining US/Turkish relations which had been previously good.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Knowledge-Who are the PKK?

Source:MIPT Database

Name: Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan (PKK)

AKA: KADEK, KHK, Kongra-Gel (KGK), Kongreya Azadi u Demokrasiya Kurdistan, Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, Kurdistan People's Conference, The People’s Congress of Kurdistan

History: The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a leftist Kurdish nationalist organization, founded in 1974 from the student/youth movement in Turkey. Led by Abdullah Ocalan, operated informally until 1978, when it formalized its agenda. Influenced by Maoist doctrine, the PKK's goal was to incite a revolution that would free the Kurdish people and establish an independent Kurdish state.

In 1980, prior to the military coup in Turkey, the PKK fled Turkey and established training camps in the Bekaa valley, part of Syrian-controlled Lebanon. By 1984, the PKK had initiated its first armed attacks in the Anatolia regions of Turkey. Reports claim that the PKK killed over 30,000 civilians within Turkey during the mid-80s including fellow Kurds who they believed they "collaborated" with the Turkish government. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in an effort to win increased support from the Kurdish peasantry, the PKK altered its leftist secular ideology to better accommodate and accept Islamic beliefs.

During the early 1990s, the PKK continued its strategy of actively attacking Turkish government and tourist assets in an effort to destroy the Turkish military Government. In 1999, the PKK's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Turkey, though convicted, Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002, and his sentence was changed to life imprisonment after the original death sentence was called for. Following his arrest, Ocalan declared a unilateral cease-fire and announced his desire to establish a "peace initiative" with Turkey on Kurdish issues.

In 2002, the PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK), supposedly committing itself to non-violent activities. Despite the cease fire, the group continued its military training and planning and continues to threaten violence. In late 2003, the KADEK sought to engineer another political face-lift, renaming the group Kongra-Gel (KGK) (Kurdistan People's Congress) and brandishing its "peaceful" intentions, while continuing to commit attacks and refuse disarmament. The cease-fire with the Turkish government ended in the spring of 2004 and violence continued.

The group claimed responsibility for three ambushes of Turkish forces in early March 2006, alleged to be retaliation for the deaths of seven PKK members in February. The group is also suspected in several small bombings in early 2006, including a bombing in Ankara on March 8th that killed three people and injured eighteen. It is on the list of US Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

News-Pressure increases on Turkish Government to strike back against the PKK

A M60 MBT moving up to the Iraq/Turkish Border in prepration for a cross border strike.

Source:Reuters

Turkey was poised on Monday to strike against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq but will give Washington a few days to try to curb the separatists.

Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and attack helicopters along its border with Iraq in anticipation of a possible incursion, however Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said: "They are planning a cross-border (incursion) ... We'd like to do these things with the Americans."

Turkey estimates 3,000 rebels from the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) are based across the border and a series of recent attacks on Turkish forces has put intense pressure on Prime Minister Erdogan to act.

Turkey believes U.S. forces could, capture PKK leaders in the Qandil Mountains, shut down their camps and cut off supply routes and logistics support. But Washington is hesitant as such moves could destabilise Iraq's Kurdish region and hurt the regional authority there if it looked as if it were siding with Turkey against fellow Kurds.

Gonul, speaking in Kiev after meeting U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, said 17 soldiers were killed and 10 were missing. The Turkish losses, among the worst in a decade, came four days after parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow troops to cross into northern Iraq.

Erdogan chaired a weekly cabinet meeting on Monday, which was expected to focus on the fighting and a possible incursion. He was due in London later on an official visit.

The Turkish lira currency fell three percent to 1.2360 against the dollar and the Istanbul stock exchange fell five percent early on Monday on concerns of a cross-border offensive. Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs over the past week. The PKK has said it might target pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude across Turkey.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Turkey not to launch a major incursion into northern Iraq. He spoke after Turkey's parliament approved by a large majority a government request to allow troops to cross into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels based there. The United States fears a cross-border incursion could destabilize the most peaceful part of Iraq and potentially the wider region.

"We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq," Bush told a news conference.

The PKK says eight Turkish soldiers were captured in the weekend fighting. Turkish media said more than 200 rebels were involved in the clashes on the Turkish side of the border.