In the face of mounting terrorist activities of the outlawed
Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and growing tension with the US and
Iraq, Turkish government and military authorities stepped up
mobilization for the fight against PKK based in northern Iraq.
Turkey's Supreme Anti-Terror Board convened on Tuesday morning
under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
issuing a fresh warning of possible cross-border incursion into
northern Iraq to chase separatist rebels.
The Board decided to set up the legal and logistic stage for a
cross-border incursion against the PKK which is fiercely blamed for
attacks that killed 15 people on Sunday and Monday.
"The institutions concerned have been given the necessary orders
and instructions to take all kinds of legal, economic and political
measures to end the presence of the terrorist organization in a
neighboring country in the upcoming period, including if necessary
a cross-border operation," said a written statement released at the
end of the three-and-a-half-hour long security meeting.
The meeting was the third senior-level gathering in 24 hours to
discuss how to respond after the PKK attacks left 15 soldiers dead
in southeastern Anatolia on Sunday and Monday.
On Monday, a weekly Cabinet meeting focused on the anti-terror
fight, and a subsequent summit attended by President Abdullah Gul,
Prime Minister Erdogan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar
Buyukanit held later in the day vowed a determined fight and strong
measures to cope with the threat.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has vowed to take all necessary
measures against Kurdish rebels, including a possible incursion
into northern Iraq after a total of 13 Turkish soldiers were killed
on Sunday during an attack on military units in Sirnak province in
southeastern Turkey, which staged by the PKK.
Another two more soldiers were killed in mine blasts in
southeastern provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir's Lice town on
Monday.
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Tuesday that any
large-scale cross-border operation into Iraq would still require
authorization from Parliament, but experts said a smaller-scale
operation involving the "hot pursuit" of PKK terrorists across the
border would not need such an authorization.
Also on Tuesday, the Turkish government sent to parliament a
request for approval of a military incursion into northern Iraq to
crush the PKK terrorists hiding there.
However, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters in Washington, "I am not sure that unilateral incursions
are the way to go, the way to resolve the issue."
"We have counseled them both in public and private for many,
many months (on) the idea that it is important to work
cooperatively to resolve this issue," said McCormack.
Meanwhile, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon
Johndroe said that the United States would be working with Turkey
and Iraq to combat the separatist PKK which has carried out a
series of attacks in Turkey.
Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey Sabah Omran was emphatic in his
rejection of any potential cross-border operation into Iraqi
territory or hot pursuit of PKK rebels across the common border,
saying such practices have no legal basis.
On Sept. 28, Turkey and Iraq signed an agreement to fight
against terrorism, but still differed over Turkey's military
incursion into northern Iraq to strike the PKK bases.
The counter-terrorism agreement does not include any provision
allowing hot pursuit of the PKK terrorists across the border. Iraqi
Kurds, who run northern Iraq, opposed such a clause, leading the
Iraqi government delegation negotiating the deal to oppose Ankara's
requests to that effect.
The PKK has increased its attacks on government troops in
southeastern Turkey, which led to rising Turkish demands for an
incursion into northern Iraq to crush the rebels based there.
The group, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US
and the EU, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in
the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of
strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.
(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2007)
