TURKEY’S ERDOGAN SAYS PARLIAMENT TO APPROVE IRAQ RAID (UPDATE3)
By Mark Bentley
Bloomberg
Oct 16 2007
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
the parliament will approve plans for an incursion into northern Iraq
to attack Kurdish militants, defying a U.S. demand to show restraint.
There is a "common will" among lawmakers to sanction a cross-border
assault when they vote on the proposal tomorrow, Erdogan told a
televised meeting of his party in Ankara. He said a military strike
would come under international laws governing self-defense.
Crude oil rose to a record $87.97 a barrel in New York on concern
an attack will disrupt crude shipments from Iraq and heighten
instability in the Middle East. Turkey says it must act because
U.S. and Iraqi forces have failed to control the 3,500 members of the
PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, who are sheltering in Iraq while
they pursue a two-decade conflict with Turkish forces to gain autonomy.
Turkey, with the second-largest army in the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, sent troops into northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK rebels
several times in the decade before the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam
Hussein in 2003.
Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi was in the Turkish capital today
for emergency talks with Erdogan. Iraq’s cabinet held an unscheduled
meeting in Baghdad to discuss efforts to avert a Turkish military
strike.
Hope for Resolution
The Turkish prime minister said he expects Iraq’s Kurds to distance
themselves from the PKK and added that he hoped Turkey won’t need to
resort to an attack on the group’s members in northern Iraq.
The PKK’s fight for autonomy has cost almost 40,000 lives. The group is
designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union.
Turkey must "show restraint" and avoid a military raid, the U.S. said.
"We all have an interest in a stable Iraq and a desire to see the PKK
brought to justice," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a
statement late yesterday. "But we urge the Turks to continue their
discussions with us and the Iraqis and to show restraint from any
potentially destabilizing actions."
Turkey should play a "constructive" role in stabilizing Iraq and
respect the nation’s sovereignty, European Commission spokeswoman
Krisztina Nagy told a Brussels news conference today. Majority-Muslim
Turkey’s membership talks with the European Union, which began two
years ago, have stumbled over the nation’s occupation of northern
Cyprus.
Turkish Deaths
Erdogan’s government asked parliament to approve the incursion after
more than two dozen soldiers and civilians were killed over the last
two weeks in attacks blamed on the PKK. A Turkish soldier was killed
when a landmine exploded in the mainly Kurdish southeast today,
the CNN Turk news channel said.
Erdogan’s plan, which requires the backing of a simple majority of
lawmakers in Turkey’s 550-seat parliament, is supported by the main
opposition Republican People’s Party and Nationalist Action Party.
The measure will empower Erdogan to order a military strike within
a maximum period of one year.
Relations between the U.S. and Turkey, both NATO allies, worsened
last week after a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed
a resolution labeling the World War I-era killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks as genocide. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Washington
in protest.
Oil Price Rises
Oil has gained more than $3 since Erdogan issued a written request
yesterday to Turkish lawmakers to approve military action. Crude
for November delivery increased as much as $1.84, or 2.1 percent,
to $87.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile
Exchange, the highest since the futures were introduced in 1983. The
contract traded at $87.43 at 12:38 a.m. in London.
"The concern is that an attack will destabilize Iraq further and that
will disrupt the limited output from Iraq," said Dariusz Kowalczyk,
chief investment strategist with CFC Seymour Ltd. in Hong Kong. "And
that may carry over to the whole Middle East."
Turkey’s military stands ready to invade northern Iraq and fight
Kurdish guerrillas in the mountains even in winter, the Milliyet
newspaper reported, citing General Ergin Saygun. Turkey is already
responding to cross-border rocket attacks by the PKK, Saygun added.
Turkey has stopped short of an incursion into northern Iraq since the
U.S.-led invasion, instead attacking PKK units as they have entered
Turkey to launch attacks.