ANKARA’S COMMENCING ACTIVE MILITARY OPERATIONS IN IRAQ MAY PROVOKE ENTIRE REGION – HEAD OF FEDERATION COUNCIL’S COMMITTEE
TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2007
Azerbaijan, Baku / Òrend corr A. Gasimova / Ankara’s commencing
active military operations in Iraq against Kurdish militants may
provoke a regional conflict and propel the involvement of neighbouring
countries. "If Ankara turns to active military operations in Iraq,
that may provoke an inter-state conflict that covers the entire region
and will affect not only Turkey and Iraq, but also neighbouring Syria
and Iran," Mikhail Margelov, the Chairman of the Russian Federation
Council’s Committee on International Affairs, said.
Official Ankara states that at least 3,000 militants of the Kurdish
Worker Party (PPK) are hiding in the hilly area of northern Iraq and
they regularly commit acts of terror in Turkey. On 17 October, Turkish
Parliament approved the inquiry of the Turkish Government headed by
Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan about holding an intervention
within Iraq, in order to carry out a trans-border military operation
against Kurdish separatists in the north of Iraq.
Ankara’s intensions to solve the problem through military operations
and de-facto intervention of a sovereign country can be only condemned,
Margelov reported from Moscow by phone on 24 October.
"Moreover, as we can see from the war between Lebanon and Israel, such
measures grant only a temporary respite," the political scientists
said. He believes that there is only one way out of the situation
– establishment of a centralized power in Iraq. "A considerable
improvement of the situation at the Iraqi-Turkish border can be
achieved only when a strong centralized power appears in Iraq,
which will be able to put the country under its control. But
unfortunately, neither official Baghdad nor the United States can
give such guarantees."
According to Margelov, Turkey should take another position – to
assist in every way to the new Iraqi authorities to become firmly
established and to begin restoration of its destroyed infrastructure,
security and control systems, instead of further destabilizing the
situation in the country.
At the beginning of August 2007, Turkey and Iraq agreed to jointly
combat Kurdish militants. Ankara repeatedly threatened the Kurds in the
north of Iraq, which is used by the PPK as bridge-head for attacking
targets in the Turkish territory. Several times Ankara sent troops
to the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq.
Turkey’s preparations for a military campaign against Kurds alarmed
international society, raising fears of the threat of a new regional
conflict when the situation in the Middle East is already strained.
The EU and the United States have already called on Turkey to refrain
from violence and to solve the issue through cooperation with Iraqi
authorities. Meanwhile, the dialogue between Washington and Ankara
on the issue is becoming complicated, as the US Congress is still
considering the resolution that recognizes the mass slaughter of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th century as
Armenian genocide.
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