TURKEY LAUNCHES LAND OFFENSIVE INTO N.IRAQ
Reuters
Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:16am EST
(Reuters) – Turkey’s military said on Friday it had launched a
cross-border land offensive backed by fighter jets into northern Iraq
on Thursday to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas.
Turkey has said it has the right under international law to hit
Kurdish PKK guerrillas who take shelter in northern Iraq and have
mounted attacks inside Turkey that have killed scores of troops.
Iraq has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution to deal with
the PKK but Turkey’s government is under domestic pressure to take
military action against the rebels.
Following are some of the details behind the tensions:
* KURDISH HISTORY:
— The Kurds are a non-Arab, mainly Sunni Muslim people, speaking a
language related to Persian and living in a mountainous area straddling
the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
— For most of their history they have been subjugated. In modern
times Iran, Iraq and Turkey have resisted an independent Kurdish
state and Western powers have seen no reason to help establish one.
— Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Ottoman Empire
was on its last legs. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which imposed a
settlement and colonial carve-up of Turkey after World War One,
promised them independence.
— Three years later, Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk tore up the treaty.
Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s were put down by Turkish
forces. The Kurds were not recognized as a separate people or allowed
to speak their language in public.
FIGHT FOR A HOMELAND:
— The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), named in 1978, took up arms
against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland
in the southeast.
Since then nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
— The Kurdish language ban was lifted in 1991.
— PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and sentenced
to death. That was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after
Turkey abolished the death penalty.
— Fighting eased after Ocalan’s capture, leading to a ceasefire
and the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey. Ocalan put new
emphasis on seeking Kurdish rights through political, rather than
armed struggle.
* NORTHERN IRAQ:
— The Kurds fared little better in northern Iraq where, under a
British mandate, revolts were quashed in 1919, 1923 and 1932.
— Under leader Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi Kurds waged an intermittent
struggle against Baghdad after World War Two.
— Kurdish northern Iraq won autonomy from Saddam Hussein with
U.S. help in 1991, and has benefited from more than a decade of
economic development.
There has been some violence but it has not approached the levels
seen in Baghdad.
FIGHT FOR A HOMELAND:
— The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), named in 1978, took up arms
against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland
in the southeast.
Since then nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
— The Kurdish language ban was lifted in 1991.
— PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and sentenced
to death. That was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after
Turkey abolished the death penalty.
— Fighting eased after Ocalan’s capture, leading to a ceasefire
and the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey. Ocalan put new
emphasis on seeking Kurdish rights through political, rather than
armed struggle.
* THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES:
— The fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq deepened the desire for autonomy
and in September 2006 the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan ordered the
Kurdish flag to be flown on government buildings instead of the Iraqi
national flag.
— Some 3,000 PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq and launch
attacks on security and civilian targets in Turkey. A few thousand
PKK rebels are also believed to be inside Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress