TURKISH GOVT ASKS PARLIAMENT TO LET TROOPS ENTER IRAQ
By Gareth Jones and Hidir Goktas
Reuters
Oct 15 2007
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s cabinet asked parliament on Monday for
permission to launch attacks on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq
that Washington fears could destabilize one of the most peaceful
areas of the country.
Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Turkey still hoped military
action against the Kurds, who use the mountainous region as base for
attacks inside Turkey, would not be needed.
"But the most painful reality of our country, our region, is the
reality of terror," he told a news conference.
Cicek said the motion, which parliament is expected to approve on
Wednesday, would be valid for one year and would allow multiple
cross-border operations.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s centre-right government is under
heavy public pressure to act after a series of attacks on Turkish
troops by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which seeks an
independent homeland in eastern Turkey.
The prospect of NATO’s second largest army crossing into mainly
Kurdish northern Iraq helped propel global oil prices to an all-time
high of $85 a barrel on Monday while the lira currency fell more than
2 percent against the dollar.
The United States has urged restraint on Turkey, a key NATO ally
strategically located between Europe and the Middle East. But
Washington’s influence in Ankara is being severely undermined by
U.S. Congressional moves to brand as genocide the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
Ankara has recalled its envoy to Washington and warned of serious
damage to ties if next month the House of Representatives backs a
resolution pressed by an Armenian lobby with great influence among
the Democrat majority.
Turkey rejects the genocide claims, now fatefully entangled with the
northern Iraq issue.
U.S. APPEAL
"We are continuing to ask the Turks to exercise restraint," State
Department spokesman Tom Casey said. "We realize how difficult the
problem is and we all want to work together to resolve the problem
posed by PKK/terrorism and their operations against Turkey from
northern Iraq," Casey said.
"That requires, though, cooperative and coordinated efforts between
people on both sides of the border with us supporting that effort. A
unilateral step would be unlikely to make the situation any better,"
he told reporters.
The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, has also urged caution.
"It is a dangerous situation… It can indeed be deadly, but it is
not the first time," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told
reporters in Luxembourg.
Large-scale incursions by Turkey into northern Iraq in 1995 and 1997,
involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed
to dislodge the rebels.
Cicek said Turkey’s sole target, if its troops entered northern Iraq,
would be the PKK militants, about 3,000 of whom are believed to be
hiding there.
He repeated criticism of Iraq’s failure, despite Turkish pressure,
to take action against the PKK on its territory. Iraqi Vice President
Tareq al-Hashemi will hold talks in Ankara with Turkish officials on
Tuesday, he said.
In the text of the motion, seen by Reuters, the government states
continued commitment to Iraq’s territorial integrity and defends its
right under international law to send troops across the border as an
act of self-defence.
Turkey’s powerful and respected military has long called for permission
to hunt down PKK rebels in Iraq.