UP TO 35 DEAD IN CLASHES BETWEEN TURKISH ARMY AND PKK – SUMMARY
Earth Times, UK
Oct 21 2007
Ankara – Turkey’s leadership on Sunday called a crisis meeting
amid ongoing deadly clashes between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish
military in which 12 soldiers and up to 23 rebels were killed. The
Turkish army’s general staff in a statement confirmed the military
death toll and said 23 rebels had been "neutralized," with Turkish
media widely translating the latter to mean killed.
According to the statement PKK rebels based in northern Iraq had
launched a cross-border attack in the early hours of Sunday morning
on three Turkish army posts.
Reports said the attack was staged at around 2 am (2300 GMT Saturday)
in the Yuksekova region of Hakkari in Turkey’s south-east.
The ensuing clashes, which were ongoing Sunday, had involved the use
of attack helicopters by the Turkish army.
The political and military leadership were to meet President Abdullah
Gul in the evening to discuss further actions, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
Erdogan referred to a resolution passed by the Turkish parliament on
Wednesday, sanctioning cross-border missions by the military against
rebels of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
However, Erdogan also called for rational consideration of any
further action.
Meanwhile in a separate incident in south-eastern Turkey, 14 people
were wounded when a mine exploded beneath their minibus, reports
said Sunday.
The incident occurred near the border with Iraq.
According to the Turkish military there are around 3,500 PKK guerrillas
based in mountainous northern Iraq.
More than 32,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its
fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish- populated
south-east.
Despite the PKK being listed as a terrorist group by the US State
Department, Washington is opposed to Turkey launching a cross-border
operation due to fears that such an incursion could spark unrest and
fighting in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, the one area of Iraq
which is relatively calm.
Exactly how much leverage the US has over Turkey at the moment
is unclear.
However, Ankara has been extremely angry that a US congressional
committee resolution that passed last week labelled the First World
War massacres of Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire as
a genocide.
Turkey denies that the killings constitute a genocide and that instead
the deaths came about because of an uprising of Armenians against
the state.