Kurdmedia.com
Kurdish rebels rearm, infiltrate Turkey from Iraq: report
04/07/2004 AFP
ANKARA, July 4 (AFP) – 15h15 – Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in northern Iraq
are rearming and 1,500 of them have crossed into Turkey to engage in
violence, CNN-Turk television said Sunday, citing an intelligence report.
According to the report, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), known
also as KONGRA-GEL, had purchased weapons worth 1.7 million dollars from
unknown sources in Iraq, Iran and Armenia in the past year and had
intensified military training for members in camps in northern Iraq,
CNN-Turk said on its web site.
The increased activity was thought to be a prepartion for a possibile
military operation against the group by Turkey or the United States, both of
whom view the PKK as a “terrorist” organization.
Ankara has repeatedly urged Washington to take action against PKK rebels in
neighboring northern Iraq since last October, when the two countries agreed
on an action plan, including military measures, against the PKK.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated the call during talks
with US President George W. Bush in Ankara last week.
The Turkish authorities estimate that about 5,000 PKK militants have taken
refuge in northern Iraq since 1999, when the group announced a unilateral
truce with the government following a call for peace by its jailed leader,
Abdullah Ocalan.
The rebels ended the ceasefire on June 1 this year.
CNN-Turk quoted the intelligence report as saying that 1,500 armed militants
had infiltrated Turkey in the past six months.
The PKK has been blamed for a recent series of deadly attacks on Turkish
security forces in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, bordering northern Iraq,
including the mining of roads.
On July 2, oficials accused the group of carrying out a car bomb attack on a
convoy carrying the governor of Van province, which killed three people and
wounded 25 others.
The PKK waged a bloody 15-year campaign for self-rule in Turkey’s
predominantly Kurdish southeast between 1984 and 1999. The conflict has
claimed some 37,000 lives.
The southeast enjoyed relative calm during the ceasefire period and Ankara
improved the cultural rights of the Kurdish minority in a bid to boost
Turkey’s chances of being allowed to join the European Union.