Turkey - Kurdistan (Superthread)

[Bigmac]

Kurds rule out referendum delay for disputed Kirkuk

Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:12PM EDT

By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish leaders are determined to press ahead with a referendum on the future of the oil city of Kirkuk, despite rising tensions over the issue and violence that included car bomb attacks killing more than 80 people this week.

"We must hold the referendum by the end of the year," said Mohammed Ihsan, the Kurdish regional government's point man on Kirkuk. "Postponing it would mean surrender to the terrorists. We are not willing to do that."

Ihsan, whose title is Minister of Extra Regional Affairs in the Kurdish Regional Government, was speaking in an interview a day after a huge truck bomb exploded outside the local headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

"There can be no question of a delay or negotiations on this," Ihsan said. "You don't negotiate the constitution."

Foreign analysts have warned Kirkuk could become the next flashpoint in the strife that has been tearing most of Iraq apart since the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"If the referendum is held later this year over the objections of the other (non-Kurdish) communities, the civil war is very likely to spread to Kirkuk and the Kurdish region, until now Iraq's only area of quiet and progress," said an analysis of the issue by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

The Kurds see Kirkuk as their historical capital and want it included in their autonomous Kurdistan region.

But the referendum plan has run into bitter opposition from Kirkuk's other ethnic groups, including Turkmen and Chaldo-Assyrians, who fear they would be forced out of the city or become second-class citizens.

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL1885928120070718

 

[MarkOttawa]

Unless outsiders are willing to use overwhelming military force (Brits in "Iraq" in the early twenties)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,939608,00.html

or have some truly compelling "diplomatic" leverage, in the end the end locals will do what they will.  Especially if they do not have investment--terrible word but appropriate here--in an internationally recognized state.  Cf. Kosovo.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/18/news/UN-GEN-UN-Kosovo.php

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I suspect the Kurds will have very direct and final ways of dealing with the resident Arab population in areas of their control if the suicide bombing become to much. They already limit Arab travel into the regions of their control.

 

[Bigmac]

Turkish warplanes attack suspected rebel positions on Iraq border

Selcan Hacaoglu, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SIRNAK, Turkey - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a possible prelude to a cross-border operation that would likely raise tensions with Washington.

The military offensive also reportedly included shelling of Turkish Kurd guerrilla hideouts in northern Iraq, which is predominantly Kurdish. U.S. officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize other areas of Iraq and oppose Turkish intervention in the relatively peaceful north.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that preparations were under way for parliamentary authorization of a cross-border operation, and told private CNN-Turk TV that the motion might reach Parliament on Thursday. The preparations "have started and are continuing," he said. An opposition nationalist party said it would support the proposal.

If parliament approves, the military could choose to launch an operation immediately or wait to see if the United States and its allies decide to crack down on the rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

"If you're against (the rebels), make your attitude clear and do whatever is necessary," Erdogan said in comments directed at Washington. "If you cannot do it, then let us do it."

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/World/071010/w101084A.html

 

[old medic]

PKK to 'consider' releasing Turkish soldiers

Updated Sat. Oct. 27 2007 7:57 AM ET
The Associated Press
Copy located at: 
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071027/turkey_kurds_071027/20071027?hub=TopStories

ANKARA, Turkey -- Kurdish rebels said Saturday they are considering a lawmaker's request for the release of eight Turkish soldiers captured just under a week ago -- an incident that increased already heightened tensions in the area bordering Iraq.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 Turkish nationalists marched on the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Ankara, accusing the United States of supporting the rebels by not cracking down on them in northern Iraq.

"Down with the USA, down with the PKK,'' the group chanted before laying a black wreath at the gate of the embassy in the peaceful protest.

Another 1,500 people -- mostly children -- took to the streets of the predominantly Kurdish city of Sirnak, in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border, to protest the recent surge in rebel violence.

Waving red and white Turkish flags, people in the crowd chanted "martyrs never die, the nation will never be divided,'' in one of several protests in the border area where the violence has been escalating.

In Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, a group of local NGOs issued a joint statement calling on the PKK to end the violence, while urging Turkey not to send its troops across the border.

The groups said if Turkey sends its troops into northern Iraq, it will "further complicate the problem and dramatically increase the loss of lives and cause the collapse of the regional economy.''

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has killed at least 42 people, including around 30 Turkish soldiers in two ambushes near the Iraqi border, over the past month. Turkish troops, meanwhile, repelled another attack by a large Kurdish rebel group as it tried to sneak into Turkey on Tuesday, the military said.

The PKK said it captured the eight Turkish soldiers in an operation on Oct. 21.

Ahmet Turk, a Kurdish member of Turkey's Parliament whose Democratic Society Party is often accused of having ties with the separatist rebels, called Wednesday for the release of the soldiers in an effort to help defuse the situation.

Turkey has not officially acknowledged that the soldiers were captured, but after the PKK released photos and video of them, Turkey said there "appears to be evidence there are eight soldiers being held,'' and urged that they be released unharmed.

Speaking in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah, PKK spokesman Abdul-Rahman Al-Chaderchi told The Associated Press the group was working on a response.

"We are discussing the demand, and within a short time we will end the issue of the captives,'' Al-Chaderchi said. The PKK has, in the past, released captured Turkish soldiers unharmed.

The Turkish military presence remained heavy in the border area on Saturday, with regular patrols securing the roads and checkpoints.

Helicopters ferried more Turkish troops to the border area, and military units were put on alert against a possible rebel attack, private CNN-Turk television reported.

Military posts in the town of Cukurca, near the Iraqi border, were fortified with cement barriers designed to keep vehicles away, CNN-Turk reported.

Col. Hussein Tamr, an Iraqi Border Guard officer, said that Turkish forces had shelled two Iraqi areas along the western portion of Iraq's 320-kilometre border with Turkey.

Despite military momentum and public calls for action building in Turkey, the country's military chief said Friday that his country would wait until Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Bush on Nov. 5 in Washington before deciding on any cross-border offensive.

A military campaign in Iraq could derail one of the few stable areas in Iraq, and trap the United States in an awkward position between key allies: NATO-member Turkey, and the Baghdad government as well as self-governing Iraqi Kurds in the north. Turkey has been reluctant to cross the border, fearing a messy conflict as well as damage to its international alliances.

For months, Turkey has repeatedly demanded more action from the United States and Iraq in its fight against PKK. The group has been fighting for autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish population in southeast Turkey since 1984, and is labelled a terrorist group by Washington and the European Union.

In comments unlikely to ease Turkish frustration, the top American military commander in northern Iraq said Friday he plans to do "absolutely nothing'' to counter Kurdish rebels operating from the region.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said it was not the U.S. military's responsibility to act.

In Istanbul, Erdogan slammed European Union countries for not extraditing Kurdish rebels to Turkey, saying they were failing to support Turkey's struggle.

"We would like to see our friends beside us in this struggle,'' Erdogan said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials -- including the defence minister -- returned home Saturday after talks in Ankara on Friday failed to produce any breakthroughs.

Turkey has demanded the extradition of PKK leaders, and CNN-Turk television, citing unidentified Iraqi officials, said Ankara is seeking a total of 153 PKK members.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said Saturday that new talks can be held as long as Iraqis bring concrete proposals, CNN-Turk television reported.

 

[Bigmac]

Turkish army sends soldiers across border into Iraq: Kurdish official

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


KIRKUK, Iraq - The Turkish army sent soldiers about three kilometers into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Tuesday, Kurdish officials said. A Turkish official said the troops were still in Iraq by midmorning.

The troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 120 kilometers north of the city of Irbil, said Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces.

About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border at 3 a.m., said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government. He said the region was a deserted mountainous frontier area.

A Turkish government official, speaking in Ankara on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that around 300 Turkish soldiers penetrated into northern Iraq.

"They are still there," he said without elaborating.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment on reports of the Turkish operation.

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/World/071218/w121811A.html

Hmmmm, more than likely Turkish special forces letting PKK rebels know that they can still give them some love even if they run back across the border. I am starting to like the Turks, they are getting tired of the rebels and the lack of action from Iraq and the US in dealing with them. They are smart though and so far limit their incursions into Iraq. Hopefully they can maintain their composure, maybe?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I suspect certain Kurdish groups other than the PPK are shedding few tears for them. I think most of the Kurds realize that "Kurdistan" will need a semi-friendly Turkey to exist. They have a better chance coming to terms with Turkey, than their Arab brethern I suspect.

 

[Mike Baker]

LINK


(CNN) -- At least 35 Kurdish rebels have been killed in fighting in northern Iraq on Saturday, Turkey's military said Saturday as its offensive against the rebels came under criticism from Baghdad.

The Associated Press quoted the military saying that the total number of rebels killed in its three day incursion was now 79, while two of its own soldiers died Saturday, bringing Turkey's death toll to seven.

The incursion against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq began late Thursday, marking a major escalation in Ankara's fight against the rebels.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq's president and prime minister had urged Turkish officials to rethink the offensive, AP reported.

"We know the threats that Turkey is facing but military operations will not solve the PKK problem," al-Dabbagh said.

In a statement Friday, the Turkish military said it would act with "utmost sensitivity in order to avoid negative impact on local elements" -- a reference to keeping civilians out of the conflict.

"The Turkish Armed Forces, which values Iraq's territorial integrity and its stability, will return as soon as planned goals are achieved," the military said.

"The executed operation will prevent the region from being a permanent and safe base for the terrorists and will contribute to Iraq's stability and internal peace."




More on link

 

[Yrys]

(CNN) -- At least 35 Kurdish rebels have been killed in fighting in northern Iraq on Saturday, Turkey's military said Saturday as its offensive against the rebels came under criticism from Baghdad.

The Associated Press quoted the military saying that the total number of rebels killed in its three day incursion ...

"We know the threats that Turkey is facing but military operations will not solve the PKK problem," al-Dabbagh said.

"The Turkish Armed Forces, which values Iraq's territorial integrity and its stability, will return as soon as planned goals are achieved," the military said.

I don't have enough knowledge of the region, but it seems a subdue answer from the Iraqis not to protest with stronger words to an 'invasion'
into their territory  even if it occur after warning fron the Turkey government about it...

 

[Mike Baker]

Turkish helicopter down in Iraq

CUKURCA, Turkey - A Turkish helicopter crashed in Iraq and eight soldiers were killed during a cross-border ground operation against Kurdish rebels, who planted booby traps on the bodies of their slain comrades, Turkey's military said Sunday.

The guerrillas said they shot down a Turkish military helicopter near the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Turkey's military said technicians were inspecting the wreck to determine why the helicopter crashed near the border. It was not clear if any of the reported troop casualties were on board. Their deaths bring the Turkish toll since the start of the incursion Thursday to 15, the military said on its Web site.

Thirty-three rebels were killed in Sunday's fighting, bringing the rebel death toll since Thursday to 112, according to the armed forces.

The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, are fighting for autonomy in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey and have carried out attacks on Turkish targets from bases in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives.

Turkey has assured that the operation would be limited to attacks on rebels. The United States and European Union consider the PKK a terrorist group.

"It is only an operation geared to cleansing the terrorist camps," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday in an address to the youth branch of his ruling party. "Our Iraqi brothers, friends and civilians should know that they will never be targeted by the armed forces."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday while visiting Australia that it would take a broader approach to erode PKK support in northern Iraq.

"After a certain point people become inured to military attacks," he said, "and if you don't blend them with these kinds of nonmilitary initiatives, then at a certain point the military efforts become less and less effective."

Massoud Barzani, head of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, warned Turkey would face large-scale resistance if it targeted civilians in its incursion.

The Iraqi government said Saturday fewer than 1,000 Turkish troops had crossed the frontier. Turkish media reports put the number in the thousands.

The office of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Turkish forces should leave Iraq.

"We demand that the Turkish government withdraw its forces immediately from the Iraqi territory and rely on negotiations to solve this conflict," al-Sadr's political committee said in a statement.

Iran, which is fighting an Iraq-based group of Kurdish militants with PKK links, said it would maintain security measures on its border with northern Iraq.

The Turkish military said clashes with the rebels were taking place in four areas of northern Iraq, but did not specify any location.

"Terrorist hideouts have been effectively destroyed by warplanes, helicopter gunships and artillery," the military said.

It said advancing troops were destroying rebel shelters, logistic centers and ammunition. Retreating rebels were trying to gain time by setting up booby traps under the corpses of dead comrades or planting mines on escape routes, the military said.

The bodies of five of the 33 rebels killed Sunday had booby traps under them, the statement said.

Late Sunday, several military helicopters took off from a base in the hilltop town of Cukurca, flying with their lights off. Earlier, Turkish F-16 jets flew into northern Iraq. Armored personnel carriers transported troops, and four long-range guns were positioned at the Cukurca base, one of the main support centers for the Turkish operation.

 

[Yrys]

Turkey border tensions fuel confusion

The Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq has apparently turned out to be on a considerably lesser scale than initial reports had suggested.
Iraqi Kurdish officials and US-led coalition sources said only a few hundred Turkish troops at most took part in the cross-border operation.

The Iraqi Kurds - always on the look-out for any Turkish move that might be construed as an attempt against their own autonomous region - said the incursion
took place in a remote, rugged and unpopulated sector of the border, where heavy snows hamper movement at this time of the year. Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga
forces, who control the part of northern Iraq south of the Turkish border, had no contact with the Turkish troops and were only aware of the operation from monitoring military radio traffic.

No vehicles or tanks were involved in the move across the border, although helicopter gunships were in action as well as jets and artillery. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
- himself a Kurd - described the operation as "very, very limited". But he added that the Turks had destroyed five bridges over the Blue River tributary - part of the Greater Zaab
river complex - and said he had called in the Turkish charge d'affaires in Baghdad to deliver a protest note.

Protective US umbrella

The underlying situation in Iraqi Kurdistan and on the Turkish border is so sensitive and tense that any news of Turkish military action is often blown out of proportion. Turkish
military statements are usually scant and elliptical, leaving the field open to speculation and interpretation. But Ankara is well aware of Iraqi Kurdish sensibilities, and also that
the United States is committed to maintaining the integrity both of Iraq as a whole, and of the federal autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, which has enjoyed a protective US
umbrella since the early 1990s.

Tensions were particularly high in October and November, when the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) carried out raids in which about 30 Turkish soldiers were killed. Turkey
massed tens of thousands of troops on the border, a build-up which is still in place. The Iraqi Kurds feared that a major invasion was imminent, and that their own autonomy
would be the real target. But the invasion did not materialise, with Washington playing a key role in persuading the Turks to hold off in exchange for co-operation in efforts to
deal with the PKK with pin-point operations.

Washington confirmed that it had been notified in advance of the latest Turkish move, and received assurances that it would be directed solely at positions or fighters of the PKK.

They have hideouts in the rugged border mountains, from which they have conducted attacks across the border into Turkey.

The Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, also called his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, on Thursday evening to assure him that border operations would not be directed against
the Iraqi Kurds. Mr Gul invited Mr Talabani, who is a Kurd, to pay an official visit to Ankara, an invitation which the Iraqi president accepted. But the launching of the Turkish
operation was preceded by some friction on the ground between Turkish troops and the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

Fighting season

There are two fixed Turkish bases inside northern Iraq, at Bamarni and Bakoufa, where a limited number of troops and tanks have been stationed since 1997 with a static
monitoring and intelligence function.

On Wednesday, according to senior Iraqi Kurds, Turkish troops tried to move out of the bases to set up checkpoints on nearby main roads. They were confronted by
Peshmerga fighters who took up combat positions. There was a tense stand-off before the Turkish forces returned to their bases without any shots being fired.

The subsequent cross-border raid, so far at least, has fallen far short of the major incursion that had been feared before the winter weather ended the fighting season
in late November. For thousands of troops to pour across the border, as initial reports suggested, they would have to use the only major crossing, at Habur, near Zakho
in the far north-west of Iraq.

The Iraqi Kurds say that did not happen. They control the southern end of the crossing, and would be the first to notice - and probably confront - a major Turkish advance.
Operations elsewhere along the rugged, snowbound border would necessarily be of a much more limited nature, until the spring thaws make the remote terrain somewhat
more accessible.

 

[old medic]

Turkish warplanes bombing Kurdish separatists
Positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq are reported to be under attack.
Reuters
December 2, 2008

Reporting from Sulaymaniya, Iraq -- Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish separatist positions Monday in northern Iraq, the head of Iraq's border guards in Dahuk said.

Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, use remote parts of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region as a base to launch attacks in southeastern Turkey. Turkey often retaliates with airstrikes and artillery fire.

The head of the Dahuk province border guards, Col. Hussein Tamor, said no civilians were hurt because the area was unpopulated. He did not know of any rebel casualties.

The Turkish military confirmed the strike, saying the aircraft had returned safely and there had been no civilian casualties.

Ankara has boosted military action against the PKK in recent months. A Turkish army officer and two soldiers were killed along with four Kurdish separatist rebels in clashes in eastern Turkey last month.

Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. refer to the PKK as a terrorist organization. Since 1984, when the PKK took up arms to establish an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey, about 40,000 people have been killed.