IRAQ: Head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region Masoud Barzani attempts to cool tensions between Turkey and the PKK at Iraqi border

The head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani asks the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to stop launching military operations against Turkey as he sought a solution to avoid any military conflict between the two parties in the region. The head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region Masoud Barzani called on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters on Tuesday (October 30) to stop the military operations against the Turkish forces in northern Iraq, saying that his government is working with a group of Kurdish parties to find a strategy to avoid further conflict in the region. In a news conference held in the northern region of Arbil and attended by the Speaker of Kurdish parliament, Barzani said, "We advise the Kurdistan Workers Party to avoid launching any military operations because these military operations will not lead to any solution." "We are for peaceful solutions and we believe that the military solution will not lead us to an end," he said Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border in readiness for a possible large-scale incursion to crush some 3,000 guerrillas who use the region as a base. It is a fight Masoud is keen to stay out of. "We are not part in this problem and we will not allow anyone to involve us in this battle, which is not our battle," Barzani said. Witnesses said they saw attack helicopters targeting rebel positions in Turkey's border province of Sirnak on Monday (October 29). One Turkish soldier was killed on Monday during a major army operation in Tunceli province, hundreds of km (miles) from the border, in an explosion triggered by a landmine, a favoured weapon of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). On Sunday (October 28), army sources said 20 PKK rebels had been killed in the Tunceli campaign. In Ankara, warplanes swooped, tanks rolled and troops marched proudly on Monday before President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and top generals in a display of military might designed to stress Turkish unity and resolve. Turkey has the second biggest armed forces in NATO. The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, and the Baghdad government have urged Ankara to refrain from major military action in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, fearing this would destabilise the wider region. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was quoted on Monday as warning of "disastrous" consequences for stability in both countries and the wider region if Turkey invaded. Barzani said that his government will exert utmost efforts to release the eight Turkish prisoners who were captured by PKK. "We welcome any move that will lead us to the release of prisoners and we will continue our efforts to release them. We have contacts with indirect sides for the sake of releasing them and we hope that they will be released soon," he said. The PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984, scaring off investors and over time killing off the traditional farming and livestock industries. More than 30,000 people have died in PKK-linked violence.

ITN Source | October 31, 2007

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