IRAQ: Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani pledges to hit back in event of a Turkish attack while Iraqi President Jalal Talabani appeals to PKK rebels to stop fighting

Kurdish leaders pledge to hit back in the event of a Turkish attack. Iraq President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, appeals to PKK rebels to stop fighting. The leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region said on Sunday (October 21) it would defend itself if Turkish forces launched a cross-border incursion into their territory and attacked Kurdish targets. "We are not going to be a party to such conflicts, but if the conflict reaches us directly, or if the Kurdistan region is targeted, then we are going to defend our citizens undoubtedly," Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani told reporters after meeting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd. Talabani urged PKK rebels to disarm and transform from a military organisation into a civilian and political one. He added: "If they insist on continuing fighting, they have to leave Iraq's Kurdistan and not cause us problems and return back to their countries to do whatever they want there." Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops along the border to try to stop the rebels crossing into Turkey. With the death toll among Turkish security forces reaching approximately 40 during the past month alone, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkish government is under heavy domestic pressure to pursue the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) into northern Iraq. Erdogan has appeared reluctant to launch an incursion into Iraq, and Western diplomats said Turkey was concerned about the security, diplomatic and economic risks of such a move, but the latest rebel attacks may have made a military strike inevitable. Turkey is voting in a referendum on Sunday to decide whether future presidents will be elected directly by the people instead of by parliament, as well as on other constitutional changes. Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs over the past week. Pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude cross Turkey. Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in south-east Turkey in 1984. The United States and European Union class the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

ITN Source | October 21, 2007

Tags:. .european. .economic. .union. .troops. .western