TURKEY / BELGIUM: Turkish Kurds fearful as parliament approves cross-border operation against Kurdish guerillas

In the town of Cizre in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey on Wednesday (October 17), locals watched parliament voting in coffee houses and expressed their disappointment at the approval of the motion allowing a cross border operation into Iraq against Kurdish guerillas. "The people in northern Iraq are mostly our relatives. We have many relatives there. We don't want any operation," said Haci Kaya, an unemployed man in his thirties. His view was echoed by Sabri Inanc, also in his thirties. "If there is an operation more people will die. I do not know if this is a solution or not. In my view it is not a solution. It (conflict) will continue as it is," Inanc said. Turkey's parliament resoundingly approved a motion on Wednesday allowing troops to cross into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there, brushing aside appeals from the United States and the Baghdad government. As parliament voted in Ankara by 507 votes for to just 19 against, U.S. President George W. Bush said it would not be in Turkey's interests to send troops into northern Iraq. Washington fears a Turkish incursion could destabilise the most peaceful part of Iraq and possibly the wider region by encouraging others such as arch-foe Iran to intervene. Iraq's government stepped up efforts to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis and said on Wednesday it would send a team to Ankara for further talks. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has played down expectations of any imminent attack, but the parliamentary vote gives NATO's second biggest army the legal basis to cross the mountainous border as and when it sees fit. Fearing possible rebel sabotage, Turkey has beefed up security for a major oil pipeline carrying Caspian crude from the Azeri capital Baku via Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a senior energy ministry source told Reuters. In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Turkish President Abdullah Gul to urge restraint ahead of the parliamentary vote. "He did urge all parties to exercise restraint in what is obviously a period of great tension," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said on Wednesday. Ankara says NATO allies have not done enough to help it deal with rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after a series of deadly cross-border attacks on Turkish troops. The NATO chief expressed to Gul his condolences for the Turkish losses and acknowledged the strain the violence was putting on Turkish society, Appathurai said of the telephone call late on Tuesday. He added that NATO viewed the PKK as a terrorist group. But he said Ankara had not made any request for the alliance to invoke a clause in its treaty calling on nations to come to the aid of an ally under attack, nor had it requested military help.

ITN Source | October 18, 2007

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