TURKEY/IRAQ: Anger in Turkey after PKK attack as Kurdish leaders condemn Turkish incursions into Northern Iraq

Thousands of people hold anti-PKK demonstrations in Turkey after Kurdish rebels kill 15 Turkish soldiers as Leaders of Iraq's Kurdish region condemn incursions into their territory by Turkish coducting raids into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels using the region as a base. Thousands of people held anti-PKK protests across Turkey on Wednesday (October 10) after 15 soldiers were been killed by PKK rebels, putting high pressure on the Turkish government to launch a military operation into northern Iraq to find the rebels where they are believed to be hiding. People waved Turkish flags and chanted slogans against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and in a clear sign that feelings were running high, a man was detained at a protest in Rize when he fired a pistol into the air several times. At another protest in the Turkish city of Mersin, a group of women shouted support for action to be taken against the Kurdish rebels. "I am 55-years-old, but if they send me now (to fight against the PKK), I will go and fight in Sirnak, Hakkari (the areas where Turkish soldiers were killed), I will go and fight there," said one unidentified protestor. "I can also use a gun, and I want to go there and fight." said another. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is under pressure from Turkey's powerful armed forces and the opposition to take action against PKK rebels after they shot dead 13 soldiers on Sunday (October 7) near the Iraqi border in Sirnak province near the Iraqi border in the worst single attack in 12 years. Two other soldiers were killed in PKK landmine explosions. Washington has urged Ankara to hold off on unilateral action, fearing it could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region. Iraq's government said that a recent security accord with Turkey was the best way for dealing with PKK attacks. Turkey's parliament would have to authorise any large-scale military operation into Iraq, but troops could pursue rebels over the border in smaller, so-called "hot pursuit" operations without such authorisation. Ankara has long claimed the right to stage such limited operations under international law as legitimate self-defence. Turkey and Iraq signed an anti-terrorism deal on Sept. 28 aimed against PKK rebels based in northern Iraq but failed to agree on a plan that would have let Turkish troops chase militants across their common border. Kurdish government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh condemned the latest PKK attack on Turkish troops on Sunday, and the government of Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdistan region said in a statement its region should not be used by any group as a launchpad for attacks on neighbouring countries. But the Kurdish government has done little to rein in the PKK, whose bases are in inaccessible mountainous areas along the border with Turkey. Kamal Karkouki, the deputy speaker of the Kurdistan parliament, said on Wednesday that the Kurdistan region could not accept any attack against its territories, and considered an attack on Kurdistan as an attack on the whole of Iraq. "Any military operation against our areas, the federal region, will be considered as a violation to all the territories of Iraq and not only Kurdistan," Karkouki said in an interview. Kurdish citizens were divided on the issue. "As a Kurd citizen, I can not accept the interference of Turkey in our affairs in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. As an Iraqi citizen, I will defend our country to the end," said Sheerwan Ahmed. "These issues can not solved by military operations, it will not be solved by violence but it will be solved by negotiations and peaceful means. The best way to solve this problem is to sit with each other," said Sardar Herki. Under the security accord signed last month, Iraq and Turkey pledged to take all necessary measures, including financial and intelligence, to combat the PKK and other militant groups. They will hold six-monthly meetings to coordinate their work. Iraq has said its own security forces are too stretched tackling insurgents elsewhere in the country to be sent to the mountains in the north where the PKK rebels are based. Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group began its armed struggle in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.

ITN Source | October 11, 2007

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