TURKEY: Turkeish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urges U.S. over genocide resolution, confirms military request from parliament

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says, they could send the request for a military operation to Northern Iraq to Turkish parliament on Thursday. Erdogan also said genocide resolution will hurt Turkey's ties with U.S. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Wednesday his government is seeking authorisation for a military incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels using the region as a base. The request could go to parliament as early as Thursday to authorise such an operation, he said in an interview on CNN Turk. He hopes to gain approval after a holiday this weekend. Erdogan is under pressure to act after rebel attacks which have killed 15 soldiers since Sunday, but political analysts say a major cross-border operation remains unlikely. "A request for approval for a cross-border operation could be sent to parliament tomorrow," he said. "After the holiday we plan to gain authorisation (for an operation) for one year." added Erdogan. A large incursion would strain ties with the United States and the European Union, which Ankara hopes to join, and could undermine regional stability. Russia also urged restraint. Washington, which relies on Turkish bases to supply its war effort in Iraq, cautioned against an incursion. Parliament, where Erdogan's ruling centre-right AK Party has a big majority, would have to grant permission for troops to cross the border into Iraq. Passing the measure would not automatically mean Turkish troops going into northern Iraq. Ankara blames rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Large-scale Turkish incursions into northern Iraq in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge the rebels. Erdogan also warned U.S. of damage to bilateral ties if the resolution declaring the 1915 massacres of Armenians genocide passes Congress. "The U.S.'s relationship with one of its most important partners in the region would be weakened," said Erdogan. Although the congressional resolution is purely symbolic, Turkish officials say they would consider it an insult Turkey strongly rejects the Armenian position, backed by many Western historians and a growing number of foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One. Ankara says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The resolution comes at a delicate time for Turkey-U.S. relations. Erdogan confirmed on Wednesday his government was drawing up plans to authorize a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to strike Kurdish rebels after 15 Turkish soldiers were killed in attacks in recent days. Washington has urged Turkey not to send troops into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq for fear of destabilizing the country's most peaceful region.

ITN Source | October 11, 2007

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