Mogelijk Turkse inval in Noord-Irak #2

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ANKARA - Turkije, de Verenigde Staten en het bestuur in Koerdisch Noord-Irak hebben woensdagavond berichten tegengesproken dat duizenden Turkse troepen Noord-Irak zijn binnengetrokken op zoek maar Koerdische opstandelingen.

Het Witte Huis en de Turkse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Gül, onderstreepten dat sommige Amerikaanse media ten onrechte repten over een Turkse operatie. De media baseerden zich op anonieme Turkse functionarissen.

Koerden
Turkije voert al decennia strijd tegen Koerden die gewapend ijveren voor een eigen staat, die onder meer delen van Irak en Turkije moet beslaan. Ankara heeft het vooral voorzien op Koerdische strijders van de PKK, die volgens Turkije vanuit het overwegend Koerdische noorden van Irak operaties uitvoeren in Oost-Turkije. Het komt daarbij overigens met enige regelmaat voor dat Turkse veiligheidstroepen in hun jacht op de Koerdische rebellen Iraaks grondgebied betreden.

De laatste grote Turkse invasie van Noord-Irak was in 1997 toen tienduizenden Turken het buurland binnentraden. Na de val van de Iraakse dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 zijn alleen relatief kleine schermutselingen in het grensgebied gemeld. Turkije is lid van de NAVO en hoopt op toegang tot de Europese Unie.

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ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- The war drums are getting louder in Turkey, and they can be heard next door in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and across the globe in Washington as well.

Many Turkish officials and citizens -- enraged by Tuesday's deadly bombing -- want the Turkish military to hit back at the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the hard-line Kurdish separatist group thought by many in the government and on the street to have staged the blast and other militant actions.

At least six people died and more than 100 were injured in the rush hour bombing at an Ankara shopping district. (Full story)

Senior Turkish officers have said that operations against the PKK would require troops to cross into the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which many PKK militants -- also long situated in southeastern Turkey -- have chosen as their base.

The PKK denies involvement in the Ankara attack, and a U.S. State Department spokesman cautions that the investigation into the attack is "ongoing."

However, the outrage in Turkey toward the PKK has been boiling over.

On Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the military were to request a retaliation, the parliament, which is dominated by Erdogan's AK party, would support it.

Turkey's army chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said recently his troops are ready to attack what he calls Kurdish terrorist camps in northern Iraq. And retired Turkish Gen. Edip Baser told CNN he believes an operation could be just weeks away.

As late as two weeks ago, there were an estimated 150,000 Turkish soldiers on or near the Turkish-Iraq border, and the PKK has stepped up cross-border attacks into the Kurdish region of Turkey now that snows have melted in the border mountains.

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed in the volatile southeast this week.

Six Turkish soldiers died and 10 were wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb detonated near the town of Siirt, the Turkish military said. Another soldier died Wednesday in an accident near Van during a search operation.
July election

The tough talk in Ankara comes two months before a general election, in which Erdogan's party, a movement with Islamist roots, faces a challenge from secularist parties. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims, but there has been a strict separation of mosque and state since the Turkish republic came into being in 1923. (Full story)

Supporters of Turkey's secular heritage have been demonstrating for weeks against the plan by Erdogan's governing party to vote one of its own members to the Turkish presidency.

Some analysts think that in the run-up to the election, Erdogan's AK party will use a war against Kurdish separatists to rally public opinion and downplay its differences with the military.

Mustafa Aydin -- professor of international relations at Ankara University and the National Security Academy -- said the government would "try to use this to rally Turkish people around the government, around the people. They will most likely try to use nationalistic themes and terms during the propaganda."
U.S. support

Nationalist feelings in Turkey are running high. Many Turks are disappointed with the lack of U.S. support for this long-time ally on the issue of operations against the PKK -- and resent U.S. support for Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.

The United States is not deaf to the problem, but is caught between the competing interests of vital regional allies.

Two months ago, the special U.S. envoy working with Turkey on the threat of the PKK testified before a House committee. Retired Gen. Joseph Ralston said that Turkey is a "sovereign state with a responsibility to defend its people. Ultimately, the Turkish government will have to take the steps it thinks are necessary to protect its citizens."

He pointed to efforts to close a refugee camp in northern Iraq that has become a refuge for fighters and to get a "cessation of hostilities."

"Diplomatic progress on this issue has come grudgingly and with great effort, but there has been progress," Ralston testified in March. He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey cautioned that the Turkish authorities have not come to any final conclusions about who is responsible for the blast and that their probe into the blast continues.

At the same time, he said, "we believe, as does the Iraqi government, that the PKK represents a real threat, and it's a threat that needs to be dealt with."

Ralston's appointment as special envoy shows the importance of the issue, he said.

Casey said the "best way to deal" with the PKK is through "continued cooperation" between Turkey and Iraq, with the help of the United States.

"And we certainly don't think unilateral military action from Turkey or anyplace else would solve anything," he said.
Iraq backs Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the Iraqi government has expressed a willingness to work with Turkey on the issue of PKK terrorism.

Baser, a former special Turkish envoy on the PKK, has called the issue a "testing ground of Turkish-American relations."

The PKK has backing, with many Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey supporting a dream of an independent state. One PKK sympathizer, Faik Kaplan, told CNN that inviting the PKK to lay down its arms would be a better way to go than Turkish troops crossing the border.

But Turkey says it won't talk to PKK militants, and that stand resonates on the streets. Mustafa Ersoy, an Ankara shopkeeper, said: "The special message the flag carries is that the Turkish people are one body. And there is no power that can split the Turkish people into pieces."

The PKK has been fighting for what it calls Kurdish rights since the early 1980s. More than 30,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. The last incursions made by Turkey into Iraq came in the early 1990s.


SAMENVATTING

• Calls in Turkey growing for attack on hard-line Kurdish separatist group PKK
• Six people killed, more than 100 injured in Tuesday's bomb blast
• Turkish election to be held in July

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:28 schreef TheMagnificent het volgende:
Video:

http://video.milliyet.com.tr/default.asp?id=7559

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 20:51 schreef valek het volgende:

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Die gast wordt echt vernederd. Als die ooit ontsnapt (als dat al mogelijk is) wacht Turkije een zwaar avontuur.

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 20:52 schreef TheMagnificent het volgende:

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Ik heb het ingetypt op Google, maar geen resultaten...

Kortom: Wat bedoel je?

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 20:59 schreef valek het volgende:

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kucklinkskuch

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:07 schreef zoalshetis het volgende:
kan de tt zonder het smile gezichtje. dit gaat nog steeds om oorlogssituaties.

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:09 schreef salutem het volgende:

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Neo-Mullen per PM (Held!):
Smerige kut-moslim met je walgelijke kut posts...
hoop dat je snel opflikkert naar je smerige klotelandje en dat je daar fijn wegrot of dat het westen je kutlandje platbombardeerd

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:10 schreef zoalshetis het volgende:

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zonder smile is er ook niks aan de hand.

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:17 schreef zoalshetis het volgende:

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hoezo. er staat toch dat hij het kreeg en nu post? pm's mogen in tegenstelling tot bans besproken worden.

of snap ik het niet, dat kan ook, ik heb al wat bier op.

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Op woensdag 6 juni 2007 21:22 schreef Caesu het volgende:

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ontkent dat ze Irak zijn binnengetrokken.
maar wel artilleriebeschietingen en bombardementen door F16's.
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