Turkish govt to seek go-ahead for Iraq incursion next week
ANKARA (AFP) — The Turkish government will formally ask parliament next week to approve an incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels taking refuge there, a ruling party official said Thursday.
A government motion seeking the go-ahead is most likely to be submitted to parliament after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Sadullah Ergin, a senior lawmaker from the Justice and Development Party, told Anatolia news agency.
The draft text is ready, he said.
The United States has repeatedly urged Turkey not to take unilateral action in conflict-torn Iraq.
Ankara meanwhile says it has been left with no other option as neither Washington nor Baghdad are helping end the safe haven the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) enjoys in northern Iraq.
A key US congressional committee's endorsement on Wednesday of a measure branding the Ottoman massacres of Armenians during World War I as genocide put further strain on ties between the two long-standing NATO allies.
Ankara is under increasing public pressure to take tougher measures against mounting violence by the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said earlier the motion could be sent to parliament as early as Thursday.
By law, parliament must authorise any deployment of Turkish troops abroad.
The government is planning to seek a one-year authorisation for an operation in northern Iraq, where about 3,500 PKK militants are based, Erdogan said late Wednesday.
He hinted, however, that no immediate military action was planned.
"It does not mean that everything will happen once we have the authorisation," he told CNN Turk television. "We want to have the authorisation in hand so as to make a swift decision when it becomes necessary."
Ankara says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern Iraq and obtains weapons and explosives there for attacks across the border in Turkey.
It has accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run the region, of tolerating and even supporting the rebels.
Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed in rebel attacks at the weekend, triggering public uproar and calls for tougher action.
On Wednesday, a hand grenade was hurled at policemen inside a shop in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the southeast, killing an officer and injuring five other people.
Two suspects were detained Thursday, officials said.
In neighbouring Mardin, a soldier was wounded when a landmine exploded during a security operation against the PKK, Anatolia said.
Remote-controlled landmine attacks have become a hallmark of PKK violence.
Turkey and Iraq signed an accord last month to combat the PKK but failed to agree on a clause allowing Turkish troops to engage in "hot pursuit" against rebels fleeing into Iraqi territory, as they did regularly in the 1990s.
Turkish observers doubt whether the embattled Baghdad government, which has virtually no authority in northern Iraq, can cajole the Iraqi Kurds into action against the PKK.
Erdogan Wednesday also expressed frustration with what Turkey considers the US failure to help curb the PKK, which Washington also considers a terrorist group.
A series of talks between US and Turkish officials, appointed to coordinate joint measures against the PKK, "did not produce the expected results," Erdogan told CNN Turk.
"They (the US) say they are against the PKK. If you are against, then you should do what is necessary," he said.
Turkish criticism of the US has increased recently after it emerged that US weapons given to Iraq had ended up in PKK hands.
The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
