Iraqi Kurds Call For Turkish Troops To Leave

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
February 25, 2008
Pg. 3
By Gina Chon
BAGHDAD -- Officials from Iraqi Kurdistan demanded an immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops who poured across the Iraqi border late last week, while Kurdish separatists threatened to retaliate against the operation with attacks across Turkey.
By dragging out the assault, Turkey risks trying the patience of U.S. officials and Iraqi officials in Baghdad. Both countries urged Turkey to end its military incursion as soon as possible.
The U.S., the United Nations and the European Union have called for restraint from Turkey, but also said the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist group operating from inside Iraq, needed to stop carrying out terrorist attacks in Turkey.
For the fourth day yesterday, Turkish tanks, planes and ground troops pummeled PKK positions. The operation, which began Thursday, is the first significant, confirmed Turkish troop movement on Iraqi soil since before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Turkey hasn't confirmed the number of troops involved in the ground assault. Turkish media reported troop numbers at some 10,000, but U.S. and Iraqi officials have put the estimate much lower, at several hundred. Ankara also hasn't given a timeline for winding up the operation. Officials have said they plan to withdraw troops as soon as their objectives of rooting out and weakening the PKK are met. It is unclear how far Turkey is willing to go, given that the U.S. and Iraq wouldn't want Turkish troops to stay in Iraq as long as it takes to wipe out the PKK.
The Bush administration's frustration with the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq has been mounting, despite Washington's support for the Iraqi Kurdish leadership. The Kurds have long been strong U.S. allies, but some Pentagon and State Department officials are upset with the Kurds for failing to take strong measures against the PKK, despite repeated promises to crack down on the group. The Kurdistan government said in its statement that it "in no way supports the PKK. The KRG has taken significant steps to restrict the PKK's ability to act inside the region."
Turkey has threatened for months to send ground troops into Iraq in their fight against the PKK, but the military had relied largely on air-bombing campaigns. The PKK frequently stages attacks from mountainous bases in northern Iraq.
Over the weekend, Washington and Baghdad appeared to increase pressure on Turkey to withdraw its soldiers. The Iraqi government's ministerial committee on national security issued a statement yesterday saying Turkey's unilateral military action posed a threat to Iraq's stability and national security.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that along with military efforts, Turkey should blend economic and political initiatives for a broader approach against the PKK.
Officials from the Kurdish regional government and the Iraqi government in Baghdad said Turkey's problems with the PKK couldn't be solved through military means.
"Turkey has used military options but this never produced a good result," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. "Turkey should adopt another kind of solution."
A prolonged Turkish incursion into Iraq, or significant damage to Iraqi Kurd villages, threatens to draw in Iraqi Kurdish fighters. That would pit two vital U.S. allies against each other, complicating America's already tough diplomatic maneuvering over Iraq and risking a wider, regional conflict.
Although overall security has improved in Iraq, violent attacks are still fairly common. Yesterday, at least 40 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a group of Shiite pilgrims in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad. The Shiites were headed to the southern city of Karbala for a Muslim religious event.
The Turkish military has called its incursion into Iraq a limited operation focused on routing the PKK, which has staged repeated, bloody attacks on Turkish troops across the border.
The Kurdish government called for talks between Washington, Ankara, Baghdad and Erbil, while the Iraqi government said it was committed to stopping the PKK threat and asked for bilateral talks with Turkey.
Last week, Turkish President Abdullah Gul invited Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to Turkey. Mr. Talabani's office said he plans to make the trip next month.
The Turkish military said at least 112 Kurdish separatists have been killed while 15 Turkish soldiers died in fighting in Iraq, including eight who were killed in a helicopter crash. The PKK said it had shot down that helicopter, and that a total of 45 Turkish soldiers had been killed. It wasn't possible to independently confirm those numbers. The PKK declined to comment on its own casualties.
The Kurdish regional government said Saturday that the operation represented a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. The Kurdistan militia, known as the peshmerga, was put on alert Friday, and sent to the Turkish-Iraqi border that day.
"The people of the Kurdistan region in Iraq must not yet again be made to suffer as a result of what is in reality an internal Turkish political issue," the Kurdistan government said.
A PKK spokesman, Ahmed Deniz, over the weekend called on Turkey to recognize the rights of the Kurds and find a peaceful solution to their differences. Otherwise, he said, the PKK would launch operations "all over Turkey."
Residents near the Turkish-Iraqi border reported bombings, artillery fire and shooting in the area of the Judi Mountains, which form part of the border between Turkey and northern Iraq, and in the Amydi district in Iraqi Kurdistan's Dohuk province, which is about 115 miles from Erbil, the regional capital. They also saw Turkish tanks, ground troops and Turkish warplanes flying overhead.
Bayar Rashid, 31 years old, fled his village of Bari Chya in Dohuk because of bombing in the area. He said Saturday that peshmerga troops could be seen near the Matin Mountains, which were being bombed regularly. The peshmerga weren't participating in the fighting but appeared to be on guard, Mr. Rashid said.
--Ferhad Murasil in Suliamaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, contributed to this article.
 
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