CSPAN Interview with WKI President Najmaldin Karim

An attack across the border would mean war, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani warns

Deborah Haynes in Irbil

October 29, 2007

Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdish territory would be a declaration of war, the region’s leader said yesterday.

President Barzani gave the warning as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20 Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was using its grievances with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds in their largely autonomous region. Full Text

Iraq’s Next War

National Post, Issues & Ideas

By Daniel Pipes

October 30, 2007

About 100,000 Turkish troops, backed by aircraft and tanks, are poised to enter Iraq for counterterrorism purposes. But once there, they might just stay permanently, occupying the Mosul area, leading to dangerous regional consequences.

To understand this danger requires a refresher in Turkish irredentist ambitions going back to the 1920s. The Ottoman Empire emerged from World War One on the losing side, a status codified in 1920 by the Treaty of Sevres imposed on it by the victorious Allies. The treaty placed some Ottoman territory under international control and much of the rest under separate Armenian, French, Greek, Italian and Kurdish control, leaving Turkish rule to continue only in a northwest Anatolian statelet. Full Text

Kurdish intellectual Fırat: Turkey should recognize the Iraqi Kurdish administration

October 29, 2007

Kurdish intellectual Ümit Fırat believes Turkey should abandon its policy of rejecting the Iraqi Kurdish administration and start implementing immediate social and political reforms immediately instead of resorting to military options to end the terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Full Text

In the Rugged North of Iraq , Kurdish Rebels Flout Turkey

By Sabrina Tavernise

October 29, 2007

RANIYA, Iraq, Oct. 27 — A low-slung concrete building off a steep mountain road marks the beginning of rebel territory in this remote corner of northern Iraq . The fighters based here, Kurdish militants fighting Turkey , fly their own flag, and despite urgent international calls to curb them, they operate freely, receiving supplies in beat-up pickup trucks less than 10 miles from a government checkpoint.

“Our condition is good,” said one fighter, putting a heaping spoonful of sugar into his steaming tea. “How about yours?” A giant face of the rebels’ leader — Abdullah Ocalan, now in a Turkish prison — has been painted on a nearby slope. Full Text

Statement: PUK and KDP leadership spare no efforts for right solution

Erbil, Kurdistan – Iraq (KRG.org) – Mr Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region, today chaired a joint meeting of the political bureaux of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the two major parties in the Kurdistan Region's coalition government.

The meeting addressed the Iraqi political process and the current situation in the Kurdistan Region. It focused on the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) responsibilities and considered the democratic process in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in terms of diplomatic, political, economic, and good neighbourly relations. The discussions addressed the current problems between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). They also assessed Turkey's position, policies and conditions towards Iraq.

The joint political bureaux arrived at the following decisions issued in their signed joint statement:

1. The Kurdistan Region has not been a part of Turkey's internal political and military problems in the past, and is not so today. The PKK has illegally stationed itself in the border areas between Iraq and Turkey without any legal license or political agreement with the Iraqi Government, the KRG or any political parties. From those border areas the PKK has created various problems for us.

2. We are ready, together with the Iraqi Federal Government and the US Government, which in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions has a responsibility to protect Iraq, to adopt a correct approach to protect the borders and prevent any use of these areas for activities against our neighbours.

3. We restate that after the Kurdish uprising of 1991, the election of the Kurdistan National Assembly and the formation of the KRG in 1992, the KRG and its political parties have been, and still are, a factor for peace and stability in the region. We do not support the PKK, or allow any assistance to be provided to them. We hope that all parties, especially the United States, the Iraqi Government, our neighbours and all friendly countries who support the people of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, will spare no effort at this difficult time to find appropriate solutions to diffuse the current tense situation at our borders. The KRG stands ready to fulfil its responsibilities, as part of federal Iraq, to contribute positively in this process. We are committed to continuing our political and diplomatic efforts to solve this problem. We desire the success of these legal, diplomatic, political and reform efforts and endeavours.

Oct 26, 2007

The U.S. military in Southern Kurdistan is staying out of the fight between PKK fighters and Turkey. Major General Benjamin Mixon, the top American commander in the region, says it's not the U.S. military's responsibility to act. He said he plans to do "absolutely nothing" to counter the PKK activity. Mixon told Pentagon reporters by videoconference from a base in Southern Kurdistan that he's sent no additional U.S. troops to the area and that he's not tracking hiding places or logistics activities of the PKK, reported AP today.

Talabani and Ahmedinejad discuss ways to resolve Iraqi-Turkish crisis

Monday, 29 October 2007,

PHOTO

VOI

Talabani discussed Ahmedinejad means of peacefully resolving the current political crisis.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani discussed over the phone with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmedinejad means of peacefully resolving the current political crisis with Turkey, according to a presidential statement released on Sunday.

"The Iranian president stressed during a phone call with Talabani on Saturday evening his solidarity with the Iraqi people's desire to live in peace and expressed his willingness to make considerable efforts to peacefully end the current tension along the Iraqi-Turkish borders," said.

During the phone call, al-Talabani urged Ahmedinejad to spare no effort to convince Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, currently in Iran, to use dialogue and peaceful means for resolving conflicts instead of resorting to military action.

A high-ranking official Iraqi delegation, headed by Minister of Defense Muhammad Abdul Qadir al-Obeidi, arrived in Turkey on Thursday to discuss peaceful solutions to the crisis that erupted between the two countries.
Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd

Turkey has amassed up to 100,000 troops along the frontier in preparation for a cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK, most recently blamed for attacks that killed 15 Turkish soldiers over two weeks ago.

The Turkish parliament approved a memorandum forwarded by the government allowing the Turkish army to hunt down members of the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'. Only 19 out of 555 legislators in the Turkish parliament voted against the proposal.

Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

Iraqi Kurdistan president suggests talks with Turkey over PKK

Monday, 29 October 2007,

File Photo

AFP

Kurdistan region president called for direct talks with Turkey.

Iraqi Kurdistan region president Massoud Barzani called for direct talks with Turkey to break the deadlock over the problem of Turkey's rebel fighters hiding out in northern Iraq.

"Let us sit down together to resolve the Kurdish question," he said during an interview with AFP in the Kurdistan regional capital of Erbil.

The call came as pressure mounted for Baghdad and Ankara to find a solution to the problem of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters launching assaults against Turkish positions from bases in Iraq's Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'.

A high-level Iraqi delegation traveled to Ankara on Friday to try to dissuade Turkish leaders from launching an incursion but failed to satisfy their concerns.

Barzani said the regional Kurdish administration "should be consulted by the federal government.
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq'

"I am not an enemy of Turkey, but I do not accept the language of force," said Barzani, the president of the region since 2005.

An attack across the border would mean war, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani warns

Monday, 29 October 2007,

File Photo

Times online

Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdistan territory would be a declaration of war.

Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdistan territory would be a declaration of war, the region's leader said.



Iraqi Kurdistan President Barzani gave the warning as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20 Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was using its grievances with the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds in their Kurdistan autonomous region.

"If they invade or if there is any incursion, it means war," Mr Barzani said at his offices on the outskirts of Erbil. "If they attack our people, our interests, our territories then there will be no limit because everything is subject to that incursion."

He urged Turkey to solve the problem through dialogue, not guns. "If they take a peaceful approach, then we are ready to help as much as we can . . . The unfortunate thing is that they are not allowing other . . . options. They insist on war as being the only means to solve that problem."
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq'

Turkish Army sources said that their troops had killed 20 Kurdish PKK guerrillas yesterday in a large operation involving 8,000 soldiers with air support in the eastern province of Tunceli, 370 miles from the Iraqi border. Other reports put the toll at 15.

Adding to the tension, a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk. The city is due to have a referendum on whether to become part of Kurdish-run northern Iraq, further boosting the Kurds' power base.

Ankara feels threatened by Kurdish fighters, who use camps in Iraq's mountainous Kurdish region for attacks on Turkey. It has demanded the extradition of PKK leaders - a request that Iraq says is unrealistic - and is threatening an incursion.

Mr Barzani said that the problem of the PKK, which began an armed campaign in 1984 to secure better rights for Kurdish people living in Turkey, could not be solved through violence.

"We are ready to cooperate with Turkey, provided that Turkey will not only go for a military solution," he said, adding that he opposed the build-up of 150,000 Turkish troops.

He also hinted that Turkey had another reason for its tough stance on the PKK, which is not a new problem. "I am about to be convinced that the PKK is only an excuse," he said. "The continuous, direct threats of Turkey against the Kurdistan region and its behaviour have created a doubt, leading us close to the conviction that exactly this is the aim. The Kurdistan region is the target, otherwise why should we be involved in the fight between Turkey and the PKK?"

A sharp rise in clashes between Turkish soldiers and the outlawed group in recent weeks has left scores dead, increasing pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, to take more action. The PKK says it is holding eight soldiers prisoner.

The United States, Iraq and other countries have been pressing Turkey to refrain from cross-border military operations. A military campaign could destabilise one of the few stable areas in Iraq and leave the United States in an awkward position with key allies: Turkey, a member of Nato, the Baghdad Government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurdistan.

Mr Barzani said that talks with Washington and other allies centred on the desire to avoid conflict, although he acknowledged that the US-led coalition had the overall responsibility of protecting Iraq under a UN resolution. "To what extent they [the United States] will stay committed to that is the question, but we do not want to embarrass the Americans," he said. "We are not asking them for military help, we are asking them to help so that we defuse the tensions so that the war will not take place."

Mr Erdogan is due to meet President Bush on November 5 and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is expected in Ankara on Thursday for talks with Turkish officials.

Mr Barzani also expressed a strong desire to avoid a return to a period of Kurdish tensions with Turkey, Syria and Iran - countries where Kurds have settled - and emphasised the need to recognise the rights of millions of Kurds. "It is better for all of us to sit down together, reach an understanding. We are also a nation, we exist, we have a right to live," he said.

The President urged the PKK to honour the ceasefire and to release the eight Turkish soldiers being held.

"They should stay away from violence. They should adopt a peaceful approach, a peaceful solution."

Kurdish separatist leader Murat Karayilan's interview

Head of Iraqi Kurdish security speaks to Al Jazeera - 23 Oct

Kurdish Poet nominated for UK Forward Poetry Prize

“An Ordinary Day”, a poem from Bells of Speech (Ambit, 2006) by Kurdish poet Nazand Begikhani has been selected and nominated for this year’s UK Forward Book of Poetry prize. The poem has been reprinted and published in an anthology of the “best poems of the year from the Forward Poetry Prizes”.

Nazand Begikhani is from Koysinjaq, Iraqi Kurdistan and has been living in exile (Denmark, France and UK) since 1987. She holds a Ph.D in comparative literature from the University of Sorbonne. She has published three poetry collections in Kurdish and Bells of Speech is her first anthology in English.

Bells of Speech has been very well received in the UK. Following its publication Nazand was invited to participate and read her poems on the flagship Radio 4 programme, Start the Week, presented by Andrew Marr, which was broadcast on Christmas Day 2006. On May 14th 2007, MP Ann Clwyd hosted a reception of Bells of Speech at the Houses of Parliament where Nazand read her poems to a number of literary figures, MPs, media representatives and foreign diplomats.

Also, several of her poems have been selected and included in English and American anthologies, including “ Inspired Verse” by Wyndham Thomas (Corsham Print, Easter 2007); “ “The Poetry of Recovery” by.Sante Lucia Books (USA, 2007); Fragments from the Dark” by Jeni Williams (Forthcoming 2008) and the Poetry International Web (http://uk.poetryinternationalweb, summer 2007).

Wendy Beckett wrote in her introduction to the Inspired Verse: “Nazand devotes herself to seeking justice for Kurdish people and all who are persecuted. She believes happiness is our right, and sings of it with wistful certainty”

An ordinary day

The security officer

got up early

put on his white shirt

had honey toast with nuts

kissed his three children

hugged his wife passionately

and left for work

At his desk

sat ten files

of ten men to be shot

He signed them

while drinking mint tea

At ten o’clock

he ordered the shooting

got angry over a gunman who missed his target

Taking out his pistol

he fired at the missed target ten times

Before the end of his shift

he visited the mothers of the ten shot men

ordered each to pay 100 dinars

for the cost of the bullets that killed their sons

In the evening

he celebrated his brother’s birthday

At night

on the surface of a mirror

he saw a drop of blood trickling down to his feet

he tried to wash it

the trickle rose to his chest

Where does the difference lie between the killer and killed?

No plans for further Turkey-Iraq talks over PKK rebels

Saturday, 27 October 2007,

File Photo

Reuters

Turkish and Iraqi officials: there were no plans for further talks between Turkey and an Iraqi delegation visiting Ankara.

Turkish and Iraqi officials said on Saturday there were no plans for further talks between Turkey and an Iraqi delegation visiting Ankara to seek an agreement on cracking down on Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels based in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.

Turkey rejected a series of proposals on Friday evening offered by a high-level Iraqi delegation, led by Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim, as insufficient and taking too long to take effect.

The delegation was in Ankara to try to avert a possible major cross-border operation by Turkey against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.

The officials, who declined to be named, told Reuters the Iraqi delegation, which included U.S. military and Iraqi Kurdistan regional government officials, would leave Turkey around midday.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops on the frontier before a possible cross-border operation against about 3,000 PKK guerrillas.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said Turkey will not tolerate any more PKK attacks from Iraq and has called for immediate steps by U.S. and Iraqi authorities in order to avert a military operation.

A senior Turkish diplomat, who declined to be named, told Reuters late on Friday the Iraqi delegation had offered proposals that included cutting logistical support to the PKK, limiting their movements and closing offices linked to them.

Ankara wants PKK guerrillas, including their leaders, handed over and for their camps in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to be shut down. Iraq says it has no control over the separatist fighters.

The Iraqi-Turkish talks came ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Ankara on Nov. 2 to discuss the crisis and before a regional conference in Istanbul on Nov. 2-3, where foreign ministers will discuss Iraq.

Behind Turkey’s Kurdish Problem

By Pelin Turgut

October 24, 2007

Istanbul – For as long as I can remember, I have been taught — in school, on TV, by taxi drivers — that Turkey has "red lines" that cannot be crossed, sacrosanct rules dictating foreign policy that have been passed down through generations as if written in stone. At their anxious heart, these rules are the legacy of the 1920s, when — following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire — Europeans were trying to carve up the country. But a ragtag bunch of Turkish volunteers, poorly armed, famously surviving on a slice of stale bread a day, rallied under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to fight a war of independence. Against tremendous odds, they won, and from their struggle, modern Turkey was born. But the paranoia of having almost been conquered runs strong — gut-wrenchingly strong, summed up in the popular saying "A Turk has no friend but the Turks." The world, if you ask a Turk, is out to get us, and our challenge is to remain steadfast against enemies real and imagined. Hence the red lines on everything from vigilant secularism to Kurdish autonomy. Full Text

British MP's motion on Turkey starts to gain support

Kurdistan Regional Government

Press Release

October 26, 2007

London, UK – Mr Dave Anderson, the UK Member of Parliament for Blaydon, today in the House of Commons expressed his deep concern about Turkey ’s recent vote authorising a military incursion into the Kurdistan Region in Iraq .

The Labour MP called for a debate on the current situation in Kurdistan by tabling an Early day motion (EDM). So far the motion has got the backing of 19 MPs. Because the UK parliament will go into a short recess next week, once the next parliamentary session starts on 6 November the motion will be retabled to win more support. Full Text

Text of Motion

U.S. Envoy Presses Iraq to Act Against Guerrillas

By James Glanz and Andrew Kramer

October 26, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 — Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said Thursday that Iraq should disrupt supply lines and develop a “lookout list” of senior leaders for the Kurdish guerrillas who use the northern Iraqi mountains as a safe haven for attacks inside Turkey .

But Mr. Crocker, the American ambassador here, stopped short of supporting Turkish demands that Iraq take military action against the guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., or extradite its leaders to Turkey . The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to make incursions into Iraq to strike at the fighters.

Any Iraqi military expedition, Mr. Crocker said, would run into the geographic fact that the northern mountains, called the Qandeel range, are remote and inaccessible. “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that the Iraqis are going to march up that mountain and take on the P.K.K. and arrest their leaders,” Mr. Crocker said. “This is in the hard-to-do category.” Full Text

Newsweek Interview with FM Hoshyar Zebari

Newsweek

By
Babak Dehghanpisheh

October 23, 2007

The Iraqi minister caught between the Turks and the Kurds discusses rising regional tensions—and the unexpected Syrian reaction—in the wake of a cross-border PKK raid.

While the last thing Iraq needs right now is a major crisis with one of its neighbors, one may be unavoidable. After a cross-border raid by guerrillas from the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) left 12 Turkish soldiers dead and eight missing on Sunday, dozens of Turkish military vehicles headed toward the Iraq border. Meanwhile, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani announced that he expected the PKK rebels to announce a unilateral ceasefire later Monday. If Turkey does indeed carry out its threats to target Kurdish insurgents hiding in Iraq , the man who will have to deal with the fallout is Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, who is urging restraint on all sides. How bad is the situation? Zebari says dealing with the crisis "has been the most difficult job in the world." He met with NEWSWEEK's Babak Dehghanpisheh at the ministry of foreign affairs in Baghdad . Full Text

Struggling against the changing times: the real Issue for Turkey is not 3,000 rebels, but 15 million Kurds

Monday, 25 October 2010,

Bashdar Pusho Ismaeel - Kurdish Globe

Fighting the branches of your problem is fruitless, without addressing its root.

Authorization of military action
On October 17, the Turkish Parliament passed a controversial motion that effectively allowed the Turkish military a year's pass to launch incursions into northern Iraq as it sees fit, under the pretext of preserving national security and eradicating the long-standing PKK threat emanating from the Qandil Mountains of the Kurdistan region.
Despite strong objections from Iraq, the U.S. administration, NATO, the EU, and a plethora of major States, Turkey approved the bill in defiance. With a huge occupation force in the shape of the U.S. Army still on the ground, this hardly gives a positive image of Iraqi sovereignty and may well set a benchmark for future invasions by neighbors.
Turkey's battle with the PKK is not new. In fact, Turkey has been waging war on the PKK for 28 years in the impoverished and largely neglected lands of southeastern Turkey. This war reached a peak in the mid-1990s, culminating in a series of large cross-border campaigns by the Turkish military to oust rebel bases across the porous borders.
Clearly, these campaigns did no significant damage to the PKK nor did they eradicate the threat, even as those campaigns were supported by some Iraqi Kurdish parties at the time. However, although five years of unilateral truce by the PKK on the back of the arrest of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, resulted in some peace and a motion to readdress its adverse international image, the PKK made very little political gains with the Turkish government persistent in its refusal to negotiate with their 'terrorist' arch-nemesis or issue amnesty.
Feeling lost and weary on the back of the dramatic arrest and trial of their revered leader, the influence and power of the PKK steadily dropped. However, clearly the onset of the Iraqi liberation in 2003 and the newfound prominence and political stature of the Iraqi Kurds served to embolden PKK desire and reignited their passion for making another stand against the Turkish regime.
Clearly, this time the PKK has more political coverage than ever before along with broader media attention. The status of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is now enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution and widely recognized by major global powers. Arguably, the long-standing rivalry with the PKK became second nature to a Turkish state that long-denied its substantial Kurdish population cultural and linguistic rights and before that systematic denial altogether, but now to its horror was witnessing a strong Kurdish national renaissance a stone's throw across the border.

Iraqi Kurds-the real Turkish danger
It is likely that with parliamentary approval of military incursions valid for one year, this will give the Turkish state time to maneuver and watch the KRG closely with an upcoming decisive year that will determine the future of Iraq. The ideal scenario for Turkey would be to maintain a long-term foothold and influence over northern Iraq, rather than attack at will.
Under a period of self-rule, the Iraqi Kurds have grown from strength to strength, witnessing an economic boom, status as key strategic allies to the U.S. administration and widely acknowledged as the only island of peace and prosperity in the mess that is Iraq. Whilst Kurdish confidence has reached alarming new heights for the Turkish state, which as of today still refuses to recognize the Kurdish administration or negotiate with them on an official level, many of the red lines set by the Turkish government have long passed with the Iraqi Kurds hungry and determined to bolster their status and political gains further.
In the year officially set for a referendum on the status of oil-rich Kirkuk, frequent Turkish calls for the abandonment of such a momentous milestone have gone unheard. Turkey has lobbied with the Iraqi government extensively to dismiss the referendum out-of-hand or at least delay it indefinitely citing various concerns. In contrast this has only increased Kurdish determination and desire and with the knowledge that they are almost certain victors in any vote they have pressed on without fear.
Undoubtedly, Turkey and the surrounding neighbors fear that if Kurdish aspirations are unchecked, this may well create an unstoppable ripple affect for the millions of Kurds inhabiting those countries.
Although, the PKK issue has acted as the focal point in channeling Turkish fears, the presence of an estimated 3,000 rebels in the rugged mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan is clearly a side issue to the greater concerns of the ramifications of the potential destabilization affect of 15 million Turkish Kurds.

Prospects of a full-scale invasion
Clearly, launching any military incursion into Iraq may well backfire. The PKK rebels will disperse into Kurdish towns and villages and even major air raids may lack the effectiveness of getting the job done. A highly unpopular Turkish invasion will only encourage support and sympathy for the PKK amongst Iraqi Kurds.
Any major incursion deep into KRG territory may well induce direct confrontation with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which is likely to only deepen the issue and increase the risk of an all-out Turkish-Kurdish war.
As a result of these factors, a full-scale invasion in reality is unlikely and much more costly than the limited gains it may provide. Alienating Kurdish populations on either side of the border who heavily rely on one another for billion of dollars in trade is political and economical suicide. This motion, for the time being, at least, is more sabre-rattling and show of power and intent. It is designed to further pressurize the U.S. and Iraqi governments into action and warn the Iraqi Kurds of the dangers of defiance, harboring the PKK, or continuing separatist ambitions.

Changing political climate
Turkey has long accused the U.S. administration of not doing enough to tackle the PKK issue and has called on the Iraqi government to take action.
However, the key problem with any U.S. action to deal with the PKK is the potential to undermine their strong relationship with the Iraqi Kurds and destabilize the only stable part of Iraq. Noticeably, for a Turkey suffering from a dramatic decline of their traditional closeness with the U.S., this is seen as preferential treatment of the Kurds and double standards in the fight against terrorism.
The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by U.S. forces and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last year set a dangerous precedent for superpowers combating terrorism and threats against national security. Turkey feels it is no exception to the rule and only wider strategic and political implications stopped it from invading in 2003 to dispel Kurdish drive toward power and the expansion of their region.
However, events in the last year and more recently have irked Turkey beyond care of the repercussions of their actions. First, Turkey introduced mild reforms and introduced more cultural tolerance of their Kurdish minority under EU accession talks. However, despite what it perceived as more than a gesture of goodwill, the reforms on the back of EU pressure did not continue apace. Talks have all but stalled and the divide has only deepened with major reservations from key European nations over the potential influx of millions of largely impoverished Muslims into their Christian super club.
Turkey, in its gradual changing political stance and its fast emerging ties with the controversial governments in Syria and Iran, has seemingly all but given up on the idea of an imminent entry into the European Union and turned its attention to its more immediate concerns. Turkish public opinion has hardly helped, as a strong sense of nationalism has kicked in over the Iraqi Kurdish calls of defiance, frequent PKK attacks, and the fast-declining popularity of the U.S. in the country.

Turkish-U.S. ties under strain
Whilst the frequently failed promises by the U.S. administration to deal with the PKK hardly helped, two events that arguably swayed Turkish political opinion and deep-rooted anxiety into overdrive was their disappointment over a U.S. Senate motion, referred to as the Biden-Brownback amendment, to push through the break-up of Iraq into three federal entities; then, there was their downright anger over the passing of a non-binding resolution by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee to officially recognize the Armenian massacre between 1915-1923 under Ottoman rule as genocide.
This created uproar in public, political, and military circles alike, with Turkey swiftly condemning the resolution and warning President Bush of the massive ramifications that this would have in their relationship and their logistical support of U.S. troops in Iraq, if the resolution was formally passed.
Similar moves by France caused similar rage and ended military ties between both nations.
Turkey is moving through a time of great sensitivity and fears that perhaps they can only rely on themselves in the present era. The changing face of the political and strategic makeup of the Middle East and international focus has rocked Turkey's once unbreakable alliance with the U.S., reaching a peak at the time of the Cold War. However, the U.S. has greater priorities than ever before and faces its gravest danger in the form of terrorism.
The global aspects and wider implications of their foreign policies are more important than any relationship with a single country.

Iraqi Kurds bypassed
The region and the international community are now watching closely at Turkey's next steps. What is clear, however, is that Turkey's next steps must be taken cautiously and wisely. Any hasty or controversial adventure that goes beyond the remit of a limited incursion may well result in a major backlash.
The Iraqi Kurds, keen as ever to strike friendly and productive terms, fully appreciate that for their long-term prosperity and survival they must cooperate very closely with Turkey. However, even they are feeling increasingly undermined by the actions of regional powers and the insistence of Turkey in bypassing them in negotiations with the Iraqi government.
A recently signed security deal between Iraq and Turkey bypassed the Iraqi Kurds directly with the Baghdad government insistent that all elements of national foreign policy must be channeled through them.
However, evidently the region at the focus of the debate is the Kurdish administration. Turkey will be effectively invading the autonomous KRG region and as such violating their rights and sovereignty directly.
It is ironic that a nation that refuses to recognize a political entity would directly invade their area of jurisdiction and expect to bypass them as any matter of importance.
Despite the rhetoric of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Turkey's ignorance, there is nothing that Baghdad can do in the Kurdish region. There is no Iraqi Army in Iraqi Kurdistan and no sense of bending backwards to fight their ethnic brethren to satisfy the vain nationalist desires of a neighboring country who even refuses to acknowledge them as a credible entity.

PKK-a terrorist issue or a Kurdish problem
It is more ironic that Turkey sees the PKK as a terrorist threat and not as a Kurdish problem. Violence is not a solution and never an adequate substitute for diplomacy; however, Turkey has a much bigger problem than a few thousand rebels. It may be painful to concede, but Turkey has a huge restive Kurdish population and if Turkey does not tender its next steps correctly and advocate a greater solution to its long-standing Kurdish headache, this will only exasperate tensions beyond what it currently perceives as a problem.
The PKK is simply the fruit from the seeds of problems that were sewn decades previously in the aftermath of World War I. Unless the root of these problems are addressed, the branches may be cut under all the pretexts that one can imagine; however, they will only grow back at a more vicious rate. If the PKK as an organization is hypothetically eradicated all together, there is no guarantee that another Kurdish offshoot will not arise by next year.
It is time for the Turkish regime to stop an impractical game of incongruous politics and recognize the existence of the Iraqi Kurdish administration. They cannot preserve their stability without the help of the Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi Kurds are unable to survive without Turkish help.
Turkey will never solve the PKK dilemma through ignorance or arrogance. Although rebel actions and their presence in northern Iraq create leverage for negotiations on either side, ultimately PKK violence and insurgency will never benefit the greater Turkish Kurdish population. In the great global battle against terrorism, such actions in the present era will hardly strike the right sentiments of international opinion that is vital in winning concessions and achieving success.

The need for a reality check
Turkey must finally open its eyes and realize that after decades of fighting the ghosts of its past legacies and outdated ideals, it will never win this battle against Kurdish nationalism until it takes a firm reality check.
The recent majority Kurdish vote for Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Party of Justice and Development is proof that Turkey Kurds can be swayed into playing a supportive and productive role in a new Turkey, and they must be embraced with open arms into forging new brotherly ties for the benefit of the greater Turkish state, whilst accepting the emergence of a Kurdish entity in Iraq, not as a choice but as a natural eventuality that cannot be stopped no matter how much they delay its end.
This is simply the wrongs of the past correcting themselves-it was always inevitable that all the explosive seeds that were planted by the artificial creation of the Middle East could never remain underground forever. Unfortunately for the Middle East, the wave of change is not over and will continue. There are far too many volcanoes waiting to erupt from Iran to Lebanon and possibly beyond.
As for Turkey, it is like fighting a tidal wave that you know will sweep you ashore, but rather than fight a storm that will eventually prove costly and counterproductive, you must use the tides of the stream to ensure maximum gains and benefit and the least painful of landings.

Iraq Kurdistan government deny presence of PKK offices

Thursday, 25 October 2007,

Dr Mahmoud Othman

AFP

The autonomous Kurdistan regional government (KRG) in northern Iraq denied on Thursday that there were any offices of the Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the region.

"There is no office of the PKK in the Kurdish region" of Iraq, Jamal Abdallah, spokesman of the regional government, told AFP, dismissing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's order to shut down the offices of the rebel group.

"As far as the regional Kurdistan administration is concerned, we have no idea about such an office.

"But if Prime Minister Maliki knows about such an office in Iraq, let him close it. We do not know what the prime minister meant about closing the PKK offices. Where are these offices? What kind of offices do they have? Where are they located."

On Tuesday, Maliki ordered the closure of all offices of the PKK in Iraq in what was seen as a concession to intense pressure from Washington and Ankara following deadly attacks by the rebels against the Turkish army.

Kurdish MP Dr Mahmud Othman also denied there were any PKK office in Iraq.

"They do not have any office in Kurdistan, nor in other parts of Iraq," Othman said in Baghdad.

He said the PKK had used two flats in Baghdad to promote cultural activities but the "government closed them last year".

"The PKK has military bases in Qandil mountains (on the Turkish border) and I wonder how the prime minister is going to close them," Othman said.

"The Iraqi government is giving promises but cannot implement any of these promises. Why should they give promises?"

CNN's Interview with Masoud Barzani

Turkey Intensifies Border Operations, Reporting From Qandil mountains Thursday, October

25, 2007
Telegraph
By Patrick Cockburn in the Qandil mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan

Turkey used its helicopters and artillery to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside Iraqi Kurdistan yesterday as the Turkish army massed just north of the border. The helicopter gunships penetrated three miles into Iraqi territory and warplanes targeted mountain paths used by rebels entering Turkey.

Guerrilla commanders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were defiant in the face of an impending invasion. In an interview high in the Qandil mountains, Bozan Tekin, a PKK leader, said: "Even Alexander the Great couldn't bring this region under his rule." The PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil mountains, one of the world's great natural fortresses in the east of Iraqi Kurdistan, stretching south from the south-east tip of Turkey along the Iranian border. If Turkey, or anybody else, is to try to drive the PKK out of Iraqi Kurdistan they would have to capture this bastion and it is unlikely they will succeed.

Despite threats of action by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the PKK leaders give no sense of feeling that their enemies were closing in.

For a guerrilla movement awaiting assault, the PKK's leaders are surprisingly easy to find. We drove east from Arbil for two-and-a-half hours and hired a four-wheel drive car in the village of Sangassar. Iraqi Kurdistan police wearing camouflage uniform were at work building a new outpost out of cement blocks beside the road leading into the mountains but only took our names.

In fact the four-wheel drive was hardly necessary because there is a military road constructed by Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s which zig-zags along the side of a steep valley until it reaches the first PKK checkpoint. The PKK soldiers with Kalashnikovs and two grenades pinned to the front of their uniform were relaxed and efficient. In case anybody should have any doubt about who was in control there was an enormous picture of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan picked out in yellow, black, white and red painted stones on a hill half a mile away and visible over a wide area.

There were no sign that threats from Mr Maliki in Baghdad or from the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, were having an effect. The PKK soldiers at a small guest house had not been expecting us but promptly got in touch with their local headquarters.

For all its nonchalance the PKK is facing a formidable array of enemies. The Iraqi government in Baghdad has no direct influence over the Kurdistan Regional Government, led by President Massoud Barzani whose administration is made up of his own Kurdistan Democratic Party and President Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. This is the only force capable of trying to eject the 3,000 PKK fighters.

So far the KRG shows no sign of doing so. One reason is that, paradoxically, the Turkish government will not talk to the KRG although it is the only Iraqi institution that might help it – Ankara is fearful of the growing strength of the KRG as a quasi-independent state on its borders.

So far the PKK is benefiting substantially from the crisis which started this summer when it began to make more attacks within Turkey. Instead of being politically marginalised in its hidden valleys, it is suddenly at the centre of international attention. This will help it try to rebuild its battered political base within Turkey where it suffered defeat in the 1990s and where its leader Abdullah Ocalan has been imprisoned since 1999.

Asked if the Turkish forces could inflict damage on the PKK, one of its fighters, called Intikam, said: "Three out of five of our fighters are hiding in the mountains in Turkish occupied-Kurdistan and, if the Turkish army cannot find them there, it will hardly find them here in Southern Kurdistan."

Bozan Tekin and Mizgin Amed, a woman who is also a member of the leadership, hotly deny they are "terrorists" and ask plaintively why there is not more attention given to Kurds who have been killed by the Turkish army. They add that they have been observing a ceasefire since since 1 October 2006 and fight in retaliation for Turkish attacks.

"Since then the Turks have launched 485 attacks on us," says Bozan Tekin. "Even an animal – any living thing – will fight when it feels it is in a dangerous situation," said Mizgin Amed. Both the PKK leaders were chary of giving details of last Sunday's ambush in which at least 16 Turkish soldiers were killed and eight captured. This is because the ambush is a little difficult to square with their defensive posture. But Bozan Tekin said that in reality "35 Turkish soldiers were killed and only three PKK fighters were lightly wounded. We did not lose anyone dead." He claimed that an attack on a minibus, which Turkey blamed on the PKK, was in fact carried out by Turkish soldiers on a Kurdish wedding party.

Overall, although it does not say so openly, the PKK would welcome a Turkish military invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan because it would embroil Turkey with the Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi army. It would also pose almost no threat to the PKK.

Statement from the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region: The continuing crisis between the Government of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

The policy of the Presidency, the Government, and the political parties of the Kurdistan Region related to this issue can be summarized as follows:

1. We do not believe in the use of violence as a doctrine and method to achieve political objectives.

2. We do not accept in any way, based on our commitment to the Iraqi constitution, the use of Iraqi territories, including the territories of the Kurdistan Region, as a base to threaten the security of neighboring countries.

3. We call upon the PKK to eliminate violence and armed struggle as a mode of operation. The current problems should be solved through political and diplomatic methods. It is necessary to stop using other methods, which are useless, and we demand that the PKK remain committed to the cease fire and not resort to armed operations.

4. We condemn all terrorist activities from any party because the people of Kurdistan itself are victims of terrorism. We have always struggled for the sake of peace, democracy, development and stability for our people and peoples of the region. We are in fact in a bitter and continued state of struggle against terrorism.

We declare that these principles are the firm policies of the people of Kurdistan, we reiterate that we endeavor to build friendly relations with the people of the region and we share a commitment to good neighborly relations with all.

We have always called for peace and security and we believe that the outstanding problems can be solved only through dialogue and understanding.

Official spokesman of the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region

Q&A: Tensions Rise Along the Turkey-Iraq Border

National Public Radio

By Corey Flintoff

October 23, 2007

The tensions building along the Turkish-Iraqi border are nothing new. In the past two decades, Turkish troops have staged dozens of incursions into Iraq in pursuit of guerrilla fighters.

The present conflict began in 1984, but it has roots dating back at least as far as the creation of the modern state of Turkey . Here's some background on the history and the issues behind the story: Full Text

The US is Pressing Southern Kurdistan to Murder Kurds on Behalf of Turkish Turkey!

Nechirvan Barzani, Barham Salih In Washington, U.S. Air Strikes On PKK Weighed

Bush seeks to keep Turkey out of Iraq
By Bay Fang

Washington Bureau
October 23, 2007
Chicago Tribune

The Bush administration is considering air strikes against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq in an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of Iraq to fight the rebels, administration officials said.

President Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone Monday in an effort to ease the crisis. According to an official familiar with the conversation, Bush assured the Turkish president that the U.S. was looking seriously into options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

"It's not 'Kumbaya' time anymore -- just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said. "Something has to be done."

While the use of U.S. soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, the U.S. would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets, the officials said, and has discussed the use of cruise missiles. But air strikes using manned aircraft may be an easier option because the U.S. controls the air space over Iraq, the officials said.

Another option would be to persuade the Kurdistan Regional Government, which runs that part of Iraq, to order its Peshmerga forces to form a cordon preventing the movement of the PKK beyond its mountain camps, said U.S. officials and experts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday to request his cooperation in dealing with the PKK.

"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct U.S. military action against the PKK, either through air strikes or some kind of Special Forces action," said the official familiar with the Bush-Gul conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But the red line was always, if the Turks were going to come over the border, it could be so destabilizing that it might be less risky for us to do something ourselves. Now the Turks are at the end of their rope, and our risk calculus is changing."

An ambush over the weekend by 200 PKK guerrillas left 12 Turkish soldiers dead and 8 missing. The attack's sophistication and scope surprised not only the Turks but also the U.S. and its Iraqi allies.

The U.S., with Iraqi help, also could squeeze the flow of supplies and funds for the PKK coming across the border, or through the airport in Arbil, the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials and experts. The Bush administration, which has an intelligence-sharing operation with Turkey, also could lean on the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide more of its own intelligence to the Turks, experts said.

Rice called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in an appeal for patience, and administration officials said Erdogan granted a 72-hour reprieve on any cross-border attack by the Turkish military. The Turkish leadership is under heavy pressure from its public, with thousands of demonstrators shouting anti-PKK slogans in Istanbul after the weekend ambush.

The U.S.-Turkey alliance is particularly important to the Bush administration in its conduct of the Iraq war. About 70 percent of the American military's air cargo headed to Iraq is shipped through a U.S. air base in southern Turkey.

Analysts say the PKK, fighting for Kurdish self-rule since 1984, would like to incite Turkey to attack its bases inside Iraq to help fuel its movement, which lost political ground to the ruling Justice and Development Party, in Turkey's last general election.

"The Turks know these are provocations to draw them across the border, and they're reluctant to charge at that cape, because they know a sword is behind it," said Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey now at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But Erdogan doesn't have any cards left to play."

Last week, Turkey's parliament authorized the government to send troops across the Iraqi border at any time in pursuit of the PKK.

The Kurdistan Regional Government warned that any air strikes by the U.S. or the Turks could inflame nationalist sentiments among the millions of Kurds who live inside Turkey.

"If the U.S. starts bombing PKK camps in the north, Turkey will be ablaze tomorrow," said Qubad Talabani, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington.

He added that the Peshmerga has already formed a sort of security belt around the PKK to keep the fighters from coming down from the mountains into the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan. The only long-term solution, the regional government said, would be for it to be part of a serious dialogue among Turkey, the U.S. and Iraq. It complained that it is currently being left out of any discussions.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd who visited the White House on Monday, said at a Brookings appearance, "My worry is that there are demands of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] and the Iraqi government to 'fight the PKK.' That could well be a recipe for an open-ended conflict in which we will not win and will basically destabilize the only stable part of Iraq."

Rice issued a statement with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, calling on Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government to "take immediate steps to halt PKK operations from Iraqi territory."

Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Talabani said, "Everyone's passing the buck. The Turks want the U.S. to do something, the U.S. wants us to do something, and we don't think we can do anything. We fought the PKK in the '90s with the full force of the Turkish military and couldn't eradicate them."

On Monday, the PKK issued a statement that it would be ready for a cease-fire "if the Turkish army stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an incursion and resorts to peace," but most analysts dismissed this announcement as meaningless.

"The PKK always declares a cease-fire when winter approaches and it can't operate anyway," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Then when the snow melts, they start fighting again."

NY Times Editorial Page "Understands" Racist Turkish Turkey

Even Closer to the Brink
Oct 23, 2007
Editorial


The news out of Iraq just keeps getting worse. Now Turkey is threatening to send troops across the border to wipe out Kurdish rebel bases, after guerrillas killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers. This latest crisis should have come as no surprise. But it is one more widely predicted problem the Bush administration failed to plan for before its misguided invasion — and one more problem it urgently needs to deal with as part of a swift and orderly exit from Iraq.

Turkey’s anger is understandable. Guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., have been striking from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with growing impunity and effect, using plastic explosives, mines and arms that are far too readily accessible in Iraq. The death toll for Turkish military forces is mounting.

Turkey’s civilian leaders are feeling strong popular pressure to lash back. The leadership should realize that the conflict is providing a dangerous opening for Turkey’s generals. The military is determined to regain the upper hand over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom they detest for his party’s roots in Islamic politics.

Ankara needs to know that an invasion would not only add to Iraq’s chaos and raise the specter of a regional war, it would also do major damage to Turkey’s international standing and finish off its prospects for joining the European Union.

Following a personal appeal from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Erdogan’s government delayed retaliating and announced that all political means would be tried before launching a military operation into Iraq. But there is not a lot of time.

Washington should also explain the dangerous facts of life to the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, who have done nothing to rein in the guerrillas or drive them out of their territory. Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, did no good Sunday when he first said he wanted “to solve problems peacefully,” but then declared that Iraq would not even turn over “a Kurdish cat” to Turkey.

The Kurds will find it much easier to prosper if they can live in peace with Turkey, whose businessmen already invest heavily in their region. And Mr. Talabani and other Iraqi Kurds need to understand that their enclave of comparative peace and prosperity will not survive a regional war.

Washington must now try to walk both sides back from this brink. It then should make a serious and sustained effort to broker a long-overdue political agreement between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. There is much distrust on both sides. But there is also a lot to talk about. Iraqi Kurds want access routes to sell goods to Europe. Turkey needs a secure border with Iraq.

With so many other problems in Iraq, the Bush administration apparently thought it could ignore this one. It can’t. If it doesn’t now move quickly, Iraq’s disastrous civil war could spiral into an even bigger disaster — a regional war.

Turkish foreign minister arrives in Iraq for talks on the PKK

Tuesday, 23 October 2007, 07:45 EDT

File Photo

Reuters

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi.
leaders in an effort to pressure the Iraqi government to take action against Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels fighting Turkish troops, as Washington urged Ankara to hold back from unilateral military action.
He is expected to meet Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.
Babacan was received in Baghdad by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari.
The talks came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility of joint action with the United States against rear-bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has stepped up its insurgency in southeasten Turkey in recent weeks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
On Monday, Babacan told reporters in Kuwait that Ankara would "continue to exert these diplomatic and political efforts with good intention to resolve this crisis caused by a terrorist organisation.
"But in the end, if we don't reach a result, there are other means that we may be forced to use."
Turkish members of parliament have authorised the government to take military action in northern Iraq to flush out the rebels if it deems it necessary.
Turkish anger over the presence of PKK rebels in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' intensified after a weekend attack by the rebels on a military patrol that left 12 soldiers dead.
But the government has so far accepted US calls to hold back from unilateral action.
The Turkish prime minister, who was in London for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown on Tuesday, said he had discussed with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of joint action against the rebels.
"We may conduct a joint operation with the United States against the PKK in northern Iraq," Erodgan told the mass-selling Turkish daily Hurriyet on his flight into London.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the US military was considering air strikes on the rebels.
Citing an official familiar with Bush's conversation with Gul, the newspaper said cruise missile launches against PKK targets have been discussed, but air strikes using manned aircraft were an easier option.
"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct US military action against the PKK," the official told the Tribune.
Turkey's top diplomat has been shuttling around the Mideast to explain Ankara's position on the Kurdish rebels, who carried out a cross-border attack Sunday that left 12 Turkish troops dead and eight missing. Thirty-four rebels were also killed, the Turkish military said.
The attack followed a vote by the Turkish parliament last week that gave permission for the government to send troops over the border to wipe out bases belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.

Bush seeks to keep Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan

Tuesday, 23 October 2007,

File Photo

chicagotribune

The Bush administration is considering air strikes against the PKK.

The Bush administration is considering air strikes against the Turkey's Kurdish rebel group PKK in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' in an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the rebels, administration officials said.
President Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone Monday in an effort to ease the crisis. According to an official familiar with the conversation, Bush assured the Turkish president that the U.S. was looking seriously into options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'.
"It's not 'Kumbaya' time anymore-just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said. "Something has to be done."
While the use of U.S. soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, the U.S. would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets, the officials said, and has discussed the use of cruise missiles. But air strikes using manned aircraft may be an easier option because the U.S. controls the air space over Iraq, the officials said.
Another option would be to persuade the Kurdistan Regional Government, which runs that part of Iraq, to order its peshmerga forces to form a cordon preventing the movement of the PKK beyond its mountain camps, said U.S. officials and experts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Kurdistan RegionalGovernment Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday to request his cooperation in dealing with the PKK.
"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct U.S. military action against the PKK, either through air strikes or some kind of Special Forces action," said the official familiar with the Bush-Gul conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But the red line was always, if the Turks were going to come over the border, it could be so destabilizing that it might be less risky for us to do something ourselves. Now the Turks are at the end of their rope, and our risk calculus is changing."
An ambush over the weekend by 200 PKK guerrillas left 12 Turkish soldiers dead and 8 missing. The attack's sophistication and scope surprised not only the Turks but also the U.S. and its Iraqi allies.
The U.S., with Iraqi help, also could squeeze the flow of supplies and funds for the PKK coming across the border, or through the airport in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials and experts. The Bush administration, which has an intelligence-sharing operation with Turkey, also could lean on the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide more of its own intelligence to the Turks, experts said.

file photo

Rice called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in an appeal for patience, and administration officials said Erdogan granted a 72-hour reprieve on any cross-border attack by the Turkish military. The Turkish leadership is under heavy pressure from its public, with thousands of demonstrators shouting anti-PKK slogans in Istanbul after the weekend ambush. The U.S.-Turkey alliance is particularly important to the Bush administration in its conduct of the Iraq war. About 70 percent of the American military's air cargo headed to Iraq is shipped through a U.S. air base in southern Turkey.
Analysts say the PKK, fighting for Kurdish self-rule since 1984, would like to incite Turkey to attack its bases inside Iraq to help fuel its movement, which lost political ground to the ruling Justice and Development Party, in Turkey's last general election.
"The Turks know these are provocations to draw them across the border, and they're reluctant to charge at that cape, because they know a sword is behind it," said Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey now at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But Erdogan doesn't have any cards left to play."
Last week, Turkey's parliament authorized the government to send troops across the Iraqi border at any time in pursuit of the PKK.
The Kurdistan Regional Government warned that any air strikes by the U.S. or the Turks could inflame nationalist sentiments among the millions of Kurds who live inside Turkey.
"If the U.S. starts bombing PKK camps in the north, Turkey will be ablaze tomorrow," said Qubad Talabani, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington.
He added that the peshmerga has already formed a sort of security belt around the PKK to keep the fighters from coming down from the mountains into the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan. The only long-term solution, the regional government said, would be for it to be part of a serious dialogue among Turkey, the U.S. and Iraq. It complained that it is currently being left out of any discussions.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd who visited the White House on Monday, said at a Brookings appearance, "My worry is that there are demands of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] and the Iraqi government to 'fight the PKK.' That could well be a recipe for an open-ended conflict in which we will not win and will basically destabilize the only stable part of Iraq."
Rice issued a statement with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, calling on Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government to "take immediate steps to halt PKK operations from Iraqi territory."
Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Talabany said, "Everyone's passing the buck. The Turks want the U.S. to do something, the U.S. wants us to do something, and we don't think we can do anything. We fought the PKK in the '90s with the full force of the Turkish military and couldn't eradicate them."
On Monday, the PKK issued a statement that it would be ready for a cease-fire "if the Turkish army stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an incursion and resorts to peace," but most analysts dismissed this announcement as meaningless.
"The PKK always declares a cease-fire when winter approaches and it can't operate anyway," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Then when the snow melts, they start fighting again."

Kurdistan president urges PKK to honor ceasefire with Turkey

Tuesday, 23 October 2007,

File Photo

Voi

President of Kurdistan called on the (PKK) to commit to the ceasefire.

President of Iraq's Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani on Monday called on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to commit to the ceasefire it announced this afternoon with Turkey to avoid turning the region into "a battle field."
"This came after a phone call between Barzani and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during which the two voiced dismay over the deteriorating situation in the region," Barzani's office said.
Kurdistan Coalition (KC) Member Mahmoud Othman had said earlier that the PKK announced it will cease its military activities starting Monday evening in compliance with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to renounce violence and adopt a peaceful approach to the crisis.
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq'
"Barzani urged the PKK to honor their decision and not to complicate the situation," the statement also said.
"The president called on the PKK to avoid turning the region into a "battle field," voicing readiness to take any step to solve the crisis peacefully," it noted.
The Kurdistan satellite channel of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by President Massoud Barzani aired breaking news on a phone call between Rice and Barzani.
"The two discussed the current situation and the Turkish threats to invade northern Iraq, during which they expressed deep concern," the channel reported.
"They urged all sides involved to resort to dialogue and diplomatic ways to tackle the issue," it added.
This came with intensified political efforts by the U.S. and Iraqi governments to avoid possible Turkish invasion to Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' to track down elements of the PKK.
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels offered Turkey a conditional ceasefire on Monday dependant on the the Turkish military ending attacks against the fighters and abandoning plans for an incursion into Iraq's Kurdistan region.
On Sunday, the Turkish army said 12 soldiers were killed and 15 others were wounded during clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) fighters.

PKK Offer Turkey Conditional Ceasefire

SULAIMANI,
(Southern Kurdistan),
Oct 22, 2007

(AFP) -Kurdish guerrillas offered Ankara a ceasefire on Monday, on condition that the Turkish military abandons plans for a incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan and ends attacks against the PKK guerrillas.

"We are ready for a ceasefire if the Turkish army stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an incursion and resort to peace," said a statement posted on a website run by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"We are calling for a peaceful solution and distancing ourselves from violence," said the statement.

"If Turkey stops attacking us, the battle will stop and we will start the peace action. We are ready to start dialogue and we are ready to join the political process if Turkey give us the chance," it said.

The declaration was preceded by Iraq President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, telling reporters a ceasefire offer would be forthcoming.

It came after Turkey confirmed eight soldiers were missing after weekend clashes with the PKK near the Iraqi border killed at least 12 Turkish troops, ramping up public pressure on the government to take action.

Amid rising tensions, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan assured an alarmed international community that Ankara would exhaust diplomatic efforts before resorting to military action.

"We will continue to exert these diplomatic and political efforts with good intention to resolve this crisis caused by a terrorist organisation," Babacan told reporters after talks in Kuwait.

"But in the end, if we don't reach a result, there are other means that we may be forced to use."

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he was expecting Babacan in Baghdad for crisis talks on Tuesday.

However, Babacan would not immediately confirm the visit.

"I have had an intention to visit Baghdad for some time. But I do not confirm at the moment whether this visit will take place or when it will take place," Babacan said on his return from Kuwait.

The United States has urged Erdogan to hold off on military action, but the prospect of Turkish soldiers being held captive is likely to turn up the heat on the government.

Washington strongly opposes any unilateral Turkish military action, fearing it would further destabilise the situation in Iraq.

"We want the Iraqi government to take swift action to stop the activity of the PKK. We're communicating with the Turkish leadership, with the Kurdish leadership and the Iraqi leadership," said Fratto.

He said the United States was prepared to share intelligence with the Turkish government to fight ethnic Kurdish rebels, but that Washington did not want to see "wider military action" on the border.

Iraqi ministers told a crisis session of parliament that the government refused to send troops in hot pursuit of the rebels but vowed to cut supplies to the PKK.

Defence Minister Abdel Qader al-Obeidi told lawmakers Iraq had "no intention" of redeploying troops from elsewhere in the war-torn country for such a mission, according to top government aide Sami al-Askari.

Obeidi appeared to put the onus on the US military to take action by saying that security in Iraq was the responsibility of US-led forces who have been in the country since the March 2003 invasion.

The PKK has given the names of all eight soldiers it claims to be holding.

Talabani Says PKK To Announce A Cease-Fire

Today Associated Press

Oct 22, 2007

In Washington, the State Department said the United States has opened a diplomatic "full court press" to urge Turkey not to invade Iraqi Kurdistan. "In our view, there are better ways to deal with this issue," spokesman Sean McCormack said, stressing that the United States regards the PKK as a terrorist organization. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, would make a cease-fire announcement later Monday. Talabani's remarks were made to reporters at the airport in the Kurdish city of Sulaimani before he flew to Baghdad and confirmed by his office. More details were not immediately available. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a telephone conversation on Sunday night that Turkey expected "speedy steps from the U.S." in cracking down on Kurdish rebels and that Rice, who called the Turkish leader, asked "for a few days" from him. McCormack did not dispute the account of the conversation but declined to comment on what Rice had meant by asking for "a few days." Erdogan did not specify what he meant by "speedy steps," but he has often urged the United States and Iraq to crack down on the PKK. Turkish leaders say it is the responsibility of those countries to do whatever is necessary to destroy the guerrilla group's bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.