ANKARA, 20 July 2005 — The Turkish Army said yesterday the United States had ordered the capture of commanders of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, where most of the group’s members are based, warning of an incursion into Iraq if Baghdad fails to curb the rebels.
The United States “have issued a direct order for the capture of the leaders” of the PKK, Gen. Ilker Basbug, the army No. 2, told a group of journalists, Anatolia news agency reported.
Ankara has long been pressing Washington to take action against the PKK, an armed group blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has recently stepped up a violent campaign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey’s southeast.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Ankara declined to either confirm or deny Basbug’s remarks, saying that he would not comment on operational matters.
Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu, meeting with counterparts from Iraq and other regional countries in Istanbul, said he knew of no official information from Washington on the issue, adding that “such a decision can only please us.”
The PKK retreated to neighboring northern Iraq in 1999 following a unilateral cease-fire it declared after its 15-year campaign for self-rule which has left some 37,000 people dead.
The rebels began sneaking back after they called off the truce on June 1, 2004, saying that Ankara had failed to respond in kind. Basbug said Turkey had the right to make a military incursion into Iraq to pursue the PKK if Baghdad failed to curb the group, Anatolia reported.
Before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, when the Kurdish-held north was outside Baghdad’s control, the Turkish Army made incursions into the region to hunt down PKK militants, with tacit US approval and ground support from the local Iraqi Kurds.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said there was no decision for an immediate cross-border operation, but signaled increasing impatience in Ankara with what it sees as unhampered PKK presence in Iraq. “No country can ignore deliberate and systematic damage being inflicted on it from abroad,” Gul told reporters, referring to international principles on self-defense.
His spokesman Namik Tan urged Baghdad “to show that it cares for Turkey’s security, just as we care for Iraq’s security and stability.” PKK violence has claimed the lives of 105 soldiers and 37 civilians over the past year, Basbug said, adding that the rebels used mostly explosives and Land mines in their attacks.
Earlier this month, Kurdish militants blew up a train, claiming five lives, and bombed a seaside resort, leaving about 20 people injured. Another five people, among them foreign tourists, were killed Saturday in a bomb attack in another resort, in which Kurdish militants are the primary suspect.
The PKK is bringing to Turkey large amounts of explosives of the powerful C4 type, obtained from the remnants of the ammunition of Saddam Hussein’s army, Basbug said, according to Anatolia. Appealing to the Iraqi authorities, he said: “You must prevent this... I’m talking about loss of life here.”
The number of PKK militants inside Turkey has increased up to 1,900 over the past year, while the remaining guerrillas, estimated between 3,300 and 3,700, are based in neighboring countries, Basbug said, according to a partial text of his remarks released later by the general staff.
