ANKARA, 10 October 2007 — Turkey yesterday threatened a military incursion in northern Iraq as part of stepped up measures against Kurdish rebel bases in the region. The government said in a statement that it had given orders allowing for all legal, economic and political measures, “including a cross-border operation if necessary,” against a “terrorist organization in a neighboring country.” The statement was taken to refer implicitly to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Iraq.
Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had met senior government and military officials to discuss tougher action against the PKK — listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community — after the rebels killed 15 soldiers in weekend attacks. Ankara says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern Iraq and obtains weapons and explosives there for attacks across the border.
It has also accused Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even supporting the rebels. The Turkish military has long sought authorization to strike against PKK bases in northern Iraq but the government has held back pressure from the United States, which does not want its Iraqi Kurdish allies forced into confrontation with the Turkish Army.
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. Many observers here doubt whether the embattled Baghdad government, which has virtually no authority in northern Iraq, can cajole the Iraqi Kurds into action against the PKK, whose 23-year armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey has left more than 37,000 dead.
Also yesterday, Turkey warned the United States that bilateral ties will suffer badly if US lawmakers adopt a bill recognizing the Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide. In a letter to his US counterpart George W. Bush, new Turkish President Abdullah Gul “drew attention to the serious problems that will emerge in bilateral relations if the bill is adopted,” his office said in a statement.
A senior member of the ruling Justice and Development Party has signaled that Ankara could consider barring the United States from a key military base in southern Turkey, which US troops currently use to transport non-combat material to Iraq and Afghanistan.
