ANKARA: Turkey’s civilian and military leaders held emergency talks yesterday as Ankara vowed strong action after 15 soldiers and 23 Kurdish rebels died in clashes sparked by a rebel attack near the Iraqi border.
The fighting, the bloodiest this year, was likely to ratchet up pressure on Ankara to hit back at the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants who use rear bases in neighboring northern Iraq to strike Turkish targets as part of a 24-year separatist campaign.
President Abdullah Gul canceled a planned visit to France next week for an international conference while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called off a two-day visit to Mongolia and returned home from Turkmenistan to chair yesterday’s talks with army and police chiefs and Cabinet ministers.
“Let me underline once again that we will continue the struggle (against the PKK), whatever the cost,” Gul said in a video message. “We are investigating how this treacherous attack took place, who facilitated it. These will be followed up on and everyone will be held to account,” he added.
The Foreign Ministry said it had contacted Iraqi authorities and urged them to take action to tackle PKK rebels operating out of the Kurdish-run autonomous enclave in the north of Iraq. “We expect the government of our neighbor Iraq to fulfill its responsibilities,” it said in a statement.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh condemned the attack but called on Ankara to act with “wisdom and restraint.” The European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the United States Embassy in Ankara also denounced the violence and expressed solidarity with Turkey against the rebels.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, OIC secretary-general, expressed his particular concern that the outlawed terrorist organization continues its deadly attacks and called for the continued cooperation between the governments of Turkey and Iraq in order to put an end to the scourge of PKK terrorism.
The Turkish Army said that PKK rebels attacked a border post in Semdinli town, Hakkari province, on Friday afternoon under cover of heavy weapons fire from northern Iraq. “Most of our losses were caused by heavy weapons’ fire from the north of Iraq,” Gen. Metin Gurak, the head of the general staff’s press department told the Anatolia news agency.
Turkish forces responded with artillery fire and attack helicopters pounded rebel positions while additional forces were dispatched to the area. Turkish fighter jets and artillery units also struck at a group of rebels in the north of Iraq, 10 kms from the station that was hit.
“Twenty-three terrorists were neutralized in the clashes. It is not yet clear how many terrorists were killed by artillery fire and in the strikes by the air force,” Gurak said. He added that two soldiers remained unaccounted for after the fighting which lasted late into Friday night. Twenty soldiers were also wounded in the clashes.
