The Turkish raids, the first against rebels holed up in the
mountains of northern Iraq in over a year, mark a stark escalation of the
27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts toward a negotiated
settlement.
The Turkish military said on Friday warplanes had attacked
28 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets on Thursday in the areas of Qandil
mountain, Hakurk, Avasin-Basyan and Zap.
“In coordination with the air operation, intense artillery
fire was directed at 96 targets identified in the same areas,” the General
Staff said in a statement. “Activities in the fight against terrorism will
continue decisively at home and abroad.”
The military released cockpit footage showing blasts and
billowing smoke as laser-guided missiles slammed into targets described as PKK
shelters, stores and anti-aircraft sites during raids which drew criticism from
Baghdad.
“Our position is clear: we reject violations and
overstepping of borders. This issue cannot be resolved through military action,”
Iraq’s Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told Reuters. “Iraq should have
been informed about this to find other ways to resolve this escalation.”
The military had bombarded rebels a day earlier in response
to a spate of rebel attacks in recent months and an ambush on Wednesday that
killed nine servicemen.
The PKK in Iraq said it had not sustained casualties. “There
were no PKK casualties in the shelling that continued last night,” PKK
spokesman Roj Welat told Reuters.
On Thursday night the PKK, designated a terrorist group by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union, carried out two simultaneous
attacks in Turkey’s southeastern Siirt province, security sources said.
Militants fired rocket launchers and rifles in an onslaught
on a paramilitary gendarmerie post in Eruh, killing two officers and wounding
four soldiers. Two PKK fighters were killed in subsequent clashes.
In the nearby district of Pervari, rebels wounded four
civilians during similar attacks on security installations.
The guerrillas also clashed with security forces in eastern
Tunceli province overnight and one PKK militant was killed, security sources
said. Helicopters brought military reinforcements to the area.
Some 40 Turkish security personnel have been killed in
clashes in the last month and further military action was likely for as long as
the fighting continues.
“I think those deciding on the air operations will sustain
them intermittently for as long as appropriate opportunities emerge,” Nihat Ali
Ozcan, a security analyst at the Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told Reuters.
“At times like this governments have to manage not just
terrorism but their own public opinion. Hence air operations, more than harming
the PKK militarily, serve the government in managing public opinion,” Ozcan
said.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan heralded an apparent change in
strategy on Wednesday, saying the government’s patience had run out and those
who do not distance themselves from terrorism would “pay the price.”
It was not clear whether the air assaults might be a prelude
to an incursion by land forces, which Turkey has sent into northern Iraq in the
past to tackle PKK fighters.
World diplomatic attention has been focused on unrest in
Turkey’s neighbor Syria and in Libya, where rebels are closing on leader
Muammar Qaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli. But any large-scale Turkish incursion
in northern Iraq could inflame ethnic tensions in the area.
Ozcan said a short ground operation with limited targets was
feasible if the government could convince the United States and the Kurdish
administration in northern Iraq on the issue, but such a move was seen as
unlikely.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, which has enjoyed
semi-autonomy from the central Iraqi government since 1991, said the military
attacks undermined its sovereignty. “Problems cannot be resolved by resorting to
force and military action, but only through dialogue and negotiations,” Kawa
Mahmoud, a Kurdistan government spokesman, said in a statement on the KRG
website.
The Kurdish conflict also raises domestic passions in
Turkey. Further legal action could be taken against Kurdish politicians, currently
boycotting Parliament and accused of close links to the PKK.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict
since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.
Turkey’s National Security Council, chaired by President
Abdullah Gul, issued a written statement after a regular meeting on Thursday,
saying it would adopt a “more effective and decisive fight in the fight against
terrorism.”
Last month, the PKK’s Ocalan sent word through his lawyers
that he had agreed with Turkish officials to set up a “peace council” aimed at
ending the conflict. But the mood turned sour after the PKK subsequently killed
13 troops in the biggest attack since the PKK ended a cease-fire in
February. State talks with
Ocalan ended in late July and since then his lawyers have been unable to visit
him in his island prison near Istanbul. This week a court banned four lawyers
from representing him for a year.
