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U.S. Discourages Turkey From Cross-Border Attack |
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Written by Washington Post
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Monday, 22 October 2007 13:26 |
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The United States continued efforts today to steer Turkey away from a military incursion into northern Iraq, after a cross-border raid by Kurdish rebels on Sunday killed 17 Turkish soldiers and raised the prospect of an escalating conflict.
In addition to those confirmed killed, the Turkish military said eight of its soldiers were missing -- an important complication if they turn up as captives of the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK. A pro-Kurdish news agency says the eight were captured.
As tension increased in Turkey and scattered groups of protesters gathered to demand retaliation, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. had opened what he called a "full-court press" to keep the situation from deteriorating.
"We want to see an outcome where you have the Turks and the Iraqis working together, and we will do what we can to resolve the issue without a Turkish cross-border incursion," McCormack said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, spoke with an array of Turkish and Iraqi officials Sunday, conversations that McCormack said could expand to include calls between President Bush and his counterparts in the two nations.
In Baghdad, the Reuters wire service reported that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, said that the PKK would announce a cease-fire on today.
How far that would go toward easing tensions is an open question, with Turkish soldiers missing and Ankara demanding that PKK camps in northern Iraq be dismantled and PKK leaders be turned over.
The rebel group, which seeks the establishment of a separate Kurdish state that would include territory that is now part of Turkey, is deeply rooted in the Kurdish-controlled enclave of northern Iraq. Long a sore point for Turkey, the issue now threatens to become a much larger issue for the U.S. and other countries in the region.
The Turkish Parliament last week authorized the government to take cross-border military action against the PKK, which both the Turkish government and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
In a conversation Sunday, Rice appealed to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for what he characterized as "a few days" before any Turkish military response. According to wire service reports, Erdogan said he told Rice that Turkey was expecting "speedy steps from the U.S." against the PKK presence in northern Iraq.
Turkish officials said they had killed as many as 34 PKK members during the raid, an audacious cross-border ambush that was one of the rebel group's deadliest strikes in recent memory.
The Turkish government had emergency meetings Sunday, and Erdogan's cabinet was expected to discuss a possible response in a meeting today. Associated Press reports from the region said that a convoy of about 50 Turkish military vehicles was moving closer to the Iraqi border.
In response to the raid, Turkish papers struck a militaristic tone and groups gathered in several cities to press for government action, wire services reported.
At a news conference hours after the ambush, Talabani ordered the guerrilla fighters to stop their attacks or leave Iraq.
"We are against all the actions that are done by the PKK," he said. "And we will not support the PKK. We want the best relations with Turkey."
But he added: "The Turkish army with all its capabilities couldn't arrest the leaders of the PKK. So how could we do that? It's a dream that cannot be reached."
Turkey continued to shell the area along the northern Iraqi border late Sunday, residents and officials said. Some villagers reported that the peshmerga, the military force of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, was moving toward the border.
The Bush administration condemned the Kurdish assault. "These attacks are unacceptable and must stop now," said Gordon Johndroe, President Bush's national security spokesman.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government, also condemned the attack but warned against a Turkish offensive into northern Iraq. "If this struggle touches the Kurdistan region, then we will defend our citizens," he said.
Iraqi residents of the border area braced for more of the violence that has destroyed parts of their villages and forced some of them to flee. Sabiha Khalil, 54, a widowed farmer from the village of Spindar, said the fighting reminded her of the days of Saddam Hussein, when a government campaign killed as many as 180,000 Kurds and drove many more from their homes.
"Now Turkey is taking Saddam Hussein's place," she said. "We were displaced from our village for 10 years, but we have rebuilt our homes and rehabilitated our farms. Now where should we go?"
Suleiman Hamid, 33, a farmer who also lives in Spindar, said shelling on Sunday destroyed several houses and caused his children to wake up screaming. Many of his neighbors have fled, he said.
"I don't understand why the Turks are bombing us," he said. "There is no PKK here. Is their main goal to target the PKK, or just any Kurds?"
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