TURKEY:Turkey has prepared a blueprint for the invasion of northern Iraq and will take action if US or Iraqi forces fail to dislodge the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from their mountain strongholds across the border, Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul has warned.
"The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them," Mr Gul told Turkey's Radikal newspaper. "If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [ crush the PKK], we will take our own decision and implement it," he said. The foreign minister's uncharacteristically hawkish remarks were seen as a response to pressure from Turkey's generals, who have deployed some 20,000 to 30,000 troops along the borders with Iraq. They are itching to move against the rebels they say are slipping across the border to stage attacks inside Turkey.
Among other things, Turkish military planners have been working on a scheme to establish a buffer zone on Iraqi soil to try to stop the rebels' movements.
The US and the EU regard the PKK as a terrorist outfit, but Washington is nervous of any military operations by its Nato ally that could destabilise Iraq's Kurdistan region. There are fears too that any instability in the north could play into the hands of Iran, facing growing problems with its own Kurdish population.
The PKK, which has had a presence in the remote border areas of Iraq since the 1980s, has about 2,000 to 3,000 guerrillas on Iraqi soil. Their camps are dotted along the wooded ravines and in some of the regions' many caves. They remain out of reach of Iraq's Kurdish authorities, who fought unsuccessfully alongside Turkey in the 1990s to oust them.
Authorities in Ankara say the PKK, which declared a unilateral ceasefire last year, is behind recent bombings in Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir, as well as attacks on Turkish security forces in the mostly Kurdish southeast.
So far, the Turkish military has confined itself to shelling across the border and raids by units of special forces. In separate remarks yesterday, Mr Gul said Turkey was also considering air strikes against the PKK's bases.
He said that, unlike a cross-border incursion involving troops and tanks, air raids would need no prior parliamentary approval. The Turkish parliament is in recess until national elections on July 22nd. Mr Gul did not rule out parliament reconvening before the elections to sanction an incursion.
In a fresh bout of sabre-rattling on Wednesday, the chief of staff, Gen Yasar Buyukanit, asked the government in Ankara to set the parameters for an incursion across the border. "Will we go to northern Iraq just to fight PKK rebels, or, for example, what will we do if we come under attack from local Iraqi/Kurdish groups?" asked Gen Buyukanit.
The general's remarks rang alarm bells both in Arbil - the Iraqi/Kurdish regional capital - and Baghdad, where they were interpreted as a request to also go after Iraq's Kurdish authorities.
The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has until now resisted the demands of his chief of staff. The priority, he argues, should be to tackle the thousands of PKK guerrillas who are already inside Turkey. Observers say the moderate Islamist is loath to put further strain on ties with Washington.
- (Guardian service)