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Army Chief
Acknowledges Turkish Presence in Northern Iraq "We have some military elements in northern Iraq to serve a specific purpose,
but it would not be right for me to explain the reason for their presence,"
General Hilmi Ozkok told reporters at a reception late Friday, the Anatolia news
agency reported.
He gave no further details, AFP reported.
Turkey has long been reported to have troops in northern Iraq, where it has
carried out frequent operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels who
have waged a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast.
But Turkish officials had never previously confirmed the reports.
Northern Iraq has been under the control of two rival Kurdish factions since
the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War when the region was wrenched from
Baghdad's control and placed under the protection of a Western-enforced no-fly
zone.
The leader of one of the factions, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP), said in comments carried by Anatolia on Saturday that
the Turkish Army had recently reinforced its presence in the mountainous region.
"In the area around Bamerni, there are around two dozen Turkish tanks, troops
and helicopters that are from time to time making sorties," Barzani said.
"The Turkish military presence in the area has been reinforced recently," the
KDP leader added, calling for its withdrawal.
Turkey keeps a wary eye on the Kurds of northern Iraq, regularly warning
against any move to establish an independent state there for fear it might
rekindle violence among its own large Kurdish community.
The fear of a Kurdish state emerging in northern Iraq is one of the main
reasons behind Turkey's stiff opposition to any U.S. military action to topple
President Saddam Hussein.
Turkey, a key U.S. ally in NATO, also fears that a war in Iraq would have
dire consequences for its crisis-hit economy at a time when it is implementing
structural reforms with a 16-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary
Fund. http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=9/1/02&Cat=4&Num=008
ANKARA -- The new chief of Turkey's powerful
military has acknowledged that the country has a military presence in
neighboring Kurdish-held northern Iraq, but refused to elaborate on the force.
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