Turkey seeks UN OK for cross-border action Move follows attack by Kurdish rebels in Iraq
Steven Edwards The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, June 05, 2007 UNITED NATIONS - The prospect that Turkish troops will invade northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels rose yesterday as Turkey reportedly asked to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reaffirm its right to self-defence. The move comes as the latest Kurdish rebel attack inside Turkey killed at least seven Turkish soldiers and injured seven more at a military outpost near the Iraqi border. Turkey has been massing troops on the border, and reminding the UN of its rights under the body's charter would signal the government is preparing the legal and diplomatic ground for military action. The U.S. believed as recently as Sunday that it had dissuaded Turkey from mounting any operation in one of the few parts of Iraq that is relatively peaceful and prosperous, but the new rebel attack appears to have changed the mood in Ankara. "We have every right to take measures against terrorist activities directed at us from northern Iraq," Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, told European Union officials visiting the Turkish capital. Turkish media commented yesterday that the EU was tacitly backing Turkey's right to retaliate after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, and Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, neither condemned nor openly supported Mr. Gul's declaration. The rebels, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seek to create an independent Kurdish state from parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran. Faced with an Arab insurgency and al-Qaeda resistance in central and southern Iraq, the U.S. has been reluctant to intervene in the north, where the mainly Kurdish population enjoys semi-autonomy. "We have not seen effective steps taken as of now," one senior Turkish diplomat said. But he also said there were numerous channels of communication open with the Iraqis and the Americans, and expressed confidence something short of a cross-border incursion would occur. The Turkish parliament would have to approve any military action outside Turkey's borders, but the government has already said it would back the armed forces if they requested permission to launch an attack. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php
