Last Updated: October 27, 2007 08:20:04
Sirnak (Turkey), October 27: Turkish military planes scoured the Iraqi border for Kurdish rebel camps Saturday, army sources said, after diplomatic talks in Ankara to avert a major cross-border operation into northern Iraq failed.
Turkish-Iraqi talks collapsed late Friday after Ankara rejected a series of proposals by Iraqi Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim to tackle Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq as insufficient.
Officials told Reuters that no further talks were planned and the Iraqi delegation, which had aimed to dissuade NATO member Turkey from launching a major incursion against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, was leaving Saturday.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, and mortars, on the frontier before a possible offensive against about 3,000 PKK rebels using Iraq as a base from which to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey.
The United States, which was also represented at the talks, opposes a major incursion, fearing it could destabilise Iraq's relatively peaceful north and, potentially, the wider region.
The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the south-east. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict. In recent years, the party has pushed for greater cultural and political rights.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a swipe at Western countries Saturday for not helping Turkey fight the PKK, criticising what he called an approach of "your terrorist is good, my terrorist is bad".
"We want to see our Western friends by our side in our fight against terror," he told a conference in Istanbul. "Those who overlook terrorism are in cooperation with terrorism."
Erdogan-Bush meeting
Erdogan, meanwhile, played down comments by Turkey's top general that the military was waiting for Erdogan to meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on November 5 before launching a major incursion.
General Yasar Buyukanit was quoted by Turkish media Friday as saying the meeting was very important and the military would hold off until Erdogan returned before making a potential move.
Senior Turkish diplomats say Erdogan has given Washington and Baghdad a limited time to show concrete results or witness steps being taken against the PKK. The meeting in Washington will be the last chance, they told Reuters.
Any major offensive, expected to involve ground and air forces, would first have to be approved by the government.
"I don't know what will happen before the American trip," Erdogan said Friday. "We are in a sensitive state all the time."
But under growing public pressure, Erdogan has repeatedly said Turkey will not tolerate any more attacks from the PKK, which has killed about 40 people in the last month.
Army sources told Reuters Saturday that military planes were running reconnaissance trips along the mountainous border to take photographs of PKK camps in northern Iraq. Helicopters were patrolling villages and soldiers were sweeping for mines.
In the south-eastern city of Sirnak Saturday, about 1,000 people demonstrated against the PKK, which in its latest major attack killed 12 soldiers and said it took eight prisoners. Security was tight, with sharp-shooters on rooftops and village guard militiamen present.
"For every 12 martyrs, 12,000 more Turkish martyrs are born," chanted the protesters, who came from all over the province.
The military has already carried out as many as 24 limited operations into northern Iraq against the PKK but no major land incursion, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said Friday. Turkish helicopter gunships and F-16 jets have attacked PKK positions inside Iraq in recent days.
Analysts doubtful
Analysts question whether a major military offensive into northern Iraq would be successful, as past ones have failed to dislodge the PKK, whose members are also in Turkey.
Ankara had given Iraq a list of leading PKK members based in northern Iraq and demanded that Baghdad hand them over and shut down their numerous camps.
But the central Iraqi government has little control over the semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq, which is run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The KRG, run by Masoud Barzani, says it has no control over the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation in the United States, Turkey and the European Union.
Barzani has vowed to fight any Turkish incursion.
By Thomas Grove.
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