TURKEY: Eight soldiers freed by Kudish rebels ahead of meeting between Erdogan and Bush

Record ID: 217423

  • Title: TURKEY: Eight soldiers freed by Kudish rebels ahead of meeting between Erdogan and Bush
  • Date: 5th November 2007
  • Summary: (BN10) ANKARA, TURKEY (NOVEMBER 5, 2007) (REUTERS) ANALYST LOOKING AT NEWSPAPERS
  • Embargoed: 20th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA4MRR006127V3TFKG2GCDDJULC
  • Story Text: President George W. Bush and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet in Washington on Monday (November 5) to discuss tensions in the Turkish-Iraqi border and a possible operation to root out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels holed-up the region.
    Turkey has massed troops and equipment on the border with northern Iraq, from where Kurdish rebels are mounting attacks into Turkey.
    Kurdish rebels on Sunday (November 4) freed eight Turkish soldiers captured in an ambush last month in northern Iraq.
    An escalation of separatist violence in recent weeks and the capture of the soldiers sparked public outcry in Turkey and calls for an offensive against the militants in northern Iraq.
    A recent poll by the Pew Research Center put the U.S. favorability rating in Turkey at 9 percent versus 52 percent in 2000. Turks now see the United States as the single biggest threat to their nation's security.
    "What should we expect from the American President? He creates nothing but problems. He is always doing something to harm Turkey. For the last 30 years he has created problems," said Abdullah Guven, a resident in Kurdish town of Cizre, near the Iraqi border.
    Parliamentary representative for the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DFP), Fatma Kurtulan, said she hoped the meeting between Bush and Erdogan would bring democratic solutions to the Kurdish conflict. "The solution, dialogues and cooperation, which are necessary for solving the Kurdish question in a peaceful and democratic way, should be set up on these principles. We hope that the meeting (the meeting of President Bush and Prime Minister Erdogan) would be based this way," Kurtulan told journalists after crossing the Iraqi-Turkish border following the release of the soldiers.
    In Ankara residents had a negative outlook for the meeting.
    "I don't think any results will come out of the U.S. The only solution has already been achieved so far. But as I watch TV, there (border) I cannot see any success. The PKK do whatever they want," said Ahmet Denir, after buying his morning paper.
    The release of the soldiers came a day after the Iraqi government vowed to hunt down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants responsible for raids into Turkey.
    Washington has urged NATO-ally Turkey to refrain from sending in thousands of troops, saying it could destabilise northern Iraq and cause a bigger regional crisis.
    Turkey wants leaders of the PKK arrested and the closure of camps in Iraq used as bases for cross-border attacks in their 23-year campaign for a homeland in southeastern Turkey.
    Analyst Enis Berberoglu thinks the U.S. will not be able to ask Turkey to give up on the cross-border incursion.
    "I do not think the U.S. is going to give us a negative answer.
    The worst case scenario will be Bush asking us not to do this operation, which I don't think he will say. Secondly, there is an ongoing alliance between the U.S. and Turkey for the fight against terror in the region, with the attendance of Edip Baser, General Rolston and some northern Iraqi officials.
    But it did not do anything for the past 14 months. I do not believe the argument of U.S. will be strong. Now that the soldiers have been freed, I (Turkey) can't chase after them (PKK) in northern Iraq," said Berberoglu.
    Clashes between Turkish troops and PKK militants continued near the Iraqi border.
    Turkish army said two PKK rebels and a village guard, fighting alongside Turkish troops, were killed in Sirnak province on Sunday.
    In response to what it sees as foot-dragging by Iraq and a lack of pressure by the United States, Turkey has deployed 100,000 troops on the border and threatened to go after the PKK if nothing is done to rein them in.
    The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, Turkey and the European Union. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up its armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey in 1984.
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