- Title: TURKEY: Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan says army to continue PKK offensive
- Date: 19th December 2007
- Summary: (EU) ANKARA, TURKEY (DECEMBER 12, 2007) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN WALKING TO STAGE WITH HIS MACEDONIAN COUNTERPART NIKOLA GRUEVSKI ERDOGAN AT LECTERN JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN SAYING: "We are implementing our rights coming out of international law against the terrorist organ
- Embargoed: 3rd January 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAYU2TRXDDX7FYL4U4L4SR2B29
- Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says the military would press on with its operations against Kurdish guerrillas after a series of cross-border actions into Iraq in recent days.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday (December 18) the military would press on with its operations against Kurdish guerrillas after a series of cross-border actions into Iraq in recent days.
Iraqi and Turkish officials on Tuesday confirmed that Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq overnight in the latest in a series of small-scale raids against Kurdish separatists over recent months.
"We are implementing our rights coming out of international law against the terrorist organization (PKK), which is a threat to our national unity," Erdogan said in a joint news conference with his Macedonian counterpart held in Ankara when asked about reports of a limited land offensive into northern Iraq.
Erdogan said the military would press on with its operations against Kurdish guerrillas adding ""what is necessary to do (against PKK) has been carried out so far and will be carried out".
On Tuesday, Turkish military official said the soldiers intervened when they spotted Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants across the border.
There were no reports of any casualties from what he described as "a limited clash" with the separatists.
Iraqi officials denied there had been clashes and said the group of about 300 Turkish troops had entered an unpopulated area near the border.
Turkey's military had said its warplanes had bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq over the weekend. Iraq had complained that at least one civilian woman had been killed in the weekend strikes.
Turkey says it has a right to use force to combat separatist rebels who shelter in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq but the United States and the European Union fear a further escalation in tensions could destabilise the region.
Turkey's centre-right government and military are under public pressure to take action after a series of deadly PKK attacks on Turkish security forces in recent months.
Turkey blames Iraq for failing rein in the PKK, and the United States for failing to apply pressure on Iraqi authorities.
Turkey has massed 100,000 troops on the border, and over the past several months has shelled and bombed Iraqi villages and launched occasional cross-border raids with small ground units.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday that Turkish bombardment of northern Iraqi villages since the weekend had forced 1,800 people to leave their homes.
The United States considers the PKK a terrorist organisation and says it sympathises with Turkey's fight against the Kurdish guerrillas but does not want Ankara to take large-scale cross-border military action that might destabilise Iraq.
Washington agreed to share real-time intelligence with NATO-ally Ankara to allow Turkey to hit the PKK in northern Iraq after Erdogan visited U.S.
President George W. Bush in November.
Turkey launched big incursions in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 troops respectively, but failed to dislodge PKK rebels from the Iraqi mountains.
A similar large assault is seen as unlikely now, especially with winter coming. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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