TURKEY: Troops hunt Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey/ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to seek concrete action from U.S

Record ID: 217504

  • Title: TURKEY: Troops hunt Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey/ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to seek concrete action from U.S
  • Date: 30th October 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP RECEP ERDOGAN SAYING: "We are going tell the U.S., who have responsibility for Iraq, that we are waiting for immediate and concrete solutions about the terror groups." CUTAWAY OF MPS LISTENING SOUNDBITE (Turkish) ERDOGAN SAYING: "America has already accepted the presence of their weapons in the hands of PKK members. We
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAPJPAZXJOTDUYFJCCF7O6K0OV
  • Story Text: Turkish Cobra helicopters pounded Kurdish rebel positions near the Iraqi border on Tuesday (October 29) and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Ankara's readiness to send troops over the frontier despite U.S.
    opposition.
    Witnesses in Sirnak province saw plumes of smoke rising from the mountains after the helicopters flew over Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebel positions.
    Earlier, a convoy of up to 40 army vehicles headed east towards the border in brilliant sunshine. Troops scoured the hillsides for landmines, a favoured weapon of the guerrillas.
    Three Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past 24 hours in the border area. A fourth died on Monday in Tunceli province hundreds of km (miles) to the north in a landmine explosion.
    Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters along the Iraqi border in preparation for a possible cross-border incursion into northern Iraq where some 3,000 rebels are believed to be hiding.
    The Sabah newspaper said some 250 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were trying to escape Turkish security forces in the border area. The figure could not be independently confirmed.
    Erdogan will travel to Washington for talks on the issue with U.S.
    President George W. Bush next Monday (November 5).
    Erdogan said on Tuesday (October 30) he would tell Bush Turkey expected "urgent, concrete steps" from the United States against the PKK. He would also seek an explanation of why PKK rebels are using U.S.-made weapons in their fight with Turkish forces.
    "We are going ask the U.S. who have responsibility for Iraq, that we are waiting for immediate and concrete solution about the terror groups," Erdogan told members of his ruling centre-right AK Party in parliament in Ankara.
    "America has already accepted the presence of their weapons in the hands of PKK members. We are going to ask them to clarify this issue," he added.
    The United States and Iraq have urged Turkey to avoid a major military incursion, fearing this would destabilise the wider region. Washington and Baghdad have shown no appetite for tackling the PKK despite repeated appeals from Ankara.
    Turkey is home to more than 12 million Kurds. Erdogan's government has eased some restrictions on Kurdish culture and language but Kurdish activists say it needs to do much more.
    Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, brand the PKK as a terrorist group.
    U.S., Turkish and Iraqi officials will make fresh diplomatic efforts to stave off a major military operation when they attend a conference of Iraq's neighbours in Istanbul this weekend.
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