TURKEY: Warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets in Iraq as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says troops are conducting "hot pursuit" operations in search of Kurdish militants who killed 24 Turkish soldiers

Record ID: 217531

  • Title: TURKEY: Warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets in Iraq as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says troops are conducting "hot pursuit" operations in search of Kurdish militants who killed 24 Turkish soldiers
  • Date: 20th October 2011
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (OCTOBER 19, 2011) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE PEOPLE ENTERING CONFERENCE ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN, SAYING: "According to the latest confirmed information from Cukurca, we lost 24 of our soldiers, and 18 soldiers were wounded. As of now, wide-reaching operations, incl
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9CAM5YWTJCY35463CIMJMBR6C
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday (October 19) Turkish troops were conducting "hot pursuit" operations in a region near the border with Iraq after Kurdish guerrillas killed 24 Turkish soldiers.
    "As of now, wide-reaching operations, including hot pursuit operations, are continuing in the region within the framework of international law," Erdogan told a news conference after he convened an emergency meeting with the interior and defence ministers, along with intelligence chiefs and top generals.
    Turkish media had earlier put the number of soldiers killed at 26 in attacks on military posts in southeastern Turkey.
    Turkish commandos crossed the border into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels following the attacks, in which 16 soldiers were also wounded, military sources told Reuters.
    The sources said there were intermittent clashes between the troops, who advanced some 3-4 km into Iraqi territory, and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in the border area near Cukurca in Hakkari province.
    Turkish military helicopters flew above the clash zone on the border, military sources said.
    Turkish media reported Turkish warplanes, which have launched retaliatory air strikes on Kurdish rebel targets in the past, had taken off from a military base in the city of Diyarbakir.
    Underlying the gravity of the situation, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a planned trip to Kazakhstan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suspended a planned trip to Serbia on Wednesday.
    Kurdish rebels seeking an independent Kurdish homeland took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict. They have bases in northern Iraq from which they cross the border to attack Turkish targets.
    The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
    The attacks came after the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, had warned that resuming peace talks depended on whether Turkey "opens the door".
    Ocalan sent the message though his brother after a meeting in his cell on a prison island south of Istanbul, a PKK statement released on Tuesday said.
    Erdogan's AK Party government has passed cultural and political reforms favouring ethnic Kurds aimed at ending a violence fed by Kurdish grievances. Breaking a long-held taboo, Erdogan's government held secret talks with Ocalan.
    But following escalating violence from PKK rebels that have killed more than 50 Turkish security personnel since July the government has taken a hard line.
    The attacks came amid tensions with neighbouring Iran over the siting of NATO anti-missile radar in Turkey and over the strong position Turkey has taken against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
    In the past week, Turkish media have carried reports that Iran had captured the second in command of the PKK, Murat Karayilan, only to release him after Turkish air strikes on the base where the militant commander had been.
    Turkish media reported that websites in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq were saying the authorities there had begun evacuating villages close to PKK camps, whipping up speculation that it was a pre-emptive move to avoid civilian casualties in the event of a Turkish ground incursion.
    Iran has also been battling Kurdish militants on its border with Iraq, and Kurds in Syria hold longstanding grievances against Assad.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register