Re: [A-List] Turkey seeks UN OK for cross-border action

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm having trouble believing the Kurds would attack Turkey. Can't see what
they could possibly gain, as compared to just keeping on with the current
program. I notice they deny it, and also that the Ottawa paper takes the
attacks as fact and does not mention the Kurd's denials.

David McDonald

> -----Original Message-----
> From: a-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:a-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Sabri Oncu
> Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 8:02 PM
> To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; A-List
> Subject: [A-List] Turkey seeks UN OK for cross-border action
>
>
> Turkey seeks UN OK for cross-border action
> Move follows attack by Kurdish rebels in Iraq
>
> Steven Edwards
> The Ottawa Citizen
>
>
> Tuesday, June 05, 2007
>
>
> UNITED NATIONS - The prospect that Turkish troops will invade
> northern Iraq to
> attack Kurdish rebels rose yesterday as Turkey reportedly asked to meet UN
> Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reaffirm its right to self-defence.
>
> The move comes as the latest Kurdish rebel attack inside Turkey
> killed at least
> seven Turkish soldiers and injured seven more at a military
> outpost near the
> Iraqi border.
>
> Turkey has been massing troops on the border, and reminding the UN of its
> rights under the body's charter would signal the government is
> preparing the
> legal and diplomatic ground for military action.
>
> The U.S. believed as recently as Sunday that it had dissuaded Turkey from
> mounting any operation in one of the few parts of Iraq that is relatively
> peaceful and prosperous, but the new rebel attack appears to have
> changed the
> mood in Ankara.
>
> "We have every right to take measures against terrorist
> activities directed at
> us from northern Iraq," Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, told
> European Union officials visiting the Turkish capital.
>
> Turkish media commented yesterday that the EU was tacitly backing Turkey's
> right to retaliate after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German
> foreign minister,
> and Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, neither condemned
> nor openly
> supported Mr. Gul's declaration.
>
> The rebels, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seek to
> create an independent Kurdish state from parts of southeastern Turkey,
> northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran.
>
> Faced with an Arab insurgency and al-Qaeda resistance in central
> and southern
> Iraq, the U.S. has been reluctant to intervene in the north,
> where the mainly
> Kurdish population enjoys semi-autonomy.
>
> "We have not seen effective steps taken as of now," one senior
> Turkish diplomat
> said.
>
> But he also said there were numerous channels of communication
> open with the
> Iraqis and the Americans, and expressed confidence something short of a
> cross-border incursion would occur.
>
> The Turkish parliament would have to approve any military action outside
> Turkey's borders, but the government has already said it would
> back the armed
> forces if they requested permission to launch an attack.
>
>
>
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