Turkey is urged to use restraint

By Yesim Borg

Oct. 17, 2007 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

ISTANBUL, TURKEY — A top Iraqi official Tuesday called on Turkey to refrain from invading northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish separatists, a cross-border action that could spread violence into other parts of the fragile region.

“A political solution must be given priority to resolve this critical issue,” Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashimi said in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

Iraq dispatched Hashimi on an emergency mission to urge restraint. Baghdad, like Washington, fears that a major Turkish military operation across the border would destabilize a relative oasis of peace.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expects his nation’s parliament to grant permission to attack. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the matter today, but several Turkish officials said approval would not mean an imminent offensive.

Rather, it appears that Erdogan wants to have the threat of invasion in his arsenal.

“Adoption of the motion by the Turkish parliament does not mean that we are going to launch immediately a cross-border operation,” Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development Party on Tuesday. “We will do what it takes, at the right moment.”

“Everyone should understand that Turkey will not make any concession in its fight against terrorism,” Erdogan said. “Turkey’s patience has come to an end against those encouraging, supporting and sheltering terrorists. Now, it became a matter of self-defense.”

Erdogan appeared to be enunciating a veiled criticism of Iraq and the U.S., both of which have failed to rein in the estimated 3,000 Kurdish rebels camped out in northern Iraq.

Between 25 million and 40 million ethnic Kurds live in a region stretching across western Iran, northern Iraq, southern Turkey and eastern Syria. The Kurds of Iraq control an autonomous zone that allows them a degree of independence from the central government in Baghdad -- and, Turkish officials believe, provides a haven for Kurdish separatists from Turkey.

Hashimi, the Iraqi vice president, said his government was sympathetic to Turkey’s anger and grief after Kurdish rebels carried out some of their deadliest attacks on Turkish troops in more than a decade. But he said diplomacy, not firepower, had to resolve the matter.

Other Turkish politicians were more direct in their accusation that Iraqi authorities had been remiss as regards their stated willingness to crack down on the separatists, known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Turkish opposition parties are using a lack of progress on that front to lash out at Erdogan.

“It is high time for the Iraqi government to make a choice between Turkey and the PKK,” said Deniz Baykal, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party. “Turkey will no longer remain silent against terrorist acts.”

He demanded that Erdogan formulate and stick to a coherent policy to fight the rebels.

Purported PKK leader Murat Karayilan told Al Jazeera television Tuesday that his forces were prepared for Turkey to attack. He said Ankara’s motive was to undermine Iraqi Kurdistan, because a flourishing Kurdistan in Iraq encourages separatist sentiment among Turkey’s Kurds.

“Turkey might very well attack,” Karayilan said. “Its real aim is to put pressure on Iraqi Kurdistan.”