Turkey Urged to Stop Cross-border Operation
Threats
ANKARA (AFP) — Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel
Mahdi urged Turkey Wednesday to stop threatening cross-border military
operations against Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, saying unilateral
action will not help resolve problems.
Ankara has grown increasingly impatient with US
and Iraqi reluctance to crack down on the Kurdistan Labour Party (PKK), an armed
separatist group listed as a terrorist organisation by both Ankara and
Washington whose militants have taken refuge in northern Iraq, which abuts
Turkey.
"Such problems cannot be resolved through
unilateral moves," Mahdi told reporters after talks with Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul. "All countries in the region should seek cooperation and
respect each other's sovereignity." The Iraqi leader, a Shiite, also pledged
that Baghdad will do "all it can" to prevent the PKK from using Iraq as a
springboard for attacks on Turkish territory.
"In Iraq, we are fighting Iraqi groups, be they
Sunni or Shiite. It would be unthinkable for us not to fight foreign groups," he
said.
Ankara says about 3,000 PKK militants use
northern Iraq as a training ground, enjoy unrestricted movement there and obtain
arms and explosives for cross-border attacks. It has threatened military
incursions across the border if Iraq and the United States fail to curb the
rebels, whose 22-year campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey has resulted in
more than 37,000 deaths.
The Turkish army chief charged at the weekend
that Iraqi Kurds "fully" support the PKK and provide it with explosives.
