Turkey to Submit Report to U.N. on Southern
Kurdistan
Reuters
June 4, 2007
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will deliver a report to the United Nations this week
spelling out its concerns about militant Kurdish separatists in Iraq and
reaffirming its legal right to take action against them, an official said on
Monday.
The news comes as Turkey reinforces its troops along the border with Iraq and
the powerful army General Staff stresses its readiness for a cross-border
operation to crush guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
"Diplomacy first," said Monday's Sabah newspaper headline, saying the U.N. move
prepared the legal and diplomatic ground for the possible military operation,
which has already sparked alarm in the United States, Turkey's NATO ally.
The Foreign Ministry official told Reuters Turkey's permanent U.N.
representative, Baki Ilkin, would hold talks with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
this week.
"The terrorism incidents will be explained. A report will be presented
concerning the explosives and weapons we have determined are coming (into
Turkey) from northern Iraq," the official said.
"More cooperation from the United Nations is requested on this matter," he
added. The official declined to comment on the possibility of military action in
northern Iraq.
Ankara has long urged U.S. and Iraqi government forces to crack down on an
estimated 4,000 PKK guerrillas who use the mountains of northern Iraq as a
springboard to attack military and civilian targets inside Turkey.
But U.S. troops, battling an Arab insurgency in central and southern Iraq, are
reluctant to intervene in the relatively peaceful, mainly Kurdish north of the
country.
Turkey insists it has the right under international law to send troops into Iraq
in self-defense if need be. Parliament must approve any such action and the
government has said no plans are currently under consideration.
Parliament went into recess on Sunday ahead of July 22 elections, though the
government could recall it at any time if it decided to send troops into Iraq.
On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Turkey against using
military force against the PKK in Iraq. Iraq's prime minister also urged Ankara
over the weekend to tone down its threats of military intervention.
The Iraq situation has fuelled a strong rise in nationalism and anti-American
sentiment in Turkey ahead of the elections.
