Hewler, Baghdad, Ankara, White House Deny
Reports of Turkish Incursion
June 6, 2007
(AFP) -- The foreign ministers of both Iraq and
Turkey, as well as the White House, all denied reports Wednesday that Turkish
troops had launched a cross-border raid to strike Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq's
northern highlands.
Turkey has stepped up its military presence in
its own southeastern region, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP,
but both he and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul denied there had been a
recent incursion.
Ankara suspects northern Iraq's Kurdish
authorities of turning a blind eye to cross border attacks by separatist
fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting for
self-rule in southern Turkey.
In recent weeks the tone of the dispute has
hardened following a spate of attacks by Kurds inside Turkey, spawning
Wednesday's invasion rumours.
"These reports are inaccurate. There hasn't
been any Turkish military incursion into Iraqi territory," Zebari told AFP in a
telephone interview.
"We've checked those reports with Kurdish
regional authorities and with border guards all along the Turkish frontier. They
denied that there has been any such incursion or any operation whatsoever," he
said.
The minister, himself an Iraqi Kurd, confirmed
the Turkish military was increasing its presence near the border, but denied it
was on the move.
"There has been Turkish build-up for some time,
but it's all been in their own territory, there hasn't been any movement across
the border," he said.
In Turkey, Gul confirmed this, telling
reporters: "There is no incursion into any other country at the moment. There is
no such thing. If there ever is, we will tell you."
But he warned that Ankara's patience was not
limitless.
"No one should forget that we are involved in a
war on terror. We will not flinch from taking whatever action is necessary to
eradicate terror... There are preparations in that respect," he said.
The White House also denied reports with White
House spokesman Gordon Johndroe stating: "I am here to say that the Turkish
government and US officials on the ground say that it is not occurring."
Johndroe was speaking in the northeast German
city of Rostock, not far from Heiligendamm, where US President George W. Bush
was attending a summit of Group of Eight leaders.
"There's been no new activity" on the part of
the Turkish military, aside from increasing its presence near the border,
Johndroe said.
Since April, the Turkey has been conducting
large-scale operations against the PKK, including in areas close to the Iraqi
border.
The Turkish media has reported that thousands
of troops, backed by heavy armour and air power, are involved in the operation,
triggering speculation that the army is poised to pour into northern Iraq.
But the head of Iraq's troops on its northern
frontier with Turkey on Wednesday also denied the reports of a Turkish raid,
which were carried on several websites and news agencies, but not AFP.
Colonel Hussein Roshid, the commander of the
Iraqi border guards in the Kurdish province of Dohuk, said: "It's untrue. There
have been no cross-border incursions on the Iraqi frontier in Dohuk."
Roshid said that last month there had been a
brief Turkish military push into Dohuk, the Iraqi province bordering Turkey,
which saw troops push two kilometres (one mile) into Iraqi territory near Zakhu.
But the probe was short-lived and had not been
repeated, he said.
The PKK, branded a terrorist group by Ankara
and much of the international community, has been fighting for self-rule in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed
more than 37,000 lives.
Turkey also suspects Iraqi Kurds of designs to
break away from Baghdad and set up their independent state which, it fears,
would embolden the PKK and fan separatism among the restive Kurdish community in
Turkey.
In the latest of stern warnings to Iraqi Kurds,
the Turkish army last week threatened to respond "at the highest level"
following an incident in which it said a military liaison team was harassed at a
checkpoint in northern Iraq.
Turkey does have a small force, estimated to be
1,300 troops, deployed inside northern Iraq to keep an eye on rebel movements in
the highland region near the remote town of Barmeni, but Zebari insisted that
the longstanding presence was with Kurdish approval.
