Iraq Agreed On
Accord Reportedly Allows Turkish Forces To Cross Into Southern Kurdistan
Sep 26 2007
AFP
ANKARA - Turkey and Iraq agreed Wednesday on an accord that would reportedly
allow Turkish forces to cross into Iraq to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels,
officials and media reports said.
The accord will be signed Thursday, a member of the Iraqi delegation, Aydin
Halid, said after talks between interior ministers Jawad Al Bolani of Iraq and
Besir Atalay of Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported.
Under the agreement, Turkey would be allowed ‘hot pursuit’—small-scale military
operations across the border to hunt down militants of the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK), but would need Iraqi authorisation beforehand, the NTV and CNN Turk
news channels reported.
The two countries would also set up liasion offices along the border to
coordinate their efforts against the PKK, the reports said.
Ankara has threatened a military incursion to strike at bases of the PKK in
neighbouring northern Iraq if Baghdad and Washington fail to curb the rebels,
who notably stepped up attacks inside Turkey this year.
In August, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and his Turkish counterpart Recep
Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation that
paved the way for an agreement.
Turkey has accused the forces of Massoud Barzani, who heads the autonomous
Kurdish administration there, of tolerating the group and even providing it with
weapons, possibly including ammunition received from the United States.
Observers here doubt whether the embattled government in Baghdad, which has
virtually no authority in northern Iraq, can persuade the Iraqi Kurds to act
against the PKK, whose 23-year armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey
(Northern Kurdistan) has resulted in more than 37,000 deaths.
Washington has warned Ankara against an incursion into northern Iraq (Southern
Kurdistan), wary that it may destabilise a relatively peaceful region of the
country and fuel tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, staunch US allies.
