Kurdistan Observer

Kurdish Rebels Warn Of 'Mass War' Against Turkey

ARBIL, (Southern Kurdistan), May 3, 2006 (AFP) - The Kurdish rebel group PKK on Wednesday warned Turkey of a "mass war" if Ankara's forces enter Iraqi territory to fight its guerillas.

"We do not want war, but will launch a mass war against Turkey if its forces enter the Iraqi territory," Murad Karialan, chief of Kurdistan Workers' Party' (PKK) executive body told reporters.

He said the PKK can sustain a long drawn military conflict which can be "extended into Turkey in all the ways, be it politically, socially or economically.

"If the Turkish forces enter, that means Ankara is responsible for all the chaos that will hit Turkey," he warned.

The Turkish army said Tuesday it reserves the right to venture into Iraq to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels based there, but denied reports that such operations were already under way.

Turkey has amassed thousands of troops along the border with Iraq for what officials describe as a large-scale effort to prevent increasing infiltrations by PKK rebels based in mountainous hideouts in northern Iraq.

Ankara has long urged Washington and Baghdad to root out the PKK from northern Iraq, but it has been told that violence in other parts of the conflict-torn country is their priority.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been fighting Ankara since 1984 when it took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in adjoining southeast Turkey.

On Sunday, Baghdad accused Iranian forces of entering five kilometers (three miles) into Iraq and shelling PKK positions.

For around a year, Iran, which has its own Kurdish minority, has been battling infiltrations by Pejak, a Kurdish group linked to the PKK.