[R-G] Turkey re-authorizes strikes in Iraq

[Anthony Fenton]

  Turkey re-authorizes strikes in Iraq
By Sabrina Tavernise
Thursday, October 9, 2008
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=16801289

ISTANBUL: Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to  
extend by one year its authorization of military operations against  
Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, keeping the door open to future  
strikes in the region.

The approval, by a vote of 497 to 18, had been largely expected, and  
occurred amid a flurry of attacks in Turkey's largely Kurdish  
southeast. Seventeen Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack on a  
border post late last week, and Turkey responded with several days of  
air strikes in Iraqi territory. A fresh attack on Wednesday killed  
five police officers and wounded 19 others on the outskirts of  
Diyarbakir in the southeast.

Turkey, a NATO member, has been fighting Kurdish separatists in its  
southeast since the 1980s, though the conflict has died down  
substantially in recent years. An attack on a border post last year  
set off a political confrontation between Turkey and Iraq, with Turkey  
conducting air strikes and a brief ground operation into Iraq.

A government mandate permitting the military to conduct operations  
outside Turkey was due to expire Oct. 17.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said Turkey had conducted 29 air  
operations, several artillery strikes as well as land operations under  
the previous mandate.

Turkey contends that Iraq does not do enough to curb the rebels, known  
as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who hide in the mountains  
along its northern border. Iraq says far more reside in Turkey.

The tension is a delicate matter for the United States, which counts  
Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds among its closest allies in a troubled  
region. When Turkey made a brief ground incursion early this year, the  
Bush administration pressed for a withdrawal. The Turkish strikes,  
however, have not ruined relations with Iraq, and even opened fresh  
lines of diplomacy between the countries.

The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, in a visit to Finland on  
Wednesday, said the extension of the mandate would be "used solely  
against the pinpointed targets of the terror organization," the state- 
run Anatolian News Agency reported.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the vote that  
operations against the separatists would continue, but added that  
solving the problem was "also about diplomacy, politics, sociology and  
psychology."

Local elections are planned for March and Erdogan's party is working  
to win votes in the southeast, a region that has chosen Kurdish  
parties in the past.

The attack in Diyarbakir occurred on a bus carrying police officers in  
training on a highway into the city. The assailants used long-range  
rifles, Anatolian reported, and a grenade was thrown, but did not  
explode.

Turkey's interior minister, Besir Atalay, said in a live television  
broadcast that the authorities had not yet identified the assailants.  
"Our pain is grave," he said.

The Reuters news agency, quoting a PKK spokesman, said the group took  
responsibility for the attack, but contended that it had been fired on  
first.

The attack is likely to increase the public pressure on Erdogan to act  
against the rebels.