Iraq seeks talks on Turkey threat

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Baghdad has called for "urgent negotiations" over Turkey's threat to carry out cross-border raids against Kurdish rebels.


Turkish military hardware has been gathering near the border


Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki held an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

"The Iraqi government calls on the Turkish government to hold urgent talks," said Mr Maliki's spokesman.

But Turkey has said its patience has run out over the handling of Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

Turkey is seeking parliamentary permission for a cross-border operation to hunt down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members.

Ankara argues the group is a terrorist organisation responsible for the deaths of at least 15 Turkish soldiers in the past two weeks, and says the Kurdish separatists enjoy freedom of movement in northern Iraq.

Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Hashemi has arrived in Ankara in an attempt to dissuade Turkey from staging a cross-border offensive.

The Sunni vice president was expected to discuss "all aspects of bilateral ties" with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, a Turkish diplomat told AFP.

'Multiple operations'

Turkey hopes it will not be forced to resort to military action, even if its motion gained approval in parliament, Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.


"I sincerely wish that this motion will never be applied," he said in televised comments.

"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow."

Mr Erdogan's AK Party, which has a parliamentary majority, is expected to vote in favour of the motion on Wednesday.

If passed, the vote will authorise cross-border operations for one year with the government deciding on the timing, scope and frequency of any incursions.


Ankara says the PKK are terrorists who move freely in northern Iraq

Mr Erdogan called on Iraq's government and the regional administration in the country's north to crack down on the rebels, saying they should "build a thick wall between themselves and terrorist organisations".

He added that any military operation would respect Iraq's territorial integrity and only target the rebels.

Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, told the BBC there was no co-operation with the PKK.

"We have not helped the PKK and we are not helping it," he said. "Their bases are not under the control of the Kurdistan regional authorities."

Iraq signed a counter-terrorism pact with Turkey last month, but opposes any military incursion into its territory.

The US has also warned Ankara against ordering any incursions into Iraq.



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The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been a thorn in Turkey's side for decades.

The group, which has Marxist-Leninist roots, was formed in the late 1970s and launched an armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984, calling for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey.

Since then, more than 37,000 people have died. During the conflict, which reached a peak in the mid-1990s, thousands of villages were destroyed in the largely Kurdish south-east and east of Turkey, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to cities in other parts of the country.

In the 1990s, the organisation rolled back on its demands for an independent Kurdish state, calling instead for more autonomy for the Kurds.

In 1999, it suffered a major blow when its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested.

Escalating violence

Shortly afterwards, it introduced a five-year unilateral ceasefire and took a number of steps to try to change its image and widen its appeal, changing its name several times before deciding it again wanted to be known as the PKK.


Many Turkish soldiers have died in clashes with the PKK

It also further watered down its demands, calling on Ankara to involve it in the country's political process, allow more cultural rights for the country's estimated 15 million Kurds and release imprisoned PKK members.

There were reports of splits within the organisation.

But Turkey, which, like a number of Western countries, regards the PKK as a terrorist organisation, refused to negotiate with it and has offered only a limited amnesty to its members.

In 2004, the PKK resumed its violent campaign, which has escalated steadily over the past two years despite several other short-lived, unilateral ceasefires.

Two recent attacks - the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers in a single clash and the killing of 12 civilians in a bus ambush - were regarded as being among the worst over recent years.

Splinter groups

Although Turkey's ruling AK Party has recently made political gains in the south-east, many Kurds, and the European Union, say the government needs to do a lot more to improve the rights of the country's Kurdish minority.


Several rebel groups swear allegiance to Ocalan

And the PKK remains popular with many people there. At the annual Kurdish spring festival, Nowruz, Kurds regularly take to the streets proclaiming their support for the group's imprisoned leader Ocalan.

A group said to be an offshoot of the PKK, calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb blasts in Istanbul and Turkish Mediterranean resorts. The group also swears allegiance to Ocalan.

And the last few years have also seen the rise of a sister organisation - Pejak - which has carried out attacks against Iran.

Turkey believes that the PKK currently has several thousand fighters based in the Candil mountains of northern Iraq; an area which is also said to be a base for Pejak.

With violence in south-eastern Turkey rising and the US and the Iraqi Kurds apparently unwilling, or unable, to take action against PKK bases in Iraqi territory, the Turkish government is now threatening to take matters into its own hands.


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