Turkey Rejects Cease Fire By Rebel Kurds
Turkish army troops head towards the Iraqi border in Cizre, town of Sirnak.
BAGHDAD - Turkey‘s foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels Tuesday as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
Iraqi officials have been saying that guerrillas with the rebel Kurdistan Workers‘ Party, which is known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, were based in inaccessible mountainous areas of northern Iraq.
The mix of diplomatic and military activity followed Sunday‘s rebel ambush near the Iraqi border that left 12 Turkish soldiers dead, 16 wounded and eight missing.
Britain has backed the United States in trying to keep Turkey from crossing into Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels based there. The U.S. and others fear a Turkish attack could lead to widespread bloodshed in one of Iraq‘s few relatively peaceful areas.
Babacan said rebel attacks this month alone left 42 people dead.
Cease-fires are “possible between states and regular forces,” a stern-faced Babacan said. “The problem here is that we‘re dealing with a terrorist organization.”
“The position of the PKK is that we have agreed to a cease-fire but when we are attacked by the Turkish troops we will hit back,” rebel spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“When they were attacking us, they were our enemies but now they are helpless captives whom we will take care of,” al-Chadarchi said. “When the Turkish government asks for them, we can talk about conditions.”
Full AP article by Hamza Hendawi Here.
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well wasn’t an incusion too when Israeli entered into Lebanon last year to search their hostage fellows ?
then the Turks plan the same to get their 8 soldiers from PKK
as PKK is officially a terrorist organisation, Turkey is allowed to go on
http://www.euractiv.com/en/foreign-affairs/interview-eu-supports-turkey-pkk-terrorists/article-167805
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:45 am