Turkey Lawmakers OK Iraq Attack
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Parliament authorized the government Wednesday to carry out a cross-border attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, approving an offensive that would put Turkey at odds with the U.S. There was no sign of an imminent invasion.
The crisis along the Turkey-Iraq border, where the Turkish forces have massed since summer, has driven up oil prices along with tensions between Ankara and its NATO ally, the United States.
Bush said Turkey has had troops stationed in northern Iraq “for quite a while,” a reference to about 1,500 soldiers deployed for years to monitor the rebel Kurdistan Workers‘ Party, or PKK, with the permission of Iraqi Kurd authorities.
Although the vote lifted the last legal obstacle to an offensive, Turkish leaders apparently hoped that the threat of an incursion would prod Iraq and the U.S. to move against rebel bases.
Hours before the vote, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to say Iraq‘s government was determined to halt “terrorist activities” of the PKK on Iraqi territory, his office said.
But Erdogan warned that Iraq must rein in the guerrillas, the aide added. “If you don‘t solve the problem now, we will have no choice but to pursue the PKK inside Iraq,” he quoted the Turkish leader as saying.
Full AP article HERE
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Wow, I never saw clean Turkish troops before. They must be parade corp.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:25 pm