As the war widens.
Strange.
We support Turkey and call the PKK terrorists; then we use the same terrorists against Iran.
Are you sick of the bullshit and lies yet, readers?
"Kurdish rebels fatally shoot 13 Turkish soldiers; Army had slain suspect earlier" by Ferit Demir/Reuters October 8, 2007
TUNCELI, Turkey - Kurdish rebels shot dead 13 Turkish soldiers yesterday, the worst such shooting in years and likely to put more pressure on the government to authorize a cross-border military strike against Kurdish bases in Iraq.
The soldiers were killed after the Turkish Army - which has boosted its troops in the southeast and introduced security zones limiting access for civilians in the region - killed a suspect from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, earlier in the day in fighting in Sirnak Province.
"Thirteen members of our armed forces were killed in an attack . . . carried out by terrorists on one of our units serving in the Sirnak region," a General Staff statement said.
"The terrorists were pursued under fire by our units to escape routes out of the country to be stopped from leaving," it said in an apparent reference to Iraq, which borders Sirnak Province.
About 3,000 PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq and launch attacks on security and civilian targets in Turkish territory. Thousands of PKK rebels are also believed to be inside Turkey, which is seeking European Union membership.
The Turkish armed forces favour a cross-border operation, but Washington fears such a move could destabilize the only relatively stable part of Iraq. Turkey is a key NATO ally.
The ruling AK Party government has been reluctant to push for a cross-border operation, seeking instead to pressure Washington and Baghdad to act.
"Those who create, feed, and support terrorism should know that no force can stand against the determination of the Republic of Turkey to protect its inseparable integrity," the state Anatolian news agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying.
Last month Ankara and Baghdad signed an agreement to help clamp down on PKK militants on Iraqi territory, but it did not give Turkey permission to follow rebels into Iraq.
Turkey has criticized Iraqi and US authorities for failing to control the rebels.
There have been pockets of intense fighting in the southeast between the Kurdish rebels and the army before winter sets in.
Helicopters hit rebel positions after the soldiers were killed, security officials who declined to be identified said.
Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit, Anatolian reported.
In a separate attack, a bomb near a ferry terminal on the outskirts of Istanbul wounded four people, including a policeman. Kurdish rebels, as well as Al Qaeda and left-wing militants, have been blamed for such attacks against civilians and the authorities in the past.
On Sept. 29, PKK members stopped a minibus in Sirnak Province and killed 12 passengers. A Turkish soldier was killed in the region on Oct. 6.
The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The fighting dwindled after the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, but clashes have resumed in recent years. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union."
"Turkey Authorizes Troops to Enter Iraq to Fight Rebels" by SEBNEM ARSU and SABRINA TAVERNISE
ISTANBUL, Oct. 9 — Turkey took a step toward a military operation in Iraq on Tuesday, as its top political and military leaders issued a statement authorizing troops to cross the Iraq border to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the northern region.
Turkey moved toward military action in the face of strong opposition by the United States, which is anxious to maintain peace in the region, one of the rare areas of stability in conflict-torn Iraq. But more than two dozen Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent days, and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed far more determined than before to act decisively.
A government official without authorization to speak publicly on the issue who asked not to be identified by name, said preparations were under way to seek parliamentary approval for a cross-border military operation, a request that would be the first formal step toward an offensive.
The Associated Press reported that the request would be submitted to Parliament as early as Wednesday.
Government offices and institutions have been ordered “to take all economic and political measures, including cross-border operations when necessary, in order to end the existence of the terror organization in a neighboring country,” said the statement, which was released by Mr. Erdogan’s office, after he met with political and military leaders in Ankara.
A Turkish military offensive into northern Iraq, while unlikely, would have far-reaching consequences for the United States. Turkey is a NATO member and has the region’s most powerful army. Turkey’s support of the United States in the Iraq war is crucial. The United States’ Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey supplies the military in central Iraq.
Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said the United States had encouraged Turkish officials to work together with the Iraqi government.
“In our view, it is not going to lead to a long-term, durable solution to have significant incursions from Turkey into Iraq,” he said at a news briefing in Washington.
But Iraq’s government has little authority in the region, which is controlled exclusively by Kurds, and an accord reached by Iraq’s interior minister and senior Turkish officials last month did not include permission for military operations, a formulation that frustrated Turkey.
Relations between the United States and Turkey are delicate on another front. A bill on the Armenian genocide — the killing of more than a million Armenians by Turkey at the end of World War I — is due before the House Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Turks have been working to prevent its consideration, with Mr. Erdogan making phone calls Tuesday, according to a Turkish member of Parliament in Washington to work against the bill.
Its passage “would be insulting to Turkey,” said Egeman Bagis, the Parliament member. “It would mean losing Turkey’s support in the region.”
[So what, you fucking guys going to DENY a HOLOCAUST?!
I guess the alledged Jewish holocaust is the only one in history that matters, huh?
Not like stink Zionists control the AmeriKan MSM or anything, though!
If Ahmadinejad said this, I bet it would be front-page news!]
He did not say precisely what that might mean. Turkey ended military cooperation with France last year after France voted to make denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.
“It could make it very difficult for Turkey to continue supporting” the United States in Iraq, Mr. Bagis said.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, made a similar appeal to Israeli authorities on a visit over the weekend, asking them to press Congress to drop the matter. Turkey has close relations with Israel, and Turkish officials have bristled at a recent statement by the Anti-Defamation League declaring that the killing of Armenians was “tantamount to genocide.”
Some analysts said that given the complex relationships among Turkey, Iraq and the United States, Turkey would continue to consider military action a last resort.
Edip Baser, a retired general who was special coordinator in a United States-Turkey effort against the Kurdish Workers’ Party in 2006, said it was likely that political and military leaders would wait for the appropriate time to act.
The government official who asked not to be identified by name said: “Our government will soon start technical consultation with the military to see what they need in order to end this violence that make our hearts bleed. First, there needs to be necessary preparations and assessments. We can say that they have already started.”
Senior cabinet members, state officials and high-ranking military officials met Tuesday after President Abdullah Gul, Mr. Erdogan and Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the leader of the Turkish Army, vowed to strengthen efforts against the Kurdish Workers’ Party, the Kurdish rebel group."
