Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Iraqi Kurds call PKK to refrain from violence

The Presidency of Iraq's Kurdistan called Thursday the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) to refrain from violence as a method to deal with others.

An official spokesman for the Presidency told KUNA that the Iraqi Kurds leadership and people did not believe in the use of violence to reach any political goal, stressing that acts of using Iraqi soil to launch attacks on others was strongly prohibited by the constitution and law.

The spokesman called on the PKK to use other means to achieve their goals, saying that Iraq condemned their attacks of violence against others.

Iraq wanted to bolster cooperation with other states, he said.

On other matters, the Kurdish parliament expressed dissatisfaction with the Turkish parliament's decision to launch military operations on northern Iraq, indicating that such an act would violate the sovereignty of Iraq.

Head of the parliament Adnan Mufti said that Iraqi Kurds have the right to defend themselves if a large scale Turkish military action was taken.

Recent statements by PKK to halt all military activities was welcomed by Iraqis, affirmed Mufti who went on saying that Iraqi Kurds would not allow any group to use their country's soil to attack others.

Iraqi Kurds call PKK to refrain from violence | Iraq Updates

Turkish Leaders Increase Pressure on US, Iraq

Turkish leaders lent extra weight Thursday to their threat of a military incursion against Kurdish separatists holed up in northern Iraq, as an Iraqi delegation arrived in Ankara for crisis talks.

Just hours before the high-level delegation flew in, Turkish President Abdullah Gul had warned that Ankara was "running out of patience," while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said US calls for restraint were misplaced.

"Our security forces are determined to move as soon as the situation arises," Erdogan told reporters during an official visit to Romania.

Last week, the Turkish parliament authorised the government to order a military incursion into northern Iraq against mountain bases used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Since then, US and Iraqi calls for restraint have been met by Turkish demands that Washington and Baghdad make good on promises to crack down on PKK bases.

"We respect the territorial integrity and unity of Iraq, (but) we are running out of patience and we will not tolerate the use of Iraqi soil for terrorist activities," Gul said.

"We are fully determined to take all necessary steps to end this threat," he added.

The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984, and Ankara says the rebels enjoy a safe haven in northern Iraq from which to launch cross-border raids on Turkish troops.

Erdogan insisted that while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was welcome to voice hopes that Turkey would not overstep its border, "any decision on the necessity of such an incursion belongs to us."

The Turkish military said it had employed tanks and heavy artillery to thwart an attack Tuesday by "a large group" of PKK rebels against an army outpost on the border.

"More than 30 of the terrorists were rendered ineffective," said a statement on the website of the Turkish General Staff. Media reports said at least 30 rebels were killed.

It was the second confirmed attack in three days by the PKK against Turkish troops near the Iraqi border, after the ambush Sunday of a patrol that left 12 soldiers dead and eight taken prisoner.

The US deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Matthew Bryza, said in Ankara that Washington was "doing what it can" to obtain the release of the captured soldiers.

"We've made a whole series of commitments on eliminating the PKK terrorist threat. We mean it. We'll deliver on those promises. We are working on it ... with the Turkish government and the Iraqi government," Bryza said.

"We know we need to produce concrete results," he added. "Hostage-taking is absolutely unacceptable."

With tensions running high, the Iraqi delegation, led by Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim, arrived in Ankara in a fresh bid to avert any imminent Turkish strike.

The 11-member delegation includes Iraq's intelligence chief and senior officials from the Iraqi interior and foreign ministries, an Iraqi diplomat told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The delegation also includes representatives of the two major Iraqi Kurdish parties in northern Iraq and a US major about whom no other details were available.

"We came with concrete steps, concrete proposals," said Jassim, Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan made the same call during a one-day visit to Baghdad on Tuesday.

"I told Baghdad that the delegation must come with concrete proposals, that the visit would be futile otherwise," Babacan said. "We need more than just words."

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the closure of all PKK offices in Iraq in what was seen as a concession to intense US and Turkish pressure.

However, the autonomous Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq on Thursday insisted there were no such offices to close.

"We have no idea about such an office," the regional government's spokesman, Jamal Abdallah, told AFP.

"If Prime Minister Maliki knows about such an office in Iraq, let him close it," he added.

PUKmedia :: English - Turkish Leaders Increase Pressure on US, Iraq

Rice to Visit Turkey

The American Department of State announced that the Secretary Condoleezza Rice is going to visit Turkey next week in a new diplomatic effort to appease the tension between Iraq and Turkey about the PKK issue.

Sean McCormack, the Department of State spokesman said that Secretary Rice will visit Turkey in Nov. 2nd and 3rd to hold meetings with President Gul, PM Recep Tayeep Erdogan and other Turkish officials.

PUKmedia :: English - Rice to Visit Turkey

Zakho: Turkish Artillery Shelling

An exclusive source from Zakho district informed our website that the Turkish artillery started to shell the border areas today at 5:00 am. The bombardment resulted in damages without any casualties.

The Turkish artillery shells the border areas periodically under the pretence of the existence of PKK elements in these areas.

It is expected that the Turkish forces will launch a military operation in Iraqi Kurdistan Territories to pursue the PKK elements.

Turkish PM Recep Tayeep Erdogan stressed on launching a military operation, in ****e of the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s request.

PUKmedia :: English - Zakho: Turkish Artillery Shelling

PKK tactics may drive Turkey into a reluctant invasion

Soon after midnight last Sunday, a detachment of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) surrounded a 50-strong unit of the Turkish army near the village of Daglica in Hakkari province, three miles from Turkey's border with Iraq.

The operation was well planned. The PKK guerrillas first cut the electricity and telephone lines to the Turkish army post and then isolated it by blowing up a bridge. The besieged soldiers could see the PKK taking up positions through their night-vision equipment and monitored their radio communications.

When the PKK did attack it overran the outpost, killing at least 16 Turkish soldiers, wounding 17 and capturing eight whom the PKK still holds. The PKK claims only three of its men were slightly wounded and later released pictures of the Turkish prisoners.

It was the most effective PKK action for years and the Turkish government's reaction to it has re-launched the PKK as a political player in the region. It is no longer an irrelevant relic of its failed bid to lead the 15 million Turkish Kurds to independence which collapsed after its military defeat in the 1990s and the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.

Sunday's attack had an explosive impact on Turkey because the Turkish army and its civilian supporters are eager to persuade Turks that the moderate Islamist government is insufficiently patriotic. For his part, the Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan had been skilfully threatening to send the army across the border but not in fact doing so.

Talking to PKK leaders in their headquarters in the Qandil mountains it is not clear how far they are trying to tempt Turkey into a trap by provoking it into invading northern Iraq. A Turkish invasion would be much in the PKK's interests since the Turkish army would become embroiled with the powerful military forces of the Iraqi Kurds.

The PKK leaders do not feel themselves in much danger. The mountains and gorges have been a redoubt for guerrillas for thousands of years. "Nobody can get us out of here," says Bozan Tekin, a PKK leader, pointing to the mountain walls surrounding the cluster of stone houses where we met. He claimed that Alexander the Great had been balked by the mountains of Kurdistan and suggested the Turks would be no more successful.

The natural defences of the Qandil are impressive. We started in the plain below the mountains in the village of Sangassar and then drove along the side of steep hills, dotted with small oak trees, which fall away on one side to form a gorge.

At the top of a pass we entered PKK territory, the entrance to which is guarded by a series of checkpoints and PKK fighters in uniform. They told us to keep straight on to the village of Kurtak and not to divert off the road. Diversions were not tempting since the only side roads are rutted paths leading further into the mountains. Houses are few though nomads herding sheep had pitched their tents by the streams and were gathering firewood.

One of several difficulties facing a Turkish invasion force is that they are unlikely to locate the PKK in this wilderness of mountains. The place we met Bozan Tekin was miles away from the nearest PKK camp which, say local sources, can only be reached after an hour in a vehicle and seven or eight hours trek on foot. The base itself consists of scattered houses hidden in a cleft between the rocks.

But the strength of the PKK position has less to do with geography and more to do with the politics of the region. Since it was founded in 1978 the PKK has always benefited from Ankara's refusal to recognise that there is a Kurdish minority and the stifling of all means of constitutional protest. It still does.

Militarily, the PKK are not very strong. The figure given for its forces inside northern Iraq is about 3,000. They claim that they have been trying to abide by a ceasefire since 1 October 2006, but it is a curiously flexible ceasefire that includes the right of self-defence and retaliation. The PKK's pin-prick attacks do not have much military impact on the 100,000 Turkish soldiers massed north of the border. But they do inflict serious political damage on the Turkish government because any Turkish casualties drive it towards an invasion of Iraq that it does not want to carry out.

There is a further problem for Turkey that is also largely of its own making. The only Iraq force capable of evicting the PKK from its mountains is the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) led by Massoud Barzani. But Turkey refuses to recognise the KRG because it is Kurdish and will only deal with the Iraqi government in Baghdad which, as one observer put it, has "about as much influence in Iraqi Kurdistan as Britney Spears".

In an interview with Aljazeera English television Masrour Barzani, the powerful head of the Kurdish intelligence service (Parastin), says pointedly that if the KRG is not consulted about an agreement between Baghdad and Ankara then it will not necessarily go along with it. In any case, he says the PKK bases are "in remote and isolated areas" outside his government's control.

PKK tactics may drive Turkey into a reluctant invasion | Iraq Updates

Al-Hakeem, British envoy discuss security, political situation in Iraq

Head of al-Mihrab Martyr's Foundation for Islamic Call Ammar al-Hakeem discussed with British Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Prentice the security and political situation in Iraq, according to a statement released by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC).

"Al-Hakeem discussed with the British envoy to Iraq recent developments in the political and security situation," said the statement that was received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The statement quoted Prentice as reiterating his government's support for the Iraqi government and its efforts to stabilize security in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, al-Hakeem, who is also the head of the SIIC, outlined the council's efforts to bring differing viewpoints closer and push the political process forward.

Al-Hakeem, British envoy discuss security, political situation in Iraq | Iraq Updates

Iran involved in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq - paper

A U.S. State Department official, toughening the U.S. administration's line on Iran, said that there was no doubt that the top leaders in Tehran were directing Iranian forces that the administration is holding responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq, the U.S. Los Angeles Times newspaper said on Thursday.

"Senior Iraq Advisor David Satterfield said "there is no question in our minds whatsoever" that Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops "are very much under the direction and command of the most senior levels of the Iranian government," the paper added.

"The U.S. administration has repeatedly charged that Iranian troops and agents are shipping sophisticated explosives into Iraq, training Iraqi militants and taking other actions counter to American goals. However, U.S. military officials have released no conclusive evidence that Iranian weapons and training were supplied by top authorities in Tehran, and have been careful not to say whether they believe that senior or lower-level government officials are involved," it added.

Iran has denied providing military aid to combatants in Iraq.

"Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and White House official, said Satterfield's comments reflected "the growing frustration the administration is feeling about this" because officials believe Tehran has not heeded warnings to scale back its alleged activities in Iraq," the newspaper reported.

Though he has strongly criticized some aspects of the administration's Mideast policies, Riedel added that he believed Satterfield was correct in stating that the senior Iranian leadership is directing the operations in Iraq.

"The issue of Tehran's role first came into public view at the beginning of the year, when the administration began publicizing accusations of Iranian involvement in increasingly sophisticated roadside bombings of U.S. troops," the paper said.

"At a February briefing with reporters in Baghdad, an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, asserted that the operatives who had provided the advanced explosives were being directed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," it affirmed.

"It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved," Marine Gen.

Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said shortly after the Baghdad briefing. "But I would not say from what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."

Iran involved in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq - paper | Iraq Updates

Amedi… Turkish Bombardment

A source from the border areas of Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey, said that the Turkish artillery started again at 12:00 pm today to shell Bi Tkar village, Berwari Bala area in Amedi district without knowing the casualties.

Meanwhile, Medias said that the Iraqi delegation which includes representatives from Kurdistan Region started its meetings today with the Turkish officials to discuss the PKK issue.

PUKmedia :: English - Amedi… Turkish Bombardment

A High-Level Iraqi Delegation held Talks with Turkish Officials

A high-level Iraqi delegation headed by Iraqi defense minister, Abdul Qadir Mohammed Jassim met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Friday in Ankara for critical talks aimed at dealing with the crisis between Turkey and PKK.

The talks lasted 90 minutes and no information was known about the core of the meeting.

Following the meeting, Ali Babacan visited the Turkish general staff to discuss the situation with the Turkish army officials.

According news agencies until now any time table for other meetings haven’t been set.

In addition to Sherwan Waely, the Iraqi National Security Minister of State, Emad Ahmed, representative of PUK, Safin Dizaee, representative of KDP are accompanying the Iraqi delegation.

Turkish Media reported that the Turkish government is concerned about the participation of the two representatives of PUK and KDP and according to some Media reports because of the representatives of PUK and KDP representatives Turkish General Staff did not participate in the meeting between the Iraqi delegation and the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Also according Media channels if crisis of participating the PUK and KDP representatives’ will be ended, the meetings will resume this afternoon.

PUKmedia :: English - A High-Level Iraqi Delegation held Talks with Turkish Officials

Turkish FM to Visit Iran

Turkish Foreign Minister, Ali Babacan will visit Iran tomorrow. An official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Babacan will discuss the regional situation , particularly in Iraq, and the conflict with PKK with his iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki.

The visit comes prior to foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring countries are set to meet in Istanbul.

PUKmedia :: English - Turkish FM to Visit Iran