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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti Gfie ilPfiilabelpfha Inquirer _2i^J Bush: U.S. will help Turks fight Kurd rebels By Desmond Butler Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Bush pledged fresh help yesterday to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in fighting Kurdish rebels, declaring them "an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States." In an Oval Office session, Bush offered intelligencesharing to help combat the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Bush also said top military officials from the United States and Turkey would be in more regular contact in an effort to track the mo¬ vement of the guerrilla fighters. "I made it very clear to the prime minister that we want to work in a close way to deal with this pro¬ blem," Bush told reporters. » Pilaklnfiia Inquirer Nov- 6- mi SUZAN FRASER The Associated Press With Turkish troops massed on the border of his country, Erdogan is weighing a major attack against the PKK in northern Iraq. The guerrillas have killed about 40 Turks in the last month in border raids, and pressure is growing on Erdogan to strike back. The White House worries that a Turkish incursion into Iraq could bring instability to what has been the calmest part of Iraq and could set a precedent for other countries, such as Iran, that have conflicts with Kurdish rebels. Asked about a potential Turkish attack, Bush called the question hypothetical. "It's fine to speculate about what may or may not happen," Bush said. "But nothing can happen until you get good intelligence. We need to know where people are hiding, and we need to know what they're doing." Erdogan said his government had the authority to mount an incursion into Iraq, but he gave no further indication of his intentions. Instead, he emphasized cooperation with the United States. "As strategic partners, we are fighting jointly against international terrorism in the world," Erdo¬ gan said. It is widely believed that the bulk of the PKK forces - which traditionally halt operations in the winter because of supply and logistical difficulties - have scattered as far as southern Iraq, as well as melting into the populations of large cities in the north. Bush and Erdogan met a day after the PKK released eight soldiers it had held for two weeks since capturing them in an ambush inside Turkey along the Iraqi border. Turkish Prez: Decision Made on Rebels ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's president said Tuesday his country "has decided" on how to proceed against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and had informed the United States. The U.S. and Iraq have been pressing Turkey to avoid a major cross-border attack on Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, rebel bases in northern Iraq out of fear such an incursion would bring instability to what has been one of the calmest areas in Iraq. President Abdullah Gul did not specify what deci¬ sion had been made regarding an attack, but made clear that Turkey feels that the PKK is leading to instability in the region itself. "Iraq's stability cannot be limited to fighting terro¬ rism in Baghdad or other regions," he said. "The terrorist organization in the north is also disrupting Iraq's stability." The comments come the day after President Bush fflf WiwWtifiiiti ffihttw DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - At least 150 teenagers from this city in southeastern Turkey have joined the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party in the past year, illustrating a ma¬ gnetic pull that many of their elders find baffling. Since the jailing of Kurdish nationa¬ list leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, the central government in Ankara has taken major steps to address Kurdish grievances. Their region is now free of military law; the use of Kurdish names has been legalized; Kurdish-language broadcasting is permitted for one hour a day; and, 44 met in Washington with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and promised him that the United States would share military intelligence in the hunt for PKK rebels. Gul said part of Erdogan's goal in his trip was to share with the United States the decision that the country has made on how to deal with the rebels. "Turkey had made its preparations and had decided what to do on the issue before the prime minister left," he said. PKK rebels have killed more than 40 Turks in hitand-run attacks over the past month, mainly sol¬ diers, raising the public pressure on Erdogan to retaliate. Tens of thousands of Turkish troops are poised at the southeastern border with Iraq, and experts speculate that if there is to be an attack this year, it must come soon before the winter weather des¬ cends upon the mountainous region making military action nearly impossible. Both the U.S. and the European Union have labeled By Nicholas Birch November 6, 2007 Kurdish teens drawn to rebels' ranks for the first time in a decade, Kur¬ dish nationalists are represented in parliament. The Turkish military, meanwhile, has waged a highly successful battle against the PKK as the Kurdistan Workers' Party is referred to by its Kurdish acronym at least in tactical terms. As many as 75 PKK members have died since militants attacked a Turkish platoon on Oct. 21, killing 12 soldiers and capturing eight all of whom were released over the weekend. President Bush added to the pres¬ sure on the rebel group yesterday, promising Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washing¬ ton that the United States will offer intelligence and other help in tling the PKK. bat¬ "The PKK is a terrorist organization. They're an enemy of Turkey; they're an enemy of Iraq; and they're an enemy of the United States," Mr. Bush said at a press conference after talks with Mr. Erdogan. Nevertheless, as Turkey"s No. 2 general conceded recently, Turkey has been "unsuccessful" in dissua¬ ding a new generation of Kurds from joining the militant organiza the PKK a terrorist organization, and Bush called the rebels "an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States." In addition to White House worries that a Turkish incursion into Iraq could bring instability to the area, it also is concerned an incursion could set a prece¬ dent for other countries, such as Iran, that have conflicts with Kurdish rebels. Yet, when asked about the possibility of Turkey attacking Iraq, Bush dismissed the question as hypothetical. He tried instead to assure Turkey that the U.S. is providing support. "It's fine to speculate about what may or may not happen," Bush said. "But nothing can happen until you get good intelligence. We need to know where people are hiding, and we need to know what they're doing." Erdogan said his government has the authority to mount an incursion into Iraq if necessary. But he gave no further indication of his intentions. tion. Military intelligence last year repor¬ ted that 40 percent of the estimated 3,000 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq had joined since the start of a PKK cease-fire, which began in 1999 and lasted five years. In Diyarbakir, locals say at least 150 teenagers enlisted this year. In Yuksekova, a city of 100,000, six have joined in the last month. In towns and villages across the region, the story is told in photos on the walls of homes like that of Irfan Gur, a slender man whose face is wrinkled from years of sun and
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti locally grown tobacco. There is a picture of his father, long dead, the top of his portrait covered in lace in accord with local tradition. Lace also covers the features of a much younger man, Mr. Gur"s son, a PKK militant who died fighting the Turkish army in 1994. Mr. Gur points to another photo¬ graph. "My youngest son," he said. "He went to join the group in July. I haven"t heard from him since." Many Kurds say they are surprised by the PKK"s continued ability to attract recruits, especially since the rebels dropped their separatist demands to call instead for "demo¬ cratic confederalism" a concept that few Kurds understand. Part of the explanation can be found outside Mr. Gur's front door. A decade ago, his neighborhood consisted of fields sloping down to a river. Now it's a slum, streets full of grubby children, some barefoo¬ ted, leaping over open sewers and piles of rubbish. Places like this exist throughout southeastern Turkey, filled with villagers forced from their homes by Turkish security forces during the 1990s. Diyarbakir's population, 350,000 a decade ago, is now nearly 1.5 million. Ninety percent of the fami¬ lies in some districts live below the poverty line. "What future do these children Turkish Daily News November 6 . Turkish Daily News November 6 . 2007 have?" one local journalist asked. "Crime, the PKK, radical Islam." Locals say it was poverty and a sense of neglect, rather than orga¬ nized PKK activity, that drove a recent riot in Diyarbakir, in which 11 persons, mainly children, were fatally shot by security forces. Poverty, though, is not a problem unique to southeastern Turkey. What makes it explosive here is the frustration that has grown since PKK leader Ocalan was captured in 1999. Despite the steps by Ankara to ease restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture, nationalists point to a flood of criminal investiga¬ tions opened against Kurdish politi¬ cians since elections in July. The DTP faces probe on soldier rescue latest came last week in response to calls for a revision of Turkey's unitary structure. When four policemen shot a 12- year-old boy 1 0 times in the back at close range in 2005, on the other hand, a court described it as "selfdefense" and freed the policemen. Nothing irks Kurds more than what they see as the partiality of the Turkish press and television. When a TV reporter enthusiastically des¬ cribed a military attack that killed 30 PKK fighters last week, student Semdin Dumankaya complained, "He makes it sound like a [soccer] match." Government and opposition parties unite in an assault on the DTP, claiming that the pro- Kurdish party is trying to paves the way for negotiations with the outlawed PKK through its latest initiative on the release of kidnapped soldiers GOKSEL BOZKURT ANKARA TDN Parliament Bureau An investigation was launched about three Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies yesterday who took back the eight missing Turkish soldiers from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq Sunday. Deputies of the Pro-Kurdish DTP, Aysel Tugluk, Osman Ôzçelik and Fatma Kurtulan had signed a document with the PKK terrorists during the release of the sol¬ diers, who called their engagement merely "humanitarian." But the DTP's initiative was frowned upon by a large part of the Turkish public as well as the government and other opposition parties. The Soldiers were taken hostage on Oct. 21. The chief public prosecutor's action came after a statement by government spokes¬ man, Cemil Çiçek, who claimed that the DTP deputies were caught red-handed as they were photographed while receiving the soldiers and jointly signing a docu¬ ment with the PKK on a table decorated with pictures of terrorist leader Abdullah Ôcalan. "We knew that our soldiers would be freed one day before their release and before the three mentioned deputies went [to northern Iraq]," said Çiçek, underlining that there was another point that must not be overlooked in the images. "It is clear who is close to the terror tion," he said. organiza¬ Those who denied knowledge on the whereabouts of the terrorists made a clear impression on Sunday, said Çiçek, lashing out at the DTP's rhetoric of "mediating for the sake of humanitarianism." The DTP earlier announced that the party regarded the hostage crisis from a humanitarian point of view, not from a political one. Mediation vs. negotiation As the DTP's influence on the PKK led to judicial action, discussions on the scale of DTP-PKK relations flared up in Parliament again. The DTP's self-declared role as "mediator" was interpreted as that of "negotiator" in Ankara. The DTP's objec¬ tive was seen as pushing for a political solution to the Kurdish problem by nego¬ tiating between the state and the PKK, a terrorist organization. Spokesmen of va¬ rious parties castigated the "mediation" initiative of the DTP by stressing that the state will not negotiate with terrorists. Politicians of Kurdish origins that gathe¬ red under the DTP made their first signifi¬ cant move this weekend. Three of them, Osman Ôzçelik, Aysel Tugluk and Fatma Kurtulan went to northern Iraq and took back the missing soldiers by contacting the PKK under surveillance of Iraqi offi¬ cials, northern Iraq government represen¬ tatives and U.S. soldiers. The DTP hig¬ hlighted its message to the public that it is the address to resort to for a political solution. The DTP's leader, Ahmet Turk, reiterated that they adopted a humanita¬ rian view of the crisis, speaking to Turkish Daily News. The DTP's head of parliamen¬ tary administration, Sirn Sakik, denied any ulterior motives for gaining political leverage from the hostage situation. "But we repeat this: Turkey must solve this problem with dialogue," he left. AKP angry with DTP Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group deputy leader, Nihat Ergun, said it is not clear how exac¬ tly the DTP was involved in the resolution of the hostage crisis, adding that these initiatives did not change the truth that the PKK spreads terror. "While the reality of terror remains in place, the DTP brin¬ ging soldiers back does not mean quitting the struggle," Ergun said. An end to the nation state will not be considered as part of a political solution if this is what they mean by a political solu¬ tion, said Ergun. "If DTP members want to bring terrorists back from the mountains, or convince the terrorist organization to give up violent methods, then let them use their influence," said Ergûn. He added that any possibility of negotiations bet¬ ween the state and the terror organization is inconceivable. 'DTP benefits from hostage crisis' Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) par¬ liamentary group deputy leader, Oktay Vural, said the DTP is after political gain by turning the hostage situation into a negotiation process. "It was known from the beginning who took the soldiers, who controlled them and who was in charge. The DTP knew this too," said Vural. "Was it the AKP who wanted the DTP to mediate? Did they ask Barzani to mediate between Turkey and Barzani? It was im¬ possible for the PKK to harm the soldiers anyway," said Vural, adding that the ex¬ ploitation of the event was a sign of the beginning of a negotiation process. Republican People's Party deputy leader, Cevdet Selvi, said they found the DTP's efforts to mediate with the PKK unhealthy. "Turkey would never negotiate with terro¬ rists. These attempts are merely intended to distract Turkey from a cross-border operation," he said. 45
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