Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
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t-H<br />
Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti<br />
peacefully through dialogue," said<br />
Abdùl Rahman Cha<strong>de</strong>rchi, a spokes¬<br />
man, "We hope that the meeting<br />
between Mr Erdogan <strong>and</strong> Mr Bush<br />
will take into consi<strong>de</strong>ration our ac¬<br />
tions, what we did, releasing the hos¬<br />
tages. They must answer our needs<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>de</strong>m<strong>and</strong>s," he told The Times.<br />
The outlawed group is fighting to<br />
secure better rights for Kurds living in<br />
Turkey. It also wants its lea<strong>de</strong>r,<br />
Abdullah Ocalan, to be freed from a<br />
Turkish prison where he is serving a<br />
life sentence.<br />
"We hope that the release of the hos¬<br />
tages will be the beginning of the<br />
peaceful way to solvethese problems,"<br />
Mr Cha<strong>de</strong>rchi said.<br />
Iraqi Kurdish officials have voiced<br />
concern that Ankara is using the PKK<br />
as an excuse to threaten the growing<br />
prosperity <strong>and</strong> in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nce that<br />
Kurds are enjoying in northern Iraq.<br />
The United States applau<strong>de</strong>d the<br />
efforts of the Iraqi Government to<br />
secure the release of the soldiers. Sean<br />
McCormack, US State Department<br />
spokesman also urged "continued,<br />
<strong>de</strong>epened, <strong>and</strong> immediate cooperation<br />
between Iraq <strong>and</strong> Turkey in combat¬<br />
ting the PKK".<br />
Battle for i<strong>de</strong>ntity<br />
1984 PKK launches armed struggle<br />
against Turkey with the aim of<br />
creating an in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt Kurdistan<br />
1990 Drops calls for in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nce<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>de</strong>m<strong>and</strong>s more autonomy for<br />
the Kurds<br />
1999 Abdullah Ocalan, PKK lea<strong>de</strong>r,<br />
arrested <strong>and</strong> ceasefire begins as<br />
Bush hopes to calm<br />
Turkey with more aid<br />
U.S. offers an assist<br />
against Kurd rebels<br />
By Brian Knowlton<br />
WASHINGTON: Presi<strong>de</strong>nt George W.<br />
Bush offered the Turkish prime minis¬<br />
ter additional help on Monday in con¬<br />
taining Iraq-based Kurdish militants,<br />
part of a last-ditch U.S. attempt to <strong>de</strong>ter<br />
a threatened attack by Turkish troops<br />
massed at the bor<strong>de</strong>r.<br />
"I ma<strong>de</strong> it very clear to the prime<br />
minister that we want to work in a close<br />
way to <strong>de</strong>al with this problem," Bush<br />
said after his Oval Office meeting with<br />
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<br />
The presi<strong>de</strong>nt offered additional in¬<br />
telligence-sharing to help Turkey com¬<br />
bat the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or<br />
PKK a proposal advanced late last<br />
week by Secretary of State Condoleezza<br />
Rice in urgent meetings in Istanbul <strong>and</strong><br />
Ankara. Bush also promised closer co¬<br />
ordination between the countries' mil¬<br />
itaries in tracking the militants.<br />
Erdogan had effectively set Monday<br />
as a <strong>de</strong>adline for <strong>de</strong>ciding whether to<br />
send into action some of the tens of<br />
thous<strong>and</strong>s of Turkish troops now in the<br />
rugged bor<strong>de</strong>r area.<br />
He remin<strong>de</strong>d reporters Monday that<br />
the Turkish Parliament had voted over¬<br />
whelmingly on Oct. 17 to authorize a<br />
cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r incursion, "if necessary."<br />
The Turkish public also strongly sup¬<br />
ports military action; the PKK has<br />
killed at least 40 Turks in attacks in the<br />
past month.<br />
Bush faced a difficult balancing act..<br />
The administration hoped to offer Er¬<br />
dogan sufficiently tough-sounding re¬<br />
assurances to help him face down those<br />
in Turkey <strong>de</strong>m<strong>and</strong>ing military action,<br />
while doing everything possible to pre¬<br />
vent such an incursion, which could<br />
dangerously upset one of the few rela¬<br />
tively peaceful parts of Iraq.<br />
The presi<strong>de</strong>nt did not mince words<br />
Monday in con<strong>de</strong>mning the PKK guer¬<br />
rillas, saying: "They're an enemy of<br />
Turkey, they're an enemy of Iraq, <strong>and</strong><br />
they're an enemy of the United States."<br />
In promising to provi<strong>de</strong> better intelli¬<br />
gence, he said it was nee<strong>de</strong>d "to chase<br />
down people who mur<strong>de</strong>r people."<br />
But analysts said they were unsure<br />
whether the U.S. message would be<br />
enough.<br />
"The Bush administration Would like<br />
to just kick this can down the road," said<br />
Bulent Aliriza, Turkey Project director<br />
at the Center for Strategic <strong>and</strong> Interna¬<br />
tional Studies. "The problem is, the can<br />
has been kicked down the road to the<br />
point where now it can't be kicked any¬<br />
more."<br />
Aliriza said he feared that Erdogan,<br />
returning to face an angry public,<br />
would "have a tough time saying we<br />
don't have to do an intervention."<br />
A furious round of recent diplomacy,<br />
including Rice's meetings with Turkish<br />
<strong>and</strong> Iraqi officials, has failed to ease<br />
Turkish concerns.<br />
Nor did Iraqi assurances of<br />
heightened cooperation.<br />
"We are at the point where words<br />
have been exhausted <strong>and</strong> where there is<br />
need for action," Foreign Minister Ali<br />
Babacan of Turkey said Friday.<br />
The United States <strong>and</strong> the European<br />
Union consi<strong>de</strong>r the PKK a terrorist<br />
group, but the sensitivities of the bor<strong>de</strong>r<br />
area have left the Bush administration<br />
in a perplexed position.<br />
On Saturday, Kurdish authorities in<br />
Iraq closed offices in two cities of a<br />
political party allegedly linked to the<br />
group again waters down its<br />
<strong>de</strong>m<strong>and</strong>s<br />
2004 Rebels end their five-year<br />
ceasefire with Turkish Government,<br />
taking up a struggle that has killed<br />
about 37,000 people<br />
"May 2007 Turkey angered by US<br />
<strong>de</strong>cision to h<strong>and</strong> over security<br />
control to three Iraqi Kurdish<br />
northern provinces<br />
Sept 29 13 Turks killed in ambush<br />
in southeastern Sirnak province<br />
Oct 7 PKK kills 13 Turkish soldiers<br />
Oct 21 Eight soldiers captured <strong>and</strong><br />
12 killed by PKK. Turkey claims 32<br />
rebels killed In cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r clashes<br />
Oct 24 PKK positions bombed by<br />
Turkish jets, according to Turkish<br />
news agency<br />
Oct 28 Turkish troops kill 15<br />
suspected Kurdish rebels<br />
Sources: news agencies<br />
guerrillas <strong>and</strong> set up checkpoints to ar¬<br />
rest suspected militants.<br />
But Turkish officials said such moves<br />
in the past were short-lived. They have<br />
<strong>de</strong>m<strong>and</strong>ed the h<strong>and</strong>ing over of named<br />
PKK militants <strong>and</strong> the closing of their<br />
bases.<br />
Erdogan said he had discussed these<br />
matters with Bush "the dissolving of<br />
the terrorist camps, the capture of lead¬<br />
ers of the terrorist organization" but<br />
neither man indicated whether any<br />
commitments had been ma<strong>de</strong>.<br />
Bush <strong>de</strong>clined to answer how he<br />
would react should the Turks launch a<br />
major attack but said both si<strong>de</strong>s agreed<br />
that some action was necessary.<br />
Alizriza consi<strong>de</strong>rs a mass crossing of<br />
the bor<strong>de</strong>r by tens ofthous<strong>and</strong>s ofTurk¬<br />
ish troops to be "extremely unlikely."<br />
More likely, he said, are pinpoint airstrikes<br />
or limited comm<strong>and</strong>o attacks.<br />
The administration worries that a<br />
cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r incursion might set a pre¬<br />
ce<strong>de</strong>nt for other countries most wor-<br />
ryingly Iran that have conflicts with<br />
Kurdish rebels.<br />
Kurdish guerrillas on Sunday re¬<br />
leased eight Turkish soldiers captured .<br />
two weeks earlier in a bloody ambush.<br />
The rebels' top comm<strong>and</strong>er, Murat<br />
Karayilan, <strong>de</strong>scribed the move as an ef¬<br />
fort to soften relations with Turkish of¬<br />
ficials, but it seemed unlikely to as¬<br />
suage the <strong>de</strong>ep anger of Turkish<br />
officials.<br />
The release puts "some cards in the<br />
h<strong>and</strong>s of Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Bush," said Cengiz<br />
C<strong>and</strong>ar, a political analyst <strong>and</strong> colum¬<br />
nist for the Turkish newspaper Refer-<br />
Rkhard A. Oppel Jr. contributed re¬<br />
porting from Duhok, Iraq; Sabrina Tav-<br />
ernise from Istanbul; <strong>and</strong> an Iraqi em¬<br />
ployee ofThe New York Timesfrom Iraqi<br />
Kurdistan.<br />
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