WARNING 18 +
In the Rugged North of Iraq, Kurdish Rebels Flout Turkey
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: October 29, 2007
RANIYA, Iraq, Oct. 27 — A low-slung concrete building off a steep mountain road marks the beginning of rebel territory in this remote corner of northern Iraq. The fighters based here, Kurdish militants fighting Turkey, fly their own flag, and despite urgent international calls to curb them, they operate freely, receiving supplies in beat-up pickup trucks less than 10 miles from a government checkpoint.
“Our condition is good,” said one fighter, putting a heaping spoonful of sugar into his steaming tea. “How about yours?” A giant face of the rebels’ leader —
Abdullah Ocalan, now in a Turkish prison — has been painted on a nearby slope.
The rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., is at the center of a crisis between Turkey and Iraq that began when the group’s fighters killed 12 Turkish soldiers on Oct. 21, prompting Turkey, a
NATO member, to threaten an invasion.
But the P.K.K. continues to operate casually here, in full view of Iraqi authorities. The P.K.K.’s impunity is rooted in the complex web of relationships and ambitions that began with the American-led invasion of Iraq more than four years ago, and has frustrated others with an interest in resolving the crisis — the Turks, Iraqis and the Bush administration.
The United States responded to the P.K.K. raid by putting intense pressure on Iraq’s Kurdish leaders who control the northern area where the rebels hide, with a senior State Department official delivering a rare rebuke last week over their “lack of action” in curbing the P.K.K.
But even with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice scheduled to visit Istanbul this week, Kurdish political leaders seemed in no hurry to act.
An all-out battle is out of the question, they argue, because the rugged terrain makes it impossible to dislodge them.
“Closing the camps means war and fighting,” said Azad Jindyany, a senior Kurdish official in Sulaimaniya, a regional capital. “We don’t have the army to do that. We did it in the past, and we failed.”
But even logistical flows remain uninterrupted, despite the fact that Iraqi Kurdish leaders have some of the most precise and extensive intelligence networks in the country. As the war has worsened, the United States has come to depend increasingly on the Kurds as partners in running Iraq and as overseers of the one part of the country where some of their original aspirations are actually being met.
Iraqi Kurdish officials, for their part, appear to be politely ignoring American calls for action, saying the only serious solution is political, not military. They have taken their own path, allowing the guerrillas to exist on their territory, while at the same time quietly trying to persuade them to stop attacks.
“They have allowed the P.K.K. to be up there,” said Mark Parris, a former American ambassador to Turkey who is now at the
Brookings Institution. “That couldn’t have happened without their permitting them to be there. That’s their turf. It’s as simple as that.”
The situation poses a puzzle to the United States, which badly wants to avert a new front in the war, but finds itself forced to choose between two trusted allies — Turkey, a NATO member whose territory is the transit area for most of its air cargo to Iraq, and the Kurds, their closest partners in Iraq.
The United States “is like a man with two wives,” said one Iraqi Kurd in Sulaimaniya. “They quarrel, but he doesn’t want to lose either of them.”
Kurds are one of the world’s largest ethnic groups without a state, numbering more than 25 million, spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
Most live in Turkey, which has curtailed their rights, fearing secession. The P.K.K. wants an autonomous Kurdish area in eastern Turkey, and has repeatedly attacked the Turkish military, and sometimes the civilian population, since the 1980s, in a conflict that has left more than 30,000 dead.
In this small town a short drive from the edge of rebel territory, and in Sulaimaniya, 55 miles to the south, it is business as usual. A political party affiliated with the rebel group is open and holding meetings. Pickup trucks zip in and out of the group’s territory, and a government checkpoint a short drive away from the area acts as a friendly tour guide. Its soldiers said they had waved through eight cars of journalists on one day last week.
Mala Bakhtyar, a senior member in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party that governs this northeastern region, said there had been no explicit orders from Baghdad to limit the P.K.K., and scoffed at last week’s statement by the Iraqi prime minister,
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, that Iraq would close the P.K.K.’s offices, saying they had already been shut long ago.
“They are guests, but they are making their living by themselves,” Mr. Bakhtyar said. “We don’t support them.”
He added: “We don’t agree with them. We don’t like to make a fight with Turkey.”
Fayeq Mohamed Goppy, a leader in the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party, an offshoot of the P.K.K. that still operates freely, argues that Iraqi Kurdish leaders are only paying lip service to wanting the P.K.K. to leave. In reality, the politicians want the separatists around as protection against Sunni Arab extremists, who most Iraqi Kurds believe will move in if the P.K.K. leaves the mountains.
Noshirwan Mustafa, a prominent Kurdish leader, said the area was as impenetrable as the mountains in Pakistan where leaders of
Al Qaeda and the
Taliban are thought to be hiding. “For me, the P.K.K. is better than the Taliban,” he said.
Local Kurdish authorities have asked Mr. Goppy to keep a low profile, including canceling a planned conference in Erbil, he said, but otherwise have not limited his activities.
“They really don’t want P.K.K. to go,” he said in an interview in his home in Sulaimaniya. If the group is eliminated, the Iraqi Kurdish area “is a really small piece for eating, very easy to swallow.”
Mr. Parris argues that the Kurdish leader of northern Iraq,
Massoud Barzani, ever astute, is holding onto the P.K.K. as a future bargaining chip with Turkey, and will not use it until he absolutely has to.
“The single most important piece of negotiating capital may very well be his ability to take care of the P.K.K.,” he said.
Mr. Jindyany said local authorities would be happy to get rid of them if they could, calling the situation a sword of Damocles for Iraqi Kurds.
Throughout its history in northern Iraq, which dates back to the early 1980s, under an agreement with Mr. Barzani, the P.K.K. has had contentious relations with Iraqi Kurdish leaders. It fought in their civil wars, against Mr. Barzani in 1997, and three years later, against
Jalal Talabani, a powerful Kurd who is now the president of Iraq.
But since the American invasion in 2003, the political landscape has changed. Iraqi Kurds, emboldened by their secure position, have stopped fighting each other and turned their attentions to other threats like Turkey, a state that has long oppressed its Kurdish population, and Islamic extremism from Baghdad.
This area of northern Iraq, which Iraqis call Kurdistan, in some ways eclipsed the P.K.K.’s struggle for an autonomous Kurdish area, Iraqi Kurds said.
“They were jealous of our autonomy,” said Goran Kader, a Communist Party leader in Sulaimaniya. “They wanted to do the same thing in Turkey.”
At the same time, the P.K.K. was reorganizing, after its leader, Mr. Ocalan, was captured in 1999, and a skilled group of military commanders took over day-to-day operations, said Aliza Marcus, the author of “Blood and Belief: The P.K.K. and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.”
The commanders were intent on military escalation, she said, and stepped up attacks, under Mr. Ocalan’s jailhouse orders, in part to remain relevant.
“They don’t want to be sidelined,” Ms. Marcus said. “That’s really what’s driven them since 2004,” when attacks resumed after a five-year cease-fire. “They want to say, ‘Turkish Kurds are important too — don’t think the Kurdish problem has been solved.’ ”
The ambush of Turkish soldiers on Oct. 21, which took place just a few miles from the Iraqi border, served the purpose perfectly.
Public sympathy in Raniya and Sulaimaniya is enormous, and the fighters procure supplies and health care here with ease. Fighters do not go to hospitals, for fear of standing out — the ones from Turkey speak a different Kurdish dialect — but are treated in doctors’ homes, said one former fighter, an Iraqi Kurd who was recruited at age 14.
“Their organization is everywhere,” said the fighter, who now works as a police officer for the main political party, after surrendering to local authorities in 2003. “Their members are everywhere.”
To Iraqi Kurds, Turkey’s approach is pure politics. There is no military solution to the problem of the P.K.K., they say, because the terrain would never permit victory, and Turkey’s leaders know that.
The solution, Mr. Mustafa argued, lies with moderates in Turkey, who must push for an amnesty for the rebels. Militant Kurds, for their part, should take advantage of the political opening in Turkey — 20 Kurdish deputies are now serving in Parliament there.
“When you have the door to the Parliament open, why are you going to the caves?” he said.
To that aim, talks were held with intermediaries for the P.K.K., Mr. Bakhtyar said. Since then, the rebels have not attacked, and officials and security analysts say that if the quiet holds until Turkey’s prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meets with Ms. Rice on Friday and with President Bush three days later, he might not be pressured into military action.
“Soon there will be snow,” Mr. Kader said. “The roads will be blocked. That will be that until next year.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed reporting from New York.
U.S. Envoy Presses Iraq to Act Against Guerrillas
By JAMES GLANZ and ANDREW KRAMER
Published: October 26, 2007
BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 — Ambassador
Ryan C. Crocker said Thursday that
Iraq should disrupt supply lines and develop a “lookout list” of senior leaders for the Kurdish guerrillas who use the northern Iraqi mountains as a safe haven for attacks inside Turkey.
Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at the Victoria Palace in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday.
But Mr. Crocker, the American ambassador here, stopped short of supporting Turkish demands that Iraq take military action against the guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., or extradite its leaders to Turkey. The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to make incursions into Iraq to strike at the fighters.
Any Iraqi military expedition, Mr. Crocker said, would run into the geographic fact that the northern mountains, called the Qandeel range, are remote and inaccessible. “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that the Iraqis are going to march up that mountain and take on the P.K.K. and arrest their leaders,” Mr. Crocker said. “This is in the hard-to-do category.”
It was unclear whether the new American demands would be enough to keep Turkey from crossing the border.
The Iraqi government was also working furiously to avert an incursion, as a delegation of senior Iraqi officials traveled to Ankara for talks on Friday. Iraq’s foreign minister,
Hoshyar Zebari, on Thursday urged Turkish authorities to accept steps that sounded similar to the ones being demanded by Mr. Crocker.
Mr. Zebari said in a telephone interview that the delegation to Ankara would offer “practical steps and measures to be taken by the Iraqi government to pacify, isolate and disrupt P.K.K. activities.”
The delegation would not be authorized to discuss approving any Turkish military actions inside Iraq, said Mr. Zebari, who is himself a powerful Iraqi Kurdish politician. The Iraqi officials, he said, would offer to stop arms supplies and logistical assistance to the rebels.
Mr. Zebari conceded that the offer fell short of Turkish demands, but said that it represented the best possible proposal from the Iraqi side.
Turkey’s prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asked the United States on Thursday to take action along with Turkey in the struggle against the guerrillas, saying that the United States had taken action against Iraq with less immediate provocation.
“One would question why America has come to Iraq from thousands of miles away,” he said at a news conference during an official visit to Romania. “We have a disturbance. What kind of disturbance did the United States have with Iraq? Right now, the United States, as our strategic ally, is in a position to act along with us. We acted along with them in Afghanistan.”
With public anger rising after months of attacks in Turkey by the Kurdish rebels, the Turkish Parliament approved a measure earlier this month to allow troops to cross the border to fight them. But the United States has intensified diplomatic efforts to ward off an incursion that could destabilize one of the few relatively peaceful regions of Iraq.
Mr. Erdogan insisted that the decision was up to Turkey, not the United States. “They can suggest that a military operation not be conducted,” he said, “but we make the decision whether we need to do it or not.”
Mr. Crocker, meeting with Western reporters at the American Embassy in Baghdad, also made extensive remarks on Iran and, for the first time, on the Sept. 16 shooting on Nisour Square in Baghdad involving
Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects American diplomats. According to the Iraqi government, 17 Iraqis were killed in that incident and 24 were wounded.
Just before the Nisour Square shooting, Mr. Crocker had strongly defended the use of security contractors like Blackwater in testimony to Congress. Asked Thursday if he now thought better of those comments, Mr. Crocker at first said: “These guys guard my back. I have to say they do it extremely well.
“That said, the incident in September was a horrific one,” Mr. Crocker continued. He expressed serious concern over what happened but did not address whether the shooting was justified. As the chief official at the Embassy, Mr. Crocker said, “I’m responsible,” but he said that he would wait until an
F.B.I. investigation is finished to draw conclusions.
Mr. Crocker reiterated assertions by the United States that Iran was providing support to armed groups in Iraq, and raised a new concern that elements of the Mahdi Army, which is nominally under the control of the radical Shiite cleric
Moktada al-Sadr, have moved from militant activities to financially profitable activities such as gas stations and basic services in neighborhoods.
That shift suggests, Mr. Crocker said, a “Hezbollahzation” of parts of Iraq: an emphasis not just on military force but also on social networks, the hallmark of Iranian-supported
Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Finally, he made clear that that there was strong American support for at least some of the demands being made on the Iraqi government by Turkey. “We have been registering our support, our sympathy for their losses and their outrage, which we share,” he said.
No Trial for U.S. Soldier
ROME, Oct. 25 — An Italian court ruled Thursday that it did not have jurisdiction to continue a trial against an American soldier who killed a top Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005. The trial, a continuing irritant in relations between Italy and the United States, had been held in absentia because American officials refused to hand over the soldier, Mario Lozano.
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Ankara, Turkey.
Iraq Plan to Add U.S. Troops at Kurdish Border Is Rejected by Turkey
Reuters
Students protested Kurdish incursions on Friday, and Turkey's premier rebuffed Iraq's plan for Americans at the border.
By SEBNEM ARSU and ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: October 27, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 26 — Turkey’s prime minister on Friday rejected an Iraqi proposal that included a military role for the United States in resolving a standoff over raids by Kurdish guerrillas across the rugged border into Turkey.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
As Iraqi and Turkish officials met in Ankara on Friday, Turkish commandos took a break beside their cannons, about two and a half miles from the Iraq border.
The offer, made by a delegation of senior Iraqi officials, was rejected by Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said it failed to meet his country’s demands in dealing with the guerrillas, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K. In its latest raid, on Sunday, the group killed 12 Turkish soldiers and took eight captive.
“I can say that there is not really anything positive or anything that met our expectations,” Mr. Erdogan said, after his foreign minister, Ali Babacan, met with the Iraqi delegation here.
The Iraqis proposed positioning American soldiers in border forts in the Qandil Mountains, a jagged area that has never been fully under the control of any government. Although American military officials were part of the delegation taking part in the meetings, it was unclear what role, if any, the military might ultimately agree to.
The offer was intended to avert an incursion by Turkey’s military into
Iraq’s Kurdish region to fight the rebels. The Turkish Parliament has approved the use of troops to follow the fighters into Iraq if necessary, and the United States and Iraq have been trying at all costs to avert a conflict in the region, which is one of the few relatively peaceful areas of Iraq.
Turkish troops continued to pour into staging areas near the border on Friday, while Turkish officials said that airstrikes had already been carried out inside Iraq.
In spite of the rejection of the Iraqi offer, the head of the Turkish Army, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said Friday that no broad attack was imminent. He said Turkish troops would wait until after Nov. 5, when Mr. Erdogan is to return from a visit to the United States, according to the state-run Anatolian News Agency.
His comments were quickly qualified by the prime minister, however. “I cannot tell what will happen before my visit to the United States,” Mr. Erdogan said in a televised news conference. “We are now momentarily sensitive.”
Meanwhile, a senior American general in Iraq played down the chances of any new American military commitment in the conflict. The officer, Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, the top American commander in northern Iraq, said that he had no plans to order his troops to confront Kurdish rebels in the mountains.
The general, speaking to reporters in Washington over a video link from Iraq, was asked what American forces plan to do about fighters of the P.K.K.
“Absolutely nothing,” he responded.
His comments underscored a deep apprehension among administration officials and American military officers about playing any direct role in the tense cross-border situation that pits P.K.K. fighters against the Turkish military.
In Baghdad, a military spokesman later said, in clarification, that the general’s answer referred to current military plans in the region. “We are not currently planning any role in that conflict,” the spokesman, Maj. Brad Leighton, said. “If the Iraqis request our assistance in those areas, then we’ll consider their request as we would consider any request for help from an ally.”
The Iraqi offer, delivered by a delegation led by the minister of defense, Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim, and the minister of national security, Shirwan al-Waili, suggested that multinational forces would take up positions at new border posts to be opened in the mountains to prevent infiltration of the P.K.K. guerrillas into Turkey. Turkey says about 3,000 rebels operate out of bases in the area.
Mohammad al-Askari, a spokesman for the Iraqis, said the offer was for multinational forces to “monitor and control the border.”
Iraqi officials also suggested that regular military contacts be conducted and that cooperation be improved among the United States, Turkey and Iraq, Mr. Askari told reporters in Ankara.
Turkey, for its part, has demanded that Iraq and the United States take more robust steps, including the extradition of the militant leaders to Turkey, to stop attacks by the guerrilla group.
Kurdish groups in northern Iraq claim that Turkey’s ultimate motive is to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq by occupying its territory and ultimately controlling part of its natural resources.
Turkey denies those accusations. “We have no desire for Iraq’s land, Iraqi petrol, and we have no problem with the Iraqi people,” said Cemil Cicek, Turkey’s deputy prime minister. “Our problem is the P.K.K.”
Sebnem Arsu reported from Ankara, and Andrew E. Kramer from Baghdad.
Turkey bombs Kurdish rebels in southeast
SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey on Monday and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and flypasts in major cities.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border in readiness for a possible large-scale incursion to hunt down 3,000 guerrillas who use northern Iraq as a base.
The White House said it was pressing Turkey and Iraq to keep up talks aimed at averting a major cross-border operation.
Witnesses said they saw helicopters firing rockets and bombing suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in the mountains in Turkey's border province of Sirnak on Monday to prevent dozens of PKK rebels from crossing into northern Iraq. The operation, reinforced by ground troops to clear suspected PKK hideouts, was still going on after several hours.
Three soldiers were killed during the operation, CNN Turk reported. Another soldier was killed in Tunceli province, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the border, by a landmine, a device favored by the outlawed PKK.
As Turkey prepares for a cross-border offensive its military has also launched an extensive operation against suspected PKK positions in several provinces in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
On Sunday, army sources said 20 PKK guerrillas had been killed in the Tunceli campaign involving 8,000 soldiers.
In Ankara warplanes swooped, tanks rolled and troops marched past President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and senior generals in a display of military might. Turkey has the second biggest armed forces in NATO.
Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and business hub, also staged a military parade and flag-waving patriots clapped loudly as tanks drove past. Many people carried pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey in 1923.
"I am very proud of the 84 years of the Turkish Republic. We are not worried about the future. We are together and the republic will survive," said war veteran Ahmed Kendigel, 52.
"WE ARE READY"
"It is our government's decision whether to go into northern Iraq but we are ready for anything. The army, the people, all of us are ready."
Nationalist fervor has been rising, and the funerals last week of the 12 soldiers killed by the PKK turned into huge anti-PKK rallies that greatly increased the pressure on the government to send troops into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
"With the news of ... dead soldiers, it is more important to celebrate today than ever. We need to show today we are against the PKK and terror attacks," said student Reyhan Turan, 24.
"Turkey is on the threshold of historic decisions," said the Vatan daily, which like most newspapers carried a large picture of Ataturk against a background of Turkish flags.
"We are passing through a critical period. And in these days, as Ataturk showed us many years ago, we need unity and solidarity," it said in a front-page commentary.
Washington and Baghdad have urged Ankara to refrain from major military action in Iraq, fearing this would destabilize the wider region. Turkish-Iraqi talks aimed at averting a cross-border operation broke down on Friday.
"We obviously are encouraging the Iraqis and the Turks to continue having discussions," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "They need to continue to apply pressure to the PKK."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told the BBC in an interview that a Turkish offensive would have "disastrous" consequences for stability in both countries and the region.
Turkish officials say talks next Monday between Erdogan and President George W. Bush will be crucial in determining whether Turkey does carry out a major offensive into northern Iraq. (Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Istanbul, Gareth Jones in Ankara, and Ferit Demir in Tunceli)
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
Thousands attend soldiers funerals
Oct 31 - Thousands attend funerals of three Turkish soldiers killed in the latest clashes on the border with Iraq.
Rice faces tough battle on Turkey trip
Oct 31 - Secretary Rice will face a tough battle when she heads to Turkey, although analysts say expectations are low.
Turkey has threatened a military incursion into northern Iraq, from where Kurdish rebels have launched attacks, but has so far heeded Washington's call for restraint.
Deborah Lutterbeck reports
Turkey says Iraqi offer insufficient
Oct 28 - Military activity continues along the Turkey's border with Iraq after Ankara declines Iraqi proposals.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Sunday both diplomatic and military options were "on the table" in the country's fight against Kurdish PKK guerrillas based in northern Iraq.
Stuart McDill reports.
Turkey accuses EU of aiding PKK
Oct 27 - Turkey's prime minister slams European Union countries for taking no action against Kurdish PKK guerillas within their borders.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says no EU nation has extradited members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, despite labelling the PKK a "terrorist group".
Susan Flory reports
PKK: What's in a name
Oct 27 - The rebels behind the conflict with Turkey that has claimed more than 30, 000 lives in a little over two decades.
The guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers' Party who have been carrying out attacks on Turkish territory from across the border in northern Iraq have a history of violence to draw attention to their demands for an autonomous Kurdish state.
Paul Chapman reports.
Mothers' peace plea
Oct. 26 - Turkish and Kurdish mothers share grief and seek calm on the battle torn Iraqi - Turkish border.
Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, took up arms against Turkey in 1984. The aim was to create an ethnic homeland in the southeast. Since then more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Now mothers of those who've died are calling for an end to hostilities.
Penny Tweedie reports.
Turkey hunts PKK rebels
Oct 27 - Last ditch talks to avert Turkish military raids in northern Iraq appear to have ended in failure.
Turkish military planes have been scouring the border for Kurdish rebel camps as negotiations between Turkey and Iraq seen as a final chance for diplomacy reached an end without agreement.
Paul Chapman reports.
Erdogan: We have the right to act
Oct. 23 - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was giving diplomacy a chance, but reminded Iraq that Turkey's parliament had given the mandate for a military incursion at any time.
Turkey's government says it will exhaust all diplomatic channels before launching a military strike into northern
Iraq to root out the separatist PKK guerrillas, who killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers in fighting at the weekend.
The easing in rhetoric helped bring global oil prices down from record highs.
A military incursion into northern Iraq would destabilise Iraq's autonomous Kurdish enclave, the only region of the country that has seen relative stability and prosperity since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The pro-PKK Firat news agency said eight soldiers had been captured in the fighting. Turkey has denied any of its troops were captured, but confirmed eight soldiers were missing.
Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships along its border with Iraq. Turkey estimates 3,000 PKK rebels are based in Iraq.
Tensions on Iraq-Turkey border
Oct. 15 - The Turkish government is due to seek parliament's approval this week for a cross-border military operation into northern Iraq.
Tensions over northern Iraq helped send oil prices to record highs on Monday. The United States fears a major incursion to crush Kurdish PKK guerrillas using northern Iraq as a springboard to launch attacks into Turkey could destabilise the only relatively peaceful area of that country, and potentially the wider region.
Helen Long reports.
US vows to help Turkey tackle PKK
Oct. 2 - The U.S promises "effective" action against Kurdish rebels launching attacks on Turkey from northern Iraq, but urges Ankara to refrain from military action.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Ankara on Friday for talks aimed at averting large-scale military action by Turkey against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Rice called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a "common enemy," and vowed to redouble U.S. efforts to help Turkey tackle the problem. Washington is opposed to military action in an area that's so far been spared the worst of the violence in Iraq. Dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent weeks in clashes with PKK guerrillas and the Turkish government is under huge domestic pressure to wipe out Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq.
Helen Long reports.
Ankara blast was suicide bomb
May 23 - Kurdish separatists are being blamed for a suicide bomb that killed six and injured more than 90 in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Turkish authorities say Tuesday's suicide bombing in the country's heavily fortified capital bore the hallmarks of Kurdish separatists.
Turkey's been on high alert since the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK ended a ceasefire on May 18.
On Wednesday, security forces in the southern Turkish city of Adana detained a woman on suspicion of planning to carry out a suicide bombing.
Helen Long reports.
SOUNDBITE: Ankara resident, Pinar Aydin
Turkish army building blast
Dec. 11 - Rescue workers blame a central heating explosion for the collapse of an army building in Turkey.
The large multi-storey building had largely collapsed like a house of cards. Dozens of people were seen combing through the rubble.
The armed forces headquarters in Ankara declined to comment.
Southeast Turkey has long been racked by separatist violence, though this has fallen off sharply since the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called a unilateral ceasefire in October.
Benet Allen reports
Istanbul bombing near party offices
April 5 - A bomb ripped through offices of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the outskirts of Istanbul, injuring two people, a local party official said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the explosion happened against the background of a week of street clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in which 16 people have died.
Much of the demonstrators' anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region has been targeted against the government, and AKP offices have been damaged in the latest protests.
The blast came five days after another bomb attack in Turkey's largest city. That was blamed on Kurdish militants.
Today's bomb blew out the offices' windows in the Esenyurt suburb on the European side of Istanbul, television pictures showed.
Last Friday, a bomb blast at a bus station killed one person and injured 13 others in central Istanbul.
The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), which has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for the bombing.
There has also been an upsurge in guerrilla violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Security officials said 10 people -- six security forces and four PKK members -- had been killed in clashes in recent days.
More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the separatist conflict since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland.
The European Union and the United States, like Ankara, view the PKK as a terrorist group.
