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Turkey OKs Attacks On Kurdish Rebels

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The Washington Post

Published: October 18, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey - The Turkish parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly authorized cross-border military attacks in northern Iraq against Kurdish separatist rebels, as world leaders pleaded for restraint.

Lawmakers voted 507-19 to give Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to order strategic strikes or large-scale invasions of Iraq for a one-year period. Erdogan has said he will not order an immediate attack.

Throughout debate, legislators expressed frustration that the United States and Iraq have not kept promises to curb the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, which the United States and European Union have classified as a terrorist organization.

As the votes were tallied in Turkey's modernistic legislative chamber, President Bush told reporters at a White House news conference that 'we are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interest to send troops into Iraq.'

In the hours leading up to the vote, Turkish leaders were besieged with last-minute telephone calls from across the globe, imploring against military action on grounds that it could inflame the only relatively stable region of war-ravaged Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki telephoned Erdogan, asking for more time to take action against PKK rebels who largely have been allowed to operate freely in northern Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

He said he has given 'strict instructions' to the regional Kurdish administration in Iraq's north to crack down on PKK operations and said Iraqi forces could join the Turkish army in military operations 'if necessary,' according to the Anatolian news agency. Erdogan's office denied there was an offer of joint military action.

Turkey, Syria and Iran share concerns that Kurdish groups in the region could make a push for an independent Kurdish state, carving chunks out of each of their countries.

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