Posted on 07/22/2006 10:59:16 AM PDT by tessalu
ANKARA: Turkey's army killed four Kurdish militants Friday, one day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned US President George W. Bush that the escalating violence had gone "beyond the limits of tolerance." The two leaders spoke on the phone Thursday evening, after Ankara threatened a cross-border operation if Washington and Baghdad fail to crack down on bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. The warning followed a series of meetings in Ankara after the PKK's killing last week of 15 security force members.
"I told [Bush] we want to cooperate with the Iraqi government and he said he agrees we should work together on this issue," Erdogan told reporters late Thursday during a visit to Northern Cyprus, the official Anatolia news agency reported. "But I also told him the limits of our tolerance have been seriously breached and we cannot just put aside the fact that we had 15 martyrs in three days."
The army stepped up action against the PKK in mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern Turkey, killing four militants in a clash in the countryside in Van Province Friday, security officials said. Four soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, they said, adding that the military operation was continuing. http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Ankara charges that Kurdish-run northern Iraq has become a springboard for PKK attacks inside Turkey, where the rebels enjoy unrestricted movement and are able to easily obtain weapons and explosives.
Washington has pledged support to NATO ally Turkey in combating the group.
But it has been reluctant to crack down on the PKK in northern Iraq, arguing that allied forces are overwhelmed by violence in other parts of the country and that military action in the north could destabilize the relatively calm region.
Washington has warned Turkey against unilateral cross-border action, drawing angry accusations from Erdogan that it is using double standards in the region - a reference to US support for Israeli offensives in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
At least 91 PKK rebels and 51 members of the security forces have been killed this year, according to an AFP count. - AFP
Has Turkey come out in favor of Israel's actions in Lebanon?
I don't know, but Turkey and Israel have been military allies in the past.
Turkey is against the US and Israel. The are like all other muslims two-faced.
Maybe if Turkey had of been a little more helpful in the Iraq war, we would have a little more sympathy for their problems now.
I'd forgotten that. I know a Kurdish group originally set up Salman Pak (sp?) & it was either the same or a different bunch of Kurds getting support from Iran versus Saddam. Know where the PKK fit in with any of that?
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