Turkish Raid May Have Killed 100 Kurdish Rebels

N Y Times ^ | 6/18/2010 | AP

[HearMe]

June 18, 2010

Turkish Raid May Have Killed 100 Kurdish Rebels

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's military said Friday it killed as many as 120 Kurdish rebels in an air raid on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month and a daylong incursion by elite commandos into Iraq this week.

Kurdish rebels have dramatically stepped up attacks in Turkey in recent months in an escalation that poses a dire threat to a remarkable attempt at ending one of the world's longest guerrilla wars. The Turkish military responded to the rebels by sending its warplanes across the Iraqi border to bomb Kurdish rebel positions after acquiring intelligence, apparently from the United States and recently purchased drones from Israel.

.......

Maj. Gen. Fahri Kir, the head of the military's internal security operations, said another 30 Kurdish rebels were killed inside Turkey since March in anti-rebel operations. He said the Turkish losses were 43 in the same period. It was not possible to independently verify the figures, which the military says are based on intelligence reports, including interception of radio communication between the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.

''We anticipate (PKK attacks) to continue incrementally,'' Kir told a news conference at the military headquarters.

....

Hundreds of elite commandos crossed into Iraq for a daylong operation to hunt down a group of rebels who were escaping after an attack near the border town of Uludere. Kir said the commandos, who returned to their bases on the same day, killed five rebels but later intelligence reports suggested that the rebel casualties, also in a coordinated air strike, were about 20.

[HearMe]

The Turkish and World hypocrisy is astounding.

[Truth29]

As I have said on other threads, a little Israeli intelligence and other assistance to the PKK, as nasty as they are, might give Turkey a message that they should look to their own affairs rather than messing with Israel over Gaza.

[hosepipe]

the Air Force of Turkey?... (Now stop that laughing))..
Stop it with the gobbling...

[Captain Kirk]

Hypocrisy is right. Just about nobody on this site, except a few antiwar folks like me, cared about the Turkish Kurds when Bush was president.

[cranked]

The Turks are nothing more than excused genocidal racist murders....and they have the ballz to talk about Israel’s policies being racist, etc. STHU Turkey, you think?!

[gitmogrunt]

Shucks,I guess the Turks weren’t issuing Courageous Restraint Medals.

[Uncle Miltie]

Ten times worse than the Israeli defense of their country.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Okay, now I'm confused. I thought the Kurds were those we abandoned under Clinton to die via Saddam Hussein and, although severely burned (no pun intended) by the US had managed to stabilize northern Iraq and were getting along swimmingly before Baghdad and southern Iraq were under control. Now, Turkey has a problem with the Kurds in Iraq because they want Turkish territories restored to them that were historically theirs throughout the previous millennium. (Somebody stop me when I go wrong, here.) So, Turkey (an historic Western Ally) doesn't want to give the Iraqis Kurds the land back? The Kurds who want it back are called the “Kurdish Rebels”? And the world now thinks the Kurdish Rebels are schmucks? And Turkey thinks Israel is vile and despicable because it won't give Jerusalem back to Jordanians who now call themselves “Palestinians”?

Is this the situation?

[rigelkentaurus]

I think you almost have it. But you forgot the part of about the Aremeinan Christians.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Who the hell are they and where do they live?

[garybob]

I thought the Kurds were those we abandoned under Clinton

We abandoned the Kurds in April 1990 when the unit I was in finished building the refugee camps and pulled out and went back to our home station in Germany. It was Bush the Elder that did the initial abandoning.

Everything else you said though is spot on.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Okey, dokey. Thanks. I thought I was missing something dreadful. Every time I leave the room, I fall behind on who hates who and why. Thank you for your service and your answer.

[rigelkentaurus]

The Armenian Christians?? They are Christians who have the misfortune of living in and near Turkey, kind of like the Kurds, except the Kurds are also mooselims. The Armenians also had the misfortunate of having about 1,500,000 of their family members exterminated by the turkish mosslims. Some have a tiny poor country on the border of turkey, but others are trapped and persecuted just because they live in turkey.

[a_Turk]

The PKK was created by the USSR to weaken NATO by dividing Turkey. Here's their flag:



After Bush 1 burned the Iraqi Kurds, they were welcomed into Turkey where they sought refuge. Northern no fly zone ground enforcement was achieved by Turkish troops, while US and UK planes covered the skies.

Turkish losses by the PKK stand at about 40000. These people razed schools and hospitals, and murdered whoever was in them. The US helped capture their leader and handed him over to the Turks (Abdullah Ocalan) but now it seems only to be able to wield the PKK agains Iran. It's been over 10 years since the capture of their leader, and the PKK is holed up on the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq where the US rules, safe and sound. Meanwhile they have no issues raiding inside of Turkish borders while enjoying US protection in Iraq.

BTW, if you look you'll find that the Kurds never had a country of their own. Not in this millenium, nor in any prior one. So first it was the USSR training them as guerillas, and now it's the US using them. Oh well, it's always a bunch of bone headed moves that facilitate the demise of any empire.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

So, the Armenians are persecuted because they are Christians, not because they are Armenians. Presumably, if an Armenian happens to be Muslim, they are okay, unless they belong to a sect that is underappreciated in Turkey. Thank you. I do remember reading about a form of ethnic cleansing that occurred under the Ottomans and for which the descendants of those “cleansed” with Turkey to make restitution. Of course, the “world” has to draw the line somewhere and, apparently, chose to draw in around the Armenian Christians. I'm getting back up to speed. As I say, it's hard to keep up with as there are so many who are disenfranchised or abused or abandoned.

What gets me is that with all the misery in the world — most of which is caused by human beings, certain human beings think they can untie all the knots under their own steam and with their genius. Seems to me these little “gods” aren't very good at what they're doing, yet fail to seek a higher authority who loves us all equally whether, or not, it is reciprocated. That's just me.

[a_Turk]

Sorry, the image of the flag didn't work out for some reason. Here's another try:



Click here for more pkk info.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Ah, ha! So the Kurds are like the Jordanians who are now called Palestinians. Where, then, did the Kurds originate?

[B Knotts]

Yes, the PKK are commies, and should not be supported, although that’s a slightly different issue than the question of the Kurds in general.

Now, when is Turkey going to come to its senses and see that its interests largely lie with the West, and not with pan-Arabists or the Iran-Brazil-Venezuela axis? It seems that Turkey is morphing into yet another Egypt.

Either that, or Erdogan thinks he can rebuild the Turkish Empire.

[a_Turk]

My prom date in Istanbul was Armenian. She’s now an engineer. A kid who sat two seats from mine in high school is Armenian, today he’s a cardiologist. There was an Armenian alignment with the Russians in WW1 but it didn’t end well for them when the Russians pulled out of the war. Sort of like Hiroshima without the nukes. Religion? Who really cares.

[Sarajevo]

Which camp? I was in Iskverun.