Two Turk Soldiers Dead in Kurdish Attack on Convoy

Reuters ^ | 7/8/2003 | Ferit Demir

[a_Turk]

TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) - Kurdish guerrillas ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying a provincial governor on Tuesday killing two soldiers in a 10-minute firefight in the troubled southeast of Turkey which borders Iraq (news - web sites), officials said.

Another Turkish soldier was injured in the attack launched by around 10 gunmen from dense forest surrounding a narrow road some 22 miles east of the town of Tunceli, according to a Reuters reporter traveling in the convoy.

Turkey has launched several operations in recent weeks to track down hundreds of Kurdish militants it says are returning from the mountains of northern Iraq to Turkey after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) earlier this year.

Many vehicles were strafed with heavy machinegun fire, which ricocheted off the tarmac in front of the 13-vehicle convoy. Blood and broken glass were scattered over the mountain road after the firefight that ended when the guerrillas fled.

Tunceli governor Ali Cafer Akyuz, the target of the attack, escaped unharmed, officials said. Some 5,000 soldiers with air support were mobilized in the hunt for the assailants, none of whom were reported killed or injured during the clash near Tunceli which is around 300 km (190 miles) from Iraq.

Turkey's powerful military has fought a decades-long battle against armed Kurdish separatists at the cost of around 30,000 lives, most of them Kurds.

The fighting has largely subsided since the 1999 capture of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of rebel group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), now known as KADEK.

"I bitterly condemn this treacherous attack," President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said in a statement. "The Turkish Republic will decisively destroy all efforts against the nation's indivisible unity."

Turkey stations more than 1,000 soldiers inside the border with northern Iraq in a controversial deployment it says is necessary to guard its territory from attack by KADEK militants.

U.S. forces arrested 11 Turkish special forces officers in northern Iraq on Friday who Western diplomats say were suspected of involvement in a plot to kill the interim governor of Kirkuk. Turkey denies that and the soldiers were released on Sunday.

[a_Turk]

Guerillas? No, terrorists.

And even if a few scoundrels among you express your pleasure over these killings, I'll not be able to bring myself to hope for your demise..

[a_Turk]

ping..

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[AAABEST]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030708/wl_nm/turkey_kurds_attack_dc_2

This is the most interesting title of a thread I've seen in quite a while. Did you think of this yourself?

[DainBramage]

Wait...Turlish elite troops were sent to assasinate a Kurdish leader but were stopped by our military.

Now any Kurdish retaliation against Turkish troops is terrorism?

The report only said gunfire from a dense forest, where is the proof it was Kurds?

More of your "Turkey no matter what" crap.

[DainBramage]

around ten gunmen

Translation: one or two, but no one really saw them

[Burkeman1]

Yep. That's right. Turkey's security concerns when it comes to the Kurds of "Iraq" are less than ours. I wonder when we will start seeing "National Review" and the "Weekly Standard" start painting the Turks as genocidal maniacs as they did to the Serbs? Those "ungrateful" Turks! They didn't support us in a war against a country they border but didn't fear but the Super Power America did? How unfortunate for them. I guess we can expect to see the ethnic cleanising of Turks from Kurdish Iraq now as we did Serbs from Kosovo while US troops stand by. And thus one of the only marginally free and Western looking Muslem countries is given a reason to hate us and identify more with radical Islam. Bush is a genius.

[Itzlzha]

Guerillas? No, terrorists.

And even if a few scoundrels among you express your pleasure over these killings, I'll not be able to bring myself to hope for your demise..

Your folk set the rules with the spec-ops assasination attempt...no use WAAAH'ing here. Life sucks, buy a helmet!

Game on in MY book...more Islamazis for the hellfires!

[Dog Gone]

I'm sorry the report didn't indicate that you had killed any of the attackers. There are Kurdish terrorists, and they are no better than any other terrorist.

These perhaps were somewhat more upstanding in that they were targeting the military instead of civilians, but Turkey has every right to fight those who do these things in Turkey.

[George W. Bush]

And even if a few scoundrels among you express your pleasure over these killings, I'll not be able to bring myself to hope for your demise...

Turkey should hunt them down like dogs and summarily execute them. Secret interrogation optional. They are either terrorists or enemy combatants on Turkish soil. Exterminate them.

I doubt anyone here at FR objects to Turkey protecting itself from foreigners murdering Turkish officials. U.S. policy has consistantly been against any action by Kurds against the Turkish government.

[pawdoggie]

The Turks had an opportunity to throw in with us in Iraq. We were willing to buy the assistance they should have provided gratis to their NATO ally. They could have had a legitimate presence in Northern Iraq under a US aegis (to satisfy their paranoia about the Kurds). Instead they chose the path of the Islamists. Let them stay out of Iraq, and to Hell with their plotting and scheming.

[Mortimer Snavely]

"The Turkish Republic will decisively destroy all efforts against the nation's indivisible unity."

Thunderous applause, loud, piercing New York taxi whistles, a couple of dozen Rebel yells, and a few banzais thrown in for good measure.

[Mortimer Snavely]

"...Instead they chose the path of the Islamists...."

You know nothing. Absolutely nothing.

[Mortimer Snavely]

I certainly hope you're correct.

[Mortimer Snavely]

You chose your handle well. For Heaven's sake, stop reading Hal Lindsay!

[SevenDaysInMay]

Atta boy, a_turk.

The Kurds should have their own nation, where they live. Unlike the Christian Armenians 90 years ago, Turks just did not kill enough of them.

[McGavin999]

You bet they are terrorists, and they need to be wiped out. Nobody has a problem with that a_Turk, what we have a problem with is Turkey being deep in Iraq without the permission of the Kurds who would help you fight these guys. The US would have helped too, and probably still will, but Turkey isn't making it very easy for us.

[marron]

Our policy for the last decade has been to support Iraq's Kurds against Saddam, while supporting Turkey's fight against the PKK. Iraq's Kurds have themselves tolerated Turkish attacks on the PKK, and Turkey's presence in Iraqi Kurdestan for the purpose of monitoring the PKK.

In the present post-Saddam climate, US policy continues to be sympathetic to Iraqi Kurds, while continuing to support Turkey's fight against the PKK. It serves no US purpose to allow Iraqi Kurdestan to be used as a safe-haven for Viet Cong-style attacks on Turkey. The last thing the US needs is for the region to collapse into general war.

We are annoyed with the Turks for their stand on the recent war. We will look for some way to register our annoyance, and relations between the US and Turkey may not entirely recover until Erdogan departs the scene, just as our relations with France, Germany, and Canada will probably remain sour while Chirac, Schroeder, and Chretien sit in their respective national palaces.

But that is a far cry from countenancing the deaths of Turkish soldiers, or EU soldiers. To even believe that we would seek to rend Turkey asunder is, for me, beyond belief. I have seen nothing to convince me that our policy has changed toward the Kurds. Sympathy for the Iraqi Kurds; and a green light for Turkey to close down the PKK by any means necessary, including the stationing of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil. If some Turkish officers or politicians are meddling among Iraqi Kurds, expect a robust response. If their attacks are confined to the PKK militants, expect intelligence sharing and otherwise not much interference from us. Its a delicate line, but one we have managed to observe for at least a decade.

[Irish Eyes]

Well said, thank you for saving me the trouble.