Turkey urged restraint on Iraq invasion after clashes with PKK
Iraq-Turkey-Germany, Politics, 10/23/2007

The German government yesterday called for Turkey's restraint on Iraq amid news reports of a possible Turkish military invasion of northern Iraq in a bid to fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Deputy government spokesperson, Thomas Steg urged Ankara "to thoroughly ponder any decision" which may destabilize the region. He appealed to both Turkey and Iraq to ensure "joint stability" in the region and refrain from any actions by both sides which may further destabilize the situation.

Steg expressed also "some concern" over the ongoing border clashes between Turkish troops and the PKK in the Iraqi-Turkish border region.

Pointing out that the PKK has been blacklisted by the European Union as a terror organization, the German official "strongly condemned" terror acts by the Kurdish group.

Turkey's leadership on Sunday called a crisis meeting amid ongoing fierce clashes between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish military in which scores of Turkish soldiers and PKK terrorists were killed.

"The Egyptian foreign Ministry is following up with concern the successive developments and military clashes that broke out along Iraqi-Turkish borders on Sunday," a spokesman for the ministry said. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, according to the Egypt State Information Agency called yesterday "on the Turkish and Iraqi sides to sit together for finding a means whereby to solve the problem of Kurds, asserting that military operation, as a way for settling conflicts, is unacceptable."

US Department Of State Spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that "we are encouraging Turkey and the Iraqi Government to work together to address what is a common threat to them. The PKK is a terrorist organization that needs to be dealt with. Recently, we have seen significant loss of life on the Turkish side and we have condemned those attacks that were perpetrated by the PKK. What that does is it highlights the importance of the Turkish Government and the Iraqi Government working to resolve this issue."

He added "The PKK is not an invention of the past few years. This is something that Turkey has been dealing with and has been quite painful for the Turkish people for decades. So it needs to be dealt with. And we believe the best way to deal with it is for those two countries, those two governments, to work together to deal with it. They're neighbors. That's not going to change. And the best long-term, durable solution for the issue of the PKK is for them to work together to eliminate the threat."

He said "the first and immediate step that needs to happen is that you need to see a cessation of attacks by the PKK on the Turks. It has to stop. You have to work to stop those. And you also have to deal with the larger question of how do you -- how do you address the fact that there is a terrorist network operating on Iraqi soil. So I'm not going to get into the details of their conversation, but the first thing you need to do is you need to prevent terrorist attacks. And that is one of the things that we're talking to the Turks about. How do you prevent terrorist attacks? ... and the reason why I say that is because the PKK has been around for some time. They've been around for decades. So I don't think anybody is under the illusion that overnight you're going to wipe out the PKK. So that is obviously our goal. It's a terrorist organization that needs to be dealt with. But at the very least, immediately you need to have the Iraqi Government working to prevent those terrorist attacks and the Iraqi Government working with the Turkish Government cooperatively to prevent terrorist attacks.

Asked "you want to see the Iraqi Government act. Does that mean that you think they have not acted firmly enough so far? Are you disappointed with their reaction?" to which Mccormack replied I'm not going to characterize what they have or have not done over the past period of time. What clearly needs to happen is that we need to see these terrorist attacks stopped, and we want to see the Iraqis and the Turks working cooperatively together to prevent any further attacks and also to talk about how you deal long term with this threat and eliminating the threat."

Meanwhile, a top German legislator and close foreign policy aide of Chancellor Angela Merkel warned over the weekend against a possible Turkish invasion of northern Iraq.

Talking to the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine on Saturday, Eckart von Klaeden of the co-ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said, " Of course it is legitimate for Turkey to fight PKK's Kurdish terrorists. However, the (Turkish) army is not allowed to enter a neighboring country without a clear mandate."

He urged the European Union to convince Ankara to refrain from invading northern Iraq, saying a "further destabilization of Iraq affects also Europe's security." Pointing to Turkey's EU membership plans, the German MP added, "Whoever wants to become an EU member is not allowed to violate European interests."

Previous Stories:
  US on Turkish incursion into Iraq, Kurd oil issue   (10/16/2007)
  Iraq, Turkey had better solve tension through diplomatic ways   (10/16/2007)
  German Greens urge expansion of Iran-US dialogue on Iraq   (9/14/2007)
  German court sentences Iraqi Kurd to 5.5-year prison   (7/9/2007)
  European Court says PKK can challenge inclusion in EU terror list   (1/20/2007)
  Rice: Germany backs US new strategy for Iraq   (1/20/2007)

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