Turkish parliament authorises incursion into Iraq
17 hours ago
ANKARA (AFP) — The Turkish parliament Wednesday voted to allow military strikes against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, despite stiff US opposition and appeals from Baghdad for time to purge the rebels.
A government motion seeking a one-year authorisation for one or more incursions into Iraq was approved with the support of 507 lawmakers in the 550-seat house, with 19 voting against.
The motion leaves it up to the government to determine the timing and scope of the operation and the number of troops to be sent.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that parliamentary approval would not mean immediate military action, signalling that there could be still room for diplomacy.
Both Baghdad and Washington scrambled to dissuade Ankara from following through on military action.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he was determined to act against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which attacks Turkey from its bases in northern Iraq.
The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Maliki told Erdogan on the telephone that Baghdad "is absolutely determined to end the activities and the presence" of the PKK in Iraq, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting unnamed sources.
He also asked for "a new opportunity" to resolve the issue through diplomatic means and proposed talks.
Erdogan welcomed the proposal but warned that Ankara cannot tolerate any "further waste of time".
In Washington, President George W. Bush said the United States was "making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests" to send troops into Iraq.
"There's a better way to deal with the issue," Bush told a press conference.
But Washington has lost its leverage with Ankara because of a pending Congressional vote on a resolution branding the 1915-17 Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide.
Turkey strongly rejects the "genocide" tage and has threatened unspecified reprisals against its NATO ally.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso meanwhile urged Turkey to avoid any unilateral action.
"The European Union urges Turkish authorities to seek a solution through dialogue within the framework of international law and avoid any aggravation of the situation which is already tense," he said in Lisbon.
"We hope that there will not be any violence and that diplomatic channels and dialogue will be used to seek a response to the legitimate aspirations of the Turkish authorities," he said.
Turkey says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern Iraq, is tolerated by local Kurdish leaders and obtains weapons and explosives there for attacks across the border in Turkey.
Faced with mounting rebel violence, Ankara says it is left with no choice but military action because neither Washington nor Baghdad is helping to curb the rebels.
Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who held emergency talks with Turkish leaders here Tuesday, said Baghdad should be given time to curb the PKK under an agreement the two countries signed last month.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also urged Turkey to give up plans of military action and called on the PKK to end violence.
The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq warned that a Turkish incursion would be "illegal and a violation of international law."
The PKK problem is an "internal Turkish problem," spokesman Jamal Abdullah insisted.
Erdogan came under pressure for tougher action after the rebels killed 15 soldiers in two days this month and were blamed for an ambush of a van days earlier in which 12 people were shot dead.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to Turkey, said Wednesday that Damascus would back a Turkish incursion to pursue the PKK, saying it was "Turkey's legitimate right."
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop de Scheffer, meanwhile, urged "the greatest possible restraint precisely in this time of great tensions."
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region, -- Iraqi authorities are considering the construction of a pipeline connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk, a contested area in Iraq's Kurdistan region, to the seaports of southern Turkey, Baghdad's deputy oil minister Mutasim Akram has said.
The proposed pipeline would pass through Kurdistan's provinces of Erbil and Duhok, Akram explained noting how these areas were "outside the zones of high tension where continuous acts of sabotage against oil plants take place".
Akram made the announcement in an interview with the Kurdish language daily, Rozmana.
If the proposal were to be approved by the central government, then Baghdad would "need maximum co-operation" from the Kurdistan regional authorities based in Erbil, Akram said. Oil-rich fields in Kirkuk
"The Turkish port of Jihan is the best maritime hub for the export of Iraqi crude oil", said Akram while lamenting the "terrorist attacks" in Iraq which continued to prevent his country from achieving its full oil export potential.
Akram said that crude oil would continue to be piped to Iraq's southern port of Basra "where we expect an improvement in the situation soon," he added.
Authorities in Kurdistan claim the Kurdish oil-rich Kirkuk area as part of their autonomous region's territory, but local Arab and Turkmen ethnic minorities, supported by Turkey, dispute this.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and it is not under the full control of Kurdistan Regional Government administration, its population is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's oil industry.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.CSIS: Resolution will create new source of regional anger against US
Anthony Cordesman, expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., said that the net impact of Armenian genocide bill may well be to create yet another pointless regional source of anger against the United States.
A report titled "Armenian Bill and the Turkish Reaction in Iraq" by Cordesman said that it is far from clear what Turkey will or will not do in Iraq. The report noted that the US should be careful not to overreact if Turkey does send forces into the north of Iraq.
It stated, "Iraqi sovereignty and the security of the Kurdish zone in Iraq ultimately require an Iraqi solution to terrorist organization PKK problem." Indicating that the US did not want Turkey to go into Iraq, Cordesman said, "it is not clear how deep the Turks go, the numbers they invade with, what they do, and how long they stay. The US, Iraqi Kurds, and Iraqi government has every reason to protest."
"However, it is far from clear just how destabilizing such Turkish action will be. It might even be positive -- forcing Iraq's Kurds to realize they are far better off as Iraqis than in seeking independence or extreme versions of autonomy," he remarked.
Reporting Turkey's supports to the United States in Iraq, Cordesman said:
- One key area of support is the movement of fuel goes through Habur Gate that is the main entryway into Iraq from Turkey. The cargo hub at Incirlik Air Base serves both Iraq and Afghanistan. 74% of air cargo into Iraq transits Incirlik. Six US military C-17 aircraft based at Incirlik move the amount of cargo it took 9-10 military aircraft to move from Germany, saving $160 million per year.
- KC-135 tankers operating out of Incirlik have flown 3,400 sorties and delivered 35 million gallons of fuel to U.S. fighter and transport aircraft on missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Approximately 25% of the fuel used by Coalition forces enters Iraq from Turkey via the Habur Gate crossing, which is the main entryway into Iraq from Turkey.
- In addition, 29% of the fuel used by Iraqi consumers -- 250,000 tankers and 1.6 billion gallons of fuel - enters through Habur Gate.
- Turkey provides 19% of the food and water that Iraqis consume through Habur Gate.
- Turkey continues to provide blanket clearance for military over flights supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom (Off) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan.
- Turkey exports 270 MW of electricity to the north of Iraq and has plans to increase that total to 1000 MW, or 25% of Iraq's current peak capacity.
- Over 20,000 Turks have worked in Iraq since 2004, and approximately 150 (mostly truck drivers) have lost their lives in attacks. About 1,000 Turkish companies are active in Iraq.
- Turkey has authorized the temporary deployment of 32 USAF F-16's to Incirlik Air Base during January-February 2007, providing vital training and experience to the U.S. crews. A second rotational deployment is scheduled for May 2007.
- Turkey welcomed 16 US Navy ships to Turkish ports in 2006, including 9 port calls for US crewmen and 7 fuel deliveries for Coalition forces in Iraq. Six US Navy ships also made passages through the Turkish Straits on their way to/from the Black Sea. Eight to ten port calls are expected in 2007."
Calgary-based Heritage Oil Corp. is being caught in the crossfire in the escalating tensions between Turkey and Kurdistan after recently announcing that it had signed a production sharing agreement with the regional Kurdish government.
Flush with oil, Kurdistan draws Western producers and explorers
href="http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=By%20Kambiz%20Foroohar&sort=publicationdate&submit=Search">By Kambiz Foroohar Bloomberg News
Analysis: Oil victim of Turkey, Kurd fight
By BEN LANDOUPI Energy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Iraq's already-fragile northern oil sector could be the victim -- along with Iraqis and Turks -- if Ankara gives the green light for troops to invade northern Iraq on the hunt for the Kurdistan Workers Party.
more on link above (quite a good job, actually)
Below! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to PanARMENIAN.Net.
The Sevr Treaty was signed on 10 August 1920 by winners of the World War I – UK, France, U.S. and defeated Germany and the Ottoman Empire. Armenia was supposed to receive 4 vilayets – Van, Bitlis, Erzrum and Trabzon - mostly inhabited by Armenians. < «Discussion of the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Congress»:
“They are the only country with a large Muslim population that has consistently been our friend I want to keep them there,” Lincoln Davis said.
Vladimir Karapetian is surprised by such an approach.
Kiro Manoyan: H.Res.106 has nothing to do with intrusion into northern Iraq.
Kiro Manoyan: the U.S. administration and Turkish lobbyists are severely pressing on Congressmen.
The Associated Press: the border between Turkey and Armenia is closed since 1993.
«Armenian Genocide»: The council of Plovdiv communities called on the Bulgarian parliament to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
“They are the only country with a large Muslim population that has consistently been our friend I want to keep them there,” Lincoln Davis said.
Vladimir Karapetian is surprised by such an approach.
Kiro Manoyan: H.Res.106 has nothing to do with intrusion into northern Iraq.
The UN 1948 International Convention on condemnation and prevention of genocides fixed the provision.
For a great diversion, read about VAN TURKEY here
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