It's not a prominant story in the news, but it's certainly something that's been developing over the past few months and is somewhat escalating...something to watch for... Turkey adds troops on border with Iraq, Iran to stop Kurdish rebel infiltration http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/04/27/national/000turks.txt ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey has deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the frontier, officials said Thursday. Kurdish rebels killed two Turkish soldiers and injured a third in a grenade attack Wednesday on a military outpost, the Anatolia news agency reported, raising the number of Turkish troops killed this year to at least 17. More than 40 Kurdish guerrillas have also been killed in the same period in a series of clashes. The Turkish deployment, which has been going on for several weeks, boosts an already large garrison in the region that by some estimates tops 250,000 soldiers. Guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have bases in northern Iraq but also have substantial forces in the mountains of southeastern Turkey. They typically step up their attacks in the spring, when winter snow melts, clearing mountain passes in the region. Turkey often increases its military activities in response. "(The deployment) is only aimed to prevent infiltrations of the terrorist organization into Turkey," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said. Turkey regards the PKK as a terrorist organization. Iran also reportedly has moved forces to the border, and last week shelled a mountainous region inside Iraq used by anti-Iranian Kurdish fighters believed to be linked to the PKK. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, has expressed concern over reported Iranian and Turkish troop concentrations on the borders. Gul said that since Iraq doesn't "have the capability to fight terrorism, they should be pleased with the measures we have taken and they should help us." Turkish soldiers have been pursuing Kurdish guerrillas across the border into Iraq, penetrating up to six miles, according to a local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media. Turkey already has an estimated 2,000 soldiers stationed inside Iraq and limited incursions inside of Iraq in pursuit of rebels have not been uncommon in the past. The PKK took up arms against the Turkish government in 1984. The fighting has so far claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Clashes in Southeastern Turkey on the Rise http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,412798,00.html Violence is on the rise in southeastern Turkey as the Kurdistan Worker's Party increases its guerilla activity. The government in Ankara is worried about a Kurdish intifada. It's slowly becoming a regular feature of the news coming out of Turkey these days: clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish militants in the eastern part of the country. On Tuesday, three Kurdish militants and one Turkish soldier were killed in a skirmish in the Sirnak province near the Iraqi border. Fifteen soldiers, four police officers and more than 40 Kurdish militants have been killed in south-eastern Turkey in recent months. And eight bombings in the past three months have left two dead and 47 injured -- bombings claimed by a group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons. In short, violence is on the rise in Turkey -- and the country's military is concerned that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), together with the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, is trying to begin a Palestinian-style intifada. Indeed, the Aksam newspaper reported last Friday that a further 10,000 Turkish soldiers have been sent to the border region, bringing the total number of troops in the area up to about 50,000. "As long as the PKK exists, our operations will continue in ever-increasing intensity," General Yasar Buyukanit, the head of Turkey's land forces, told CNN-Turk television in an interview aired on Sunday. The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy since 1984, frequently launches its anti-government operations from its bases on the Iraqi side of the border. Since the group took up arms in 1984, some 37,000 people have lost their lives in the fighting -- with clashes generally accelerating in the spring time when the mountain passes on the Turkey-Iraq border become more accessible. Indeed, to help prevent attacks from being launched across the border, some 2,000 Turkish soldiers are routinely stationed in northern Iraq. Turkey has repeatedly called on the United States to crack down on the PKK bases in northern Iraq, but US commanders have been reticent to divert troops from the struggle against Iraqi insurgents. Now Turkey seems tempted to take matters into its own hands. The chief commander of Turkey's armed forces, General Hilmi Ozkok, has stressed that Turkey has the right to carry out cross-border operations under international law: "If the conditions arise, like every sovereign country, we will use those rights," Ozkok said on Sunday, according to the AP. Still, such a move would be politically sensitive and diplomats argue that it is unlikely Turkey will put its relations to Washington and to the European Union at risk by staging a large offensive in Iraq. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has likewise recently said that neighboring countries should not meddle in Iraq's affairs -- a statement thought to refer to Turkey. With the armed clashes between the PKK and the Turkish military heating up, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also stepping up internal repression of groups suspected of supporting the PKK. Last Tuesday, Turkish security forces raided the offices of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party. Some 50 party members, including five provincial leaders and nine local leaders, were detained, according to the AP. Prime Minister Erdogan had previously urged members of the Democratic Society Party to denounce PKK violence. The leaders of the party have refused to accept the definition of the PKK as a terrorist group, a definition endorsed by Turkey, Washington and the EU. Repression of pro-Kurdish politicians and activists has raised concern about Turkey's not-always-sparkling human rights record -- one of the main obstacles to the country's admission to the EU. On April 12, human rights activist Jonathan Sugden, a member of the British non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) was arrested by Turkish authorities for failing to inform them about his activities in the country. Human Rights Watch pointed out Sugden had made official requests to meet with various members of government prior to his visit, and Sugden was released after one day. Kerim Yildiz, a member of another London-based human rights organization, Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP), said in a statement released on April 13: "This arrest was intended to intimidate and deter human rights defenders from visiting Turkey. Human Rights Watch enjoys the relative protection of international awareness. Sadly, many human rights defenders in Turkey do not."
Rice warns Turkey to keep out of Iraq http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/25/news/rice.php# ANKARA Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Turkish leaders on Tuesday that the United States would step up efforts to stop the infiltration of Kurdish insurgents from Iraq into Turkey, but she warned the Turkish government not to send troops into Iraq to do the job. Addressing what has become a new irritant in relations with Turkey, Rice acknowledged that the problem of infiltration by Kurdish rebels into Turkey from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq had been allowed to grow. The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said there had been a surge in such infiltration in recent weeks. The country's press has been filled with reports of thousands of Turkish troops massing on the border of Iraq, and there has been speculation that Turkey might intervene in Iraq. Rice, without speaking directly to that threat, clearly sought to discourage the Turks from doing anything on their own. "Of course we want anything that we do to contribute to stability in Iraq, not to threaten that stability or to make a difficult situation worse," Rice said, referring to the presence of Turkish troops. "That is why a cooperative approach on this problem - cooperation between Iraqi and Turkey and the coalition forces - is very important." Gul spoke of the Kurdish rebel situation in blunt terms, saying that the Kurdish Workers Party, which is known as the PKK, had turned Iraq into "a training ground" and that "like every country, Turkey will take her own precautions" to deal with the problem. He said, however, that Turkey had "no claim on anybody's soil or any neighborly country's soil." Rice spoke during her trip through the region, starting in the morning with meetings in Athens, where a few thousand anti-American protesters thronged the streets downtown. A couple of dozen protesters turned violent, throwing Molotov cocktails and burning storefronts and bus stops.
Every country with a large Kurdish minority has had problems with them, because of their separatist tendencies...outside forces and powers play on that and make the Kurds believe that they can actually seperate, which then leads to sever repression against them
So what happens if U.S. forces are supporting the Kurds and Turkish forces start shooting Kurds? What are the rules when NATO starts shooting at NATO?
