Turks spark fear of new war

By Peter Fray, The Age, 23 March 2003

ANKARA—Turkey yesterday dramatically raised Western fears of a war within the war by sending more than 1000 crack troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq in apparent defiance of the United States.

Turkish troops were reported to have crossed the border into northern Iraq from Silopi and Hakkari in the early hours of Saturday morning after a day of intense last-minute haggling with Washington over the use of Turkey’s airspace for US bombing raids.

Western officials said a sustained Turkish invasion could provoke a potentially disastrous and long-lasting confrontation with the region’s heavily armed Kurdish fighters.

Ankara said it had moved into northern Iraq to protect its borders from an influx of refugees and to prevent Kurdish terrorists infiltrating southern Turkey, home to about 12 million Kurds.

Turkey also fears that Iraqi Kurds might try to forge a separate state in postwar Iraq, funded by the region’s rich oil reserves centred around Mosul and Kirkuk.

An unnamed Foreign Ministry official told reporters in Ankara that all Iraq’s resources should be shared by all Iraqis.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell had earlier on Friday told Turkey not to enter Iraq and stressed that Washington had not linked Ankara’s ambitions with overflight rights. We don’t see any need for any Turkish incursions into northern Iraq, he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, returning from a European Summit in Brussels, appeared to contradict Mr Powell.

He said Turkish troops will go in to stem the refugee flow and prevent terrorist activity.

He said that Ankara did not wish to leave a vacuum in postwar Iraq.

Relations between Ankara and Washington hit a new low point on Friday after Turkey appeared to pull out of the deal on overflight rights. Earlier this month, the Turkish Parliament had unexpectedly blocked plans to allow the US to send 62,000 troops into Iraq via Turkey in return for $US6 billion (A$10 billion) in direct aid.

The White House has been pressing Ankara not to fight the Kurds, fearing a bloody war in northern Iraq that could disrupt the fight against Saddam Hussein and complicate postwar plans to establish democracy in Baghdad.

The deal on overflight rights was finally approved by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and senior military officials after urgent talks with the US Administration.

Turkey has maintained a military presence just inside the Iraqi border for several years to fight the Kurdish separatist movement, the PKK, but yesterday’s reported moves raised fears Ankara could provoke US-backed Kurdish fighters into a civil war. Kurdish leaders have warned Turkey they would resist any incursion into their territory, which has been under self rule since the 1991 Gulf War.

Akher Jamel, the Mayor of Zakho, a border town just inside Iraq, told reporters in northern Iraq that all the people in Kurdistan would fight in a big war that will last a long time.

A report in the Leipzig newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung said that Germany had said it would withdraw its military crews from the early-warning radar planes patrolling southern Turkey under a deal brokered last month among Turkey’s NATO partners if Ankara sent troops into northern Iraq.

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday cautioned Iraq’s neighbours not to endanger stability in the region. After frustrating US efforts to begin bombing raids via Turkish airspace for almost a day, Ankara finally announced late on Friday that it had agreed to open two air corridors for US planes.

Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said the agreement had been in Turkey’s interest.

Yesterday, the US bombed near Mosul and Kirkuk to wrest control of Iraq’s northern oilfields.