Iraq vows crackdown against Kurdish attacks on Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey – Iraq’s interim president promised on Monday to prevent Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq from launching attacking into Turkey, apparently hoping to avoid a Turkish military response.

Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy have stepped up attacks in Turkey, officials said, including bombings last week at two small hotels and at a liquefied petroleum gas plant in Istanbul that killed two people and wounded 11 others.

There are some 5,000 Turkish Kurdish rebels holed up in the mountains of Iraq, where many among Iraq’s Kurds sympathize with their cause. Turkey repeatedly has urged U.S. and Iraqi authorities to crack down on the rebels, and on Monday, Iraq’s interim President Ghazi al-Yawer assured Turkey’s president that Baghdad would take action.

“We cannot tolerate or allow any group or formation that is posing a threat to the security of our neighbors,” al-Yawer said at a joint news conference with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

In the past, Turkey’s military – which has some 1,500 troops and tanks in Iraq to monitor rebel movements – has made incursions into northern Iraq to wipe out rebel bases and has left open the possibility of a future incursion.

In an apparent attempt to avert a possible cross-border military campaign by Ankara, the Iraqi leader added that “good neighborly relations mean not mingling into the internal affairs of the other.”

Al-Yawer was in Turkey for two days, mainly to discuss security and trade, a visit that came amid a surge of kidnappings of foreigners, including Turkish truck drivers taken hostage this week, in Iraq.

But Turkey has pressed the issue of the Kurdish rebels, who have demanded autonomy for Turkey’s 12 million Kurds during a decades-long war that has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984.

“I told Mr. al-Yawer that we’re expecting a new Iraq not to shelter terrorist organizations,” Sezer said, referring to the rebels.

After declaring a unilateral truce in 1999, the rebels broke it off on June 1, saying the Turkish government was continuing to crack down on them despite the truce.

Turkey – which calls the Kurdish rebels terrorists – has refused to negotiate with the rebels and never recognized the truce.

Sezer also expressed concern over Iraqi Kurds’ growing influence in northern Iraq, which also is home to thousands of ethnic Turks.

Turkey fears that Iraq’s Kurds could take over the oil-rich region around Kirkuk, which would strengthen their bid for an independent state – and encourage Kurdish separatists in Turkey to seek the same.

“A group’s attempts to take over Kirkuk would put Kirkuk’s and Iraq’s stability and peace in danger,” Sezer said.

Sezer also urged al-Yawer also to improve safety for Turkish truckers and other Turkish civilians in Iraq after a series of abductions. Some 2,000 Turkish trucks ferry goods daily to the Iraqi people and the U.S. military.

On Monday, a Turkish company said armed assailants attacked a convoy of trucks delivering supplies to U.S. forces in Iraq and took two Turkish drivers hostage outside Mosul.

“We’re very concerned about attacks and kidnappings targeting our citizens either working or carrying goods to Iraq,” Sezer said. “Effective measures should be taken as soon as possible.”

Al-Yawer was also to discuss with Turkish leaders the violence that has kept an Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline from fully operating and the sharing of waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.