TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

 (V-MailServer 2.20)
           id VT3110; Sat, 06 May 1995 14:51:55 -0800


Defense Minister Golhan: All Turkish Troops Out of Iraq
      By Suna Erdem

    ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkish troops have completely withdrawn from
northern Iraq after a six-week push on rebel Kurd bases that strained
Ankara's relations with the West, Defense Minister Mehmet Golhan said
Thursday.

    ``We have no one there (northern Iraq). We have withdrawn them all and we
only have security measures on the border,'' he told reporters before a
Cabinet meeting.

    Deputy Prime Minister Hikmet Cetin said a few troops still remained in
northern Iraq but did not give details. But Golhan later said although some
troops were ``on the border,'' essentially the soldiers were all out.

    The general staff spokesman and the Foreign Ministry were unavailable for
comment on the pullout.

    Turkey had sent 35,000 men into the region March 20 against the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, which used bases in northern Iraq. It withdrew in
stages late last month, and only about 2,000 to 3,000 troops were left by
this week.

    Ankara has been at odds with several of its Western allies over their
criticism of the anti-rebel incursion.

    The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe said last week it
would suspend Turkey if it did not leave northern Iraq by the end of June.

    Turkey rejects criticism that the 11-year-old Kurdish insurgency, in
which more than 15,000 people have been killed, was aggravated by
anti-Kurdish human rights abuses.

    Ankara is trying to forge a deal with Iraqi Kurds -- who control three
provinces in northern Iraq on the porous Turkish border -- to ensure the PKK
does not regain control of the area and rebuild bases as it did after a 1992
Turkish incursion.

    A high-ranking Iraqi Kurdish team met Turkish officials in Ankara
Wednesday and Thursday to discuss guarding the Iraqi side of the mountainous
border after a full withdrawal.

    Asked about claims the PKK had begun to re-enter the area occupied by
Turkish troops during the push, Golhan said this was impossible as the
separatists' infrastructure was destroyed.

    ``Even if it came back it is not possible for it to resettle the area,''
Golhan said. ``There is nowhere left for it to hide. All its caves have been
blown up. It is not so easy...''

    Nachirvan Barzani, head of the visiting delegation and nephew of Iraqi
Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, said Wednesday they would not allow the
restive area on the porous border to be used as a base for rebel attacks on
Turkey.

    But many Turks are wary of the Iraqi Kurds after a similar project
following the 1992 incursion proved unsuccessful, allowing the PKK to regroup
in Iraq.

    The delegation represents Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP,
but a date is not yet set for an expected visit by Massoud Barzani.

    Iraqi Kurds have said Turkey should expect to find him a tougher
negotiator this time around as he has expressed anger throughout the
incursion, saying he was not forewarned.

    The KDP wants Turkey to help rebuild Iraqi Kurdish villages by the
border. The villages were emptied by the Iraqi government in 1988 and 1991
and residents have been afraid to return because of PKK threats and Turkish
air raids, the KDP says.

    Northern Iraq has been outside the Baghdad government's control since a
Kurdish rebellion after the 1991 Gulf War.

---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)