Mainstream news

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Mainstream news
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

Turkey's Iraq drive ends with EU links damaged

By Alistair Bell

ANKARA, May 7 (Reuter) - Turkey's six-week incursion against Kurdish rebels in
northern Iraq has ended with limited military success and has damaged Ankara's
long-held ambitions to get closer to Europe, analysts said.

The drive raised the hackles of NATO ally Germany, the Council of Europe and
the European Parliament, which will determine the future of a key trade pact
between Turkey and the European Union.

"Diplomatically, Turkey has paid a very high price for the operation," Turkish
newspaper commentator Sedat Ergin said. "We weren't able to explain ourselves
well to the outside world. The next time we do a similar operation the public
relations side should be as carefully planned as the military side," said
Ergin, a columnist for the Hurriyet daily.

The Turkish military on Friday announced the end of the operation which at its
height involved 35,000 troops hunting Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) rebels in a
40-km deep strip of mountainous territory along the border. The army says it
destroyed dozens of rebel camps in Iraq and cut off the guerrillas' supply
routes into Turkey.

"The military dealt a heavy blow to the PKK's logistical infrastructure. They
might be able to resettle in the border area again but they won't be nearly as
effective," Ergin said.

Most of the rebels escaped the oncoming army in the first days of the
operation, warned in advance by a ponderous build up on the Turkish side of the
330-km border.

Germany, concerned for the safety of Iraqi Kurdish civilians and worried
Turkish troops might have stayed in Iraq long term, froze military aid to
Turkey nine days into the push. The suspension of military hardware deliveries
is still in force.

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe threatened to suspend
founder-member Turkey over the Iraq incursion, prompting Turkey to break off
its relations with the 34-nation body.

"Now the troops are out, Germany will probably end up giving military supplies
back to Turkey soon and the Council of Europe row can be stitched up. But the
real problem is the customs union," a Western analyst said.

The European Parliament had linked ratification of a Turkey-EU customs union
later this year on a quick Turkish withdrawal and the implementation of a
democratisation package inside Turkey. "The troops are out but the episode has
left a bitter taste in Europe," the Western analyst said. The customs union,
under which trade barriers are to come down on both sides, has long been sought
by Ankara as a step towards full EU membership.

The incursion and its aftermath have also angered the Baghdad government,
suspicious of Turkish intentions to secure its border with Iraq from future PKK
infiltration.

State-owned Iraqi newspapers lambasted Turkey for a third day on Sunday for
alleged expansionist ambitions. Al-Thawra, the paper of the ruling Baath party,
likened Turkish President Suleyman Demirel to the Ottoman sultans who ruled
Iraq for about four centuries until the end of World War One.

Turkey is trying to persuade Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who broke with the
government of President Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War in 1991 to help
guard the border.

Turkey says detained rebels planned tourism attack

ANKARA, May 8 (Reuter) - Turkish police in the coastal city of Izmir detained
three Kurdish militants planning to carry out attacks on tourism facilities,
the Anatolian news agency said on Monday.

Police also seized nine blocks of TNT explosives weighing 400 grams each after
a 40-day operation, it said.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group has bombed tourist sites along
Turkey's southern and western coasts in the last two years to damage the
lucrative tourism sector. A British woman was killed when a PKK bomb exploded
in the resort town of Marmaris last June.

Anatolian said one of the three detained men told police he had been trained in
bomb-making in neighbouring Greece with 30 other people who entered Turkey at
the same time as him to sabotage tourism. Greece has denied previous Turkish
accusations that PKK guerrillas, fighting for a Kurdish state in southeast
Turkey, are trained on its soil.