Turkey Invades South Kurdistan - Ag

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>
Subject: Turkey Invades South Kurdistan - Again

Turkish Tanks, Troops Cross Into Northern Iraq 

     DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Sep. 24, 1997 http://www.nando.net/) -
About 15,000 Turkish soldiers backed by tanks and armored
vehicles have entered northern Iraq, a military official said
Wednesday after reports of fighting between Turkish troops and
separatist Kurdish rebels.
     Around 15,000 troops and more than 100 armored vehicles have
crossed the border into northern Iraq, the official said.
     Dozens of tanks crossed into the Iraqi border town of Zakho
from Habur in Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses told
Reuters.
     They said several military convoys including tanks had
crossed the border in the previous four days and that there was a
further build-up of troops and armored vehicles between Habur and
the Turkish town of Silopi, nine miles away.
     The pro-Kurdish Dem news agency, quoting a statement by the
rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said PKK guerrillas had
launched rocket attacks on Turkish troops and their Kurdish
allies based in Deraluk inside northern Iraq on Monday night.
     Many fighters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of
Iraq, which has fought alongside Turkish forces, were killed in
the attack, the agency said.
     Civilian officials in Habur said the troops had been invited
into the region by the KDP to help in the fight against the PKK.
     KDP officials in Ankara said they were unable to confirm the
latest incursion by Turkish troops.
     Northern Iraq has been under Iraqi Kurdish control since the
end of the Gulf War in 1991 but Turkey says a power vacuum there
has allowed the PKK to flourish.
     Dem agency said 36 Turkish army vehicles including three
tanks and six armored cars had been seen in Iraq on the road from
Zakho to Batufa on Tuesday.
     The Kurdish television channel Med-TV said Turkish troops
and armored vehicles had also entered northern Iraq from Cukurca
on the Turkish border east of Habur.
     Turkish military officials were unavailable for comment.
     In May, some 10,000 Turkish troops poured into northern Iraq
in pursuit of PKK guerrillas, who use the region as a base to
launch raids into southeast Turkey. The incursion caused
widespread anger in the Arab world.
     Turkey said it had withdrawn most of its forces from the
area at the end of June, but last month Baghdad said Turkish
forces were still carrying out operations against PKK rebels in
Iraqi territory.
     Turkish authorities at the time said they had been asked to
intervene by the KDP. The KDP denied this.
     More than 26,000 people have been killed in the PKK's
13-year-old fight with Turkish forces for self-rule in southeast
Turkey. A Western-allied air force based in Turkey protects Iraqi
Kurds from any attack by Baghdad.

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