Escalation worries Western diplomats

By Amberin Zaman Los Angeles Times, 1/8/2001

NKARA, Turkey - Iraqi Kurdish officials said yesterday that at least 500 Turkish troops
have pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq, in their deepest incursion into the
Kurdish-controlled enclave in 15 years of war against Kurdish separatists.

The officials described the move as preparation for a major offensive against about 2,500
rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who are dug in along a
25-mile-long swath of mountainous territory on the Iran-Iraq border.

The Turkish daily Sabah repeated earlier reports that as many as 10,000 Turkish troops
have poured into northern Iraq since Dec. 20 in response to pleas for help from one of the
main Iraqi Kurdish factions there. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, which controls
the southern third of the Iraqi Kurdish enclave, has been clashing with the Turkish Kurd
PKK since September. ''The PKK has occupied 45 of our villages since September,'' said a
PUK official who requested anonymity. ''They are terrorizing our people and should leave
our territory at once.''

As many as 200 PUK soldiers have been killed in fighting with the PKK in recent weeks
around the towns of Sulaymaniyah and Raniyah, according to the Iraqi newspaper Al Iraq,
which in an article Friday also alluded to Turkish military involvement.

The Turkish general staff issued a statement yesterday denying the incursion, saying ''the
[media] reports involve no truth.'' But Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said in statement
reported by the official Anatolia news agency, ''Turkey is of course providing technical
support'' to the Iraqi Kurds. ''This is necessary for our own security.''

Western diplomats here in the Turkish capital say they have been aware of a Turkish troop
buildup in northern Iraq for some time.

''We are deeply concerned,'' said a European diplomat based in Ankara who requested
anonymity. Referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the diplomat continued, ''It will only
further destabilize what is already a highly unstable region and could even provide Saddam
with an excuse to intervene.'' But this diplomat, like several others, characterized the reports
of a buildup of thousands of troops as grossly exaggerated.

Osman Ocalan, brother of captured PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, was quoted yesterday by
the Kurdish daily Ozgur Politika as saying, ''The PUK has invited Turkish troops to destroy
the Kurdish national movement and Kurdish unity.''

Northern Iraq has been under the control of two rival Iraqi Kurdish factions, the PUK and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, ever since they united for a failed uprising against
Hussein at the end of the Persian Gulf War. Millions of Kurdish civilians flocked to the
Iranian and Turkish borders at the time, provoking an international outcry and prompting
the Gulf War allies to establish a ''no-fly'' zone over the region to protect them against
possible attack by Iraq.

Traditional rivalries between the KDP and the PUK, however, led to a breakdown of the
joint government they formed in 1992 after the Iraqi Kurds' first-ever parliamentary
elections. The enclave has been racked with violence since, and US-led mediation efforts
have failed to secure a lasting peace.

Feuding between the Iraqi Kurdish groups has been further stoked by Turkey and Iran. With
restive Kurdish minorities of their own, both countries fiercely oppose the emergence of an
independent Kurdistan on their borders and hence have encouraged factional war between
the Iraqi Kurds and at the same time armed them to fight their own Kurdish separatist
groups.

Northern Iraq has been further destabilized by the PKK, which has been fighting on and off
with both of the Iraqi Kurdish groups in a bid to carve out territory for itself.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com