TURKEY PREPARED TO INVADE IRAQ TO FIGHT PKK

Turkey has prepared detailed plans for the invasion of Iraq to go after the PKK, Kurdish guerrillas who it claims are crossing the border and attacking Turkish installations and villages, according to a story by Michael Howard in today's The Guardian.

"Turkey has prepared a blueprint for the invasion of northern Iraq and will take action if US or Iraqi forces fail to dislodge the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from their mountain strongholds across the border, Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul has warned."

Turkey's Foreign Minister has warned that Turkey will take action if the Iraqi government of Maliki and/or the U.S. occupation forces don't crack down on the PKK.

"The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them," Mr Gul told Turkey's Radikal newspaper. "If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [crush the PKK], we will take our own decision and implement it," Mr Gul said.

"The foreign minister's uncharacteristically hawkish remarks were seen as a response to pressure from Turkey's generals, who have deployed some 20,000-30,000 troops along the borders with Iraq, and who are itching to move against the rebels they say are slipping across the border to stage attacks inside Turkey."

Writes Michael Howard:

"The PKK, which has had a presence in the remote border areas of Iraq since the 1980s, has about 2,000-3,000 guerrillas on Iraqi soil. Their camps are dotted along the densely wooded ravines and in some of the regions' many caves high up in the limestone peaks. They remain out of reach of Iraq's Kurdish authorities, who fought unsuccessfully alongside Turkey in the 1990s to oust them from their bases.


"Authorities in Ankara say the PKK, which declared a unilateral ceasefire last year, are behind recent bombings in the cities of Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir, as well as attacks on Turkish security forces in the mostly Kurdish south-east."