Turkish parliament approves Iraq mission

[Canmorite]

ANKARA, Turkey - Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a possible cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, although the government appears willing to give diplomatic pressure on the U.S.-backed Iraqi administration more time to work.

Lawmakers voted 507-19 in favor of empowering the government to order the military to cross into Iraq during a one-year period, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said. They then burst into applause.

Turkish leaders have stressed that an offensive against the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, would not immediately follow the expected authorization.

In Washington, President Bush said the United States was making clear to Turkey it should not send a massive number of troops into Iraq.

Bush said Turkey has had troops stationed in Iraq "for quite a while."

"We don't think it's in their interest to send more troops in."

Bush also noted that Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, was in Istanbul expressing that Iraq shares Turkey's concerns about terrorist activities, but that there's a better way to deal with the issue than sending more troops into Iraq.

"What I'm telling you is that there's a lot of dialogue going on and that's positive," he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to dismiss Bush's comments.

"What's important is the parliament's decision, not what people say," private NTV television quoted him as saying.

Wednesday's motion — authorizing an attack into Iraq sometime in the next year — had the backing from all of Turkey's parliamentary parties except a small Kurdish party.

Hours before the vote, Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called his Turkish counterpart to say that his government was determined to halt the "terrorist activities" of the PKK on Iraqi territory, and he emphasized the need for the two nations to continue to talk, his office said.

In Paris, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, called on PKK rebels to stop fighting in Turkey, while also urging the Turkish government not to launch an incursion.

"We consider activities of PKK against the interests of the Kurdish people first, and then against the interests of Turkey," Talabani told reporters during an official visit to the French capital. "We have asked the PKK to stop fighting, to end the so-called military activity."

Turkey has complained about what it considers a lack of U.S. support in the fight against the PKK. It also is frustrated with Washington, after U.S. Congress last week approved a resolution labeling the World War 1-era killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians a genocide.

A resolution is an affront to Turks, who deny there was any systematic campaign to eliminate Armenians.

At a White House news conference, Bush also repeated calls for the Democratic-controlled Congress to drop plans for a resolution labeling as genocide the World War I-era killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

Noting the number of domestic bills pending before Congress, he said: "One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire."

The House vote to label the century-old deaths of Armenians as genocide was in jeopardy Tuesday after several Democrats withdrew their support and sounded alarms it could cripple U.S. relations with Turkey.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071017/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey

Oil prices once again at record highs.

[Toma]

Wipe em out!

[mark4091]

I really don't get why countries like turkey even bother, I doubt they could afford to do much.

[Toma]

Originally posted by mark4091
I really don't get why countries like turkey even bother, I doubt they could afford to do much.
Oh...so the largest Army in all of Europe, with American made and supplied weapons.... ninth largest army in the world.... you think they have cashflow problem?

[01RedDX]

.

[Mckenzie]

Thats all the world needs is more conflict in the middle east....why not send Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Saudi Arabia there too just for the hell of it. :rolleyes:

:banghead:

[ICEBERG]

Originally posted by Mckenzie
Thats all the world needs is more conflict in the middle east....why not send Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Saudi Arabia there too just for the hell of it. :rolleyes:

:banghead:

Turkey is not doing this for the hell of it. They are doing this to get rid of PKK terrorist group that is causing trouble in the region. U.S was suppose to help out with this problem but they did $hit all. PKK terrorists that are cought in fighting all have U.S issued wepons. That why Sometimes i wonder which side the U.S is on.

Anyways, every country looks after their own interest. Since U.S does not give a $hit about this problem Turkey has to do what is necessary to clear this problem.

[Mckenzie]

Originally posted by ICEBERG


Turkey is not doing this for the hell of it. They are doing this to get rid of PKK terrorist group that is causing trouble in the region. U.S was suppose to help out with this problem but they did $hit all. PKK terrorists that are cought in fighting all have U.S issued wepons. That why Sometimes i wonder which side the U.S is on.

Anyways, every country looks after their own interest. Since U.S does not give a $hit about this problem Turkey has to do what is necessary to clear this problem.

I understand the situation and agree with you....but I think most people in the world are in agreement that the situation is fragile as is and does not need any more fuel to the fire, despite who may be in the right or wrong..its a tough situation. I guess the turks are able to protect themselves from threats as is any other nation- I just think that in a nation with conflicts already its that much more dangerous.

[Toma]

Turkey needs to act fast and brutal to put down the PKK. They MUST not make the same mistake that the Serbs did with the KLA in Kosovo....pussyfoot around, wait for permission to fight terrorism on their own soil...send in small amounts of police forces etc.

Mobilize the whole fucking army, kill every last PKK terrorist, do it fast before people bitch and whine too much.... if they dont, sometime in the future, they will face losing a part of their country... or put up with terrorism for the next 50 years.

I cannot believe the American's "warning" Turkey over action lol.... The Americans went half way around the world to fight an imaginary terrorist threat, and Turkey is supposed to grin and bear these non stop REAL terrorist attacks?

Then they have the balls to quote some Kurds in Turkey during a protest on the BBC who said... ""We will resist the Turkish" and "We are in a world of dialogue, not war". Like WTF? :rofl:

[rmk]

Add it to the list of clusterfucks caused by this war. What a waste of life.

[Toma]

Originally posted by rmk
Add it to the list of clusterfucks caused by this war. What a waste of life.
I wish you could blame the US for that.... but you cant. The Kurds have been a problem both in Iraq and Turkey for decades.

When Saddam went after the Kurds, he was responding to an uprising, terrorist acts and a assassination attempt on him....supported by the US as I recall.....

[mark4091]

Originally posted by Toma

Oh...so the largest Army in all of Europe, with American made and supplied weapons.... ninth largest army in the world.... you think they have cashflow problem?
You forgot to mention one thing, HOW they can mobilize that army, and for how long, do you really think the Americans are going to supply they're army with fuel, and all the other supply's for this little expedition?

Large army yes, well equipt yes, experience in modern combat and ability to use it forces well, no.

[mark4091]

I don't know if you understand me, I'm not siding with terrorists... but the americans are right, I doubt the turkish are going to make things better, they will go in killing and won't be able to hold out, they will leave, and leave problems unsolved.

[Weapon_R]

Turkish Troops are on their way to the Iraqi border.


SIRNAK, Turkey - Dozens of Turkish military vehicles loaded with soldiers and heavy weapons rumbled toward the Iraq border on Monday after an ambush by guerrilla Kurds that killed 12 soldiers and left eight others missing.
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Iraq's president said the rebels would announce a cease-fire. Turkey's government, which has rejected similar announcements in the past, said the country will pursue diplomacy before it sends troops across the rugged frontier.

Turkey's military said it lost contact with the eight soldiers after Sunday's clash and said 34 guerrillas had been killed so far in a counteroffensive. A pro-Kurdish news agency said the eight were captured — a claim that would make it the largest seizure since 1995, when guerrillas grabbed eight soldiers and took them to northern Iraq.

"Right now, these soldiers are hostages in the hands of our forces," the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency quoted a rebel commander, Bahoz Erdal, as saying.

Erdal said the soldiers' families should not worry about the fate of their sons: "We have not harmed them and we will not."

The ambush on Sunday outraged an already frustrated public. Demonstrations erupted across the country and opposition leaders called for an immediate strike against rebel bases in Iraq, despite appeals for restraint from Iraq, the U.S., and European and Arab countries.

In Washington, the State Department said the United States has opened a diplomatic "full court press" to urge Turkey not to invade northern Iraq.

"In our view, there are better ways to deal with this issue," spokesman Sean McCormack said, stressing that the United States regards the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, as a terrorist organization.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the PKK would make a cease-fire announcement. Kurdish rebels last declared a cease-fire in June and the rebel group said Monday that it was still in place, the Firat News Agency reported.

Turkey has rejected several past unilateral cease-fires declared by rebels, saying it would maintain fighting until all rebels surrender or are killed. In the past, rebels have pressed ahead with attacks despite cease-fires on grounds that they were defending themselves.

Talabani's made the remarks to reporters at the airport in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah before flying to Baghdad; his office confirmed them. More details were not immediately available.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a telephone conversation Sunday that Turkey expected "speedy steps from the U.S." in cracking down on Kurdish rebels and that Rice, who called the Turkish leader, asked "for a few days" from him.

McCormack did not dispute the account of the conversation but declined to comment on what Rice had meant by asking for "a few days."

Erdogan did not specify what he meant by "speedy steps," but he has often urged the United States and Iraq to crack down on the PKK. Turkish leaders say it is the responsibility of those countries to do whatever is necessary to destroy the guerrilla group's bases in northern Iraq.

"We will continue these diplomatic efforts with all good intentions to solve this problem caused by a terrorist organization," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Kuwait. "But in the end, if we do not reach any results, there are other means we might have to use."

Babacan has been touring Arab countries to explain his country's plans.

After days of silence on the crisis, Egypt and Jordan on Monday cautioned Turkey against launching an offensive, a reflection of Arab countries' fears of widening the Iraq conflict.

Arab nations traditionally oppose any foreign incursion into a fellow Arab state, but they also have growing ties with Turkey and oppose Kurdish separatist movements.

Alone among Arab countries, Syria has already come out in support of Turkey, saying it has a right to take action against the guerrillas.

The Turkish military confirmed Monday that eight of its soldiers were missing after the ambush by Kurdish rebels that left 12 other soldiers dead and brought the northern Iraq border area to the brink of war.

"Despite all search efforts, no contact has been established with eight missing personnel since shortly after the armed attack on the military unit," the military said in a statement on its Web site.

The last major kidnapping was in 1995, when Kurdish guerrillas grabbed eight soldiers and took them to bases in northern Iraq, where the group is still headquartered. The rebels released the soldiers two years later after human rights activists, lawmakers and family members visited the rebel hide-out.

An AP Television News cameraman saw a convoy of 50 military vehicles, loaded with soldiers and weapons, heading from the southeastern town of Sirnak toward Uludere, closer to the border with Iraq.

It was unclear whether the vehicles were being sent to reinforce troops engaged in fighting with rebels on Turkish soil or were preparing for possible cross-border action. Tens of thousands of Turkish troops are already deployed in the border area.

Protests were staged in Istanbul, Ankara and the eastern Turkish city of Bilecik, where 13,000 schoolchildren held a minute of silence while people marched down a main street, waving the Turkish flag, local media reported. In Bursa, in northwest Turkey, some protesters walked to a military conscription office and asked to enlist to fight rebels.

Turkey's military said Sunday it had launched an offensive backed by helicopter gunships in retaliation for the attack, shelling rebel positions along the rugged Turkish-Iraqi border.

More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict that began in 1984.

Out of respect for the soldiers killed Sunday, a concert by American R&B singer Beyonce Knowles in Istanbul was canceled, a soccer club that was organizing the event said on its Web site Monday.

[T78Supra1]

Oh Great another Sunny v.s Kurdish War

[Toma]

So let me get this straight.... Kurds=always a problem for Iraq....
so they make a KURD PM of Iraq?

My fucking god..... :rolleyes: