Turkish Parliament authorises incursion into Iraq
The Turkish parliament Wednesday voted to allow military strikes
against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, despite stiff US
opposition and appeals from Baghdad for time to purge the rebels.
A government motion seeking a one-year authorisation for one or more
incursions into Iraq was approved with the support of 507 lawmakers in
the 550-seat house, with 19 voting against. The motion leaves it up to
the government to determine the timing and scope of the operation and
the number of troops to be sent.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that parliamentary
approval would not mean immediate military action, signalling that there
could be still room for diplomacy.
Both Baghdad and Washington scrambled to dissuade Ankara from
following through on military action.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he was determined to act
against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which attacks
Turkey from its bases in northern Iraq. The PKK has waged a bloody
campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The
conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Maliki told Erdogan on the telephone that Baghdad “is absolutely
determined to end the activities and the presence” of the PKK in Iraq,
the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting unnamed
sources.
He also asked for “a new opportunity” to resolve the issue through
diplomatic means and proposed talks.
Erdogan welcomed the proposal but warned that Ankara cannot tolerate
any “further waste of time”.
In Washington, President George W. Bush said the United States was
“making it very clear to Turkey that we don’t think it is in their
interests” to send troops into Iraq.
“There’s a better way to deal with the issue,” Bush told a press
conference.But Washington has lost its leverage with Ankara because of a
pending Congressional vote on a resolution branding the 1915-17 Ottoman
massacres of Armenians as genocide.
Ankara, Thursday, AFP |