Turkey praises Iran’s efforts against PKK, warns Iraqi Kurds
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul praised neighboring Iran’s “serious” efforts to curb Kurdish separatists, while warning Iraqi Kurds that the rebels will one day threaten their stability if they continue to find refuge in northern Iraq.
Thousands of militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting Ankara since 1984, are based in mountain hideouts in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, and also often use Iran to infiltrate Turkey.
Baghdad said at the weekend that Iranian forces entered several kilometers (miles) into Iraq and shelled PKK positions; Iran, which has its own restive Kurdish community, neither confirmed nor denied the claim.
The PKK, which has markedly stepped up violence this year, is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.
“The terrorist organization is a threat not only to Turkey, but also to Iran,” Gul said in an interview with NTV television. “The Iranians have understood this and that is why they give great importance to this issue and are engaged in a very serious effort.”
Pejak, a Kurdish group linked to the PKK, is active in Iran and has been blamed for many of the armed attacks last year that killed at least 120 Iranian police and wounded scores of others.
In Turkey, at least 20 members of the security forces have been killed this year in clashes and landmine attacks blamed on the PKK, which has lost at least 53 fighters, according to an AFP count.
Kurdish militants also claimed eight bomb attacks in urban centers, killing four and leaving 95 injured.
Turkey has amassed thousands of troops along the Iraqi border for what it describes as a large-scale effort to prevent increasing infiltration by PKK militants.
news.yahoo.com
It’s hundreds of thousands of Turkish troops. Curioser and curioser…