Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push in

[mchyet at library.berkeley.edu]

From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu
Subject: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq



--------------- Forwarded Story ---------------

Headline: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq 
Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report)
Date: Mon, Mar 20, 1995


    ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the
cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack 
Kurdish guerrilla bases.
     The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish
region in northern Iraq, called the movement an "unjustified incursion" and 
appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces.
     "Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs
(armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border 
through the main road into Zakho," it said in a faxed statement from London.
     "This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention
and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity," it said.
     Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in 
southeast Turkey.
     The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish
groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested 
hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers.
     "The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho
extensively," the INC said in a statement.
     The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew
for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, 
identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds
lived.
     Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the 
de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government.
     Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who
split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air
cover.
  REUTER