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Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani issued a strongly worded statement hours after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates hinted that US and Iraqi forces were prepared to act against Turkish Kurd rebels in northern Iraq.
"We frankly say to all parties: if they attack the region or Kurdistan experiment under whatever pretext, we will be completely ready to defend our democratic experiment and the dignity of our people and the sanctity of our homeland," Mr Barzani said.
He said Iraqi Kurds were not to blame for the trouble between Turkey and the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and reiterated a call for the Turkish government to hold negotiations with his autonomous Kurdish government based in Arbil.
A senior Turkish official, however, rejected direct talks with the regional authorities to defuse the crisis and said the Turks would deal only with the central government in Baghdad.
"We don't talk to Iraqi Kurdish groups. Our interlocutor is the Iraqi government in Baghdad, and we discuss whatever we want to discuss with its representatives," said Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek.
The Turkish parliament gave permission to the military on Wednesday to launch an incursion into northern Iraq to pursue the PKK although Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoyan indicated that no such action was imminent.
Turkey says the rebels enjoy free movement in Iraq's Kurdish north and are tolerated or even actively supported by the regional political leaders, something they have repeatedly denied.
Dr Gates said the United States was determined to work with the Turks to reduce the PKK threat and said Washington and Baghdad were prepared to do the "appropriate thing" if necessary. He did not specify what that implied.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed that he will bring an end to the presence inside Iraq of the PKK, who he has labelled "terrorists" several times in recent days.
But the situation on the ground means his options are limited. The Iraqi army is not deployed on the Turkish border or anywhere else in the region, where security is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga militiamen.
Observers say any moves to rein in the PKK must come from the Kurdish administration which controls the peshmerga and has more influence with the rebel group than the central government in Baghdad. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Posted October 19th, 2007 by Dinka
