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 south-east 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. Turkey strongly rejects the "genocide" tage and has threatened unspecified reprisals against its Nato ally.
Turkey says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern Iraq, is tolerated by local Kurdish leaders and obtains weapons and explosives there for attacks across the border in Turkey. Faced with mounting rebel violence, Ankara says it is left with no choice but military action because neither Washington nor Baghdad is helping to curb the rebels.
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