Turkish Prime Minister: We Will Attack in Iraq

From the Times of London, breaking news:

Turkish Prime Minister warns US: we will attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq

Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells The Times that he needs nobody’s permission to defend his country

[Oct. 22, 2007]

Martin Fletcher and Suna Erdem

Turkey will launch military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq despite frantic appeals for restraint from America and Nato, its Prime Minister has told The Times.

Speaking hours before the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, killed at least 17 more Turkish soldiers yesterday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey had urged the US and Iraqi governments repeatedly to expel the separatists but they had done nothing. Turkey’s patience was running out and the country had every right to defend itself, he said. “Whatever is necessary will be done,” he declared in an interview. “We don’t have to get permission from anybody.”

Mr Erdogan, who begins a two-day visit to Britain today, also offered a bleak assessment of relations between the US and Turkey, a country of huge strategic importance to Washington. He said that a “serious wave of antiAmericanism” was sweeping Turkey, called America’s war in Iraq a failure, and served warning that if the US Congress approved a Bill accusing the Ottoman Turks of genocide against Armenians during the First World War, the US “might lose a very important friend”.

— snip —

This is a potential distaster.

[Update: 10/21/07 11:27 PM by LithiumCola]:

More; the Times headline might be overhyped:

Military action could be avoided only if the Americans and Iraqis expelled the PKK, closed its camps and handed over its leaders, he said.

Mr Erdogan said that last week’s parliamentary vote authorising military action showed that Turkey’s patience was exhausted. He would not be drawn on the scale or timing of any operation, but Turkey is thought to have more than 60,000 soldiers massed along the Iraq border. Other Turkish officials said that the PKK had six training camps and 3,500 fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq.

[Update #2 11:40 PM 10/21/07 by Lithiumcola]: more below.

From Today’s Zaman, a Turkish newspaper:

[Outrage as attack claims 12 lives]
Heinous attack stretches Turkey’s patience to limits

Political leaders and military commanders gathered at a crisis summit chaired by President Abdullah Gül after a heinous attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed the lives of 12 soldiers at the border with northern Iraq and injured 16 others.

— snip —

Labor Minister Faruk Çelik said the latest developments “will make us implement sharper measures.” In Kiev, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül, speaking after a meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said Turkey has plans to launch a cross-border operation but “not urgently.”

“Our grief is very deep,” said Gül, who cut short a visit to his hometown of Kayseri to chair the crisis meeting at the presidential palace. Gül, who is due to meet separately with leaders of political parties today for talks, said it was Turkey’s right to take action to destroy the PKK if Iraq fails to take action to that effect, but also called for “wisdom” in the fight against terror and warned that feelings of unity and solidarity must be kept strong while terrorism is being countered.

I’m not clear on how up to date this one is.  The events appear to be developing by the hour.