October 21, 2011 ANKARA, — The news hit the headlines: Turkish army launched ground operation into Kurdistan region in north Iraq. Most articles quoted a Turkish General Staff statement. The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) denied that troops had been crossing the border into Iraqi Kurdistan. And indeed on Friday in a rather embarrassing move the Turkish General Staff released a statement saying that Turkish air force and ground operations launched are being carried out mainly within Turkey, Kurdish ANF news agency reported. The General Staff further clarified Thursday's statement on Friday, saying the initial statement was misinterpreted by media Turkish solider in the Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) outlets which reported that the whole offensive was being carried out in Iraq. “While the majority of air and ground operations are being carried out within the country, in the Çukurca region [of Hakkari] in particular, air and ground operations are also under way outside the border in a few regions,” the military said on Friday, Todays Zman reported. On Thursday the PKK deny that the Turkish army has entered Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan refused to share details of the military's offensive on Thursday. “Our goal is to achieve results with this operation,” Erdoğan said in a nationally televised news conference. “The military is determinedly carrying out this [operation], both from the air and the ground,” he said. Turkey said earlier that had launched a cross-border offensive against the PKK after the group staged simultaneous attacks on Turkish military and police targets along the border on Wednesday, killing 24 Turkish soldiers and wounding 18 others. Turkey said it was sending in 22 battalions against PKK forces in Iraqi Kurdistan region, using both air and ground power. Analysts said the incursion entailed 10,000 to 15,000 troops. Since August 17, Turkish jets repeatedly carried out air strikes against the Kurdish PKK separatist group's bases in Iraqi Kurdistan region, under justification of chasing elements of the anti-Ankara PKK, forcing large numbers of Kurdish citizens of those areas to desert their home villages, including an air raid that killed 7 Kurdish civilians in a village north of Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah city on August 21st. Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. But now its aim is the creation an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels. PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations. The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list. todayszaman.com
