TURKEY:Turkey's prime minister issued a stern warning yesterday to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani over comments he made about Ankara's policy towards northern Iraq, saying Mr Barzani would "be crushed by his own words".
Ankara said it could take measures against northern Iraq, as seven separatist fighters and a government soldier died in clashes in increasing violence in Turkey's southeast.
Mr Barzani said in a television interview at the weekend that if Turkey intervened in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, as it has often threatened to do, Iraqi Kurds would intervene in cities in Turkey's mainly Kurdish region.
"They should be very careful in their use of words . . . otherwise they will be crushed by those words . . . Barzani has again exceeded the limits," the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, said.
Ankara is deeply concerned about what it sees as moves by Iraqi Kurds to build an independent state in northern Iraq, fearing this could reignite separatism among its own Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Three guerrillas from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), four Marxist rebels and a soldier were killed yesterday in fighting in Turkey's southeast, security officials said.
Ten more soldiers and seven rebels were killed at the weekend after thousands of Turkish troops, backed by helicopters, launched operations against the PKK.
Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds will wrest control of the oil-rich but multiethnic city of Kirkuk after a referendum on the city's status due by the end of 2007, turning it into their new capital.
In his weekend interview, Mr Barzani, who is president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, said he would not allow Turkey to intervene in Kirkuk and stressed the city's Kurdish identity.
"Turkey is not allowed to intervene in the Kirkuk issue and if it does, we will interfere in Diyarbakir's affairs and other cities in Turkey," Mr Barzani said. Diyarbakir is the largest city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast region. "Northern Iraq is making a very serious mistake with these steps," Mr Erdogan said.
The foreign minister Abdullah Gul complained to US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Saturday over Mr Barzani's comments. The Turkish state minister Kursad Tuzmen said yesterday Ankara could take unspecified measures "when the time comes". Some opposition politicians have called for the temporary closure of the Habur border gate between Turkey and Iraq as a protest.
In the past, both government ministers and army generals have also affirmed Turkey's right under international law to send troops into Iraq if necessary "in self-defence".
Ankara has repeatedly urged Baghdad and US forces based in Iraq to crack down on Turkish Kurdish guerrillas hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq, but they have failed to act.
Turkey blames the rebels for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since they began their armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. - (Reuters)