ANKARA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government
has submitted the motion for a cross-border operation to fight against the
banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) to the parliament, government spokesman and
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said on Monday.
After about six hour's meeting of the Council of
Ministers, Cicek told reporters that the Anti-Terror Supreme Board made a
decision regarding preparation for a motion allowing Turkish Armed Forces to
launch a cross-border operation in its last meeting.
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Turkish soldiers take part in a military
exercise, in the town of Cizre, some 10km from the Turkish-Iraqi border,
in June 2007. The Turkish government has submitted the motion for a
cross-border operation to fight against the banned Kurdish Workers' Party
(PKK) to the parliament. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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"Ministers
decided on submission of this motion to the parliament as of Monday. Prime
minister and ministers signed the motion. I expect that it will be debated in
the parliament this week," Cicek said.
"Our wish is that we will not have to use this
motion... but the most painful reality of our country, our region, is terror,
"said Cicek.
Cicek indicated that the motion was only targeted at
the PKK, adding that it would be valid for one year.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi
will arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday morning and later proceed to Ankara for a
visit to Turkey.
On Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Turkey has long been seeking the cooperation of Iraq and the United
States in its fight against the PKK, but there has been no crackdown on the
rebels.
Mentioning a recent anti-terrorism deal signed with
Iraq, Erdogan said it was not valid since it had not been approved by Iraq's
parliament yet.
Turkey's Supreme Anti-Terror Board convened last
Tuesday, issuing a fresh warning of a possible cross-border incursion into
northern Iraq to chase separatist rebels and the government sent a request for
approval to parliament which is expected to make decision as early as this week.
Officials and analysts had warned that the
possibility for across-border operation into Iraq would increase after the U.S.
Congress passed a resolution backing Armenian allegations of genocide at the
hands of the late Ottoman Empire, as the Turkish anger over the resolution might
induce it to brush aside the U.S. opposition to an unilateral Turkish action in
Iraq.
On Wednesday, U.S. House of Representatives Committee
on Foreign Affairs approved a resolution labeling the killings of Armenians
between 1915 to 1917 a genocide.
The resolution drew the immediate condemnation from
the Turkish government, though it would have no binding effect on the U.S.
foreign policy.
Armenians say more than 1.5 million Armenians were
killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War I,
before modern Turkey was born in 1923, while Turkey insists the Armenians were
victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old
empire collapsed in the years before1923.
The PKK has increased its attacks on government
troops in southeastern Turkey, which led to rising Turkish demands for an
incursion into northern Iraq to crush the rebels based there.
The group, listed as a terrorist organization by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched an armed campaign for
an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking
decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.
U.S. urges Turkey to show restraint in possible incursion into Iraq
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States urged
Monday Turkey to show restraint after the Turkish government sought
authorization from its parliament for cross-border military action against the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
"We all have an interest in a stable Iraq and a desire to
see the PKK brought to justice," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon
Johndroe said.
