Turkey: No need for buffer zone

PM Erdogan rejects calls for measure aimed at halting cross-border raids by Kurdish guerrillas

The T-shirt of a demonstrator carries a picture of the slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink under a multi-faith slogan reading Istanbul, during a protest near a courthouse in the city yesterday. A Turkish court has resumed the trial of suspects in the killing of Dink.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has no current need to set up a buffer zone in northern Iraq to halt cross-border raids by Kurdish guerrillas, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday in response to opposition calls for such a move.

His comments follow a warning from a senior Iraqi Kurdish official against Turkey stationing troops inside Iraq, saying it would not stop attacks by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels.

Turkey’s parliament last week approved a government request to give the military the green light to carry out operations against PKK bases in northern Iraq for another year, days after a cross-border attack killed 17 soldiers.

“At the moment there is no need for a buffer zone. Whatever is necessary is being done,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara when asked about the opposition calls.

He said 167 military installations would be established by the end of 2009 at a cost of 250-300 million lira ($180-210 million) as part of efforts to tighten up security in the region.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation is scheduled to meet Iraq leaders in Baghdad today amid strained ties between Iraq and Turkey, which accuses its neighbor of not doing enough to combat the separatists.

Turkish opposition nationalist parties and retired generals have been floating the idea of setting up a buffer zone for at least two years, but have stepped up calls since the latest attacks.

NATO member Turkey has staged almost daily air strikes against suspected PKK bases in Iraq since the ambush in Hakkari at the start of the month, the worst single attack on the military in more than a year.

A similar attack on a border post last year led Turkey to launch a brief large-scale land operation in Iraq. Washington and Brussels are worried prolonged Turkish operations in northern Iraq would hurt the region.

DIYARBAKIR (AFP) – A Turkish court yesterday charged and jailed pending trial five people in connection with a Kurdish rebel attack last week on a police bus in the country’s southeast that claimed five lives.

Three suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were charged with membership in an illegal organization and carrying out armed attacks on its behalf. The two remaining suspects were charged with aiding and abetting. Police are still questioning a sixth suspect and also looking for the alleged mastermind of the attack in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. Two other people were released without charges.