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Turkish army chief accuses Iraqi Kurds of supporting rebels

ANKARA, Feb 17, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey's army chief has accused the two main Kurdish factions in neighbouring northern Iraq of supporting Turkish Kurd rebels, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

And he has raised objections to any moves by Ankara to seek dialogue with them, it said.

His comments drew a veiled rebuke by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, signalling possible disagreements between the government and the army on how to combat the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Referring to the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which run an autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said they were giving "full support" to the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by both Turkey and the United States.

"They are the biggest supporter of the PKK at the moment... They (the rebels) also take C-4 explosives from them," Buyukanit was quoted as telling Turkish reporters in Washington after talks with US officials.

Turkey has grown increasingly impatient with US and Iraqi reluctance to crack down on PKK bases in northern Iraq, where the rebels have long taken refuge, and has threatened a cross-border operation to pursue the rebels.

Ankara charges that the militants use northern Iraq as a training ground, enjoy unrestricted movement in the region and are able to obtain arms and explosives there for attacks across the border.

Buyukanit also charged that Iraqis provided no security on their side of the mountainous frontier, giving the PKK a free hand in its operations.

"There are no Iraqi security forces tasked with guarding the other side of the border. The Iraqi side has been handed over to the PKK... This is unacceptable," Anatolia quoted him as saying.

"If the PKK is taking advantage of that to harm our people, it becomes compulsory for us to say that it is a necessity for Turkey to take measures," he said.

He also voiced scepticism about remarks this week by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Ankara would be ready to improve ties with the Iraqi Kurds "if this will serve peace" in the region.

"I cannot interfere if political contacts are to be held. But what do I have to discuss with those who support the PKK?" he said.

Gul retorted Saturday that the government would seek dialogue with all Iraqi groups to ensure that problems are resolved through political means.

"Soldiers speak with weapons... but before this point is reached politicians and diplomats have work to do," he said here before flying to Saudi Arabia.

"The issue should not be turn into a polemic," he added, arguing that the views of both the government and the military were part of the same effort to resolve the problem.

Turkey's staunchly secularist military is often distrustful of the ruling Justice and Development Party because of its Islamist roots.

Washington has warned Ankara against a cross-border operation in northern Iraq, wary that such a move may destabilise a relataively peaceful region in the conflict-torn country and fuel tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, a staunch US ally.

Buyukanit said about 3,500 PKK militants were currently based in Iraq, and another 1,500 in Turkey.

Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds are already at loggerheads over the future of the ethnically volatile, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region although the city is also home to Arabs and Turkish-backed Turkmens.

Ankara suspects the Iraqi Kurds of planning to break away from Baghdad, which in turn, could embolden the PKK's separatist campaign in adjoining southeast Turkey.

The PKK has fought for self-rule in the predominantly Kurdish southeast since 1984 in a bloody conflict that has claimed some 37,000 lives.