All news

Turkish Kurds protest against Iraq incursion

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Feb 25, 2008 (AFP) - Thousands demonstrated in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast on Monday against a major cross-border ground offensive in northern Iraq to hunt separatist rebels.

The rally in Diyarbakir -- organized by the country's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party -- drew up to 10,000 protestors who condemned Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for ordering troops into northern Iraq.

"Terrorist Erdogan, hypocrite Erdoagan," they chanted.

"Damn the hands that touch Qandil," they said, referring to a mountainous stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in the autonomous Kurdish-run north of Iraq.

A banner carried by the demonstrators warned Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, that Iraqi Kurds, whom Ankara accuses of tolerating the PKK, might be Turkey's next target.

"Take care Talabani, if we are lunch, you are dinner," it read.

The protest ended peacefully, but there were scuffles in nearby neighbourhoods between small groups of demonstrators and police, journalists said.

Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq Thursday in major cross-border assault which the Turkish army said Monday had claimed the lives of 153 rebels and 17 soldiers so far.

Turkey has given assurances that the operation only targets the PKK and that troops will return once they achieve their objectives.

Ankara charges that an estimated 4,000 PKK rebels use northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish territory as part of armed campaign since 1984 for Kurdfish-self-rule in the country's southeast.

The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.