Kurdish Institute of Paris

February 26, 2008 | By Aliza Marcus and Andrew Apostolou

ALIZA MARCUS AND ANDREW APOSTOLOU

THE CRISIS between Turkey and Iraq, with the United States playing the uneasy role of mediator and friend to both, has escalated with the Turkish land operation launched Feb. 22. Following last fall's spate of attacks inside Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the Bush administration gave Turkey intelligence to facilitate air strikes against key PKK bases in remote Iraqi Kurdish mountains. Washington hoped this would prevent any Turkish military offensive inside Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq's most stable region and the PKK's unwilling host. This policy has clearly failed.

February 26, 2008

TURKEY'S current military offensive inside northern Iraq has touched off a crisis - one to which several other players in the region have contributed. Although the ultimate responsibility for ending this crisis falls on Turkey, all of the others, including the United States, must do their part to prevent a larger regional conflagration.

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

The Iraqi government has denounced a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq in some of the strongest terms heard since the operation began last week.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | By Sudarsan Raghavan | Washington Post Foreign Service

Turkey Warned Not to Expand Offensive Against Kurdish Rebels

BAGHDAD, Feb. 25 -- Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas clashed Monday for the fifth consecutive day in two areas of northern Iraq, the Turkish military said, as senior Iraqi officials warned that a widened and prolonged incursion could lead to serious repercussions for the region.

February 26, 2008 | By Asso Ahmed and Tina Susman, Special to The Times

The fighting between its ally and a Kurdish separatist group it considers a terrorist organization puts the Bush administration in a bind. 'They could do more,' an Iraqi official says.

SHILADEZAH, IRAQ -- Artillery and gunfire echoed through the mountains of northern Iraq on Monday during continued clashes between invading Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels, with Turkey saying that 153 guerrillas had been killed in four days.

February 21, 2008 | By Ahmad Al-Khaled, Staff writer

KUWAIT: Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani yesterday addressed the question of Kurdish independence saying, "As long as Iraq is abiding by the current constitution, we are bound by a united Iraq." "We are a major and important part of the government of Iraq and we are not in opposition. It is natural to have differences of opinion but on the core national and strategic issues, we are part of the state and have an understanding with the federal government," said Barzani of the sometimes a
t odds Kurdistan capital of Erbil and the federal capital Baghdad.

24 Feb. 2008

Erbil, Kurdistan - " Iraq (KRG.org) - " Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani today held a press conference in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Region, to discuss the ongoing Turkish military incursion in Iraq and his recent visits to the Republic of Korea and State of Qatar.

22 February 2008

Statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government

Erbil, Kurdistan – Iraq (KRG.org) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) condemns yesterday's military operations in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and joins the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad in calling on Turkey to end its violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

22 February 2008

Along Turkish-Iraqi border

Saturday, 23 February 2008 | By Patrick Cockburn

Up to 10,000 Turkish troops launch an incursion which threatens to destabilise the country's only peaceful region.