Kurds ask U.N. to stop invasion by Turk troops

Turkish lawmakers voted to allow an incursion into Iraq to root out guerrillas.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Thousands of Kurds joined rallies across northern Iraq and marched to U.N. offices Thursday to protest a vote by Turkey’s lawmakers that backed possible cross-border attacks against Kurdish rebel camps.

The Turkish vote Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive to root out guerrillas seeking autonomy for the mostly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey. But there was no sign of imminent military strikes, and the United States and the Iraqi government have urged restraint.

“No to military action. Yes to dialogue,” demonstrators shouted as more than 5,000 people headed to U.N. offices in Dahuk near the Turkish border.

Protesters delivered a document calling for U.N. intervention to stop any further incursions into Iraq by Turkey — which has sent troops across the border several times in past decades to chase the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK.

In Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, children in school uniforms and other protesters waved banners in Kurdish and English: “Understanding each other is better than killing each other.”

The rallies also tapped into Kurdish solidarity for a people spread across several borders in the region, including Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Some protesters brandished the sunshine-crested flag of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region and joined in pro-Kurdish slogans and songs.

“We in our country have done nothing against neighboring Turkey and we will not allow that our dignity be violated,” said Evan Dosky, a 26-year-old university student.

Washington has urged its longtime ally Turkey to work with Iraqis to crack down on the rebels, fearing a unilateral offensive by Turks might bring chaos and a refugee crisis to one of the rare stable areas in Iraq. Oil prices, meanwhile, have spiked on worries that a Turkish drive could disrupt supplies.

But Turkey, a NATO member, says it has the right to attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq in the name of fighting terrorism — drawing parallels to the U.S.-led campaigns in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Washington lists the PKK as a terrorist organization.

“Those who criticize us on the parliamentary motion should explain what they are doing in Afghanistan,” said Turkey’s justice minister, Mehmet Ali Sahin. “Turkey is implementing the same international rule.”

Turkish relations with Washington have been further strained by U.S congressional debate on whether to declare as a genocide the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Turks during World War I. Turkey denies there was a systematic campaign to eliminate Armenians, saying the deaths came during the civil unrest that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The PKK has long maintained hide-outs along the rugged Iraq-Turkey border during its 23-year separatist campaign, which has left an estimated 37,000 people dead.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, said the government was willing to increase pressure on the PKK, but it doesn’t have the forces to push it out of the country.

“The Iraqi government is not running away from its responsibilities. It’s just a question of time,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

“You need to dislodge them by force,” he said. “Iraqi security forces are battling the terrorists in the streets of Baghdad and many other key cities and are over-stretched. To release these forces really would create a vacuum.”

But, he said, Iraq could take steps to cut off supplies and create checkpoints to limit access for the rebels in the north. He also recommended three-party talks between Iraq, Turkey and the United States.

“We would definitely consider a number of measures to take to disrupt PKK activities ... but we need to discuss these,” he said. “We haven’t seen that great enthusiasm from the Turkish side to engage seriously in a substantive dialogue.”

In Washington, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh chided Iraqi Kurds for not chasing the PKK out of their autonomous region. He said the “natural feeling” of the Iraqi Kurds is to “feel sympathy with their brothers in Turkey.”

“The Iraqi government is calling the Turkey government not to use the military solution and refrain from crossing the Iraqi border,” he said.