Kurdish troops have reinforced a defence line along Iraq’s border with Turkey, preparing for a threatened incursion by Turkish forces. The build-up of Peshmerga forces came as members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) urged the United States to mediate between the outlawed group and the Turkish Government to resolve the crisis.

Ankara is determined to stamp out PKK guerrillas, who have been fighting from their mountain bases on either side of the Iraqi-Turkish border since 1984, when they began an armed struggle for better rights for Kurds in Turkey.

Sheikh Ali, the commander of 20,000 Peshmerga troops in Dahuk, the Kurdish province that borders Turkey, is anxious for a peaceful solution to the stand-off. “I hope that Turkey never takes this decision to attack. We do not want this to happen,” the general, told The Times. “At the same time . . . we will have no choice, we will defend our land and our dignity.”

Sheikh Ali, who in the past has led Peshmerga forces alongside Turkish troops against the PKK in northern Iraq, feels that military action by Turkey is not the answer, because the guerrillas are masters of survival in the mountains. He said that Iraq’s Peshmerga security forces were not planning to take on the rebels again.

“We cannot open a new front line while we are fighting against terrorism [elsewhere in Iraq],” he said. “[The troop build-up] is for defence. We do not attack our neighbour, but at the same time we do not accept for them to attack our land and we will defend it.”

Usually half of Dahuk’s troops are on duty for 15 days while the other 10,000 are on leave. “Now 75 per cent are on duty because of the situation,” said Sheikh Ali. The last time all troops were called back off leave was in February 2003, on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Driving around the region, The Timeshas seen numerous lorries carrying Peshmerga soldiers towards the border. Bases are bustling with activity and troops can be spotted patrolling mountain tops near the border, past the town of Zakho. On the Turkish side, up to 100,000 soldiers are ready for action, in what has become the worst case of cross-border tension over the PKK.

At a small, rebel security post in the Qandil Mountains, which cover Iraq’s border with Turkey and Iran, Bozan Tekin, a PKK leader, said that Washington had the power to defuse the crisis peacefully. “The best role that the United States of America can play is a mediating role in order to solve the Kurdish question between Turkey and our movement,” he said, referring to the PKK’s desire for better rights for the millions of Kurdish people living in Turkey.

Washington, along with the European Union and Turkey, regards the PKK as a terrorist organisation and has said it will never deal with them. “Otherwise the crisis will spread all around the Middle East. We believe that nobody will benefit from this.”

Mr Tekin and Mizgin Amed, a senior female PKK member, insisted that the group was still upholding a ceasefire, in place since October last year, despite what they described as 485 military operations by Turkey. They said that PKK fighters acted in self-defence in recent clashes that have left scores of Turkish troops and militants dead, further fuelling Ankara’s demands for a full-scale operation. Asked about eight Turkish soldiers the PKK said it was holding captive after an assault eight days ago, Ms Amed said: “At the moment they are in a good condition, they are healthy and they are in a safe place.” The group was open for negotiations, though it had not considered what conditions would be required to secure the men’s release, she said.

Mr Tekin, who described the captives as “guests more than prisoners”, said that the PKK did not plan to use the men as political pawns, but said that they would remain in captivity for as long as necessary.

Turkey’s tough talking on the PKK has aroused suspicion among many Kurdish officials in Iraq that Ankara’s real motivation is to derail the progress made in the Kurdish-run north, which is enjoying newfound independence and prosperity.

“I think their issue is not the PKK, I think their issue is political with the Kurdish area and Iraq as a whole,” said Sheikh Ali.

Ordinary Iraqi Kurds also echo this sentiment, including people in the Christian village of Sheransh, a government-built enclave of tiny houses in the Khamteer Mountains, a ten-minute walk from the border. “The PKK are in the mountains, they are not staying here,” said Habib Isa, 70, the mayor of the village, which is frequently rocked by Turkish shelling against suspected PKK targets. “I maybe an old man but if Turkish soldiers threaten my village, then I will be out there fighting.”

The two PKK leaders said that they were not surprised that the Kurdish region wanted to protect its borders and suggested that the rebels’ existence in the mountains had been acting as a protective buffer from Turkey.

Mr Tekin and Ms Amed said that they were prepared to fight to the death if Turkish soldiers continued to attack. Ms Amed added defiantly: “We believe in our people and our rights, that is why we are in these mountains in these conditions.”

Warriors who are ready to die

— Peshmerga is a Kurdish word meaning “one who is ready to die”

— The militia first emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman and Persian Empires in the early 20th century, when Kurdish groups tried to exercise control over their lands

— They became the official army of the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad (1945-46)

— In 1987, Peshmerga fighters established autonomous areas in northern Iraq along the Iran border, reconquered by Saddam Hussein’s regime the following year

— They fought on the side of the US-led coalition after the 2003 invasion of Iraq

— In 2005 there were between 80,000 and 100,000 Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq

Source: lexicorient.com, geocities.com

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