Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdish territory would be a declaration of war, the region’s leader said yesterday.

President Barzani gave the warning as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20 Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was using its grievances with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds in their largely autonomous region.

“If they invade or if there is any incursion, it means war,” Mr Barzani said at his offices on the outskirts of Arbil. “If they attack our people, our interests, our territories then there will be no limit because everything is subject to that incursion.”

He urged Turkey to solve the problem through dialogue, not guns. “If they take a peaceful approach, then we are ready to help as much as we can . . . The unfortunate thing is that they are not allowing other . . . options. They insist on war as being the only means to solve that problem.”

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Turkish Army sources said that their troops had killed 20 Kurdish guerrillas yesterday in a large operation involving 8,000 soldiers with air support in the eastern province of Tunceli, 370 miles from the Iraqi border. Other reports put the toll at 15.

Adding to the tension, a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk. The city is due to have a referendum on whether to become part of Kurdish-run northern Iraq, further boosting the Kurds’ power base.

Ankara feels threatened by Kurdish fighters, who use camps in Iraq’s mountainous Kurdish region for attacks on Turkey. It has demanded the extradition of PKK leaders – a request that Iraq says is unrealistic – and is threatening an incursion.

Mr Barzani said that the problem of the PKK, which began an armed campaign in 1984 to secure better rights for Kurdish people living in Turkey, could not be solved through violence.

“We are ready to cooperate with Turkey, provided that Turkey will not only go for a military solution,” he said, adding that he opposed the build-up of 150,000 Turkish troops.

He also hinted that Turkey had another reason for its tough stance on the PKK, which is not a new problem. “I am about to be convinced that the PKK is only an excuse,” he said. “The continuous, direct threats of Turkey against the Kurdistan region and its behaviour has created a doubt, leading us close to the conviction that exactly this is the aim. The Kurdistan region is the target, otherwise why should we be involved in the fight between Turkey and the PKK?”

A sharp rise in clashes between Turkish soldiers and the outlawed group in recent weeks has left scores dead, increasing pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, to take more action. The PKK says it is holding eight soldiers prisoner.

The United States, Iraq and other countries have been pressing Turkey to refrain from cross-border military operations. A military campaign could destabilise one of the few stable areas in Iraq and leave the United States in an awkward position with key allies: Turkey, a member of Nato, the Baghdad Government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurds in the north.

Mr Barzani said that talks with Washington and other allies centred on the desire to avoid conflict, although he acknowledged that the US-led coalition had the overall responsibility of protecting Iraq under a UN resolution. “To what extent they [the United States] will stay committed to that is the question, but we do not want to embarrass the Americans,” he said. “We are not asking them for military help, we are asking them to help so that we defuse the tensions so that the war will not take place.”

Mr Erdogan is due to meet President Bush on November 5 and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is expected in Ankara on Thursday for talks with Turkish officials.

Mr Barzani also expressed a strong desire to avoid a return to a period of Kurdish tensions with Turkey, Syria and Iran – countries where Kurds have settled – and emphasised the need to recognise the rights of millions of Kurds. “It is better for all of us to sit down together, reach an understanding. We are also a nation, we exist, we have a right to live,” he said.

The President urged the PKK to honour the ceasefire and to release the eight Turkish soldiers being held.

“They should stay away from violence. They should adopt a peaceful approach, a peaceful solution.”

Kirkuk bombings

February 17 Two car bombs kill 10 and injure 60

March 19 Car bombs kill 12 and injure 37

April 2 Suicide lorry bomb kills 12 and injures 150

July 16 Three suicide car bomb attacks kill 86 and injure up to 180

October 11 Seven civilians and two policemen killed when suicide car bomb targets a police convoy in a crowded street #

Source: Times Archives, Agencies

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