Turkey Taking Harder Line on Restive Kurds
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SILOPI, Turkey, July 19 -- Soldiers guarding the heights of Turkey's Kurdish southeast have long used their vantage point to deliver messages to the restive population below, plopping whitewashed stones onto the hillsides to form terse admonitions, such as: "Motherland above all."
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Turkeyâs prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asked for help in the struggle against Kurdish separatists in Iraq.
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Turkey named a new military chief Monday who favors a tougher line against Kurdish rebels and negotiations on the secular Muslim country joining the European Union.
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President George W. Bush Monday promised US cooperation in Turkey's struggle against Kurdish rebels operating out of northern Iraq, but Washington also urged restraint after deadly border clashes.
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President Abdullah Gul warned the PKK on Thursday that Turkey's patience was running out after Turkish forces said they repelled a Kurdish guerrilla attack near the Iraqi border.
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Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish area of Iraq, says Kurds will defend themselves in the event of a Turkish raid.
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Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticises EU nations for not doing more to tackle Kurdish PKK rebels.
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Turkey is stepping up its presence along its border with Iraq to levels not seen in years in an effort to root out Kurdish separatist guerrillas who take refuge in northern Iraq.
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Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan signaled on Tuesday that Turkey should focus on battling Kurdish guerrillas at home rather than in northern Iraq.
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Turkey has options if it decides to launch a major assault on Kurdish rebels in Iraq: airstrikes on suspected hideouts, helicopter-borne commando raids, or the long-term occupation of a "buffer" zone to seal off paths across the mountainous border.
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Iraq pledged on Tuesday to crack down on Kurdish separatists launching attacks on Turkey from hideouts in northern Iraq, in a bid to avert a Turkish military incursion onto its territory to hit the rebels.
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Turkey's army chief has accused the two main Kurdish factions in neighbouring northern Iraq of supporting the Turkish Kurd separatist group PKK and providing it with explosives.
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From south and north, Iraq's Kurdish region felt pressure from two sides Saturday, as saboteurs bombed a vital bridge link to Baghdad, and Turkish troops across the border massed for a possible strike.
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Turkey's top military commander promised Saturday to make Iraq-based Kurdish rebels "grieve with an intensity that they cannot imagine," while the prime minister said his nation would fight "when needed," regardless of international pressure.
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ISTANBUL, Jun 19 (IPS) - Turkey is beefing up military preparedness against  Iraq-based Kurdish rebels as a prelude to a possible cross-border  incursion that is opposed by the United States, European Union  and the Iraqi government.
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Turkey intends to pursue Kurdish rebels in Iraq, though planning for military operations is not being done urgently in response to a deadly ambush inside Turkey by the guerrillas, the country's defense chief said Sunday.
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Iraq, anxious to avert a Turkish military strike into its territory, pledged on Tuesday to rein in Kurdish separatists who are launching attacks on Turkey from northern Iraq.