Turkey raps Iraqi Kurds over intervention comments

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey issued a stern warning on Monday to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani over comments he made about Ankara's policy towards northern Iraq, saying Barzani would "be crushed by his own words".

Barzani said in a television interview at the weekend that if Ankara interfered in northern Iraq, as it has threatened to do, Iraqi Kurds would interfere in Kurdish cities in Turkey.

"They should be very careful in their use of words ... otherwise they will be crushed by those words ... Barzani has again exceeded the limits," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in televised remarks.

A Barzani aide later said the Kurd leader's comments had not been meant as a threat.

Ankara is deeply concerned about what it sees as moves by Iraqi Kurds to build an independent state in northern Iraq, fearing this could in turn reignite separatism among its own Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.

Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Ankara had a legitimate interest in developments in northern Iraq because Turkish Kurdish rebels used the region as a springboard to launch attacks on military and civilian targets inside Turkey.

"Northern Iraq is the source of the ethnic-based terror we suffer in Turkey," Cicek told a news conference after a cabinet meeting dominated by Barzani's comments.

Security officials said a Turkish soldier and three guerrillas from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed on Monday in fresh fighting in southeast Turkey.

Ten more soldiers and seven rebels were killed at the weekend after thousands of Turkish troops, backed by helicopters, launched operations against the PKK.

Cicek said Ankara had handed a diplomatic protest note to the Baghdad government over Barzani's comments.

WORRIES

Turkey is especially worried that Iraqi Kurds will wrest control of the oil-rich but multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk after a referendum on the city's status due by the end of 2007, turning it into the capital of a new state.

In his weekend interview, Barzani, who is president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said he would not allow Turkey to intervene in Kirkuk and stressed the city's Kurdish identity.

"Turkey is not allowed to interfere in the Kirkuk issue and if it does we will interfere in Diyarbakir's affairs and other cities in Turkey," Barzani told Al-Arabiyah television.

Diyarbakir is the largest city in southeast Turkey.

"Northern Iraq is making a very serious mistake with these steps," Erdogan said.

Asked about Erdogan's comments on Monday, Fouad Hussein, an aide to Barzani and head of his presidential office, denied the Iraqi Kurdish leader was threatening Ankara.

"Massoud Barzani did not wish to threaten Turkey but he intended to stress a fundamental principle and consistent policy of the Kurdish leader, which calls for non-interference in the business of others on condition of non-interference in our affairs," Hussein told Reuters in Arbil, northern Iraq.

In the past, Turkish government ministers and army generals have affirmed Turkey's right under international law to send troops into Iraq if necessary "in self-defense".

Ankara has repeatedly urged Baghdad and U.S. forces based in Iraq to crack down on an estimated 4,000 PKK fighters hiding in the mountains of northern Iraq, but they have failed to act.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

(Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil)