Turkish PM urges Iraq to shut Kurdish rebel camps
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Baghdad on Friday to shut down camps run by separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and to hand over guerrilla leaders.
His comments came two days after the Ankara parliament defied Washington and authorized Turkish troops to cross the mountainous border into northern Iraq to track down the rebels, who use the region as a base from which to attack Turkey.
Baghdad, backed by Washington, has urged Turkey to refrain from military action, saying this could destabilize the wider region, but has also told the rebel fighters to leave Iraq.
"What will satisfy us is the closure of all PKK (rebel) camps, including their training facilities, and the handover of the terrorist leaders to us," Erdogan told reporters after attending Friday prayers at an Istanbul mosque.
Some 3,000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including its leaders, are believed to be hiding in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
Erdogan is under heavy public pressure to act against the PKK after a series of deadly attacks on Turkish troops.
The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted one of Turkey's most wanted rebel commanders on Friday as saying the PKK could target oil pipelines if Turkish forces attacked them in Iraq.
"Since pipelines that cross Kurdistan provide the economic resources for the Turkish army's aggression, it is possible the guerrillas target them," Firat quoted Murat Karayilan saying.
Turkey's tough stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs and put fresh strain on already difficult relations between Ankara and Washington, which are NATO allies.
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Turkish Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek played down the economic risks connected to the Iraq crisis.
"Of course we will take further steps and respond to any pressure if needed, but I do believe Turkey's economy can withstand current pressures," he told a meeting with investors and bank analysts during a trip to Washington.
The Pentagon annoyed Turkey after Wednesday's parliamentary vote by suggesting it did not think Ankara had much appetite for a cross-border incursion.
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek was quoted on Friday as saying Turkey was serious about sending troops into Iraq.
"We have made the decision and we will do what is necessary. We are not reluctant. There is no going back on this," Today's Zaman newspaper quoted Cicek as saying in an interview.
Parliament's authorization is valid for one year. Erdogan has signaled that military operations are not imminent.
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds marched on Thursday in Arbil, capital of their autonomous region, to protest against Turkey's moves and to call for peaceful dialogue. But Cicek repeated Ankara's refusal to deal directly with the Iraqi Kurds.
"We don't talk with Iraqi Kurdish groups. Our interlocutor is the Iraqi government in Baghdad ... Northern Iraq is a part of Iraq," said Cicek.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders of sheltering and even actively supporting the PKK, a group it blames for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.
Turkey also suspects the Iraqi Kurds of plotting to build an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, a move it fears could fan separatism among its own large ethnic Kurdish population and destabilize the whole region.
