Turkey raps Iraqi Kurds over intervention comments

By Hidir Goktas and Gareth Jones

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.

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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.