Mainstream news on Kurds

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Iraqi Kurds Gear Up to Fight PKK

    ANKARA, Sept 7 (Reuter) - Iraqi Kurdish fighters are mobilising to halt
attacks by Turkish Kurd rebels in northern Iraq, an Iraqi Kurdish leader said
on Thursday.

    ``We have started a wide military operation against the PKK,'' Nachirwan
Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told reporters in the region.


    ``The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) has made a big mistake in attacking
the KDP,'' he said.

    Barzani said about 4,000 KDP ``peshmerga'' guerrillas were fanning out to
boost security in the Barzan area near the Turkish border. Ten PKK rebels and
two KDP fighters were killed in the Begova district, near Barzan, in fighting
on Wednesday.

    The PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, have attacked KDP positions in
recent weeks in an apparent bid to ensure they do not lose out in any peace
agreement between Iraqi Kurd groups.

    Barzan is the home district of the Barzani clan which forms the backbone
of the KDP.

    Turkey sent 35,000 troops into northern Iraq in March in a six-week
operation to flush out the PKK, fighting a separatist war in southeast
Turkey. But the guerrillas remained active in the region.

    Northern Iraq broke away from the Baghdad government shortly after the
end of the 1991 Gulf War. The region is protected from Iraqi troops by a
Western allied air force based in Turkey.


German - Turkish Ties Strained by Attacks
      BONN, Sept 7 (Reuter) - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel urged
police on Thursday to step up their protection of Turks from a spate of
firebomb attacks that he said had strained ties between Bonn and Ankara.

    Spurred by Tuesday's fatal attack on a house inhabited primarily by Turks
and a telephone call from his concerned Turkish counterpart, Kinkel vowed
that Germany would do its best to safeguard the two-million-strong Turkish
community here.

    Dozens of Turkish properties have been torched this year in a rash of
attacks blamed primarily on Kurdish extremists.

    ``Attacks on Turkish properties have reached such an extent that that
they are starting to weigh seriously on German-Turkish relations,'' Kinkel
said in a statement, adding that he had asked authorities to beef up
protective measures.

    ``We cannot allow Turkish members of the community to be treated as free
game in Germany via either crime against foreigners or violent acts by
militant Kurds who abuse their right to live here,'' he added.

    Investigators in the northern city of Luebeck have yet to determine the
motive for an arson attack that killed a Turk and a German and injured 20
people. Press reports suggest insurance fraud rather than racism may have
played a role.

    Authorities say the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), fighting for
independence or autonomy in southeastern Turkey, has been primarily
responsible for firebomb attacks on Turkish businesses, mosques and cultural
clubs this year.

    Most of the attacks have caused only property damage, but the PKK has
also been linked to an arson fire in Stuttgart last month that killed two
African refugees and injured four.

    The firebombings have deeply unsettled Germany's Turkish community, the
largest in western Europe. Germany hosts around 400,000 Kurds, most of whom
are from Turkey.

    Turkish officials have repeatedly urged Bonn to take a harder line
against members or sympathisers of the PKK, which Bonn banned in 1993 after a
series of violent protests.

    Kinkel said Germany must do its utmost to prevent ``cowardly attacks''
from damaging bilateral ties and expressed solidarity with Turks in the
country.

    ``Attacks on Turkish properties are not attacks on strangers in our eyes.
They affect us directly,'' he said.


Turk Arrested For Heroin In Germany
      BAYREUTH, Germany, Sept 5 (Reuter) - Bavarian police seized 72 kg (158
lb) of heroin with a street value of some 40 million marks ($27.30 million)
from a raid in a Turkish man's home in southern Germany, authorities said on
Tuesday.

    Police found the drugs, which they suspect had been smuggled into Germany
from Turkey in a lorry, in three travel bags in the 38-year-old man's home in
Bayreuth early on Sunday morning.

    Police detained the man and a 34-year-old compatriot.


Dutch Foreign Minister To Visit Turkey
      THE HAGUE, Sept 5 (Reuter) - Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo
will visit Turkey next week as part of the fence mending process since the
two countries fell out over Kurds in April.

    A foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday the visit would take place
on September 13 and 14.

    Diplomatic relations between the two countries were soured in April when
Turkey criticised the Netherlands for allowing Kurdish representatives to set
up a parliament-in-exile in The Hague.

    Turkey, claiming the body was a propaganda tool for Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) guerillas which is fighting for a Kurdish state in southern
Turkey, withdrew its ambassador to The Hague in protest.

    However, he returned in late June saying that relations had improved.


---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)