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DefenseNews/AFPThe head of the Turkish armed forces insisted June 27 on the need for a military incursion into northern Iraq to hunt down Turkish Kurd rebels based there, but said he needed the government’s green light to do so.
“I cannot say that we will go in and finish off the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party), but a cross-border operation will deliver a big blow,” against the rebel group, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told a televised news conference at a commando training camp in the southwestern town of Egirdir.
“It will be very useful,” he said.
Buyukanit said the army needed a “political directive” and guidelines from the government for such an operation.
“All cross-border operations have a political target,” Buyukanit said. “Military planning starts with a political directive.
“It is one thing to go into northern Iraq to fight PKK rebels or, for example, it is another thing to come under attack from local Kurds while doing that,” Buyukanit said. “If the political target is determined, the armed forces would determine what kind of force it needs and seek formal approval.”
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