Turkish planes hit Iraqi Kurdish villages

[seemslikeadream]

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/26/turkey.kurds/

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Turkish aircraft bombed two Kurdish villages inside northern Iraq on Wednesday, a spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish regional security forces said.


The spokesman, Jabbar Yawar, said the bombing lasted about an hour on the deserted villages of Rikan and Nirva. Yawar said there were no civilian casualties.

The attack comes a day after Turkey's military said it killed between 150 and 175 Kurdish militants and maybe more in strikes this month in northern Iraq.

Last week, Turkey's ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, said Turkish maneuvers against Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq were based on intelligence the United States had provided.

President Bush has vowed to help Turkey fight rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been launching cross-border attacks

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?_r=1&bl&ex=1198818000&en=97c2bf78b793e1bb&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
Turkey Says 150 Killed in Strikes on Rebel Kurds


By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: December 26, 2007
ISTANBUL — Two Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq hit more than 200 targets and killed more than 150 rebels, the Turkish Army said Tuesday.

The air raids, on Dec. 16 and 22, were the first large scale assaults on Iraqi territory since the Turkish parliament approved a cross border operation in mid-October to curb rebel hideouts in Iraqi’s northern mountains.

Turkish officials have not commented reports by the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq that two more airstrikes took place on Monday and early Tuesday. But Turkish surveillance planes were spotted early Tuesday flying over Cukurca in the Hakkari Province of Turkey’s far southeast, along the border with Iraq, and also above the Kanimasi region in northern Iraq, and shelling was heard, the semi-official Anatolian news agency reported.

According to a statement by the Turkish Army, which included black and white aerial footage and still photographs that it said showed targets before and after the bombings, Turkish fighter planes hit 22 targets in the Metina, Zap, Avashin and Hakurk regions in Iraq on Dec. 16, after intelligence confirmed that the rebels, known as the P.K.K., had a presence at the sites.

.............



Bombing on Christmas day, how Christian

[TahitiNut]

1. The US, as the occupying force in Iraq, again violates the Geneva Conventions.

Despite the constant LIES calling this a "war" ... it's not. It's a military occupation of Iraq and the (Fourth) Geneva Covention obligates the occupation forces to provide security and prohibit attacks on civilian populations, even under the thin disguise (lie) of "police" powers.

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/CONVPRES?OpenView

[Marrah_G]

2. Most of Turkey is not Christian

So not sure what your comments mean. The Kurdish Government also needs to put a stop to Kurds provoking Turkey constantly if they are truly interested in peace.

Frankly it seems as though no sooner were they released from the grip of Saddam that they are intent on bringing more pain down upon their people by poking a sleeping bear like Turkey. I thought they were building a peaceful haven, boy am I disappointed.

[seemslikeadream]

4. The Kurds are fighting for what they believe is theirs

just like everyone else, it's been going on for centuries, nothing new there, and yes I know Turkey not being Christian

[comradebillyboy]

8. so are the Turks

and PKK terrorists hiding in Iraqi Kurdistan, with the complicity of the Kurdish regional Authority, have been crossing the border and conducting terrorist attacks in Turkey ever since the US 'liberated' Iraq. In the years between the 1992 war, when the Kurds had set up an autonomous region, and the US occupation of Iraq under W, the Turks got along along very well with the Turks, who were the Iraqi Kurds only source of commerce for that 11 year period. All of the Kurds other neighbors would like to exterminate them.

[seemslikeadream]

9. The Kurds get 1 hour of TV in their language a week in Turkey

17 million Kurds in Turkey, and Turkey doesn't like that. Turkey is a paranoid country

[seemslikeadream]

10. crossing the border and conducting terrorist attacks in Turkey

Why do you think that is?

[comradebillyboy]

5. Good point

the Kurds are sheltering, if not assisting and arming, terrorist groups that attack their neighbors in both Turkey and Iran, the Kurds are engaged in vigorous ethnic cleansing of the non Kurdish population in the Kirkuk region, alienating other Iraqi ethnic groups. Odd that the Kurds have so few friends in the world isn't it.

[seemslikeadream]

6. oh please

like Turkey burning 3,000 Kurdish settelments and diplacing two million people. Maybe some Kurds have a problem with that

[seemslikeadream]

7. odd that the Kurds couldn't even speak they're own language

in Turkey until 1991

[C_U_L8R]

3. This isn't the first time a Bush has sold out the Kurds

and it isn't the first time the Turks have massacred them either.

Senseless war crimes... commited in our name.
It makes me ill.

[seemslikeadream]

11. I'm just not a big fan of Turkey

http://www.counterpunch.org/fiskchomsky.html

Turkey Targets Chomsky


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm

An Inconvenient Patriot

By David Rose

08/15/05 "Vanity Fair" - September 2005 Issue -- -- Love of country led Sibel Edmonds to become a translator for the F.B.I. following 9/11. But everything changed when she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals. Fired after sounding the alarm, she’s now fighting for the ideals that made her an American, and threatening some very powerful people.

In Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, December 2, 2001 was fine but cool, the start of the slide into winter after a spell of unseasonable warmth. At 10 o’clock that morning, Sibel and Matthew Edmonds were still in their pajamas, sipping coffee in the kitchen of their waterfront town house in Alexandria, Virginia, and looking forward to a well-deserved lazy Sunday.

Since mid-September, nine days after the 9/11 attacks, Sibel had been exploiting her fluency in Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani as a translator at the F.B.I. It was arduous, demanding work, and Edmonds—who had two bachelor’s degrees, was about to begin studying for her master’s, and had plans for a doctorate—could have been considered overqualified. But as a naturalized Turkish-American, she saw the job as her patriotic duty.

The Edmondses’ thoughts were turning to brunch when Matthew answered the telephone. The caller was a woman he barely knew—Melek Can Dickerson, who worked with Sibel at the F.B.I. “I’m in the area with my husband and I’d love you to meet him,” Dickerson said. “Is it O.K. if we come by?” Taken by surprise, Sibel and Matthew hurried to shower and dress. Their guests arrived 30 minutes later. Matthew, a big man with a fuzz of gray beard, who at 60 was nearly twice the age of his petite, vivacious wife, showed them into the kitchen. They sat at a round, faux-marble table while Sibel brewed tea.

Melek’s husband, Douglas, a U.S. Air Force major who had spent several years as a military attaché in the Turkish capital of Ankara, did most of the talking, Matthew recalls. “He was pretty outspoken, pretty outgoing about meeting his wife in Turkey, and about his job. He was in weapons procurement.” Like Matthew, he was older than his wife, who had been born about a year before Sibel.





Sibel Edmonds and other Whistleblowers Group
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=344

[libodem]

12. How come we never hear of this PKK before now?

I think it's the habit of the US to label anything that gives them any trouble a terrorist organization. How convenient. I tend to believe that what ever the official story is, is meant to be a cover-up for something more sinister. And, I'll wager it has something to do with Oil, and Heroin trafficking. Turkey has the goods on the US from all the dirty dealings. I also think that the Neocons, were spoiling for a war with Iran, and since that was disrupted by the NIE, the next best thing is finish decimating Iraq. We must want that Northern Oil free and clear with out having to share the wealth with those pesky, Kurds. We were the ones that riled them all up in '92, and caused them to run riot, against Saddam, then pulled out, and left them holding the bag. It's our fault, Saddam, had them gassed. They were acting as insurgents against the government. We don't seem to like it very much when the current Iraqis cause an insurgency, against the Occupation, do we? What ever the US is giving as the official story, try looking at what ever the opposite position might be and it's liable to be closer to the truth. I swear.