Word: separatists
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Turkey has voted itself the right to launch cross-border military attacks on Kurdish separatist fighters holed up in Northern Iraq, but it has not yet decided to exercise that right. The Turkish Parliament on Wednesday authorized military operations into neighboring Iraq to hunt down guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, which continues to launch attacks inside Turkey that have killed more than 30 Turks in recent weeks...
...Iraqi forces under the control of the Iraqi Kurdish administration. But U.S. and Iraqi officials fear that Turkish forces, whatever their intention, could clash with Iraqi Kurdish forces, making the conflict difficult to contain. Turkey accuses Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, led by Massoud Barzani, of sheltering the separatist guerrillas, and some see it as a hostile entity. Retired Turkish general Riza Kucukoglu told TIME: "The PKK is the enemy. But there are also the forces of Barzani, which have created a terrorist haven for them to operate in. Where do you draw this line...
...Turkish government, "the timing of the vote is catastrophic," says prominent political commentator and columnist for the Posta newspaper Mehmet Ali Birand. It comes as Washington tries to persuade Turkey not to launch a military operation into north Iraq to pursue separatist Kurdish guerrillas who are based there and who have been staging increasingly violent attacks in southeast Turkey. The U.S. is opposed to any such move, fearful that it could disrupt Kurdish-controlled north Iraq, the only relatively stable area in the country...
...second quarter from the previous year - which was above market forecasts - as private and government consumption boosted growth to its strongest level in two decades. And, though the troubles in fractious south have flared up in recent months, the government is planning to hold talks with some Muslim separatist groups...
Weapons issued to Iraqi security forces are starting to show up in Turkey, finding their way into the hands of Turkish Kurdish separatists and criminals. Most recently, a van with 660 pounds was found in Ankara on September 11, possibly meant to be detonated on September 12, the twenty-seventh anniversary of a Turkish military coup. The Turkish generals are counting on things getting worse in Iraq, with more chaos spilling across the border into Turkey. Erdogan told them he can work with the Iraqi Regional Kurdish Government to staunch the smuggling, as well as close down Kurdish separatist bases...