ISTANBUL – Turkey launched a heavy air and artillery assault on Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq on Wednesday night after a declaration by the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, that he had lost patience with separatists fighting in southeast Turkey.
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists use the mountains of northern Iraq as a sanctuary from which to launch attacks in southeast Turkey. The raids, the first by Turkey in the area since July 2010, responded to a surge in rebel action in recent months and an ambush on Wednesday that killed nine servicemen.
The Turkish general staff said artillery hit 168 targets in the region overnight before warplanes pounded 60 positions in two waves. Camps housing the PKK’s commanders were among those targeted, security sources said.
“Our patience has finally run out. Those who do not distance themselves from terrorism will pay the price,” Mr Erdogan said on the sidelines of a conference in Istanbul.
His comments and subsequent major air operation indicate a return to a hardline stance in the 27-year-old fight against the rebels and an end to clandestine talks between the state and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
After a clear victory in June’s parliamentary election, Mr Erdogan vowed to press ahead with reforms addressing the 12-million-strong Kurdish minority’s grievances. A wave of PKK attacks has brought an abrupt change of tone and heightened prospects of intensified conflict.
As well as continuing the air assaults, the armed forces could launch a ground incursion against the militants in northern Iraq, as they have in the past. Further legal action could also be taken against Kurdish politicians, currently boycotting parliament and accused of close links to the PKK.
Some commentators backed the stronger response but there was also concern about its consequences. The militants could in turn strike back by staging urban attacks.
“Stronger retaliation against violence is on the agenda, but it’s a method that has been tried and failed before,” said Can Dundar, a columnist with the liberal daily Milliyet. “Democratising Turkey, winning over people in the region through constitutional rights, paving the way from the mountain to the plain was the difficult but the right policy,” he said.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984. – (Reuters)