Turkey willing to fight if Kurds form state in northern Iraq

PRIME MINISTER Bulent Ecevit said Turkey could consider military force if Kurds in northern Iraq tried to form an independent state.

Mr Ecevit’s remarks, broadcast on Sunday, came after a meeting on Friday of lawmakers from two long-feuding Iraqi Kurdish factions. Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds are trying to unify as Washington considers military strikes to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Our eyes are always going to be on northern Iraq. If even the smallest negative thing happens there, we will take the necessary steps,” Mr Ecevit said on private TV 8 television.

“If there’s a threat to Turkey’s security from Iraqi Kurds, we’re in a position to take every measure against it... We have that right.”

Asked if that included military force, Mr Ecevit said: “I hope there won’t be, but of course it can be considered if necessary.”

Turkey fought a 15-year war with Kurdish rebels in its mainly Kurdish southeast and fears the formation of a nearby Kurdish state could revive the fighting.

Iraqi Kurdish delegates met in full on Friday for the first time since 1994, when political tension between the two Iraqi Kurdish factions exploded into a four-year civil war. The two groups have controlled most of northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.

Delegates at the assembly were careful to emphasise that they didn’t seek independence, but a semi-autonomous enclave within a federal Iraq.

Still, Mr Ecevit did not appear convinced. The Turkish premier said Iraqi Kurds nearly have “the elements that make up a state”.

“This makes us uneasy and now they’ve taken up an audacious attitude,” Mr Ecevit said.

Northern Iraq has been under US and British aerial protection since shortly after the Gulf War.