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PKK On The Run From US Intelligence-Driven Turkish Air Strikes

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  • PKK On The Run From US Intelligence-Driven Turkish Air Strikes

    PKK ON THE RUN FROM US INTELLIGENCE-DRIVEN TURKISH AIR STRIKES

    DEBKA file
    http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1328
    Jan 7 2008
    Israel

    Due in Washington: Turkey's Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ergin
    Saygun

    7 Jan. On Jan. 8, hours before he heads out on his Middle East tour,
    President George W. Bush will receive Turkish president Abdullah
    Gul in the White House with full honors as the first Turkish head of
    state to visit since Suleyman Demirel in 1996.

    The range of topics to be covered by the visit is indicated by the
    size of the Turkish presidential party and his appointments.

    Gul will be accompanied by his wife, foreign minister Ali Babacan,
    Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler and Economy
    Ministers Mehmet Simsek, as well as Rear Adm. Alaattin Sever, head
    of the General Staff's Intelligence Department.

    Before meeting Bush, Gul will have talks with Vice President Dick
    Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as defense
    security Robert Gates.

    The warming of US-Turkish ties in recent weeks owes much to the
    deepening intelligence relations between the two countries. It comes
    in the form of the ongoing handover of US intelligence to Turkey on
    the movements of the Kurdish Workers Party-PKK in northern Iraq.

    DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that this is Washington's
    reward to Ankara for keeping its promise to Washington to refrain
    from a large-scale invasion of northern Iraqi Kurdistan.

    This arrangement is both restrictive and fragile.

    The PKK's northern Iraqi havens are not rooted out and its terrorists
    are still able to operate inside Turkey, in Central Asia and in
    Europe. A single devastating PKK terrorist attack emanating from any
    of these places would force the Turks to hit northern Iraqi targets
    really hard - and so put paid to US-Turkish intelligence cooperation.

    For now, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports, the US data flowing to Ankara
    is extensive and diverse. It is not limited to static PKK sites,
    such as bases and training facilities, but is specific enough for
    the Turkish Air Force to pinpoint moving Kurdish targets, especially
    of infiltrators approaching the border for terrorist operations or
    smuggling suicide teams across.

    This flow keeps Turkish airborne fighter-bombers and helicopters over
    Iraqi Kurdistan fully abreast almost around the clock and ready to
    hit a target instantly upon receipt of a US surveillance tip-off.

    One Turkish intelligence source said that armed PKK bands stand no
    chance of eluding American oversight wherever they move in northern
    Iraq, unless they are disguised as unarmed civilians. Hundreds of
    US sensors are scattered around the regions of the Kurdish hideouts
    in the northern and eastern Iraqi Kurdistan. They beam up a stream
    of data to US drones, which transfer them straight to the Turkish
    airborne hunters.

    This joint effort has reduced by more than 60 percent the level of
    PKK terrorist attacks inside southern Turkey.

    Ankara has mad its satisfaction known: A senior Turkish diplomat in
    Washington said Wednesday, Jan. 2: "Obviously President Gul's visit
    to the White House will reconfirm the importance attached to our
    bilateral ties. We are satisfied with the new intelligence-sharing
    system and looking forward to deepening our cooperation."

    DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that Gul will be followed
    by Turkey's Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun later this
    month. In addition to discussing the state of intelligence cooperation
    between the two countries, he will co-chair the 21st annual bilateral
    High-level Defense Group (HLDG) meeting, which takes place this year
    in the US capital.

    Despite the cordial words, our sources report that the Americans
    have quietly advised Iraqi Kurdish leaders to abstain from aiding
    the Turkish campaign against the PKK sanctuaries. Leave them be,
    say US advisers; keep them as a card up your sleeve in case you need
    one against the Turks.

    Furthermore, the Turkish president's talks in Washington will not
    be all sweetness and light. He will ask the Bush administration
    to continue its efforts to prevent the passage of a congressional
    resolution recognizing Armenian claims of genocide under the
    Ottoman Empire. In New York, Gul will meet representatives of Jewish
    organizations including the Anti-Defamation League to complain aboutits
    role in the resolution. Gul will also discuss with Secretary General
    Ban Ki-moon UN-led efforts to reunited Cyprus.

    The Kurdish separatists have meanwhile laid plans to escape outside
    the range of US intelligence-backed Turkish air strikes.

    Our sources have picked up rumors going round northern Iraq that PKK
    leaders are acting on a decision they reached in November to move their
    bases from the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan to the predominantly
    ethnic Armenian South Caucasian region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over
    which Armenia and Azerbaijan are formally at war.

    These rumors were supported by PKK defectors who turned themselves
    in to Turkish forces. The PKK is reported to be eying Shusha, Fizuli
    and Lachin for its new bases.

    Reports of a possible creation of a Kurdish autonomous district in
    the Armenian-inhabited Lachin and Kelbajar regions have been dismissed
    as a pipe dream by some experts. Others say it is possible.

    No transfer of Kurdish rebel bases has been confirmed as yet. A group
    of PKK chiefs is reported to have visited a dozen Kurdish villages
    in the Karabakh region to sound out chances of support. One of the
    issues they reportedly checked out was whether they would be allowed
    to strike against northern Turkey via Azerbaijan.

    These reports have meanwhile raised a political furor in Baku, where
    Azerbaijani members of parliament are demanding a clear statement from
    the Ministry of National Security on their government's intentions
    with regard to PKK bases.

    High-ranking state officials have been accused by several Azerbaijani
    media of supporting PKK terrorism.
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