Turks pressing U.S. to combat Kurdish rebels

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- Turkey's war with Kurdish rebels threatens to become a whole new headache for the U.S. military in Iraq.

The rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey and who have in the past fought for a Kurdish homeland straddling Turkey-Iraqi border, have spurned Turkey's offer of amnesty and are threatening to end their four-year unilateral cease-fire on Monday unless Turkish soldiers stop attacking them.

That may spell not only the possibility of instability in southeastern Turkey but also in northern Iraq, where an estimated 5,000 rebels are hiding out in mountain villages and caves.

Having supported the American war on terrorism, led the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and cooperated in the hunt for al-Qaida operatives, Turkey feels entitled to U.S. support in fighting the rebels.

But the thinly stretched U.S. military would have a hard time against experienced fighters in remote mountain hideouts.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the United States owed Turkey help. "After Sept. 11, Turkey fulfilled its responsibilities in combating international terrorism ... now it is time for you to fulfill your responsibility," he said.

Erdogan said U.S. officials were responding with some measures, but he refused to elaborate.

Turkey is planning to raise the issue when Gen. James L. Jones, the head of U.S. forces in Europe visits on Wednesday.

The United States may feel less obligated to Turkey, since Ankara refused to let U.S. invasion forces pass through the country en route to Iraq. But it also has a new reason to court Turkey: It's one of the countries being asked to send peacekeepers to Iraq.

Turkey will insist that in return, the United States should shut the rebel bases in Iraq, said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Turkey has several thousand soldiers backed by tanks in northern Iraq who could be used to fight the rebels.

"If it is going to happen, it would be a joint U.S.-Turkish operation," Cagaptay said. "The U.S. could contribute air power and intelligence while the Turkish troops fight on the ground."

But Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, captured in 1999, is already warning from his prison cell in Turkey that any fight would be brutal.

"If the way to peace is not cleared, then the legitimate defense war will take place, maybe 100 people a day will die," Ocalan said in a statement which appeared in the German-based Kurdish paper Ozgur Politika.

Kurdish fighters "would defend themselves against whoever attacks them, including ... the United States," he said.

A senior Turkish intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkey would be satisfied if the Americans force the rebels to lay down their weapons and melt into the Iraqi Kurdish population.

The cease-fire is already tattered. Hundreds of rebels reportedly have filtered back into Turkey and there has been a recent upsurge in attacks. On Thursday night, six policemen were wounded in two separate shootings.

Turkey, encouraged by the United States, passed a law in early August that grants amnesty to rebels who didn't engage in violence and offers reduced prison sentences to those who surrender and give information. The rebel leadership is excluded.

The rebel group rejected the law, saying it fell short of their expectations of an unconditional general amnesty.

In a bid to inform the rebels and their relatives about the new law, Turkey is using helicopters to scatter leaflets on the mountains.

On the streets of Diyarbakir, the main southeastern city, police hand out leaflets explaining the law. Most people accept the leaflets without comment.

But there's a great dread of a return to the fighting that left 37,000 dead and hundreds of villages destroyed.

"Now, we are free to walk at night," said Abdulkadir Cicekci, as he sat on a stool amid piles of goat cheese in colorful plastic basins in his shop. "If clashes start again, I am afraid we may not be able to do that."

The Kurdistan Workers Party, the main rebel movement, withdrew most of its forces to northern Iraq after declaring the cease-fire in 1999. It renamed itself the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, KADEK, last year to emphasize what it said was a shift from military to political action.

But Turkey has rejected any contact with the group and says all rebels must surrender or be killed. It sees the whole idea of a Kurdish autonomy as a step to a Kurdish homeland that could threaten its territorial integrity.