TEHRAN --(AFP) Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday dismissed as a "sheer lie" US charges that the Islamic republic was supplying arms and training to insurgents killing American troops in Iraq. "The idiotic policies of the United States in Iraq have led to the killing of its troops," state television quoted the all-powerful leader as saying.

"The US administration is faced with criticism from its own people over its wrong policies. It wrongly accuses Iran as it has no answers," he told thousands of student members of the hardline Basij militia in Tehran.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to sabotage security in Iraq by supplying weapons, including rockets, armour-piercing explosives and mines that have killed American soldiers.

Earlier this month, Washington adopted sanctions against Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards corps and its elite Quds force which US commanders accuse of arming and training Shiite militias that have attacked US troops in Iraq.

Iran has always denied the charges and blames the US-led forces for the instability and violence in its western neighbour.

It also wants the release of six Iranian officials detained by US forces in Iraq, who Washington accuses of being members of the Quds force on a covert mission to stir trouble in Iraq.

In January, the US military detained five Iranians, who Tehran insists were diplomats, in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. Another Iranian official, Mahmoud Farhadi, was detained by the US military in September.

By PAULINE JELINEK

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. acknowledged Wednesday it has undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq after asserting for weeks that their strikes in Turkey were a diplomatic matter.

Pentagon officials are now starting to say publicly that the U.S. is flying manned spy planes over the border area, providing Turkey with more intelligence information, and that there are standing orders for American forces to capture rebels they find.

Only last Friday, the U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen Benjamin Mixon, said he planned to do ``absolutely nothing'' to counter Kurdish rebels operating from the region.

But the top American commander in Iraq, in comments that appeared aimed at allaying Turkish frustration over the matter, said Sunday the U.S. military was playing a role in trying to defuse tensions.

Gen. David Petraeus declined to elaborate. Since then, however, Pentagon officials have detailed a number of examples to undermine the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, holed up in bases in northern Iraq.

``We are assisting the Turks in their efforts to combat the PKK by supplying them with intelligence, lots of intelligence,'' Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

He said 10 members of the PKK - which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization - are in a U.S. ``most-wanted'' database. That means American forces have had standing orders for some time to pick them up if they are found.

Turkey has complained for months about what it contends is a lack of U.S. support against the PKK. The Turkish government has threatened a full-scale ground attack into northern Iraq if the U.S. and Iraqi officials fail to do something about the rebels.

``We have given them more and more intelligence as a result of the recent concerns. ... There has been an increased level of intelligence sharing,'' Morrell told reporters.

He did not say when the stepped-up cooperation began or how the intelligence was being gathered. But the military in the last week or so has sent manned U-2 spy planes to areas used by rebels and is providing reconnaissance on the border, a defense official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official also said the U.S. military saw a battalion of several hundred Peshmerga - the militia of the Kurdish Iraqi regional authorities - move toward the border over the weekend.

Top Defense Department and State Department officials have said that Iraq's Kurdish regional government should cut rebel supplies and disrupt rebel movement over the border, and that Washington is frustrated by Kurdish inaction.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested last week that airstrikes or major ground assaults by U.S., Turkish, or other forces would not help much because not enough is known about where the rebels are at a given time.

The U.S. and Iraqi governments have urged Turkey not to send troops across the border and are promoting a diplomatic solution. They fear a large military operation, opening a new front in the Iraq war, would unsettle what is now the most stable part of the country.

A Turkish incursion would also put the United States in an awkward position involving NATO-member Turkey, the Baghdad government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurds in the north.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said this week that it was ``unavoidable that Turkey will have to go through a more intensive military process'' to counter the rebels. Turkish forces have been shelling rebel positions near the border.

Erdogan plans talks with President Bush next week in Washington.

``We expect the Iraqis to step up and make sure that they are doing everything they can to eradicate the PKK,'' White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday.

``Turkey has a right to defend its people, it has a right to look for its soldiers, and we are asking Turkey, as well, to exercise restraint and to limit its exercises to the PKK. And so far that's continuing to work, but it takes a lot of dialogue and discussions,'' she said.

---

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.

from 21/10/2007 everydays the turkish government and army said we killing 15,20,33,35,64 or more.
if this figure is correct must pkk have 3333 Gerilla.
turkish said killed 167 pkk.
war continuation for 10 month maybe nothing more pkk for fight with turkish?
but its for 23th years pkk fighting with turkey.

the tukish gov is a big mendacious or liar.

NewKurd

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court has sentenced a dissident labor leader to five years in jail, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Mansoor Osanloo, who runs a union grouping bus drivers, was detained in July for "distributing statements against the system".

Western rights groups say Iran has launched a crackdown on dissenting voices, although Tehran denies this.

"This verdict is certain and he is currently serving his jail sentence," Hassan Haddad, deputy prosecutor in Tehran, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, without giving details of the charges.

Iran's judiciary says Osanloo's union is an illegal organization. Osanloo has been in jail before.

Haddad was quoted as saying about the case in August: "I told Osanloo 'your behavior creates problems for the country's security' ... Because he has traveled abroad he thinks he can do whatever he wants."

Rights groups and Western governments say Iran this year has launched a fresh crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic, with the authorities targeting women's rights activists, students, journalists and labor figures.

It coincides with an escalating standoff between Iran and Western powers over Tehran's disputed nuclear program which it says is aimed at generating electricity but which the United States suspects is for building bombs.

The European Union last week said it was "deeply concerned at the growing repression against all groups which exercise their right to freely express their opinions ... in the Islamic Republic."

Iran rejects accusations it is violating human rights and the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says it supports free speech and welcomes constructive opposition.

The president came to power in 2005 pledging to share out Iran's oil riches more fairly. But critics say his spending policies have fuelled double-digit inflation and his fiery speeches provoked the United Nations to introduce sanctions.

Turkish military: 15 PKK rebels killed in clash

The Turkish General Staff said on Wednesday that its security forces killed 15 militants of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) during a clash in a southeastern province on Monday.

    Three Turkish soldiers were also killed in the clash which occurred in Cudi mountain in southeastern province of Sirnak, added the military.

    Meanwhile, Turkish Cobra attack helicopters fired missiles at PKK positions in its second day of a massive operation on Cudi Mountain in Sirnak, local media reported on Wednesday.

    The operation in Sirnak came after at least 100 PKK rebels were trapped in the Cudi Mountain area after Turkish security forces blocked exit routes to northern Iraq on Monday. Sirnak Governor's Office said that the security forces have also arrested five PKK members.

    Earlier on Sunday, local CNN Turk also reported that 15 PKK militants were killed in a Turkish military operation in eastern province of Tunceli earlier in the day.

    The report said that Turkish security forces launched an operation against the PKK in Pulumur town of province of Tunceli at 06:00 local time (GMT 0400), killing 15 PKK rebels. The military operation launched Sunday morning was backed by air forces, said the report, adding that the security forces closed Tunceli-Erzincan highway to traffic.

    Turkey says it has attempted through all diplomatic channels to force the Iraqi government and the United States to crack down on PKK camps in northern Iraq and now it considers a military operation.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit Washington on Nov. 5 for a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, which is widely believed to be vital in determining whether Turkey will launch military incursion into northern Iraq or not.

    Turkey has now massed up to 100,000 troops along themountainous border with Iraq in preparations for a cross-border operation to crush the about 3,000 strong PKK rebels, which was approved by the parliament earlier this month.

    The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the more than two-decade conflict.

News Agency and media

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi foreign minister said Wednesday that this weekend's regional conference in Istanbul must focus only on Iraq's security and stability, not the border crisis over Turkey's threatened incursion against Kurdish rebels.

The high-level meeting on Saturday will be a follow-up to a May meeting in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. Iraq's neighbors, among other things, promised to stop foreign militants from joining Iraq's insurgency, a pledge that the United States says has not been met.

But it comes as Turkey has threatened military action against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, who have been staging cross-border hit-and-run attacks into Turkey from their bases in northern Iraq as they seek to create an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey also is considering a series of economic sanctions that could affect the self-governing Kurdish administration in Iraq's north.

"This meeting is very important and should not be hijacked by the current tension and crisis over the PKK terrorist activities in Turkey," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in a joint news conference after meeting with his visiting Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

"We want this meeting to focus on Iraq's stability and security and not to be diverted to the current problem between the Turkish government and the PKK," said Zebari, himself a Kurd.

He also warned a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq would have "serious consequences for the entire region and could undermine its stability."

He renewed the Iraqi government readiness "to cooperate actively with the Turkish government to find practical measures" to prevent the Kurdish rebels from working from Iraqi territories to hurt Turkey and its interests.

For his part, the Iranian foreign minister underlined that the meetings should not be only "speeches and protocols" and maintaining Iraq's unity and stability "should find its existence on the ground."

"Practical measures and steps should be taken to achieve stability and security in Iraq and its unity should be maintained," Mottaki said. He later met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Last month, Zebari said the Iraqi government had made recommendations in three key areas — security, refugees and energy — and will have a list of achievable measures to present at the meeting in Istanbul.

The meeting will occur as the U.S. military and Iraqi civilians have seen a drop in casualties.

But in a grim reminder of continuing violence, the Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad said that Iraqi forces have discovered 16 corpses in the basement shelter of a building in a Sunni-dominated area of Baghdad.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi told The Associated Press that the remains, discovered in the Fadhl area of downtown Baghdad on Monday, were recovered and taken to the morgue on Tuesday.

Al-Moussawi blamed the killings on militants with al-Qaida in Iraq, who controlled the neighborhood until they were driven out about a month ago. The discovery was based on a tip, he said.

Southeast of Baghdad, gunmen abducted an agriculture engineer when he was driving his car in the predominantly Shiite town of Numaniyah.

The U.S. military also claimed successes in its fight against Sunni and Shiite extremists.

U.S. forces hunting for a senior al-Qaida militant leader accused in assassinations and car bomb attacks killed three suspected militants Wednesday after surrounding a building in the northern city of Kirkuk, the military said.

The clash came around the same time as a failed assassination attempt on an investigative judge in the violence-plagued northern city. Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said gunmen in a vehicle attacked Judge Zaher al-Bayati around 8:30 a.m. in the city's southern al-Wasiti neighborhood. Two bodyguards were killed, Qadir said, but al-Bayati, a Turkoman, was unharmed.

About 20 minutes later, drive-by shooters opened fire on an intelligence officer as he was driving with his wife and daughter, the police chief said. The intelligence officer escaped injury, but both his wife and 5-year-old daughter were both hurt.

Tensions are rising in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, in advance of a proposed referendum on whether the oil-rich city will join the self-rule Kurdish region.

The military also announced that U.S. and Iraqi commandos had detained a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader and three other militants in Khadra, north of Baghdad, in a raid that left one U.S. soldier lightly wounded.

The main suspect was accused of leading four insurgent groups that were believed to be involved in attacks on Iraqi security forces and local civilians as well as an arson attack against Iraq's main pharmaceutical storage facility, according to the statement.

U.S. President George W. Bush will welcome Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan next week to discuss the efforts to counter Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday.

The two leaders will discuss "joint efforts to counter the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)," Perino said, adding that it is the common desire of the United States and Turkey to "make sure the PKK is eradicated."

    According to media reports, Erdogan has said that he will urge the U.S. side to take urgent steps to counter the PKK rebels.

    Turkey's parliament approved on Oct. 17 a government motion to take a cross-border operation into northern Iraq for pursuing PKK militants who have kept attacking against Turkey's military targets.

    Reports said Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters along the Iraqi border in preparation for a possible cross-border operation into northern Iraq where 3,000 Kurdish rebels are believed to be hiding.

    The PKK has fought more than 20 years for an independent Kurdish country in southern Turkey.  

 Xinhua

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press Writer

ISTANBUL, Turkey - A few years ago, Turkey's Kurdish guerrillas seemed adrift, their leader jailed and numbers diminished. Prone to factionalism, they were unsure of whether to pursue war or peace.

Now the Kurdistan Workers' Party has commandeered debate over Turkey's Kurdish ethnic minority with attacks that goaded the government into threatening a cross-border offensive against separatist hideouts in Iraq.

Such a campaign could destabilize one of Iraq's few tranquil regions, hurt Turkey's alliance with the U.S. and Europe, and trigger a sharp rise in global oil prices. The mountains of northern Iraq could neutralize the Turkish military's tanks and helicopters, especially when winter snows begin to fall, favoring the tactics of the rebels.

"They seem to be emboldened," said Yalim Eralp, a former Turkish diplomat who handled NATO affairs. He suggested the guerrillas had drawn encouragement and logistical support from Iraqi Kurds who consolidated autonomy in northern Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The rebel group, known as the PKK, has warned Turkey that it faces a quagmire if it sends troops into Iraq, and says the door is open to dialogue. Kurdish demands have run the spectrum from self-rule to more limited rights, such as increased freedom to educate and broadcast in their language.

After an Oct. 21 ambush that killed 12 Turkish soldiers, northern Iraq-based PKK commander Murat Karayilan warned Turkey that unless it recognized the language, cultural and political rights of Kurds, "this won't be the last."

Turkey, which refuses to negotiate with the PKK, says the group in reality seeks a separate homeland and softens its public demands for political gain. It accuses the PKK, labeled a terrorist organization by Europe and the United States, of acting like a criminal gang by raising funds through extortion and drug-smuggling.

The PKK, estimated to have 5,000 fighters, could benefit politically from an Iraq campaign by claiming to be the champion of all Kurds in the face of an invader with a history of human rights abuses. Fighting could shift attention from moderate Kurds who have responded at the polls to the Turkish ruling party's pledges of better conditions and economic support.

"Turkey has played it badly," said James Brandon, a London-based analyst who visited the PKK's main base at Mount Qandil in northern Iraq last year. "The thing to do is to ignore the guys in Iraqi Kurdistan."

Turkish jet fighters and helicopters have attacked suspected rebel positions in a sharp escalation of fighting within Turkish borders since the Oct. 21 ambush. Turkey has also shelled Iraqi territory.

Turkey has urged Iraq to choke off supplies to the group's bases and arrest its leaders, but Iraq's central government, and the Iraqi Kurd administration in the north, have not done so.

Turkey's military said it will wait for a decision on what to do when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returns from a Nov. 5 meeting in Washington with President Bush, who has urged Turkey to act with restraint.

Even if Turkey's alliances fray, the PKK is unlikely to win international recognition and status as the sole representative of Turkish Kurd aspirations because of its track record of bombings and assassinations.

David Phillips, author of a report on the PKK by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York, said candidates of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party ran for parliament in July with PKK approval. However, the party only won four out of 12 seats from the Diyarbakir area, a traditional PKK stronghold.

Turkey's new president, Abdullah Gul, toured mostly Kurdish areas last month with a message of unity and was greeted with flowers and blessings. Gul's gesture was highly unusual for a Turkish head of state, and represented the Islamic-oriented government's shift away from the bitter relationship between Kurds and the military-backed, secular elite.

"This increase in PKK activities is in part an effort to assert their relevance since their support is waning at the ballot box," Phillips said.

The Turkish government granted some cultural rights to Kurds as part of its bid to join the European Union. But many Kurds, who comprise 20 percent of Turkey's population of 75 million, chafe under state controls on freedom of expression.

The PKK started as a Marxist-Leninist group demanding an independent homeland, but shed socialist ideology with the end of the Cold War and says it seeks some degree of self rule, similar to that of Spain's semiautonomous Catalonia region.

Arrested in 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan still enjoys a personality cult among sympathizers and is believed to send directives through lawyers from prison.

But the tight control that characterized the PKK eroded. In 2004, it dropped a unilateral cease-fire. Last year, a splinter operation called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons bombed Turkish tourist resorts. An Iranian Kurd group affiliated with the PKK is fighting Iran.

Even the PKK's military operations are believed to be highly decentralized, with significant independence between the faction based in Iraq and units deep within Turkey. The Kurdish diaspora in Europe, a rich source of PKK funding, also chimes in on the political agenda of Turkish Kurds.

"There have been a lot of times in the past when people were saying the PKK was finished," said Brandon. "They've never gone away, but now people are starting to realize that they've never gone away."

___

Associated Press reporter C. Onur Ant contributed to this report.

By Leah Bower, Special to Gulf News

Turkey's troubles with Kurdish separatists and its proximity to the Iraq war have hit its travel and tourism market hard, a devastating blow to a country which depends heavily on an influx of foreign money.

It is a trend the country, which straddles Asia and Europe both physically and culturally, is planning to reverse this year.

"$8 million was spent last year to advertise Turkish tourism," said Hasan Zongur, Director of the Turkish Cultural and Tourism office in the US.

"[The situation] is getting better, but after 9/11, tourism numbers dropped. For this year, it is getting better. This is mainly because of our public relations activities and promotional campaigns carried out in the US market and in the South American countries and Canada."

According to Business Monitor International (BMI), everything from terrorist attacks in Turkey to the war in Lebanon and a bird flu outbreak kept tourism numbers low in 2006 - 6.2 per cent lower year-on-year than in 2005.

"In line with the fall in foreign tourist arrivals, international tourist receipts declined in 2006 by around four per cent year-on-year to $18.6 billion. This followed a near 15 per cent year-on-year rise in international tourist receipts in the previous year," said BMI's third quarter report on Turkish tourism.

"While the country has repeatedly seen annual increases in the number of visitors of 10 per cent 15 per cent over the past 15 years, there have been several significant reversals in growth, such as during the 1991 Gulf War, which saw arrivals fall by more than 20 per cent, and the 2003 Gulf War."

But despite a rocky recent past, the future of Turkish tourism looks promising. The country has the eighth-highest tourism receipts in the world and is benefiting from a steadily strong euro, which gives it an advantage over rival destinations such as Greece.

Arrivals

BMI reported that the number of foreign arrivals reached almost 9.7 million between January and June 2007, an increase of almost 17 per cent of 2006's weak numbers. "Although BMI had anticipated a recovery in the tourism market in 2007, recent data are even stronger than expected," the report said.

Those are the kinds of numbers Turkey needs, considering the economic importance of its tourism market.

The travel and tourism market is expected to generate $62.6 billion in econ-omic activity this year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. It also accounts for one in very 14.6 per cent of jobs - about 1.56 million in 2007.

Zongur said Turkey is looking to branch out into areas of tourism new to the country that boasts relics from the Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman empires.

"Now we are developing our health tourism facilities," he said. "We also have great facilities for conferences." BMI expects Turkey's medical tourism sector to increasingly draw patients from Europe and the Middle East, but also named golf tourism as a likely growth area.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Alaska, USA.

kp

NCRI - The anti-government student protest which started this afternoon by about 1,000 students at the Social Sciences School of Allameh University in Tehran is continuing into the early evening hours.

Despite desperate attempts by the university security guards, agents of State Security Forces (SSF) and so-called plain cloths members of Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to contain the demonstrations, the students managed to shutdown all classes and called on their professors to join them. They chanted slogans "Death to dictator," "University is not a military camp," "This is the final warning," "University students are ready for uprising,"  "Free minded professors, join us" and "Students, professors unite."

During clashes between the students and security forces six students were arrested and transferred to an unknown location by the SSF. The detained students are identified as Mahsa Mehrzad, Nilofar Abd-Haq, Behnam Sepehrvand, Araman Sedaqati, Maziyar Samiee and Mohammad Yazdani.

NCRI - Since noon today (local time), about 1,000 students of Social Science College of Allameh University in Tehran have been staging an anti-government demonstration on campus. The protestors are chanting "Down with dictator," This is the final warning," "University students are ready for uprising." 

The demonstrators are protesting against widespread arrest and suppression of university students, and the expulsion as well as suspension of dozens of dissenting students in recent weeks.

The security forces and agents of the Ministry of Intelligence turned out in force on campus. They beat up and arrested students in order to break up the protest. The students however, defied the repressive forces, compelling them to retreat. The students succeeded in holding their rally despite continuing skirmishes.

Additional detail will be provided as they become available.

By Emma Ross-Thomas

SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish Cobra helicopters pounded Kurdish rebel positions near the Iraqi border on Tuesday and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Ankara's readiness to send troops over the frontier despite U.S. opposition.

Witnesses in Sirnak province saw plumes of smoke rising from the mountains after the helicopters flew over rebel positions.

Earlier, a convoy of up to 40 army vehicles headed east towards the border in brilliant sunshine. Troops scoured the hillsides for landmines, a favored weapon of the guerrillas.

Three Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past 24 hours in the border area. A fourth died on Monday in Tunceli province hundreds of km (miles) to the north in a landmine explosion.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters along the Iraqi border in preparation for a possible cross-border incursion into northern Iraq where some 3,000 rebels are believed to be hiding.

The Sabah newspaper said some 250 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were trying to escape Turkish security forces in the border area. The figure could not be independently confirmed.

"Turkey has to take military action against terrorism. Our security forces are continuing their operations without interruption," Erdogan told members of his ruling centre-right AK Party in parliament in Ankara.

"We are at the stage of making a decision and we will make the decision on our own... We are employing all our resources to get results in the shortest time."

DESTABILISE REGION

The United States and Iraq have urged Turkey to avoid a major military incursion, fearing this would destabilize the wider region. Washington and Baghdad have shown no appetite for tackling the PKK despite repeated appeals from Ankara.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani told Tuesday's Milliyet newspaper he wanted the PKK to lay down its weapons but he also criticized Turkey for refusing to speak about the issue with his autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.

Ankara insists on speaking only with the central government in Baghdad and suspects Barzani of planning an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. It fears this could stoke separatism among Turkey's own large ethnic Kurdish population.

Turkey witnessed a huge outpouring of support for its military in celebrations on Monday marking the 84th anniversary of the founding of the modern republic. With nationalist feelings at fever pitch, Erdogan has appealed for calm.

"Reactions on the street (to PKK attacks) must not be directed towards our Kurdish citizens," Erdogan said, referring to a spate of minor attacks on individuals and Kurdish-owned businesses in Turkey.

Turkey is home to more than 12 million Kurds. Erdogan's government has eased some restrictions on Kurdish culture and language but Kurdish activists say it needs to do much more.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, brand the PKK as a terrorist group.

U.S., Turkish and Iraqi officials will make fresh diplomatic efforts to stave off a major military operation when they attend a conference of Iraq's neighbors in Istanbul this weekend.

Erdogan will then travel to Washington for talks on the issue with U.S. President George W. Bush next Monday.

Erdogan said on Tuesday he would tell Bush Turkey expected "urgent, concrete steps" from the United States against the PKK. He would also seek an explanation of why PKK rebels are using U.S.-made weapons in their fight with Turkish forces.

By Tulin Daloglu
The Washington Times

More than eight years ago, Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish terrorist group PKK, was sentenced to life in prison by a Turkish judge in Imrali, Mudanya. As a BBC reporter at the time, I attended the trial. According to my notes, he lost his temper only once: when a group of witnesses who lost family members in the PKK attacks challenged him. The judge, Turgut Okyay, tried to get order in the court as they shouted at Ocalan and showed him photographs of their loved ones. His face stretched back with an expression of contempt, he first stepped on his left foot and stood up fast. "And I have lost 25,000 men!" Ocalan yelled back. Turkey has officially declared 37,000 people killed by the PKK attacks.

At the time, I wondered why many Western nations embraced the PKK as "freedom fighters." Ocalan claimed the PKK took an armed struggle just to make Ankara grant the Kurds cultural and linguistic rights. And he testified about the foreign support he received from European governments supporting the Kurdish cause. Indeed, he was caught hiding in a Greek embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

Turkey has been widely criticized for its human rights record where the Kurds are concerned. In conversations over the years with PKK affiliates and Western sources, I have been told I was naive to assume that Kurds could peacefully claim their rights from the Turkish state.

Turks don't have a common front against the PKK, as well. Ahmet Turk, the leader of Democratic Society Party (DTP) — which has a parliamentary representation and is composed solely of Kurds — says he can't call the PKK terrorists. Hatip Dicle, a former prominent Kurdish politician, calls the PKK "freedom fighters" for the Kurdish cause. Leyla Zana, a Nobel laureate, calls for Ocalan's freedom. And just within the last two weeks, the PKK killed more than 30 Turkish citizens and wounded many more, andMehmet Metiner, a former Kurdish politician and a close adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told me, "PKK attacks harmed DTP more than anyone else. They have been paralyzed to a point that they can't do any work."

The Bush administration constantly urges Turkey to refrain from staging any cross-border operations. But NATO's civilian former representative in Afghanistan, Hikmet Cetin — a Kurd and a former chairman of the Turkish Parliament — said in a telephone interview that "If we're asked not to deal with it, and if the U.S. and Iraq are not doing anything about [the PKK attacks] who will do something? This can't continue." Mr. Erdogan has stated numerous times that Turkey is not threatening to invade Iraq — it just wants the PKK attacks to stop. "If the United States starts bombing the PKK camps in the north," Qubad Talabany, the spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government in Washington, has said, "Turkey will be ablaze tomorrow." He argues that "U.S. forces are mandated by the U.N. to protect Iraq's sovereignty and defend Iraq's people." Under this logic, the United Nations is expected to protect a terrorist organization. According to a Pentagon official, however, if Iraqi Kurds cooperate with terrorists, they will lose their protection.

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chairman of Turkey's Joint Chiefs of Staff, says there is no difference between the terrorist and the one who gives him shelter. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said, "We will not hand over even an Iraqi Kurdish cat, let alone a man." KRG leader Massoud Barzani does not recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization. Yet Mr. Barzani, under U.S. protection and under pressure, says in confidence that Iraqi Kurds will not fight the PKK, and they will not allow Turkey to stage an operation against the PKK targets. In the meantime, the American media generally portrays Turkey's warning to the governments of Iraq and the United States as a threat to Iraq's stability. In fact, although the State Department calls the PKK a terrorist organization, the media here still call them "Kurdish rebels."

When I interviewed Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England nearly two years ago, I asked him why the United States is protecting the PKK in northern Iraq. "What's this Turkish paranoia?" he asked. But today the situation explains itself. The senior American general in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, says he has "absolutely nothing" planned to tackle the PKK. And Turkey is expected to remain quiet when the PKK terrorists attack Turkish targets, destabilize and demoralize the country.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggests that the only way to fight PKK terrorism is through diplomacy. If terrorists do understand anything from the kindness of diplomacy, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should be extended a hand. Thousands of Turks who poured onto the streets of Turkey in protest against PKK terrorism believe that America's position on this issue — right at this moment — is simply nonsense. Turkey has matured dealing with its Kurdish problem, but the Western powers can't discard the redundant old script.

The Kurdish issue can be complicated, but its contemporary challenge is simple. When President Bush meets Mr. Erdogan next Monday at the White House, let's hope the leaders will be able to present a united front against terrorism.

Tulin Daloglu is a freelance writer.

NCRI - The mullahs' regime hanged two prisoners identified as Behrouz Zangeneh and Ali Khorramnejad in the southern port city of Bushehr, the state-run television reported on Sunday.

The official news agency IRNA on Saturday reported that three prisoners were hanged without identifying them in the central city of Yazd.

A prisoner named as Iraj Feazi was hanged in the prison yard in the western city of Elam, the state-run news agency Fars reported on October 25.

A prisoner identified as Sadeq M. was hanged in the southern city of Shiraz, IRNA reported on October 24.

In past ten days alone, the inhuman Iranian regime hanged thirty-three prisoners in the new phase of so-called "improving public security" plan announced by the State Security Forces in April.  
 
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Secretary General and the current session of the UN General Assembly  to condemn the arbitrary executions carried out by the Iranian regime, and adopt immediate and binding measures against the brutal and systematic human rights violations in Iran.

NCRI - A young woman, Soghra Najafpoor, accused of killing an eight-year-old boy spent eighteen years behind bars. She was thirteen at the time of alleged crime but the mullahs' judiciary insists on carrying on the hanging soon, the state-run daily Etemaad reported on October 2.

As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Iranian regime has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18, however, a famous case in recent past was Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh executed on August 15, 2004. The 16-year-old schoolgirl was executed after being sentenced to death by a mullah named Haji Rezai in the northern town of Neka.

NCRI’s Women’s Committee Chair Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz said, "The mullahs' regime is a signatory of both ICCPR and CRC.  However, according to reports by international human rights organizations, more than 71 juveniles are presently on death row in Iran."
 
She added, "The growing number of executions, under the clerical rule in Iran, is appalling. In past 11 months, the hangings have doubled the total number of executions reported last year in Iran."
 
She called on all international human rights organizations, women's and children's rights groups as well as the current session of the UN General Assembly to condemn the brutal violation of human rights by the regime and to adopt urgent measures to save Soghra Najafpoor.

By Hadi Elis
KurdishMedia.com

There is a well, however, wrongly known issue in Turkey. What is called “Kurdish problem in Turkey” is in fact “The Turkish problem of Kurdistan”.

It is also known that Republic of Turkey denies and destroys anything and everything related to the Kurds/Kurdistan around the World, involves, interferes and lies wherever, however, and whenever suits its interests, since 1923.

Since then Turkish State illegalized being Kurdish, speaking Kurdish, and etc in such an extremely oppressive way that only Institutionalized Racism can explain the assimilation’ policies put in practices.

The Real Resistance and protest to the Turkish State’s Terrorism and Racist policies in Kurdistan comes from the PKK, (Kurdistan Workers Party), since August 15, 1984, when PKK declared “Struggle for National Self-determination”.

Off course it was easy for Turkey to call Kurdish National Movement so-called “Terrorist” where you have had the backing, help and support of NATO, EU, and USA blindly.

After ten years of Armed Resistance to the Turkish State Terrorism and Racism, PKK had forced the Turkish Government to acknowledge the “existence of the Kurdish people in Turkey”, and speaking Kurdish (only speaking?) was legalized with lifting the one of the most shameful law of human History on the Kurdish language.

With the PKK’s achievements growing day to day, supporters growing day to day, the so-called Kurdish problem in Turkey became well known in the international community where “what is the solution?” become the second part of the issue.

“What is the solution?” is depend how the conflicting sides, including the third parties, would like to see the war end.

EU, USA and NATO for years have been busy thinking how to eliminate PKK, pacify Kurdish people, and reduce their democratic and ethnic rights demands to very limit linguistic and cultural rights, like a Diaspora minority living in a western country.

With the passing time, it become clear that the above mentioned approach will not work, now some new ideas put forward as better solution, such as the new report come out at October 15, 2007, written by Dr. David L. Phillips for the National Committee on American Foreign Policy ( www.ncafp.org) titled “ Disarming, Demobilizing, and Reintegrating the Kurdistan Worker’s Party”.

A little background information needed to be presented in order to better understand where it stands in evaluating the Kurdish question in Turkey. In the last decade the world has witnessed the peace talks between PLO/Israel, IRA/UK, LTTE/Sri Lanka, FARC/Columbia, ETA/Spain, etc. Also we should remember that there were Third Party (countries) involvements in these peace talks.

In the peace talk process of these conflicts, the conflicting sides were recognizing each other, so the sit around the table affair was made possible.

For so many times in the recent pasts PKK has been offering peace talks and having a dialogue to end this conflict, which the news and intentions made internationally known. However with Turkey’s international trade, commerce and politico-military ties it was made impossible for any country to involve as an Third Party. The case of Italy is still fresh in our minds.

Since 2003 Turkey has been making wrong political decisions internally and internationally where Turkish-EU and Turkish-USA relations are never been this worse in their history. It all started with Turkey refusing to help US in their “re-democratizing Iraq” project with removing brutal-inhumane dictator Saddam Hussein and his BAATH Regime from power.

Things started changing for the Kurdish people in Iraq and other parts of Kurdistan slowly but surely. The political and economic development in the Iraqi-Kurdistan is fairly known.

DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday pledged their support for efforts to defuse a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad over PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.

"The Iranians have initiated efforts which complement those of Syria, because we want to give a political solution a chance," Muallem said of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters based in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The PKK terrorists threaten not only Turkey but also Iran and Syria," said Mottaki, who arrived in Damascus earlier Monday and held talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

"The terrorist operations from the north of Iraq create a destabilising effect throughout the region," said Mottaki, whose country like Syria has its own sizeable Kurdish minority.

After coming under criticism from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Syria earlier this month denied that Assad had during a visit to Ankara given his backing for a Turkish military strike against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Turkey has threatened a major cross-border assault on PKK bases in remote mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan if Baghdad and Washington fail to make good on promises to crack down on the rebels.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Two Turkish soldiers have reportedly been killed as government forces clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraq border.

Turkey's Cobra attack helicopters fired rockets into Kurdish rebel positions in the mountains. Military transport helicopters flew toward the area and a convoy of some 40 military trucks could been seen approaching, likely with more troops.

A private news agency says one soldier was killed in the fighting.

Meantime, a state-run news agency reports that Turkish troops have trapped about 100 Kurdish rebels by shelling mountain passages they use as an escape route to Iraq.

A rebel spokesman calls the reports "baseless."

To the northwest, away from the border, officials say a soldier died after stepping on a land mine. They believe it was planted by rebels. 

Source:agency