Turkey "explains necessity of intrusion into Northern Iraq"June 4, 2007 - 16:24 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey has decided to seek remedy via acts of diplomacy before conducting a cross border operation into Northern Iraq. After talks with NATO and EU officials, Ankara is now sending an official letter to the UN to remind of the 'self-defense' factor.The news comes as Turkey reinforces its troops along the border with Iraq and the powerful army General Staff stresses its readiness for a cross-border operation to crush guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The UN move prepared the legal and diplomatic ground for the possible military operation, which has already sparked alarm in the United States, Turkey's NATO ally. The Foreign Ministry official said Turkey's permanent UN representative, Baki Ilkin, will hold talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week. "The terrorism incidents will be explained. A report will be presented concerning the explosives and weapons we have determined are coming (into Turkey) from northern Iraq," the official said. "More cooperation from the United Nations is requested on this matter," he added. The official declined to comment on the possibility of military action in northern Iraq. Ankara has long urged U.S. and Iraqi government forces to crack down on an estimated 4,000 PKK guerrillas who use the mountains of northern Iraq as a springboard to attack military and civilian targets inside Turkey. Turkey insists it has the right under international law to send troops into Iraq in self-defense if need be, Sabah newspaper reports. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |