Turkey aims for targeted sanctions in Iraq

Baghdad and Washington have urged Ankara to refrain from any major operation, fearing it could destabilise the whole region.

Diplomats say Turkey may hold fire on both sanctions and major military action for now to see whether talks in Ankara on Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and further discussions between Erdogan and U.S. President George W. Bush next Monday in Washington yield any results.

"We are aware of the goodwill of the Iraqi government in the fight against terrorism. However goodwill is not enough on its own. Therefore out talks with the United States... will be decisive about what steps to take against the terrorist PKK organisation," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said.

Erdogan said the sanctions measures, agreed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, were not yet in force.

"We are targeting the economic sources of the terrorist organisation and those elements providing support to the terrorist organisation," Babacan told reporters.

NATO-member Turkey knows economic sanctions could end up hurting its own economy as much as that of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which is run by Masoud Barzani.

Turkey accuses Barzani and his administration of providing shelter and support to an estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas.

Barzani denies the charges but says he will not turn over any Kurd to Turkish authorities. Turkish-Iraqi bilateral trade amounts to some $5 billion (2.4 billion pounds) per year and oil from northern Iraq flows through Turkish pipelines.

DIPLOMACY

Rice holds talks with Erdogan and other top officials in the Turkish capital before heading to Istanbul for a meeting of foreign ministers from Iraq’s neighbours and major powers that is sure to be dominated by tensions between Ankara and Baghdad.

She has promised "concrete action" and is prodding Iraq’s government, particularly Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq, to curb the PKK by closing its bases and arresting leaders.

After talks with Barzani in northern Iraq, Defence Minister Des Browne said firm and resolute action was needed immediately to constrain the PKK, but military action would be in nobody’s interest and further dialogue was vital.

Iran’s foreign minister arrived for an unexpected visit to Ankara on Thursday after talks in Baghdad. Maliki’s government called on Iran to help them avert a Turkish incursion.

Erdogan is under tremendous pressure to act as the military and much of public opinion doubt Washington or Baghdad will crack down on the PKK and Barzani has little incentive to do so.

Turkish diplomats say the meeting with Bush will now be key to determining whether an incursion should take place or not.

Turkish newspapers said on Thursday that the armed forces’ deputy chief of General Staff, General Ergin Saygun, and Major General Kenan Kocak, who is in charge of a planning any cross-border operation, would travel with Erdogan to Washington.

Analysts question Ankara’s willingness to authorise a major incursion, saying Turkish leaders still hope their rhetoric will push U.S. and Iraqi authorities into acting against the PKK.

Turkey’s large-scale incursions in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge PKK rebels from the Iraqi mountains.

The powerful army, NATO’s second largest, will want to avoid getting bogged down in a protracted fight against veteran guerrillas in difficult terrain that the PKK has commanded for several years, especially as winter looms.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and European Union, like Turkey, brand the group as terrorist.

(Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil)