IRBIL, Iraq — Rebel Kurdish leaders warned Sunday that Turkish troops will be attacked if they are allowed to enter northern Iraq in return for Turkey’s support for a U.S. invasion.
“Any intervention under any pretext whatsoever will lead to clashes,” said Hoshiyar Zebari, a senior official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two parties that control the Kurd-dominated north. “Nobody should think we are bluffing on this issue.”
Zebari and Latif Rashid, a senior official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told reporters that their parties do not plan a confrontation. But popular anger at Turkish intervention would trigger “uncontrolled clashes,” Zebari said.
The Bush administration reportedly is close to finalizing an agreement that would allow Turkish troops to enter northern Iraq as part of a deal under which U.S. troops could use Turkish bases as staging areas for an invasion.
Turkey has for years been struggling to crush its own Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK.
Ankara says its forces are needed to prevent the KDP and PUK from reviving a drive for independence that could re-energize the PKK.
The Kurds’ comments represented the most explicit warning to date to the Bush administration and Turkey against concluding a plan for tens of thousands of Turkish troops to flow into northern Iraq behind invading U.S. forces.
The dispute could seriously complicate the Kurds’ cooperation in the Pentagon’s strategy to use their Vermont-size enclave to open a northern front against Saddam Hussein, who withdrew his forces from the area in 1991.
In the longer term, U.S. forces that would occupy Iraq after ousting Saddam could become enmeshed in a bloody tussle over oil-rich territory that could trigger wider instability and erase any hope of building a stable democracy.
“It will be bad for the image of the United States, Britain and other countries who want to help Iraq, to see two of their allies, Turkey and Kurdistan, at each other’s throats,” said Zebari.
He said the Kurdish officials and the Turkish military would hold talks on Tuesday.
Turkey especially wants to stop the KDP and PUK from seizing the oil-rich cities of Kirkuk and Mosul as that would give the Kurds control of huge financial resources.
Under an apparent compromise with the Pentagon, Turkish forces would remain under Turkish command, and could surround — but not capture — Mosul or Kirkuk.
Turkish troops would also move to eradicate an estimated 5,000 PKK fighters hiding in northern Iraq.