DAHOK, Iraq, Nov. 4 — Kurdish guerrillas on Sunday released eight Turkish soldiers who were captured two weeks ago in a bloody ambush that enraged Turkey and helped stir its government to the verge of invading northern Iraq.
The top commander for the rebels, Murat Karayilan, described the move as an effort to soften relations with Turkish officials, who are mulling whether to carry out a wide assault on sanctuaries for the Kurdish rebels from Turkey hidden in the rugged mountains inside Iraq.
Fighters from the rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, handed the Turkish soldiers over to officials in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. They were given to American military officials, turned over to Turkish authorities, and flown home.
The move was unlikely to assuage the deep anger of Turkish officials, who describe the guerrillas as irredeemable terrorists. But the release may strengthen the hand of Bush administration officials preparing to make a last-ditch effort to talk Turkey out of an invasion when the country’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meets with President Bush in Washington this week.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued no statement about the soldiers and a spokesman did not answer calls for comment on Sunday.
The release puts “some cards in the hands of President Bush to play,” said Cengiz Candar, a political analyst and columnist for the Turkish newspaper Referans. Even if the meeting in Washington achieves nothing, “it would be very difficult for Turkish authorities to come back here and without any international backing come back and enter Iraq.”
----------------------
Kurdistan Workers’ Party = PKK
No comments:
Post a Comment