22 December 2000, Volume  3, Number  43
Radio Free Europe

launched a major incursion into Iraqi Kurdish on 3 December in order to back the PUK
against the PKK, according to the 19 December "Ozgur Politika", a pro-PKK journal. This
outlet also claimed the invasion force involves hundreds of troops as well as heavy weapons
and has passed through the Habur Gate. And it says that the Turkish army has more units in
reserve at Silopi.

PKK leaders say that 43 of their fighters have already fallen, putting PUK losses in the
"hundreds." But PUK sources suggested that the PKK was making outrageous claims which
"distort realities and mislead Kurdish public opinion," according to KurdSat from
Al-Sulaymaniyah on 17 December.

A PKK spokesman meanwhile asserted on MEDYA-TV that Turkey's move was part of a
broader move against the Kurds: "All the powers in the region," he said, "have made military
preparations and are waiting for an opportunity. The international conspiracy against our
party will thus be united by the intervention aimed at the region. While aiming on the one
hand to clash with Iraq and remake it, there are attempts on the other hand to liquidate our
party. Now, these two aims are being united," according to the "Kurdish Observer" of 20
December. (David Nissman)
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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