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Bonni Network
Iraqi Kurds say Turkish forces bombard villages 13:28 Nov 06, 1996 EST
ANKARA, Nov 6 (Reuter) - An Iraqi Kurdish group on Wednesday accused Turkey of entering Iraq and pounding Iraqi Kurdish settlements with artillery and air strikes in the hunt for Kurdish separatist guerrillas.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said in a statement Turkish soldiers had crossed the border in a three-pronged drive on Sunday. It did not give the size of the Turkish force.
It also said Turkey used artillery and air strikes against Iraqi Kurdish civilian settlements.
``As a result of the repeated shelling, bombardment and harassment, inhabitants of the area...fled their homes,'' the statement said.
A Turkish diplomat, quoted by the official Anatolian news agency, denied Turkish troops were targeting civilians in northern Iraq. ``The Turkish army's operation is aimed completely at terrorist elements,'' he said.
The diplomat did not say if troops had crossed the border.
A statement from the emergency rule governor's office in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, said 37 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels and four members of the security forces had died in clashes in the last three days, most of them along the Iraqi border.
The statement made no mention of any cross-border operation.
Turkey frequently strikes across the mountainous border against PKK guerrillas who use bases there in their fight for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey hosted U.S.-sponsored peace talks last week at which the KDP and a rival Iraqi Kurdish militia agreed to extend a ceasefire after two months of fighting.
But the KDP later said it was not bound by part of the joint declaration after talks suggested Iraqi Kurds had agreed to help Turkey oust the PKK from the region.
Turkey says EU membership a matter of time 09:25 Nov 06, 1996 EST
BONN, Nov 6 (Reuter) - Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said on Wednesday it was only a matter of time before Turkey became a full member of the European Union.
He was on the second day of a state visit to Germany that has been dogged by demonstrations at every stop.
Turkish demonstrators on Wednesday waved banners just outside Bonn's federal government quarter as Demirel arrived, and shouted slogans to protest against Ankara's human rights policies.
During his tour, the first Turkish state visit to Germany since 1988, Demirel has held talks on human rights, Turkey's bid for EU membership and the security of Turks living in Germany.
``Membership of the European Union is our priority,'' he told reporters after meeting Kohl. ``In the talks...I have seen nobody who is against Turkish membership of the European Union. It is a question of time.''
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel did not respond directly but said in a statement: ``Turkey belongs to Europe. Europeans must do eveything to show Turkey we want it with us.''
He said Turkey was an important bridge between Europe, the Islamic world and Central Asia.
But he called the human rights situation unsatisfactory and said if Turkey wanted closer ties with Europe it must show unambiguously that it wanted to resolve the situation of Kurds living in the southeast of the country.
Turkey applied for full EU membership in 1987 but was told to wait. It holds associate membership and has been hampered in its desire to join fully by its human rights record and strained relations with neighbouring Greece, an EU member.
The European Parliament approved a customs union with Turkey last December only after Ankara gave explicit guarantees it would take positive action on human rights, democratisation, the status of divided Cyprus and the plight of the Kurds.
But the parliament in Strasbourg voted last month to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars of aid because Ankara had not made enough progress on human rights.
``As a secular, democratic country with a market economy Turkey is a stable factor in an unsettled environment,'' Demirel said. ``One should not describe a country as a place of torture just because someone was tortured there once. Everything will be done to prevent human rights abuses.''
Several Kurdish groups have spoken out against the visit.
The chairman of the Kurdish community in Germany, Mehmet Tanriverdi, said: ``Demirel's policies stand for the suppression of the Kurdish people. The German government should immediately break off its economic and military support for Turkey.''
Security for the visit has been tight because of fears of disturbances from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Police and the PKK have clashed several times in recent years.
Around 2.2 million Turkish citizens live in Germany, the largest foreign community in the country and just under a third of the total immigrant population.
Turks were prime targets of a three-year wave of racist and neo-Nazi violence that followed German unification in 1990.
Those attacks have subsided but Turkish properties have been the target of firebombings by the PKK which is fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
Demirel asked the German goverment to ensure the safety of his compatriots against attacks in Germany and to push their integration in society further.
``Turks should not be second-class citizens,'' he said.