Iraq's president said Sunday Baghdad would be unable to hand over Kurdish rebel leaders to Turkey as the crisis over the Iraq-based fighters intensified with the killing of 12 Turkish soldiers. "The handing over of PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] leaders to Turkey is a dream that will never be realized," Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, told a news conference in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomus Kurdish region. Iraq would be unable to succeed where the Turkish military had failed, he suggested. "PKK's leaders are in Kurdistan's rugged mountains. The Turkish military with its mightiness could not annihilate them or arrest them, so how could we arrest them and hand them to Turkey?" he asked. "Handing over Kurdish leaders is a dream which would not come true."
His remarks, made alongside the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, came as Ankara announced that 12 soldiers had been killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey that also left 23 rebels dead. A Kurdish rebel leader also said that Turkish soldiers had been captured after fierce fighting in the Iraqi border area. No further details were immediately available.
Parliament in Ankara Wednesday approved a motion authorizing military strikes for a one-year period against PKK rebels, ethnic Kurds who use northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks across the border in Turkey. A motion carried by a large majority in the Iraqi parliament Sunday condemned the decision by its Turkish counterpart, but urged the PKK fighters to leave the country. "The parliament calls on PKK fighters to leave Iraqi territories and ask the Iraqi government to take the required measures to stop PKK activities being launched from Iraqi territories," the motion said.
A parliamentary motion condemning the Turkish threat was approved by 183 lawmakers of the 275-member national assembly. "Iraq's parliament unanimously votes to condemn the threat of using force to solve the dispute. It feels that the Turkish parliament's decision to use force does not boost bilateral relations," the motion said.
The parliament urged the government in Ankara to be "wise and work in coordination with the Iraqi government in order to deal with the crisis." It also rejected attacks by Kurdish rebels from Iraqi territory against neighboring countries.
In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's top government and military leaders would meet Sunday night with President Abdullah Gul to discuss the response to the latest rebel attack. The Turkish army has already sent additional troops to the region following the attack in which PKK rebels allegedly ambushed an infantry platoon.
Erdogan Friday urged the Iraqi government to close "once and for all" the PKK camps, but judged "positive" recent vows by Baghdad to do so. "What would satisfy us is the closure of all the PKK camps, including their training camps and the handover of their terrorist leaders," he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
He also said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki had proposed joint action to crack down on the PKK rebels. "Maliki confirmed the following thing: that if there was no result from the talks, we would carry out this operation together," Erdogan said.
Ankara claims that some 3,500 PKK fighters have found refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan and are tolerated or even actively supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders - a charge they strongly deny. The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.