Turkish Parliament Debates Sending Troops to Occupy Northern Iraq

By Jonathan Gorvett in Istanbul

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group and continues to fight it in the southeast [EPA]
Turkey's parliament went into secret session this week to debate sending troops to invade and occupy northern Iraq for security purposes.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in the confrontation between the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army – about 400 last year alone, according to Turkey's Human Rights Association.

Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said: "Northern Iraq is the only place in the world where a terrorist group can operate without being pursued."

"If the Iraqis and the US are not prepared to take action over this, then we must."

Oymen referred to bases in northern Iraq belonging to the PKK which has been fighting Turkish troops since the 1980s to try to establish a separate Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.

Northern Iraq has been effectively independent of Baghdad's control since the early 1990s.

"The US are doing nothing and the Kurdish authorities are doing nothing"
Onur Oymen, CHP deputy chairman

Casualties mounting Continued