By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkey on Sunday accused the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) of aiming to disrupt unity and integrity of the country.
The accusation was voiced in an official statement issued at an emergency meeting on border security following a fresh attack by the northern Iraq-based PKK in southeastern province Hakkari earlier on Sunday, killing 12 government soldiers and wounding 16 others.
The statement denounced that it is apparent that the PKK aims to disrupt unity and integrity of Turkey with heinous attacks.
“Although Turkey respects territorial integrity of Iraq, it will not tolerate any assistance to terrorism and will not refrain from paying whatever cost is necessary to protect its rights, laws, inseparable integrity and citizens,” said the statement.
However, the statement did not announce when Turkish military forces will launch a cross-border military operation in fight against the PKK based in northern Iraq, which has been approved by the parliament.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a telephone talk with him, asking Turkey to wait for several days before Turkey launches the a cross-border military operation against the PKK.
The emergency meeting was held at Cankaya Presidential Palace earlier in the day under the leadership of President Abdullah Gul.
Prime Minister Erdogan, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, Interior Minister Besir Atalay, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin, Force Commanders and some other high-ranking officials attended the meeting.
The Turkish military said in a statement on Sunday afternoon that its troops had killed 32 militants of the PKK in clashes following the renewed PKK attack against its soldiers.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.