BRIEFS

ROJ TV CLAIMS TURKEY BUILDING UP MILITARY PRESENCE ON IRAQI BORDER

A May 18 broadcast on Roj TV, a Denmark-based satellite channel supportive of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claimed that the Turkish military has increased its operations in southeast Turkey and on the border with northern Iraq. Referring to southeastern Turkey as “northern Kurdistan,” the report discusses an increase in fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Tunceli, Diyarbakir and Siirt, and that peshmerga forces are being deployed along the Turkish-Iraqi border (Roj TV, May 18; Terrorism Focus, April 24). According to the report, the Turkish military has amassed “tens of thousands of troops” on the border and has set up temporary military installations in Hakkari province, which is located at the juncture of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Turkey has increased its rhetoric toward northern Iraq recently and has threatened that it may intervene in the area to eliminate the threat it faces from the PKK.