Turkish military officers have acknowledged that Turkey’s army has invaded the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok has stated that the army will maintain a presence in the area, but declined to state the purpose of the move. Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani claims that two dozen Turkish tanks, as well as soldiers and helicopters, are stationed in the area around the town of Bamerni. Kurdish groups speculate that Turkey wants to intervene militarily to prevent the formation of an independent Kurdish state in the event of an attack on Iraq. In the past, Turkey has made incursions in the region on the pretext of clamping down on the PKK, a Kurdish separatist political party in Turkey whose offices in Iraq are now closed.
