Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in south-east Turkey today and the government flexed its military muscle with Republic Day parades and flypasts in major cities.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border in readiness for a possible large-scale incursion to crush an estimated 3000 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas who use the region as a base.
The White House said it was pressing Turkey and Iraq to keep up talks aimed at averting a major cross-border operation.
Witnesses told Reuters that they saw helicopters firing rockets at suspected PKK positions in the mountains in Turkey's border province of Sirnak today. The operation was still going on after several hours.
"We are holding our breath, awaiting the order for an operation," one senior security official told the liberal Radikal daily near the border where rebels killed 12 Turkish soldiers on 21 October and took eight others prisoner.
One soldier was killed during the Sirnak operation today, army sources told Reuters.
In Ankara, warplanes swooped, tanks rolled and troops marched before President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and senior generals in a display of military might designed to stress Turkish unity and resolve.
Istanbul staged a military parade and flag-waving patriots clapped loudly as tanks drove past.
Many people carried pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, revered founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923.
"I am very proud of the 84 years of the Turkish Republic. We are not worried about the future. We are together and the republic will survive," said war veteran Ahmed Kendigel, 52.
"It is our government's decision whether to go into northern Iraq but we are ready for anything. The army, the people, all of us are ready."
Turkish nationalist fervour has been rising since the deaths of the 12 soldiers, whose funerals last week turned into huge anti-PKK rallies that have greatly increased pressure on Erdogan's government to send troops into northern Iraq.
Washington and the Baghdad government have urged Ankara to refrain from major military action in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, fearing this would destabilise the wider region.
Turkish-Iraqi talks aimed at stopping the PKK from using northern Iraq to attack Turkey and averting a potential cross-border operation broke down on Friday after Ankara rejected a series of Iraqi proposals as insufficient.
"We obviously are encouraging the Iraqis and the Turks to continue having discussions," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "They need to continue to apply the pressure to the PKK."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was quoted this morning as warning of "disastrous" consequences for stability in both countries and the wider region if Turkey invaded.
"This would be a unilateral decision and that's why people are resisting that," Zebari told the BBC in an interview.
Turkish officials say talks next Monday between Erdogan and President George W. Bush will be crucial in determining whether Turkey carries out its threats of a major cross-border offensive against PKK rebels holed up in northern Iraq.
Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs. The PKK, considered a terrorist group by the US, the European Union and Turkey, has said it might target pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude across Turkey.
© Upstream 2007
