U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/07/07 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

From: Thanos Tsekouras <thanost@MIT.EDU>

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

[...]

TURKEY

Incursion into Northern Iraq ...........................16-18

--Use of U.S.-Supplied Weapons .........................16

Ambassador Holbrooke/Turkish Ambassador Gonensay Mtg ...23

Oil Pipeline Issue .....................................23-24

[...]

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

War in Bosnia

Secretary Christopher/FM Sacirbey Mtg. .................24-25

[...]

Q Nick, do you have anything on the Turkish incursion into Iraq yesterday, and I have a follow-up.

MR. BURNS: Turkish officials told Ambassador Marc Grossman, the United States Ambassador in Ankara, this morning that the purpose of the incursion by Turkey into northern Iraq was to protect against a cross- border attack by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party, otherwise known as the PKK.

The PKK attack inside Turkey on June 15 and June 21 resulted in 25 Turkish casualties, and it's our understanding that Turkey learned that the PKK was staging for another major cross-border operation.

We understand that the current incursion by the Turkish military involves roughly one to two thousand troops, supported by air and artillery units, which have penetrated as much as six kilometers into northern Iraq, and casualties thus far, as reported by the Turkish Government, are roughly 90 PKK guerrillas killed. We have no word on Turkish losses.

The Government of Turkey has assured us that it is making every effort to minimize harm to civilians in northern Iraq, including the use of forward air controllers and visual confirmation of targets by aircraft.

The Turkish Government has further stated that the troops are now leaving northern Iraq, and that the operation should be finished in a few days. We understand that the humanitarian operations under "Provide Comfort" have continued throughout this latest incursion.

You had a follow-up, Betsy.

Q Yes. Are we concerned that U.S. arms are being used in these sweeps?

MR. BURNS: Let me speak to that. Let me just make one point before I get to it. As we previously indicated when there was a similar operation in March, a country under the United Nations charter has the right in principle to use force to protect itself from attacks from a neighboring country if that neighboring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territory for such attacks. That is a legal definition that gives a country under the U.N. Charter the right to use force in this type of instance.

That is certainly the case with northern Iraq. Above the 36th parallel, of course, is "Operation Provide Comfort." And while we recognize Iraqi sovereignty throughout this area, we don't believe that the Iraqi Government has shown the responsibility to be able to assure the welfare of the people of northern Iraq; therefore there is no governing entity that has been able to prevent these attacks from the PKK. It has been up to Turkey to protect itself from them.

So we fully support all legitimate Turkish efforts to combat the PKK, which, as we've noted several times, is a vicious and deadly terrorist organization that poses a genuine threat to security within Turkey.

The second question, Betsy, that you had is on the use of U.S.- supplied weapons. The use of U.S.-supplied weapons by allies for legitimate self-defense is acceptable under United States law. We would characterize this situation as legitimate self-defense under the U.N. Charter.

Q Follow that, Nick. The Iraqi Government has filed a complaint or requested from the Turks to leave that territory as soon as possible, and are you concerned about the possibility of some confrontation between the Iraqis and the Turks over this incursion?

MR. BURNS: Since March and April of 1991 -- perhaps April 1991 to be more specific -- Iraq has not had the right to deploy military forces above the 36th parallel, for obvious reasons, because Iraq in March and April of 1991 -- let's remember this -- tried to annihilate the Kurdish population of northern Iraq. It and was prevented in doing so by the United States military and by the Government of Turkey.

That's the reason we established "Operation Provide Comfort." Again, while we do recognize Iraqi sovereignty in the area, we do not believe that Iraq by its past actions or present inclinations can be considered to be a responsible power to protect the Kurdish and other populations of northern Iraq.

Therefore, we and the Turks and the Kurds and everyone, who are operating there, are in a very difficult situation. There is a terrorist group operating in northern Iraq which uses the terrain of northern Iraq and the lack of a governing authority to promote and conduct very serious threats -- terrorist attacks inside Turkish borders against Turkish civilians and Turkish military personnel and other civilian official personnel.

That's not right. It is something that is a genuine threat to the security of Turkey. We support Turkish actions in this regard.

Q You seem to be getting into a couple of points of international law. Would an Iraqi attack on Turkish troops trigger a response by NATO?

MR. BURNS: I simply don't want to walk down that road. I think it's unlikely. It's perhaps an interesting area to talk about at another time. We're dealing here with a different situation, and that is attacks by Kurdish PKK terrorists against Turkey. That's the relevant situation, and we've made a comment based on that situation.

[...]

Q Nick, about Turkey again. Yesterday, the Turkish Prime Minister's chief advisor, Ambassador Gonensay, met with Assistant Secretary Holbrooke. Did they discuss about this last operation -- the Turkish operation to Iraq, first? The second one, the main issue I believe is the oil route -- early oil route. Did they have any result or decision on this subject?

MR. BURNS: I spent a lot of time with Ambassador Holbrooke over the last couple of days. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about his meeting with Mr. Gonensay, but I can tell you that I am pretty sure given the fact there was an incursion yesterday, the issue must have come up. It certainly came up this morning when Ambassador Grossman met his counterparts in the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

On the second issue of pipelines, it's one of the most important issues facing the United States, Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and other countries -- Georgia -- for the future; that is, the huge deposit of oil in the Caspian Sea which represents, next to the Persian Gulf, perhaps the greatest area of oil resources in the world for the 21st Century.

The question is, how will the private international oil consortium, when they prospect for oil and mine for oil, get that oil out to ports. There are many, many routes available.

The President and Assistant Secretary Holbrooke have all discussed this with Turkish officials. We certainly would be interested in seeing that at least one of the pipelines -- and we think that the reserves are so great, there will be need multiple pipelines -- does go through Turkey, to Turkish ports. That is something that is under active discussion.

I would remind you, however, these are not decisions in this new, great game that governments will make. These are decisions that oil consortiums will make. They are listening to us; they're looking to us for guidance.

We will have some impact on these decisions, through the provision of commercial credits for these huge multi-billion dollar projects.

We have an exceedingly close relationship with Turkey. We understand this issue is important to Turkey; that's why we've made such a good start with the Turkish Government in saying that we think, at least, one of the pipelines should go through Turkey.

[...]

Q Just a quick one on Bosnia. Sacirbey was here yesterday. As he left, he talked about a UNPROFOR II without making any sort of definitions. Do you know what he means by that? Is he just talking about UNPROFOR with the Rapid Reaction Force added to it or not? And, secondly, did he make a strong case to the Secretary for the withdrawal of UNPROFOR if the Rapid Reaction Force is not aggressive as at least initially intended in The Hague?

MR. BURNS: Steve, on your second question, he did not make that kind of a case to the Secretary. Foreign Minister Sacribey came in for a roughly 45-minute meeting -- 50-minute meeting perhaps -- with the Secretary late in the day.

They have mutual respect for each other. The Secretary has great admiration for him. They work well together. They had seen each other two weeks ago, so it was another opportunity to discuss Bosnia.

The conversation rested in two areas: (1) the Secretary asked for the Minister's characterization of the current situation in Sarajevo -- the humanitarian situation, the availability of humanitarian supplies to the enclaves as well as Sarajevo. That picture is quite grim. The statistics, in fact -- the latest U.N. statistics show that on a monthly basis these enclaves are receiving 1/10th-1/15th of the food supplies that they need. So there was a discussion of the situation within Sarajevo and the current thinking of the Bosnian Government about the situation.

There was then a second part of the discussion about Mr. Bildt's diplomatic foray in the Balkans, about his conversations with Mr. Milosevic, his conversations yesterday with the Bosnian Government leadership in Sarajevo with Mr. Izetbegovic and the Prime Minister, Mr. Silajdzic, and a discussion of how we would now proceed on a diplomatic tract.

There was a short discussion of the Rapid Reaction Force and how both the United States and Bosnia thought that would materialize. My only guess is in his comments to you, the Minister is referring to the fact that the Bosnian Government strongly hopes the addition of the Rapid Reaction Force to the U.N. force will be a qualitative difference so that is more effective, and so that the major missions -- humanitarian and protection of enclaves -- can be met in a much better way.

That's what he expressed to the Secretary. The Secretary expressed complete agreement with Minister Sacribey on that question.

Q Thank you.

(Press briefing concluded at 1:56 p.m.)

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