Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Wednesday his government was drawing up plans to authorise a military incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels using the region as a base.
Erdogan is under pressure to act after rebel attacks which have killed 15 soldiers since Sunday, but political analysts say a major cross-border operation remains unlikely.
A major military incursion would strain ties with the United States and the European Union, which Ankara hopes to join, and could undermine regional stability. Russia also urged restraint.
Asked about his plans as he arrived at parliament, Erdogan told reporters: "(Preparations on the proposal) have started and are continuing."
Parliament, where Erdogan's ruling centre-right AK Party has a big majority, would have to grant its permission to troops to cross the border into Iraq. Passing the measure would not automatically mean Turkish troops going into northern Iraq.
With Turkey about to start a major religious holiday marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, some newspapers said the proposal may not be sent to parliament until next week.
Turkey's military, the second biggest in NATO, launched a fresh offensive on Wednesday against rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Tunceli province in the mainly Kurdish east of the country, television reported.
Military sources said there had been some shelling of rebel positions in the border region too but only on the Turkish side.
Border guards arrested 20 suspected PKK supporters on Wednesday crossing into Turkey from Iraq, said CNN Turk TV.
On Tuesday, Erdogan said all measures, including military ones, would be considered in the fight against the PKK, some 3,000 of whom are believed to be holed up in northern Iraq.
Large-scale incursions into northern Iraq in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge the rebels.
IRAQ OPPOSED
"Turkey cannot intervene in northern Iraq today without the consent of the elected government in Baghdad because it would violate international law," said Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University.
Iraq and Turkey recently signed an anti-terrorism accord, but Baghdad refused Ankara's request to allow Turkish troops to chase rebels across their shared border if the need arose.
Ankara is also aware Baghdad lacks clout in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, whose autonomous administration has repeatedly rejected Turkish demands for a crackdown on the PKK.
Analysts said a Turkish military incursion could play into the hands of the PKK. "The PKK is trying to show it is still a force to be reckoned with, that it can still harm the Turkish military," said Bagci.
Military intervention would stoke anger among Turkish Kurds and undermine government plans to develop the economy of the impoverished southeast region where most of them live.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.
Noting the timing of the latest Turkish threats on northern Iraq, some analysts have suggested they might be aimed more at swaying Congressmen in Washington against backing a resolution on massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in World War One.
The U.S. Congress' Foreign Relations Committee is expected to back later on Wednesday a resolution defining the 1915 massacres as genocide, despite warnings from Ankara and the Bush administration that such a move could damage bilateral ties.
.gif){kind=link}