Summary:
Turkey long has accused Syria of providing refuge to separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, a charge Damascus denies. The Turkish army claims it all but wiped out the PKK within Turkey, but the rebels have hideouts in Iran, Syria, and Iraq and the fighting continues.
The PKK was founded by Ocalan, a political science dropout from Ankara University in 1978. He turned the Marxist-inspired group toward armed struggle in 1984. Ocalan's PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984 in a war that has cost the lives of close to 37,000 people. Turkey says the PKK held several camps in Syria and in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
The head of Turkey's influential military warned that differences with Damascus had reached a stage of "undeclared war" prompting worries that if clashes began, they might spread. The newspaper Sabah quoted Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu, Turkey's military chief of staff, as saying: "There is a state of undeclared war between us and Syria. We are trying to be patient but that has a limit."
Tensions between neighbors Turkey and Syria had been running high after Ankara suggested it might resort to military action to stop Syria's sheltering the Kurdish rebels.
For its part, Syria is irked by Ankara's plans to build dams on the Euphrates River, a key source of water for Syria. Turkey has said it would not negotiate a water-sharing agreement unless Syria cracks down on the Kurdish rebels. Damascus, one of Israel's staunchest adversaries, also has accused Turkey of forming military alliances with Israel that threaten Arab security and undermine Syria's bargaining position in peace talks with Israel. The Arab League echoed Syrian and Iranian charges that Turkey's new informal ally Israel had fomented the row.
Egyptian leader Mubarak shuttled between Ankara and Damascus in early October to ease the tension sparked when Turkey threatened to use force. The Egyptian mediation efforts later produced a deal under which Syria pledged not to allow Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel activity on its soil.
That undertaking is believed to have forced PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to leave Syria. Ocalan later emerged in Italy, causing a fierce diplomatic row between Ankara and Rome. Ocalan is now under house arrest in Rome after being arrested there last month. Turkey wants his extradition but a Rome court, constitutionally barred from sending suspects to countries with the death penalty, has rejected the request.
Timeline:
Sept. 7, 1998- Syria's official daily newspaper Al Baath called ties
between the Turkey and Israel a "suspicious alliance" and said that Yilmaz's
visit to Israel on Monday was a "hostile move."
- Turkey and Israel have maintained close ties since signing a defense
pact in 1996. The two countries held a joint naval maneuver in the eastern
Mediterranean in January, which Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria condemned.
Jordan sent an observer.
- Yilmaz confirmed that the two countries are planning a second exercise
and will invite Egypt and Jordan to participate. Both Israel and Yilmaz
said the alliance is for mutual benefit and is not aimed at a third country.
Oct. 2, 1998- Turkey sent about 10,000 troops into northern Iraq on
Friday to attack Kurdish rebels using the region as the launching ground
for their campaign across the border to win autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
- Turkish media reported that Turkey had warned Syria it might also
send troops into Syria over the PKK issue. In a show of force on Friday,
Turkish jets buzzed the Syrian frontier, a Turkish daily reported.
- Turkey strongly warned Syria that its "patience was running out,"
Oct.3,1998- Meanwhile, Turkey's ambassador to Rome arrived back in Turkey
on Saturday over a diplomatic crisis involving Italy and Kurdish dissidents.
- Ambassador Inal Batu was recalled after Turkey strongly protested
a meeting inside Italy's parliament building of a group called the Turkish
Kurds' parliament-in-exile.
- The Assad government also says Turkey's budding military and diplomatic
ties with Israel are a threat to the Arab world and undermine Syria's bargaining
position in peace talks with the Jewish state. On Saturday, Damascus again
accused Turkey of plotting with Israel to destabilize Syria.
- Signaling that it does not want to be involved in any potential military
confrontation between Syria and Turkey, Israel has taken steps to limit
routine exercises along its own border with Syria.
Oct. 4, 1998- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Syrian President
Hafez Assad in Damascus on Sunday in an effort to mediate a dispute between
Syria and Turkey over Kurdish separatists, who are allegedly using Syrian
territory to stage cross-border raids into Turkey.
- On Sunday, Iraq called on Turkey to withdraw the troops.
- Turkey's claims that it is "pursuing rebels who oppose Turkish authorities
does not give them the right to violate Iraqi ... sovereignty," the Iraqi
Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
- Also in northern Iraq are Iraqi Kurds who oppose the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi Kurds control the region.
Oct.6,1998- Mubarak met for three hours Tuesday with Turkish President
Suleyman Demirel. The Egyptian leader was presented with detailed evidence
that Syria has lent support to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for more
than a decade.
- Both Turkey and Western diplomats say PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan is
based in Damascus. Syria has denied those charges.
Oct.7,1998- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday expressed concern over the tension between Syria and Turkey and called on Ankara to stop military threats against Damascus.
Oct.20,1998- Ending a weeks-long standoff that some feared could have
sparked a regional conflict, Damascus pledged Tuesday to shut down Kurdish
rebel camps in its territory and the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley, Turkey's
foreign minister said.
- Under the agreement signed by Turkish and Syrian officials, Syria
also agreed not to allow Kurdish guerrillas to stage cross-border attacks
on Turkey, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem told reporters.
- He said Syria would brand the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, a
"terrorist organization" and would deny PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan access
into Syria.
- Cem's announcement came after security officials from both countries
ended two days of talks at the southern Turkish town of Seyhan, some some
550 kilometers (344 miles) from Ankara, to address Turkey's concerns.
- The agreement was signed by Turkish foreign ministry official Ugur
Ziyal and Gen. Adnan Badr Al Hassan of Syria.
- Earlier, in a possible indication that Damascus was meeting Ankara's
demands, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said that the rebel's leader was no
longer in Syria but in Russia.
- Yilmaz told reporters Ocalan had been located in a Moscow suburb
and had been in hiding in Russia for the past week. He said Turkey had
made a request for his extradition.
Nov.13,1998- A leader of Kurdish insurgents sought for years by Turkey
has been detained in Rome after stepping off a plane from Moscow, officials
said today.
- Abdullah Ocalan leads the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK,
which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
Turkey considers the group a terrorist organization.
- Italian officials said Ocalan was arrested on a Turkish arrest warrant
Thursday at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome.
- Ocalan is on trial in absentia in Turkey on charges of leading a
terrorist organization, threatening the country's territorial integrity
and ordering killings. The charges can bring the death penalty.
- Turkey's Anatolia news agency said its envoy in Rome was making an
immediate extradition request, but it could run into difficulties. Although
there have been no executions in Turkey since 1984, Italy has consistently
refused to extradite anyone if there was even a risk of capital punishment.
- Ocalan was arrested Thursday after stepping off a plane from Moscow,
where he had sought asylum after recently fleeing his hideout in Syria.
Dec.5,1998- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday delivered a
message from Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to his Turkish counterpart,
Suleyman Demirel, as part of efforts to improve damaged ties between Ankara
and Damascus.
- "I have conveyed to Mr Demirel the desire of Mr Assad to improve
bilateral relations and to build a constructive and productive cooperation
between the two nations," Mubarak told a joint news conference with Demirel
in Ankara.
Dec. 13, 1998- Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan renounced his guerrillas on Sunday and said he was cutting himself off from the armed conflict between his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish security forces.