AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
ANKARA: The head of the Turkish army on Sunday defended a military build-up in the country's restive southeast as a normal and necessary step against mounting violence from armed Kurdish rebels.
“Soldiers go wherever there is a need. This is a normal buildup that we always undertake in the region,” General Hilmi Ozkok told reporters at a state reception here, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The Turkish media reported this week that thousands of additional troops have been deployed in the southeast and along the borders with Iraq and Iran to intensify operations against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebel, who have stepped up attacks in the region.
The troop movement precedes a visit on Wednesday by the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Turkey has been pressing the US to crack down on rebel bases in northern Iraq.
Some newspapers have suggested that the recent deployments have brought the total number of troops in the region to 50,000, while others have put the figure at more than 150,000.
Ozkok refused to give any figures, and criticised the press for doing so.
“It is not right to give numbers as if the soldiers have been counted one by one,” the general said.
Violence in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast has increased markedly since June 2004, when the PKK called off its five-year truce and the rebels started to cross the Iraqi border for attacks on Turkish soil.
Rebel infiltrations usually increase in spring as snow melts and the mountainous terrain becomes more accessible.
Turkey says an estimated 5,000 PKK militants retreated into northern Iraq in 1999, when the group declared a unilateral truce following the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Prior to the US-led occupation of Iraq, the Turkish army carried out frequent incursions into northern Iraq to pursue the PKK.
Since the Iraq war, Ankara has repeatedly urged the United States to take action against PKK rebels in northern Iraq. But Washington says its troops are swamped by violence in other parts of the country.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984, when the PKK, blacklisted by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms for self-rule in the southeast.
