(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The vast majority of people in Turkey are in favour of their government taking military action against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) along the Iraqi border, according to a poll by Pollmark. 81 per cent of respondents would support the cross-border operation.

The PKK is an illegal armed group operating in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. The group claims to fight for the creation of a Kurdish nation, encompassing territories in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Both the European Union (EU) and the United States consider the PKK as a terrorist organization, responsible for the killing of over 300,000 civilians since it was founded in the 1970s.

In late October, the Turkish government threatened to invade northern Iraq after PKK rebels crossed the border into their country and killed 17 Turkish soldiers. The office of Turkish president Abdullah Gul vowed to pay "whatever price necessary" to defeat terrorism, and deployed 100,000 troops to the Iraqi border. The threat prompted calls by the U.S. and several countries for Turkey to reconsider its position. Both Washington and the government in Iraq later promised Turkey they would improve efforts to combat the PKK inside Iraq.

On Nov. 5, U.S. president George W. Bush met with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington, and declared: "We had a long discussion about a common concern, and that concern is the PKK. PKK is a terrorist organization. They’re an enemy of Turkey, they’re an enemy of Iraq, and they’re an enemy of the United States. We have talked about how we can work together to protect ourselves from the PKK."

On Nov. 14, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said relations with Turkey have improved over the past weeks, adding, "The crisis with Turkey has passed."

Polling Data

Do you think Turkey should conduct a cross-border military operation against militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)?

Source: Pollmark
Methodology: Interviews with 2,982 Turk adults, conducted from Oct. 17 to Oct. 20, 2007. No margin of error was provided.

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