urkish army pushes Iraq incursion, calls for truly secular president
by Sibel Utku Bila 48 minutes ago
Turkey's army chief called Thursday for a military incursion into neighbouring northern Iraq to hunt down Turkish Kurd rebels based there, despite US objections.
In a rare press conference at the army headquarters, the first in almost two years, General Yasar Buyukanit also said Turkey's next president, to be elected in May, should be committed to secularism "in earnest".
Buyukanit's call for a cross-border operation was the latest effort to ratchet up the pressure on Iraqi Kurds, who run northern Iraq, over the presence of Turkish Kurd rebels there.
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