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Your support makes all the difference.TURKEY warned yesterday that Syria, Iran, Iraq and Armenia could become targets of its anger if alleged Kurdish rebel training camps on their borders were not closed down.
'It is time for our neighbours to show they are together with us . . . to see who is our friend. There is no in-between,' said the Turkish Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller.
Mrs Ciller unveiled a hardline strategy for dealing with a Kurdish rebellion on the brink of running out of control. Turkey has several options in dealing with cross-border infiltration from the east, although some are risky, may backfire or have failed to have much impact in the past nine years of conflict: cutting off Euphrates river water to Syria; increasing border defences; or launching cross-border raids.
Mrs Ciller's strategy included harsh anti-terrorist laws and the founding of a 10,000-man force of specialist police and army volunteers to go into the mountains 'where they will live just like the terrorists'. A fourth stage would be a 1.5 trillion Turkish lira ( pounds 750m) economic and social development package. But Mrs Ciller warned: 'There can be no investment until and unless security and calm is restored.'
Mrs Ciller ruled out concession to the Kurdish rebels' demands for ethnic, cultural and political rights. Despite all her harsh talk, the most interesting development in Mrs Ciller's speech was her public references to Kurds and ethnic diversity, showing how far Turkey has moved from the total denials of Kurdish identity of five years ago.
Mrs Ciller walks a tightrope between what ageing hardliners in the military, the bureaucracy and in her own party can accept and where most people in the Turkish elite know they have to go if they are to continue living with the 12 million Kurds.
One senior Turkish official said: 'Things will be black and white . . . fighting will be heavy for a while. But later you will see that we have some ideas that are working in parallel to this.' He said that their greatest problem was co-ordinating security forces in the fight against rebels.
The Turkish government this week sent envoys to Syria, the chief backer of the nationalist Kurdistan Workers' Party. Mrs Ciller said talks were also planned soon with the Iranian leadership.
'Like Britain's fight with the IRA and other terrorist movements, this conflict cannot be wiped out in a day and may never completely disappear,' Mrs Ciller said.
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