Turkey raps Iraqi Kurds over intervention comments

By Hidir Goktas and Gareth Jones

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey on Monday warned Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani over comments he made about Ankara's policy towards northern Iraq, saying Barzani would "be crushed by his own words".

Barzani said in a television interview at the weekend that if Ankara interfered in northern Iraq, as it has threatened to do, Iraqi Kurds would interfere in Kurdish cities in Turkey.

"They should be very careful in their use of words ... otherwise they will be crushed by those words ... Barzani has again exceeded the limits," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in televised remarks.

A Barzani aide later said the Kurd leader's comments had not been meant as a threat.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Barzani's comments "unhelpful".

"They certainly do not further the goal of greater Turkish-Iraqi cooperation on issues of common concern, including fighting the PKK (the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party)."

Ankara is deeply concerned about what it sees as moves by Iraqi Kurds to build an independent state in northern Iraq, fearing this could in turn reignite separatism among its own Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.

Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Ankara had a legitimate interest in developments in northern Iraq because Turkish Kurdish rebels used the region as a springboard to launch attacks on military and civilian targets inside Turkey.