Eurasia

If renewed negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo Albanian leaders regarding Kosovo’s future status fail to bear fruit, former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan eventually will be implemented, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner indicated on Thursday (July 12th) following a meeting with Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic in Belgrade.

The Turkish Armed Forces have begun to recruit “professional commandos” as part of a new plan to combat the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The military expects to recruit around 10,000 soldiers, who will be given special training to fight terrorists in mountainous areas.

On the night of July 6, Caucasian rebels carried out a hit-and-run raid on the Russian military garrison in Ingushetia. First reports of the incident came from the Ingushetiya.ru website.

Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Ivan Sydoruk has declared that “the operational situation in the North Caucasus will become increasingly hot.”

The two main parties — the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) — are at odds over whether the next president must be a member of the new parliament, according to local press reports Wednesday (July 11th).

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says authorisation of a military incursion into northern Iraq is not on the immediate agenda, but he did not rule it out after the July 22nd general elections.

Occupation mass media reported that 3 kafirs from “Russian Interior Ministry troops” were killed and another five were wounded in the gun battle in the Vedeno district of CRI.

UK prosecutors rejected an offer by the Russian authorities to put Lugovoy on trial in his native country.

Iraq says Turkey has 140,000 soldiers along its border, prompting fears of an incursion against Kurdish guerrillas.

Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey’s chief of general staff, told a security conference in Antalya on Tuesday (July 3rd) that there is not enough international co-operation in fighting Kurdish terrorists.