Wednesday, October 17, 2007 | By Sebnem Arsu and Sabrina Tavernise

ISTANBUL: Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to authorize sending troops into northern Iraq to confront Kurdish rebels in hideouts there, sending an angry message to the Baghdad government and its Washington sponsors. But the NATO country made clear it would not act unless it had to.

"We're at a point that our patience has run out," said Cemil Cicek, a government spokesman and a member of Turkey's Special Council Combating Terrorism, speaking in the parliamentary chamber.

The 507 to 19 vote was the culmination of months of frustration here with the United States, which has criticized Kurdish fighters but has failed to get its Kurdish allies in Iraq to act against them. President George W. Bush on Wednesday reiterated American wishes for a diplomatic solution.

The vote came in tandem with another vexatious issue for U.S.-Turkish relations, a bill on the 1915 Armenian genocide that was taken as a slap by Turkey when it passed a congressional committee last week.

In a sign of Turkey's importance as an American ally, congressional leaders seemed to back away from a vote on that bill in Washington on Wednesday.

Turkey is a maturing power and a strong support to the United States in a complex and troubled region. The motion, which Turkish officials said would not necessarily result in military action but gives them a year to apply it, was, at its essence, a blunt request for the Unites States to acknowledge Turkey's status.

"We are at a defining moment in Turkish American relations," said Morton Abramowitz, American ambassador to Turkey during the first Gulf war. "This is a very big warning sign to the Americans and to the Iraqi Kurds."

Security experts in the United States and Turkey agreed that Turkey was unlikely to directly cross the United States with a full-scale military operation. Still, the government is closer than it has ever been to military action of some type, embarrassed into acting by a Turkish public angry over months of what is says is American inaction on the issue.

The vote itself drew responses from presidents of three different countries — the United States, Syria and Iraq — and set off a flurry of diplomacy as officials in several different countries worked strenuously to avert military action.

"Let's do whatever necessary together," said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erodogan, according to the state-run Anatolian News Agency.

But Turkish officials say that diplomatic efforts in the recent past have not succeeded. Turkey signed a security agreement with Iraq in September, but since then, more than two dozen Turks have been killed in rebel attacks, some of them civilians.

"The U.S. must realize the seriousness of this situation and Turkey's determination to root out terrorism," said lawmaker Nihat Ergun, during the debate. "Iraq has become a stomping ground for terrorists."

Turkey's chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, speaking to reporters in Rome, where he was on an official visit, said: "Hashimi says he got what he wanted, but I don't know what he got. Has he gone shopping? What has he done, or bought?"

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials in Ankara briefed representatives of countries neighboring Iraq, five permanent members of the United Nations as well as the G-8 countries on the latest situation and the details of Wednesday's parliamentary motion, a ministry spokesman said.

Even Syria weighed in, with President Bashar al-Assad, in Ankara on a three-day official visit, pointing out the responsibility of the United States in providing support to Turkey.

"It is important to note that the powers that have invaded Iraq are those primarily responsible for the terror activities and attacks because they control the country," Assad said, according to the Anatolian News Agency. "We certainly support and back the decisions by the Turkish government in combat against terror and terror activities."

Meanwhile, along Turkey's border with Iraq, General Ilker Basbug, commander of the Turkish Land Forces, visited Besagac village of Sirnak province, where 12 civilians were killed by Kurdish rebels in late September.

"This is a crime against humanity," Basbug, speaking to villagers, as Anatolian News Agency quoted. "We share your grief and we would do whatever we can as the Turkish Armed Forces to heal your wounds. This is our duty."