Kurds tepid on Turkey economic plan

ANKARA, Turkey, March 12 (UPI) -- Turkey's economic plan for the nation's largely Kurdish southeast is apparently not impressing leaders of the Kurdish community.

A survey of prominent Turkish Kurds by the New Anatolian found a lukewarm response for a program seen as too little, too late.

Kurdish leaders said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's $12 billion measure would require political and cultural reforms as well if the government wants to create jobs and encourage young men to reject calls for Kurdish independence.

Meanwhile, the newspaper said, Turkish forces stepped up their current engagements with separatist Kurdish rebels along the border with Iraq. Reinforcements backed up by helicopters were reported moving into the area.