Turkey Prepares for Operation in Iraq

[antiimperialist]

Source: Associated Press

SIRNAK, Turkey (AP) — Turkey said Tuesday it had begun preparations for a military operation into Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels who have launched deadly attacks on soldiers in recent days.

Private NTV and CNN-Turk news channels reported that the government has decided to seek parliamentary authorization to launch a possible cross-border military operation in Iraq to pursue the rebels there.

A statement released after a meeting of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and security officials did not say that such an operation would definitely occur. Turkey has said it would prefer that the United States and its Iraqi Kurd allies in northern Iraq crack down on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

"Institutions concerned have been given the necessary orders and instructions to make all kinds of legal, economic and political preparations to end the presence of the terror organization in a neighboring country in the upcoming period, including if necessary a cross-border operation," the statement said.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5giP_fxwRgqou55Knfj4JiiET_xgwD8S5Q6HG0

[Dhalgren]

1. My uncle used to say,

"If you start eating in the bathroom, folks will piss in your kitchen." I was never sure what he meant, but it may be applicable here...

[Botany]

2. bush sure stirred up a hornet's nest

Who could have seen this coming? Outside of everybody?

[nealmhughes]

6. That is what happens when a state or portion therein is in a state of near anarchy, as is Iraq.

Few could negate the legitimate right to safety within its own borders that the Turkish Republic should have.

However, the US by its own precedence in attacking Iraq, has opened a Pandora's box of epic proportions.

The state of anarchy in Iraq, i.e., the lack of a compotent police force that is willing or able to control the PKK is a sad comment. We should recall that the root of all of this is the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the Treaties that set the peace after the First World War, in which men from Whitehall and the Elysee Palace drew lines on maps, splitting an ethnos between multiple political entities.

This could provoke not merely a form of "moral blackmail" upon the US via the "precedence" of NATO support for the US attacks upon the al Qaeda members in Afghanistan in the wake of September 2001 events (Denmark invoked Chapter V of the NATO Charter in response and sent her fighter planes over the Atlantic immediately upon the news of the Towers demise).

We have to admit that a can of worms is a very moderate phrase to describe the potential of a inter-NATO crisis, especially given the US's championship of an autonomous Arbil government. . .

[Kolesar]

3. the neoconservative regional destabilization continues

I recall that bush could not get Turkey to allow the Iraq attack/war to begin with an invasion from Turkey. Bush is probably happy to fuck them up in retaliation.

[AJ9000]

12. Wolfowitz even called for a military coup in Turkey because of it.

"I recall that bush could not get Turkey to allow the Iraq attack/war to begin with an invasion from Turkey."

[comtec]

4. Great, now we are screwing over the Kurds YET AGAIN!

The Kurds have been the (relatively speaking) kindest to us, and have stayed in their little part of Iraq, and let the rest fall apart. They have been the LEAST problematic for YEARS, even since the no-fly zone was instituted they have build a rather modern civilization and have been content to stay in their semi-independent state and not bother anyone.

I find that we are going to allow Turkey to screw with them inexcusable. The EU really need to tighten the noose around Turkey to prevent this from happening (since the US won't)! We have made so many broken promises to the Kurds and yet they still do what we ask of them. I don't know if the EU should allow Turkey in, but they should consider Kurdistan!

Oh well, welcome to the Apocalypse, entrance is free, exiting.. that's expensive.

[atreides1]

9. So Turkey's the Bad Guy

What about the PKK? What exactly has the Kurdish regional government done to muzzle the PKK? What has the US done?

Turkey has the same right to defend itself that the US had, the difference being is that the Turks have been attacked by Kurdish terrorists, while the US was never attacked by Iraq! As a sovereign country Turkey is doing what all sovereign nations have the right to do, defend itself against terrorists, or does that rule only apply to some and not to others?

[Alameda]

11. Kurdish PKK attacks in Turkey

Are you aware of how many attacks the PKK and it's subsidiaries have staged attacks inside Turkey? Do you have any idea of how many have been murdered and wounded? Here's a start

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006/turk-s07.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4690181.stm

Tourism vital to Turkish fortunes
16 Jul 05 | Europe
More than 20 hurt in Turkey blast
10 Jul 05 | Europe
Turkish rail explosion kills six
02 Jul 05 | Europe
Lethal blasts rattle Turkish city
10 Aug 04 | Europe
Bombed Turkish synagogue reopens
11 Oct 04 | Europe
Kurds move to end Turkish truce
29 May 04 | Europe
Timeline: Turkey
03 Jul 05 | Country profiles

[AJ9000]

13. Ya but my Q is why was the PPK doing that?

[Alameda]

14. more destabilization in the area

IMHO, it looks like they want more territory. Put Kurdistan in Google and check the images. I think they are being aided and encouraged in order to spread more destabilization in the area. What ever the reason is, they do not have the right to go into another country and blow things up.

[Javaman]

5. I wonder how much help turkey is going to get from Iran.

now that is the question.

[MetaTrope]

7. I wonder how much nerve gas Cheney has sold to Turkey?

Guess somebody will be finding out.

[lovuian]

8. probably one of my most controversial Video's on You Tube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AH-IjStfVBs

The Kurds are going to defend their oil wells
of which Everyone wants

thats why they made the deal with Hunt for US support

but heres the deal Turkey wants the oil wells too they have the largest Nato army next to ours

Turkey knows our military is too weak right now

and like others said
Is turkey getting help from Iran???

[nealmhughes]

10. Turkey and Iran have diplomatic and trade relations (as do most of the world), but there are huge

problems to surmount, mainly the theocratic Shia nature of present day Iran and Turkey's avowed and constitutional secularism and Sunni majority. They do have a self-interest in stopping PKK and other Kurdish terrorist groups, however.
It's hard to say how "friendly" Turkey is to Iran and vice versa, remember that there is a 3-way popularity contest in the Mideast: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which happen to represent the three main ethnic divisions of Central/SW Asia: Arab, Turkish and Persian.
I see the real problem in the fact that the majority of Kurds in each state they dwell want to be peaceful and are not ardent complete independence agitators, they do however, wish to have Kurdish as a national language, and some degree of autonomy. The problem is how much tacit and/or benign ignorance the people have towards the PKK and others and also whether it is allowable under the Bush Precedent for a NATO state to pursue non-governmental entities who engage in organized political-criminal acts as if they were sactioned tacitly by the governments of the areas where the groups take refuge.
Frankly, while I have the feeling that most Kurds do not dislike per se the status quo as it stands in Arbil Kudistan, there are serious questions as to whether there should be a level of support for their co-nationals in adjacent states: witness the Italian consolidation. Now many may have been perfectly happy under a Hapsburg Grand Duke, but when the Kingdom of Sardinia came a knocking . . .