The situation in Northern Iraq:Turkey launches attacks on Kurdish area

[Odin]

Turkey launches attacks on Kurdish area By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated

Turkey's army chief said Thursday the military had launched several "large scale" offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into neighboring northern Iraq.

Washington repeatedly has cautioned Turkey against staging a cross-border offensive, fearing that it could destabilize the region and antagonize Iraqi Kurds, who are allied with the U.S.

But Iraq's government is barely able to control its own cities. U.S. commanders, who are battling the Iraqi insurgency in the middle of the country, are stretched too thin to take on Turkish Kurds hiding in remote mountains near the frontier.

On Monday, the Turkish government demanded again that U.S. and Iraqi officials crack down on guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

"An operation into Iraq is necessary," said Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the head of Turkey's powerful military. "The PKK has huge freedom of movement in Iraq ... It has spread its roots in Iraq."

Buyukanit said the military already was moving against separatists in the southeast.

"There are several large-scale operations under way in several areas," Buyukanit told a press conference. "Our aim is to prevent them from taking positions in the region with the coming of spring."

The offensives were launched to coincide with spring, when the rebels intensify attacks on Turkey using mountain passes opened by melting snow, Buyukanit said.

Recent clashes already have killed 10 soldiers and 29 Kurdish guerrillas, Buyukanit said. The separatist conflict has left more than 37,000 people dead since 1984.

Turkey launched operations into northern Iraq several times in the late 1990s, when it was out of President Saddam Hussein's control.

It has recently been accused of shelling Kurdish positions inside Iraq.

Turkey is especially concerned about a bid to incorporate the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk into the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdish region, fearing that Iraqi Kurds will use revenues from the city's oil wealth to fund a bid for independence.

The Iraqi government recently decided to implement a constitutional requirement to determine the status of Kirkuk — which is disputed among several different ethnic groups — by the end of the year. The plan is expected to turn Kirkuk and its vast oil reserves over to Kurdish control, a step also rejected by many of Iraq's Arabs and ethnic Turks, who are strongly backed by the Turkish government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/...a/turkey_kurds

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I know this is a side story to the surge and the bombing inside the green zone, still this bares watching especially given the implication of the last paragraph and the oil wealth of kirkuk.

Thoughts?

[doc_bean]

Turkey is one of the US most important military allies in the world, this is certainly bad news for the Americans.

Turkey certainly doesn't want anything resembling a Kurdish state and has proven they'll go to great lengths to prevent it. On the bright side, it doesn't look like they're moving in because of the oil.

[English assassin]

Thoughts?

(1) I'm surprised it took so long, and

(2) The Turks wouldn't have this fear of a kurdistan, if they stopped treating the kurds like dirt, and accepted that today its considered good to allow people to decide for themselves if they want to remain part of your country.

I'm with the Kurds. No doubt realpolitick dictates we will side with the Turks. Ho hum.

[Vladimir]

"President" Saddam Hussein huh? This was the AP?




Another reason why the US can't give Pakistan too much grief about their Afghan border.

[Odin]

(1) I'm surprised it took so long, and

(2) The Turks wouldn't have this fear of a kurdistan, if they stopped treating the kurds like dirt, and accepted that today its considered good to allow people to decide for themselves if they want to remain part of your country.

I'm with the Kurds. No doubt realpolitick dictates we will side with the Turks. Ho hum.

Perhaps we will side with the turks, but as someone pointed out in another thread (Hore Tore) there is this little business about Turkey wanting to join the EU in the worse way, and that might make it a slightly more muddied process.

[HoreTore]

I don't see the US stopping turkey here really. They don't have much of a carrot to wave, however, the EU certainly does. If turkey is given the choice of either letting go of kurdistan and join the EU or continuing and staying out of the EU, then I believe they will choose the EU. A membership has a lot more benefits to it than the kurdish area. However, there is a couple of nifty problems; the christian right in europe who doesn't want scary brown people to upset their club, and turkish nationalists who wants "glory for the state"...

Curbing those two powers isn't an easy task, but it is doable.

EDIT: Forgot a third power, the europeans who wants the EU dead...

[doc_bean]

Turkey doesn't even want to join the EU, they just want a piece of the cake (*cough*money*cough*)

[Pannonian]

Turkey certainly doesn't want anything resembling a Turkish state and has proven they'll go to great lengths to prevent it. On the bright side, it doesn't look like they're moving in because of the oil.

You've got it wrong. It's the Iraqis who don't want anything resembling an Iraqi state, and will go to great lengths to prevent it.

[doc_bean]

You've got it wrong. It's the Iraqis who don't want anything resembling an Iraqi state, and will go to great lengths to prevent it.

I think we both have a point.

[Pannonian]

I think we both have a point.

Read your post again. I think you meant that Turkey doesn't want anything resembling a KURDish state.

[doc_bean]

Read your post again. I think you meant that Turkey doesn't want anything resembling a KURDish state.

Errrr....edited.