Turkey Moves Forward on Push Into Iraq

[leftchick]

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/07/19/ap2891076.html

The Turkish military is moving forward with plans to send forces into northern Iraq to clear out Turkish Kurdish guerrilla bases, the prime minister said Wednesday.

But Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said officials were holding talks with the United States and Iraq in an attempt to defuse tensions.

Diplomats and officials have said repeatedly that Turkey's threats to send troops into Iraq were largely aimed at pressing the United States and Iraq to take action against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, whose fighters have killed 15 Turks in the southeast in the past week.

Any Turkish cross-border operation is likely to inflame tensions with the United States and destabilize one of the only calm regions of Iraq. A push into northern Iraq could also threaten ties with EU countries, which have been pressing Turkey to improve minority Kurdish rights as a step toward reducing tensions in the largely Kurdish southeast.

And there is the possibility that Kurds in largely autonomous northern Iraq could fight the Turks if they enter the country. The guerrillas are mostly based in the Qandil mountains that straddle Iraq's border with Iran, about 50 miles from the Turkish border. They infiltrate southeastern Turkey from those bases to attack.

[Ian David]

1. Great! Now they're having a Civil War, AND they're being invaded...

by our "ally," Turkey.

[rpannier]

5. Well...In all fairness to the Turkish Government

If the Kurds are using northwest Iraq as a place to launch attacks into Turkey then the Turks have a right to expect the Iraqi...ahem...cough...government and/or the United States to do something to stop those attacks. If the US/Iraqi governments will not do anything then the Turks have to do something to protect their borders and their people. Much the way the government of Viet-Nam had the right to protect their country from the attacks by Cambodia under Pol Pot.

[bennywhale]

9. The kurds are the most oppressed people in the

history of the ME. They launch attacks against army and police and are in defence of their land and freedom, which is under attack today as it always has been.

For example they are not allowed to choose names for their children with certain letters in it linked to Kurdish culture. Daft i know, and petty but just one tiny example of the contempt the Turks view them with. They've also been the victim of various ethnic cleansing purges and near genocidal treatment by the army

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

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[Robbien]

3. The article also says they are negotiating with the US

Turkey has been threatening to invade Iraq for how long now? The article is full of ifs, possibles and threats. Wonder what they are demanding in these negotiations.

[leftchick]

6. The same carrot the US dangled before the US invasion?

non-permanent membership of Turkey of the UN Security Council?

[bemildred]

4. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[Tin Man]

7. Freedom ....errr,Turkey...Turkey is on the march!

[cantstandbush]

8. Hell, they are asking the same thing Saddam was trying to do. nt