U.S. wants to deal "aggressively" with Kurdish PKK

[oberliner]

U.S. wants to deal "aggressively" with Kurdish PKK

President George W. Bush told Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan that the United States wants to deal more aggressively with cross-border attacks by Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, the White House said on Tuesday.

"We have talked about establishing a trilateral framework between the United States, Iraq and Turkey to address this issue," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said after Bush met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"We have already identified some steps that can be taken and that the Iraqis are going to take," he told reporters.

Several thousand members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, are believed to be hiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, from where they slip across the border to attack Turkish police, troops and other targets.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060725/wl_nm/turkey_usa_dc

[uppityperson]

1. boom

I really hate this war

[BillZBubb]

2. Goober's gonna mess that up too.

The Kurds are our one quasi ally in Iraq. Just wait 'til Busholini starts killing a few of them to make the Turks happy.

[ButterflyBlood]

3. The Kuridsh factions in the Iraqi goverment are not friendly with the PKK

Although this does underscore the fact of how screwed up of a nation Iraq has been since it's foundation, and how any intereference with the status quo was going to cause all hell to break loose. Prior to the invasion the Kurds have their own fairly stable de facto state and Turkey was able to keep the PKK under control. Now it's just turning into one giant mess.

[WCGreen]

4. Oh no.....

It was bound to happen....

The Kurds got in the way.....

[Warren Stupidity]

5. cross-border attacks by Kurdish rebels ?

I thought that made one a terrorist worthy of 'rooting out' and that all civilians in the area became legitimate targets.

What are they thinking? Now they want to fuck over the Kurds too?

[BillZBubb]

6. Turkey wants to go "Israeli" on the Kurds.

The Chimperor will have a hard time explaining why they can't.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Why don't we just kill everyone in the region and get it over with?

I wake up every morning drenched in blood from my governments actions the previous day. I'm sick of this.

[adriennui]

9. this isn't about israel

although you do seem obsessed (as i've noticed from your other posts). you are being funny,no?

[Warren Stupidity]

12. It is about the commonality.

And no it is not funny. Why are Kurdish militias 'rebels' while Hezbollah militias are 'terrorists'? What are soldiers captured in battle kidnapped? We are being brainwashed 24/7.

[adriennui]

13. your name is very appropriate

eom

[Vidar]

8. George is indeed a wothy successor to Saddam,

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Isn't it about time for Turkey to attack northern Iraq

and do a massive bombing campaign against Kurdish civilian targets that "might" be harboring anti Turkish terrorists? It's the only sensible way to respond to cross border incursions.

[Ghost Dog]

11. Ah, "Tensions mount at Iraq-Turkey border"

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/OpEd/072506_oxford.html
Tensions mount at Iraq-Turkey border
Oxford Analytica

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul last week summoned the U.S. and Iraqi ambassadors to warn them that his country would act in self-defense if effective measures were not taken to end the presence in northern Iraq of the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party.

The party was responsible for the killing of 14 Turkish soldiers and policemen the previous weekend. The basically cautious government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), is making what may prove to be its last attempt to make the U.S. administration live up to its declaration that it opposes the PKK, as it does any other terrorist organization.

The support given by the U.S. administration for Israel’s massive assault on Lebanon — and the understanding shown by the rest of the G-8 — has compounded Erdogan’s difficulty in containing domestic pressure to disregard U.S. and European Union warnings against a cross-border operation to root out PKK bases in northern Iraq.

Accused of indecision by the opposition and pressed by his own supporters, Erdogan has to respond to the demand for national self-assertion, in spite of the misgivings expressed privately by some of his ministers.

/more...

See also:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13990129/site/newsweek/
The Next Front
Pressure is building on Ankara to deal more harshly with cross-border terrorist attacks from Iraq.
Newsweek International

July 31, 2006 issue - Israel launched airstrikes on Lebanon in response to attacks by Hizbullah earlier this month, and George W. Bush called it "self-defense." But what to tell the Turks, who over the last week lost 15 sol-diers to terror attacks launched by sepa-ratist Kurds from neighboring Iraq? Many Turkish leaders are pressing for cross-border tactical air assaults on the guerrillas. But Bush, fearing yet another escalation of the Middle East's violence, urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold off. "The message was, unilateral action isn't going to be helpful," says a senior U.S. official, describing the 15-minute phone conversation. "The president asked for patience."

/more...