Turkish general: Ready for PKK strike

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's top general said Thursday the military was ready to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq and that he already had sought government approval to mount military action.

Earlier Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has pledged his support for any military decision to stage an incursion into Iraq, said the army had not yet asked parliament for permission.

But Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said he had asked for approval during a news conference on April 12, when he said "an operation into Iraq is necessary."

"We have told both Turkey and the world on April 12 that as soldiers, we are ready," Buyukanit said Thursday

Buyukanit's remarks appeared to put Erdogan's government under pressure to seek approval from parliament to send soldiers into Iraq to fight separatist Kurdish guerrillas. The rebels have long used northern Iraq as a base in their campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_northern_iraq;_

[Nickster]

1. Oh Lord, here it comes. I've been worried about this happening for awhile. What the heck could we

even do about this? I don't see us fighting a NATO partner but I can't see us abandoning the Kurds either. What a nightmare.

[DixieBlue]

6. Do what this administration does best ...

Put our fingers in our ears, sing "La, La, La", and dance a one-legged jig until it's all said and done.

In all seriousness I have no idea what we can do. I hope this is just blustering. I think attacking the Kurds would hurt Turkey's attempt to join the EU -- although that does seem to be going a whole lot of nowhere currently.

If they do attack the Kurds I don't see how we DON'T get caught up in it. We're there to attempt to bring stability to Iraq, right? An attack by Turkey would make the fairly stable north a mess.

It's ugly all around.

[bemildred]

2. Oh my goodness, and the Kurds just took over responsibility for their own defense.

I'm sure this is all just a coincidence.

[Nihil]

7. How convenient that was!

Means that there are few/no US troops in the area to notice (much less
be affected) by Turkish action so there will be no need to hurry the
"diplomatic protests" until Turkey has quite finished whatever it wants
to do.

Just think: if they'd tried that a year ago they'd have been fighting
the "peacekeepers" whereas now they will just be killing civilians ...

[bemildred]

8. I'm wondering if they cut a deal somehow.

There is this going on too today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x15445

[youngdem]

16. Yep, as soon as the Turkish troops were amassed on the border, our chickenshit

military leadership quickly ran up there, created a little ceremony and handed off the Turkish bombing range - ehem, I mean the Kurdish region - to the Kurds to manage themselves.

Trying to spin it as a positive step, instead of what it is, our cowardly military leadership running from a fight that is ours because we created the atmosphere for it and we are charged with defending Iraq since we neutered it by decommissioning their military.

COWARDS.

[DFW]

3. Turley has a Kurdish population of over 20 million

And they have been repressing them for decades.

Their worst nightmare was a quasi-independent Iraqi Kurdistan,
which they now have. They are terrified that the relative
autonomy of the Iraqi Kurds will make the Turkish Kurds want
more autonomy of their own (probably true enough), and fear that
there will be some immense armed uprising because of that (no
evidence I know of), and will use that as an excuse to invade
Iraqi Kurdish territory to look for potential support of the
Turkish PKK and suppress it brutally, hoping we will just stand
there and let them do it, being NATO allies and all.

This is definitely one more no-win situation brought on by our
invasion of Iraq.

[ohio2007]

5. Kurds reside in Iran,Iraq,Turkey, Syria and I suppose in Kurdistan.

Turkey may have problems from a few countries with Kurdish populations.

[DFW]

9. The Kurds in Iraq scare them the most by far

The Kurds in Syria and Iran have little to no autonomy, which suits
the Turks fine. In addition, they are relatively small minorities
there. In Iraq, they are a signifigant minority, and in Turkey, they
constitute over 20% of the entire population of the country. Turkey
has a BIG problem on their hands that they could have solved decades
ago by granting their Kurds autonomy and the right to have their
language and culture be dominant where they live. They chose another path,
and refuse to this day to change. Obviously, if the Turks continue to
repress their Kurds, of course the Kurds will resist, and of course they
will look to their brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan for help. Iraqi Kurdistan
can hardly absorb 20+ million Turkish Kurds. The only foreseeable outcome
for this situation is trouble, and we lose by backing the Turks, we lose by
backing the Kurds, and we lose by backing off. This story will not have a
happy ending.

[ohio2007]

10. Kurds are getting uppity in Iran

But the Iranians are calling them ' militants' in their press releases. They have been skirmishing with them lately as pointed out in current events.

Syrian leader Assad was forced to release some uppity Kurds he held in prison late last year. If the UN finds Assad somewhat responsible for events in Lebanon two years ago, I suppose the Kurds will get uppity again and demand more rightsas Syrian citizens.....or else.....
No time to find the links as to why Syria could loose it by granting freedoms to the Kurds but the MSM stories were put out there

[Orrin_73]

12. Read my post below

contrary to popular belief there are no 20 million kurds in Turkey they also do not constitute 20% of the population, it more like 10% which is also a sizable community.

[Odin2005]

27. Sez the resident Turkey apologist.

:eyes:

[Orrin_73]

28. "Turkey apologist". LOL, is that the best you can come

up with. Ignorant!

[Orrin_73]

11. There are no 20 million kurds in Turkey

at most their number is some 6-7 million, 20 million is impossible. Supporters of pkk in Turkey are less then 500000. Vast majority of kurds in Turkey do not support the pkk at all.

[roamer65]

19. Turkey fears a Kurdistan with sizable oil revenues.

Turkey is going to invade very shortly, IMHO.

[ohio2007]

4. Did Parliment give the OK to send troops into Iraq?

Or, since the military is actually running the country,does it really matter?

[Orrin_73]

13. Thank god for the military in Turkey

otherwise with all the corrupt politicians in Turkey, Turkey will end up like lebanon during the civil war or iraq now.

[roamer65]

20. Both the Chief of Staff and PM Erdogan now concur on an invasion.

Looks like the Chief of Staff is just asking for the formal permission of Parliament now. It's now just in the "details".

[Massachusetts]

14. Woo Hoo!

"Even as we speak, in Iraq's north, Turkish military forces and now 20 tanks are massing on the Iraqi border, apparently poised for "hot pursuit" of Kurdish guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), who have safe harbor in Iraqi Kurdistan but go over to Turkey and blow things up. There is some danger that the US will be in the middle of all this, though it is allied with both the Kurds and the Turks. Last week US fighter jets based in Iraq made an unauthorized incursion into Turkish air space that the Turks are protesting."

-Juan Cole (today) http://www.juancole.com/

[athebea]

22. I frankly doubt that this ...

... would go well for the Turks.

The Kurds are well financed and battle hardened. The terrain favors them.

[roamer65]

23. I fear for the Kurds.

1. Turkey has a full complement of conventional NATO weaponry.
2. Turkey has a 1 million plus conscript army, plus the ability to call more reserves.

Very quickly Iraqi Kurdistan will become Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. The occupation is where it will get ugly. Where will the refugees go? They can't really go south. They'll have no choice but Syria or Iran.

A good movie to see is "Kurtlar Vadisi Irak". That movie shows the utter comtempt Turks have for the Kurds.

[athebea]

25. The advantages of mechanization ....

... are negated in mountainous terrain, as the Israelis discovered in Lebanon.

The Turkish Army is not exactly SOTA equipment wise but I'll bet the Kurds have a nifty assortment of anti tank weaponry.

[TexasLawyer]

15. K&R

big news. With the Iraq war now spilling over into Pakistan, Iran and now Turkey, it's looking more and more like the start of WWIII.

[roamer65]

21. I agree. Starting much the way WW 1 did in August, 1914.

Tit for tat, ramping up slowly into full blown war.

[roamer65]

17. Here comes that regional ME war that Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke about.

[alfredo]

18. I remember the last time Turkey had a problem with an ethnic

minority. It turned into the first genocide of the twentieth century.

[bemildred]

24. EU: Military strike would be damaging to Turkey

As Turkey's military build-up on the Iraqi border continues, the EU has warned Ankara that a possible military incursion into northern Iraq would be "very, very bad."

Brussels, which had previously told Ankara -- occasionally in rather undiplomatic ways -- to stay clear of Iraq, is becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect of a military operation with the potential of deepening the already damaging political crisis in Ankara.

Speaking to Today's Zaman on condition of anonymity, EU sources said the results of a military operation could be damaging to Turkey, without elaborating on the possible effects on Turkey's EU aspirations. While stressing that there have been no special meetings or briefings in the EU on the possibility of a military intervention, diplomats, though not very loudly, argue that this sort of act could be disastrous for Turkey for several reasons.

The first reason, according to them, is the uselessness of such an action as it would not root out the problem. Pointing to previous military incursions into northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that bore no fruit, they argue that the reaction the operation could spark would not be worth the possible results.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=112856

[roamer65]

26. Sarkozy's done the damage from the EU side.

Telling everyone he would kill EU membership for Turkey has neutered it as a bargaining chip. Turkey interpreted his election in France as a "screw you".