U.S. considering Ankara’s request to base Predators in Turkey to fight a Kurdish group in northern I

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

U.S. considering Ankara’s request to base Predators in Turkey to fight a Kurdish group in northern Iraq
By Craig Whitlock, Saturday, September 10, 7:20 PM

The Obama administration is considering a request from Turkey to base a fleet of Predator drones on Turkish soil for counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq, a decision that could strengthen a diplomatic alliance but drag the United States deeper into a regional conflict.

The U.S. military has flown the unarmed Predators from Iraqi bases since 2007 and shared the planes’ surveillance video with Turkey as part of a secretive joint crackdown against fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Unless a new home for the Predators is found, however, the counterterrorism partnership could cease by Dec. 31, when all U.S. forces are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq.

The Obama administration has not yet made a decision on the Turkish request, according to senior U.S. military officials.

Previously undisclosed diplomatic cables show Turkey has become highly dependent on the Predators, U-2 spy aircraft and other U.S. intelligence sources in its conflict with the PKK. The Kurdish group, which is fighting to create an autonomous enclave in Turkey, has launched cross-border attacks from its hideouts in northern Iraq for years. Turkey has responded with airstrikes and artillery attacks but has also sent ground troops into Iraq, further destabilizing an already volatile area.




Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-considering-ankaras-request-to-base-predators-in-turkey-to-fight-a-kurdish-group-in-northern-iraq/2011/09/09/gIQA5R1fIK_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security

[Autumn]

1. How interesting

I will be watching this like a fucking hawk watching a rabbit. K/R

[jwirr]

2. Are these the same Kurds that the former Iraqi leader gassed? And

now we are going to help kill those who are left?

[jerseyjack]

3. Yeah, but we like the Turks.

[jwirr]

4. I know but I was just pointing out the irony of the whole thing. nt

[No Elephants]

12. And the DLC has been pushing for the US to expand NATO.

[wordpix]

5. fighters for political rights for Kurds in Turkey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers'_Party

Kurdistan Workers' Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


snip

Motives Cultural and political rights for the Kurdish population in Turkey.<4>
Active region(s) Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria
Ideology Socialism
Left-wing nationalism
Kurdish nationalism
Status Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department<5><6>
Designated as Proscribed Group by the UK Home Office
Designated as terrorist group by EU Common Foreign and Security Policy.<7>
Size 7,000-8,000 active fighters (claimed)<8>
Annual revenue
500 million Euros<9>
donations (50-60m)<9>
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan or پارتی کار که‌رانی کوردستان Parti Karkerani Kurdistan), commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or Kongra-Gel,<6> is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Turkey.<1> The group was founded on 27 November 1978 and was led by Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Kurdish nationalism - although since his imprisonment, Ocalan has abandoned orthodox Marxism.<10>

[14thColony]

9. No, they are not

The PKK (a.k.a Konga-Gel) is made up of predominately Turkish Kurds, and it started as a wholly Turkish Kurd movement/insurrection/whatever it is. Since the 1980s it's attracted a sizable number of Syrian Kurds and even some Iranian Kurds. But the Iraqi Kurds have historically wanted nothing to do with PKK, and the two main Iraqi Kurd groups (PDK and KUP) have from time to time have fought the PKK, while (not mentioned much) allied with Saddam Hussein to do so (he wasn't always gassing them, just when it was convenient to make a point).

The Iraqi Kurds view PKK as a pain in the ass and wish they'd just go away, as in leave Iraq if not just cease to exist. PKK operates from large bases in northern Iraq to attack across the border into southeastern (Kurdish) Turkey, often complicating life and politics for the Iraqi Kurds who are busy trying to get their Kurdish Regional Authority in Iraq up and running.

The Iraqi Kurds will no doubt make strong statements about Kurdish solidarity and Turkish aggression, but secretly many will wish the Turks luck.

Not that it'll matter. Turkey has launched many raids and a few full-on invasions of PKK-land with 10s of thousands of troops, tanks, artillery, airstrikes, and yet the PKK is still there and still fighting. A few Predators will be not much more than an annoyance for the PKK, and as the PKK have plenty of anti-aircraft weapons, they can annoy back.

[jwirr]

10. Thank you.

[No Elephants]

13. secretly many will wish the Turks luck" I always wonder how posters know anyone's secret wishes.

I'm not always 100% sure what my own secret wishes are. ,

[14thColony]

17. Sorry, then allow me to amend...

"I would infer, based on my past dealings with Iraqi Kurds and several years of experience with senior Turkish military officers who have had dealings with the KDP and PUK, that secretly many (of the Iraqi Kurds) will wish the Turks luck."

[Angry Dragon]

6. Do you like video games??

Do you like to bomb people on your screen??
Are you good at video games??

If you answered yes to these three questions then you might fit right in in the New Air Force.
Be a pilot and you can fly a Predator and feel like you are playing a video game.
The civilians are not really dead because you are 6000 miles away.
Play a video game and serve your country.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. This could prove interesting given Turkey's recent saber-rattling.

[Vidar]

8. In recent years, we always seem to take the side of any ruling elite

against any oppressed minority. More money & power in it, I guess.

[leftynyc]

19. Really?

Do Egypt and Libya ring any bells? I don't think we're doing anything to support the butcher in Syria either.

[bahrbearian]

11. We are Hessians

[Odin2005]

14. Good lord, why is it the poor Kurds that always get screwed?

[Harmony Blue]

15. PKK (Turkish Kurds) committ terror attacks against civilians in Turkey

they should be not be confused with the Syrian, Iranian, or Iraqi Kurds. The Iraqi Kurds have set up a stable society to the North of Iraq, and want nothing to do with the Turkish Kurds.

[Odin2005]

16. One man's terrorist is another man's rebel.

The Turks have been trying to destroy the Kurds' culture since Ataturk. When you do that you should not be surprised with the result.

[jakeXT]

18. So helping PJAK has nothng to do with it ?

Relation to United States government and military structures

Wikinews has related news: Kucinich asks Bush about alleged US support for armed insurgency in Iran
On April 18, 2006, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to US president George W. Bush in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government.<42>

In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh writing in The New Yorker, supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israelis are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to cause destruction in Iran.<43>

This is denied officially by both the US and PJAK. In an interview with Slate magazine in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.<44>

In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily<45> but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington.<15> One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK).<46>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93PJAK_conflict#Relation_to_United_States_government_and_military_structures