Turkey Plans Possible Iraq Incursion

[tommcintyre]

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/11/2bb403de-caaf-47c6-a937-ead2d22d8565.html

Turkish newspapers this week are reporting that the Turkish government has formulated a contingency plan that would place at least 20,000 Turkish troops inside northern Iraq in an effort to prevent Kurdish leaders from changing the demographic structure of the highly contested city of Kirkuk.

The plan ostensibly calls for the reentry of Turkish forces into northern Iraq to rout out Turkish-Kurdish militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and also calls for Turkish troops to prevent further Iraqi Kurdish migration to Kirkuk. The city has a large Turkoman (ethnic Turkish) population, and vast oil reserves.

Media reports in recent months indicate that large numbers of Kurds are migrating to the city. Kurds say that they were displaced under the Hussein regime and are returning to their rightful homes; Turkey claims that Iraqi Kurdish leaders Mas'ud Barzani and Jalal Talabani want to ensure a Kurdish majority in the city under the next census in order to claim it as rightfully theirs, and possibly seek its inclusion in a federal Kurdistan.

Barzani heightened Turkish concern over Kirkuk in recent weeks through a number of inflammatory statements that made clear that Iraqi Kurds seek the return of Kirkuk to Kurdistan (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 22 October 2004). He told reporters in the Turkish capital on 12 October that Kirkuk has a Kurdish "identity," and vowed to fight any force that attempts to intercede in the issue (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 15 October 2004).

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[Demit]

1. oh, brother. here we go... thanks, george w. bush, you asshole.

[tommcintyre]

9. It was only a matter of time. :(

[DELUSIONAL]

2. This is the story of bushie's life -- make a mess and then

someone else comes along to clean up after him.

He is a no good sob failure.

And now his failure means thousands of people die.

"Have I mentioned lately how much I HATE THESE PEOPLE"

quote from M.M. nightly on AAR

[tommcintyre]

12. 100,000 dead in Iraq and counting

[RaulGroom]

3. Who could possibly have predicted an outcome like this?

U.S. invasion of Iraq sparking a clash between the Kurdish north and the anti-Kurd Turkish government? An entrenched Sunni insurgency? Radical islamists dominating Shi'a politics and threatening to turn Iraq into a second Iran? I mean, how could anyone have possibly foreseen this?

[PurityOfEssence]

7. careful; sarcasm stains are some of the hardest to remove...

Yep, it's amazing, isn't it? Seemingly everyone who knows anything about history and who isn't co-opted by reactionary affiliation saw all of these things coming and spoke out against them. Yet, somehow it will be spun by these idiots that "nobody saw this coming" and "everybody got it wrong".

Mercifully, there's an internet and people will be hung by their words. Of course, if that pronouncement meant anything, you'd never see Ken Adelman show his face in public after his pre-war pronouncements.

[wildflower]

4. Anyone know what Kerry plans to do for the Kurds? n/t

[saigon68]

5. This is the beginning of something very very bad.

The Turks are no one to mess with.

[Straight Shooter]

6. Another example of the handwriting on the wall, ignored by bush

How many more will have to die for the mistake known as Dubya???

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Hey.... he's my heeeeeeeeeroe...... and furthermore.... imagine if Turkey

had taken the billions we offered them to let us play through.... why.. they could be using that money to undermine our efforts in Iraq right now... would we then be guilty of funding the other side AGAIN?

[karlrschneider]

10. Could be an untidy situation.

:eyes:

[NNN0LHI]

11. Something don't seem quite right here?

Turkey has had troops in northern Iraq since before Bush invaded. When did those troops leave?

Don

[barb162]

13. I know Turkey has this hard-on against the Kurds but I never really

understood what the hell the problem was/is. If the Kurds lived there before, what the hell does Turkey care. The Kurds aren't bombing Istanbul or something. Does anypone know what the hell Turkey's problem is. I feel sorry for the Kurds, if Saddam wasn't gassing them, somebody else is

[Starlight]

14. Kurds want to take part of southern Turkey to form their own country. n/t