turkish military build-up on the iraq border - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

roachboy · 05-31-2007, 02:49 PM

meanwhile....

Quote:

Turkey moves forces to Iraq border

Simon Tisdall
Thursday May 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A Turkish military build-up on the northern Iraq border is fuelling fears of a confrontation between Ankara and Kurdistan's semi-independent government that could further destabilise the region as US forces begin to pull back.

Turkey's armed forces chief said today the army was prepared at any time to start cross-border action to halt attacks inside Turkey by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' party, which has bases in Iraq.

"As soldiers, we are ready," General Yasar Buyukanit said.

But the general said Turkey's parliament must first agree the aims of any intervention. "The political authorities need to decide this. We can't know whether we will go there and fight only the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' party] or deal with [Iraqi Kurdish president Massoud] Barzani as well."

The Turkish army has deployed additional tanks and troops to the border area this week for "spring manoeuvres". But the military moves, although apparently limited so far, have been accompanied by a rising crescendo of public and political demands for action to curb PKK attacks. The government of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is under pressure, following a suicide bombing, blamed on the PKK, which killed six people in an Ankara shopping mall last week. Officials said the bombing marked an escalation in the separatists' campaign. Mr Erdogan's comment, after the Ankara blast, that he saw "eye to eye" with the army over future military action has raised expectations that an operation is imminent.

Mr Barzani, head of the Kurdistan regional government (KRG), which enjoys considerable autonomy from the Shia Arab-led Baghdad government, has warned that any Turkish intervention could meet with resistance, both in northern Iraq and in south-east Turkey.

Mr Barzani's fighting talk has been condemned by US officials who are urging Ankara to hold fire, too. They worry that the region could be destabilised if the two sides collide.

But Turkey's inclination to take matters into its own hands may have been strengthened by this week's formal handover of the three northern Kurdish provinces of Iraq - Arbil, Dahuk, and Sulaymaniyah - to KRG security forces. Only a few US forces will now remain in the northern region.

Speaking on Turkey's Kanal D television channel this week, the US ambassador, Ross Wilson, said Washington was pursuing "a number of avenues" with Ankara to curb PKK attacks. "I am hopeful that they will produce results," he said. In the interview he had to explain why two US F-16 fighter jets had crossed the Iraq border and violated Turkish airspace this month. Turkey issued an official protest after the incident, which Mr Wilson termed accidental. But Turkish media suggested Washington was sending a none-too-subtle message to its Nato ally to keep out of Iraq.

Turkish officials say their government's patience is exhausted with the -rising level of PKK attacks and US prevarication. "The military build-up has been going on for the past month," a Turkish diplomat said. "We are trying to get Iraq, the US, and the Kurdish regional government to act more responsibly. But unfortunately so far we have not had enough cooperation. We are trying to act with restraint. But public opinion is really boiling after the suicide bombing last week."

The diplomat said Mr Barzani's "irredentist rhetoric", appearing to assert a political and territorial claim to ethnic Kurdish areas of south-east Turkey, was exacerbating the situation. Media allegations that Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq were aiding the PKK and, like US forces, turning a "blind eye" to its activities, were widely believed, he said.

"We know for sure that most of the explosives used by the PKK come from northern Iraqi territory," he added. "The US could help us a lot more. They could have captured leading figures in the PKK but instead they have given them safe haven. This is very harmful to public opinion and Turkey's relationship with the US."

Kurds in north Iraq and south-east Turkey say Ankara is to blame for a conflict that has claimed an estimated 37,000 lives since 1984. They point to systemic civil and human rights abuses and institutionalised discrimination against Turkey's ethnic Kurd minority. Despite reforms designed to ease Turkey's entry into the EU, many grievances remain unaddressed.

Several internal factors are stoking the pressure on Mr Erdogan, who may see limited military action as a way of distracting attention from home: these include the general election in July, an impasse over the next president, controversial constitutional reforms, and intense debate on preserving Turkey's secular character. The last big cross-border operation was 10 years ago, in Saddam Hussein's regime, when 40,000 Turkish troops entered Iraq. But some Turkish observers that action was not a success and predict that any new incursion would also be of limited utility

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2092655,00.html

here's a somewhat more in depth piece:

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=730

and another:

http://www.democraticunderground.com..._conflict.html

i am not sure what to make of this yet.
clearly those of us who try to follow the debacle wrought by this administration in iraq are not being told much of anything about what is actually happening. turkish action against the kurds has been understood as a possibility from the outset...and the turks are of course using pretty much the same kind of discourse as the americans have been using to ramp themselves up for an action, so it's obviously difficult for the bush people to say much at the level of principle...

but this cannot be good.
what do you make of it?

host · 05-31-2007, 10:01 PM

A co-worker and friend of several years is a Turkish immigrant. He has been sure, as long as I've know him....that the Turkish army will invade northern Iraq if the area becomes too autonomous for Turkey's liking. Turkey will never allow an independent Kurdish state to exist in northern Iraq. Turkey still has claims in that area of Iraq that extend to Kirkuk.

I asked my friend yesterday, as he was describing the news of the current buildup of Turkish forces along the northern Iraqi border, if tensions along that border were lower before the '91 Gulf war, when Saddam's government was in control of northern Iraq. He answered that he believed that Iraq had little concern about a Kurdish threat when Saddam was firmly in control.

I believe that US planners of an invasion and occupation or Iraq knew in 2002 that Turkey would never accept an autonomous Kurdish state in nothern Iraq. Since 1984, more than 30,000 have died in the confrontation between Kurds who fight for their own territory and Turkish governments that insist that the Kurds assimilate themselves into Turkish society, just as any other Turkish resident would. The problem is that Kurds demand an independent state that not only encompasses northern Iraq, but also a large portion of southern Turkey where Kurds are the dominant ethnic group.

Kurdish resistance leaders have recently made peace offerings in the hope of ending violence and imprisonment of Kurdish resistance leaders inside Turkey, and Turkish leaders have largely ignored their efforts.

Turkey also has a problem with an ongoing struggle for political power between Islamist and secularlists, with the military continually vowing to make good on it's continuous threats to dissolve any Islamic civil government that it perceives as a threat to Turkey's secular constitution.

There is an outside potential that US troops could find themselves defending Iraq's northern border against fellow NATO alliance troops from Turkey. All it would take is an violent incident inside Turkey that is perceived as being caused by Kurds who are believed to have fled back into the safety of Kurdish northern Iraq, after participating in the incident....

05-31-2007, 10:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
host Banned	A co-worker and friend of several years is a Turkish immigrant. He has been sure, as long as I've know him....that the Turkish army will invade northern Iraq if the area becomes too autonomous for Turkey's liking. Turkey will never allow an independent Kurdish state to exist in northern Iraq. Turkey still has claims in that area of Iraq that extend to Kirkuk. I asked my friend yesterday, as he was describing the news of the current buildup of Turkish forces along the northern Iraqi border, if tensions along that border were lower before the '91 Gulf war, when Saddam's government was in control of northern Iraq. He answered that he believed that Iraq had little concern about a Kurdish threat when Saddam was firmly in control. I believe that US planners of an invasion and occupation or Iraq knew in 2002 that Turkey would never accept an autonomous Kurdish state in nothern Iraq. Since 1984, more than 30,000 have died in the confrontation between Kurds who fight for their own territory and Turkish governments that insist that the Kurds assimilate themselves into Turkish society, just as any other Turkish resident would. The problem is that Kurds demand an independent state that not only encompasses northern Iraq, but also a large portion of southern Turkey where Kurds are the dominant ethnic group. Kurdish resistance leaders have recently made peace offerings in the hope of ending violence and imprisonment of Kurdish resistance leaders inside Turkey, and Turkish leaders have largely ignored their efforts. Turkey also has a problem with an ongoing struggle for political power between Islamist and secularlists, with the military continually vowing to make good on it's continuous threats to dissolve any Islamic civil government that it perceives as a threat to Turkey's secular constitution. There is an outside potential that US troops could find themselves defending Iraq's northern border against fellow NATO alliance troops from Turkey. All it would take is an violent incident inside Turkey that is perceived as being caused by Kurds who are believed to have fled back into the safety of Kurdish northern Iraq, after participating in the incident....