Iraq Agrees To Fight Kurdish Rebels

In a story being reported, Iraq promised Saturday to work with its neighbors and the U.S. to combat Kurdish guerrillas who have attacked Turkey from hide-outs in the north. The border crisis overshadowed Iraq's other problems at an international conference on the country's future. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acted as a buffer and go-between for Turkey, an important NATO ally, and the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad. She sought to stave off what the Bush administration fears could become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, now in its fifth year.
This could bode well for Iraq and Turkey, as cross border fighting is one thing that this area does not need at this time. Turkey has legitimate concerns, as do the Kurds, who are still fighting for recognition for the "genocide" that was perpetrated against them so many years ago. As we have mentioned before, this is something that needs to be addressed, but this is too delicate a time to do it right now. It is a "fact" of history that Turkey refuses to acknowledge, and therefore, we need to find a way for them to acknowledge the "fact" and find a way for Kurds to have some autonomy in the near future, perhaps within the next ten years. This should all be negotiated, "behind" the scenes, so more public animosity doesn't lead to the feared Turkish invasion of Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, who continually attack across the border, and then take sanctuary in Iraq!

This has been going on for quite while as this post from June indicates:
Thursday, June 07, 2007

Turkey Chases Rebels In Iraq
There were reports yesterday that hundreds of Turkish troops had crossed into norther Iraq at the border across from the Turkish city of Cukurca on Wednesday morning.

The Turkish foreign minister denies that any incursion took place though one of the Turkish security officials said it was a "hot pursuit" raid after Kurdish rebels of the PKK Kurdistan Worker's Party, had opened fire from Iraqi soil on Turkish patrols.

The Turkish goverment has threatened a massive incursion if the rebels continue to attack Turkish troops and civilians and then flee back into Iraq for safe haven. The Turkish officials say they are fighting a war on terrorism just as the United States is and they must protect their citizens.
Reaction from our Miltary was that they did not see any indications that this incursion occurred, but they would not be more specific, because of the sensitivity of the information.

United States officials in the region have confirmed that if there was an incursion it would be as a continuation of Turkey's years-long campaign against the Kurdish PKK guerrillas of Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The Turkish invasion scenario is one of those worst case ones that the United States is trying to avoid. The Turkish government opposes any formation of a separate Kurdistan, as the Kurds that reside in southern Turkey would want to join and it is why the rebels fight to try and get their own homeland back.
This is a difficult question, but Turkey has long been a good ally and we need to stand with them for now. However, at some point , there should be a diplomatic settlement to the Kurdish question, but only after they lay down their arms and stop killing civilians.

Please read the story of the Turkish incursion and I also have a link to an excellent article about Turkey, the Kurds and their long struggle to have an independent Kurdistan.
Thanks!

turkeys history with the kurds

kurds




Anyway, it seems that for the moment the Turkey "invasion" will be on hold, though there were no promises made by Turkey, perhaps they will give this latest strategy a little time to succeed!


fight

Musharraf Declares State Of Emergency

In a story being reported this morning, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant violence.

Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, were cut.

As with all states of emergency declarations there will probably be some civil rights suspensions, and other security measures, to allow the President to take care of the emergency caused by the rebels.

Good luck to President Musharraf, in bringing these rebels to heel. Obviously, he is not the most democratic of characters, but in this war on terrorism, we kind of have to take what we can get, and currently this is all that we can get, in fighting the Taliban, and al-Qaeda in northern Pakistan!

The only other hope that in our collaboration with Musharraf, we do not get into a position of him being in control of us, as we did with Hussein in Iraq, when he was fighting the Iranians with our "assistance", which then gave him the confidence that we were behind him, when he invaded Kuwait, and set up his ultimate downfall, and our current forever war in Iraq!May we have better luck in Pakistan!



emergency

Turkish Troops Ambushed

In a news story being reported today, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy on Sunday less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers in the face of growing threats by Turkey to cross the rugged frontier and root out the guerrillas. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq. Turkey dismissed his call, saying the time had come for action.

As we all know there has been an approval of force in Iraq, by the Turkish parliment, so a crossing is expected, but the violent reaction to it, so quickly may have caught everyone off guard. Nothing good can come of this incursion and subsequent killing of the Turkish troops, and are mission in Iraq has just gotten so much more complicated. This would be a good time to slink away and let them have at it, without our troops in the middle of one more group against group butchery.

As should be expected Turkey expects the United States to act against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq but will take its own measures if it sees no results in the fight, the prime minister said on Saturday. What is wrong with our goverment? Do they not believe that Turkey will indeed invade, if there are no substantive results, and soon. If we had Canadians attacking across our northern border, we would have already moved to stop the attacks. I would have used the southern border, but we are already being attacked from there, but our President is on their side, so there will be no action taken there.

Back to Iraq and Turkey, it is very clear that we must find a resolution that both sides can agree too, or face a full scale attack that will take one of the most peaceful areas of Iraq and turn it into another center of killings and reprisal killings.

It was reiterated friday and saturday that Turkish officials expect us to do something to stop the rebels. In an interview with the private Kanal 24 TV channel late Friday,Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "We have expectations mainly from the U.S. more than Iraq. We want the coalition forces - mainly the U.S.-to take a step here,our demands from them are known and we will see what happens in time, we will put into action our own road map if we do not get the results we want." Erdogan is supposed to meet with White House officials, including President Bush on November 5th, so perhaps the full scale assaults will wait until after those meetings.


Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, operate from bases in the mountains of northern Iraq and periodically cross the border to stage attacks in their war for autonomy for Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict that began in 1984.

This attack by the rebels against Turkish troops and possible hostage taking is quickly going to get out of control if calmer heads on both sides of the border do not prevail!! The precarious position that we are in, is just one more area of "mission accomlished" that no one in Washington planned for, and that is the worst part of this whole Iraq mess. They thought it was going to be a "cake walk" and it has instead turned into a "food fight"!!






rebel attack

Turkey Chases Rebels In Iraq

There were reports yesterday that hundreds of Turkish troops had crossed into norther Iraq at the border across from the Turkish city of Cukurca on Wednesday morning.
The Turkish foreign minister denies that any incursion took place though one of the Turkish security officials said it was a "hot pursuit" raid after Kurdish rebels of the PKK Kurdistan Worker's Party, had opened fire from Iraqi soil on Turkish patrols.
The Turkish goverment has threatened a massive incursion if the rebels continue to attack Turkish troops and civilians and then flee back into Iraq for safe haven. The Turkish officials say they are fighting a war on terrorism just as the United States is and they must protect their citizens.
Reaction from our Miltary was that they did not see any indications that this incursion occurred, but they would not be more specific, because of the sensitivity of the information.
United States officials in the region have confirmed that if there was an incursion it would be as a continuation of Turkey's years-long campaign against the Kurdish PKK guerrillas of Kurdistan Workers' Party.
The Turkish invasion scenario is one of those worst case ones that the United States is trying to avoid. The Turkish government opposes any formation of a separate Kurdistan, as the Kurds that reside in southern Turkey would want to join and it is why the rebels fight to try and get their own homeland back.
This is a difficult question, but Turkey has long been a good ally and we need to stand with them for now. However, at some point , there should be a diplomatic settlement to the Kurdish question, but only after they lay down their arms and stop killing civilians.
Please read the story of the Turkish incursion and I also have a link to an excellent article about Turkey, the Kurds and their long struggle to have an independent Kurdistan.
Thanks!
Turkey

Kurds