US angry at Turkish bombing of PKK Kurds in Iraq

Recently relations between the U.S. and Turkey seemed greatly improved as Turkey joined the battle against the Islamic State and allowed U.S. planes to use a Turkish air base to launch operations against the Islamic State.

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However, at the same time as Turkey joined the battle against the Islamic State, it also began attacks against the Kurdish Kurdistan Workers' Party(PKK) group in northern Iraq and within Turkey. A ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey is shattered and Turkey now faces attacks within Turkey from both the PKK and the Islamic State as well as other radical groups.Turkey has been in conflict with the PKK since the early 1980s but is also attacking a different Kurdish group in northern Syria, the YPG.

A Turkish pro-Kurd party did very well in recent Turkish elections and President Recep Erdogan's party lost its majority. Erdogan is now using the internal attacks and the battle against IS and the PKK as a means of building up support. Polls show the strategy to be working as he is building up enough support to again win a majority government should he call a snap election. So far he has been unable to form a coalition government. However, Erdogan risks plunging Turkey into a period of increasing unrest and violence as well as creating tension with allies such as the United States.

U.S. military leaders are very worried about the Turkish military strikes against Iraqi Kurdistan. There are U.S. forces in the area who are training Kurdish Peshmerga. The bombing can only strain relations between the U.S. and the Kurds who are key allies in the U.S. battle against the Islamic State. The U.S. refuses to tell Turkey exactly where its troops are in Kurdistan but has listed large areas the Turks should avoid bombing. However, Turkey has responded by giving the U.S. 10 minutes advanced notice when its planes are headed into the area, warning them to get out of the way. A Turkish strike on July 24th in Iraq caused concern in the Combined Air and Space Operation the allied headquarters in the war against the Islamic State as they had such short notice of what would happen.

Although there are growing international calls to return to the ceasefire with the PKK that lasted for two years, Erdogan has stepped up attacks with 17 different strikes the other day. PKK leaders recently expressed support for a return to the ceasefire. Erdogan however said Turkey will continue a relentless war until there is not one Kurdish terrorist left in the country. There is almost no chance of that happening. What Erdogan really hopes for is another majority government in the near future. He can continue his authoritarian and counter-productive crackdown on opposition forces as well as complicate relations with Turkish allies.

Turkey attacks the Islamic State but also Kurds in northern Iraq

Washington has long urged Turkey to intervene against the Islamic State in Syria. After a suicide bombing that killed 32 people in Turkey, Turkish planes have targeted IS locations in Syria for two consecutive days now.

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If the Turks had simply bombed IS positions the US would no doubt have been quite pleased but Turkish planes also targeted shelters and storage sites belonging to the Kurdistan Worker's Party in seven different locations in northern Iraq. While the US has yet to make a statement on the Iraq attacks the PKK has said that conditions for peace talks with the Turkish government are no longer in place. Turkey had embarked on peace talks with the PKK in 2012, and the PKK had declared a cease fire in 2013. The Kurds in northern Iraq including the PKK units have been instrumental in defending the area against the Islamic State and even retaking some territory. In attacking the PKK, Turkey is attacking an ally in the fight against the Islamic State as far as the US is concerned. Turkey is very concerned about Kurdish gains both in Iraq and in Syria. It worries that an independent Kurdistan might be formed in northern Syria and that the Kurdish area of Iraq also becomes independent. There would be pressure within Turkey to join these other Kurdish areas.

In recent elections in Turkey the Kurds gained considerable ground politically. While there is conflict between the PKK and less radical Kurdish groups, an attack on the PKK may actually help promote a unified position against President Erdogan. Turkish actions may result in many more attacks by the Islamic State and perhaps also attacks by the PKK within Turkey. While bombing Islamic State positions helps in the battle against IS, bombing the PKK in iraq does exactly the opposite.

Washington may have agreed not to object to Turkish bombing of the PKK in return for Turkey joining the war against the Islamic State. However, Turkey made another important concession to the US. For months, the Obama administration has been negotiating an agreement to use bombers and drones to operate from air bases at Incirlik and Diyarbakir. An administration official said that the deal was sealed by a phone call between Turkish president Recep Erdogan and US president Obama. No official announcement has yet been made but, John Kirby, a State Department spokesperson, said simply that the US and Turkey had "decided to further deepen our cooperation in the fight against ISIL". Fadi Hakura, a Turkey analyst in London said: "The use of the Turkish air base is extremely important. Before, the U.S. had to traverse 1,000 miles to target IS in Syria. Now it will be much less, so naturally the air campaign will be far more intense and far more effective."

Turkey is in the process of clamping down on IS suspects and PKK militants. Erdogan will use increased attacks in Turkey to impose even more draconian anti-terror measures. He may very well tar any significant opposition to his rule as related to terror threats as has been done In Egypt and elsewhere. President Assad of Syria has made no statement about the Turkish bombings inside Syria.

Militant Kurds taking control in Kurdish areas of northern Syria

Kurdish areas in Northern Syria seek to establish autonomy and to defend their own interests rather than joining the rebel cause. Kurds in the area are being provided weapons and training by the Peshmerga Kurdish militia in neighboring northern Iraq.

The Assad regime is pulling its armed forces out of Kurdish dominated areas in northern Iraq. Turkey is now not only facing a huge influx of refugees along its border with Syria but also the possibility of a virtually autonomous Kurdiish area contiguous with Kurdish areas of Turkey and also northern Iraq. This will give the Kurds hopes of eventually establishing an independent Kurdistan. Kurds inhabit parts of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey.
The move by Assad to cease operations against the Kurds will enable the outlawed PKK to use northern Syria as another base for operations into Turkey. The PKK already operates out of bases in northern Iraq. While some reports say that Assad's forces were driven out by Kurdish fighters others indicate that Assad decided to cede control to those areas so that he could concentrate his forces in attacks on Aleppo. The move also creates problems for Turkey. Turkey has been supporting the rebels, allowing rebels to train in some areas and also allowing the transfer of weapons to the rebels through its borders with U.S. aid and blessings it would seem. Othman Ali who heads a Turkish-Kurdish Studies Center inside Iraq writes:
“Turkey cannot afford to see the PKK roam freely in Syria and use it as a base from which to launch armed attacks on the country...The Syrian president had decided it was time to play the PKK card against Turkey once again as was its policy in the 1990s,”These developments may lead to Turkish military incursions into Syria. Indications are that Turkish troops are being moved towards the Syrian border.
Ilnoor Shafiq a Turkish analyst said that Turkey would not launch any large scale operation into Syria without international support. Shafiq claimed
:“If there are any incursions by Kurdish fighters across the border, Turkey might respond with by pursuing them, but we will not see any large scale operation taking place,”
Turkish prime minister Erdogan had warned about developments in Northern Syria saying:
“We will not let the terrorist group [PKK] … set up camps [in northern Syria] and pose a threat to us..No one should attempt to provoke us. We will not bow to provocation but rather take whatever steps are necessary against terrorism.”
Erdogan claimed that the rebel Syrian National Council (SNC) is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The group is headed by a Kurd. Erdogan continued:
“Any such state there [in northern Syria] could not be seen as the Kurdish people’s own state. It would rather be a state of the terrorist PKK and the PYD.”

Leaders of the Kurds in Northern Syria have a quite different view. A senior but anonymous figure in the Kurdish Syrian opposition said to the Jewish newspaper Haaretz:
"We cannot depend on the fact that the Syrian National Council will be willing or able to ensure Kurdish rights in Syria after the fall of Assad,...We will take care of ourselves just as the Kurds in Iraq took care of themselves when they decided to set up an autonomous region, which is independent of the Iraqi government."The Kurds are not united. Many support the rebels and the Syrian National Council.The head of the Council, a Kurd himself, has been attempting to convince Kurds to join with the opposition and support a multi-ethnic Syria rather than an autonomous or independent state. However militant Kurds in northern Syria obviously have quite different ideas and are pressing for autonomy and ultimately no doubt a greater Kurdistan encompassing areas in several countries.

Al Sadr demans end to Turkish incursion.

The Turkish incursion has the effect of creating some unity between groups that are often at loggerheads. Al Sadr is very much an Iraqi nationalist and does not look favorably on Kurdish separatism or regionalism. However, it is interesting that Al Sadr also blames the occupying authorities for the situation implying (no doubt correctly) that the U.S. has in effect allowed if not sanctioned the incursion. The U.S. should have acted long ago and the Turks simply lost patience as virtually nothing was done to stop the PKK in northern Iraq.

Muqtada al-Sadr's office demands end to Turkish military offensive in northern Iraq
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 24, 2008
BAGHDAD: Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office demanded on Sunday an immediate withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Iraq and advised negotiations instead.
"We demand that the Turkish government withdraw its forces immediately from the Iraqi territory and rely on negotiations to solve this conflict," al-Sadr's influential political committee said in a statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"We call upon the Muslim neighbor Turkey through its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and its Muslim people to be an element of peace and security in the region," the statement added.
The Sadrists also held the Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces responsible for the "deteriorating security situation on our northern borders."
"The government is called upon to move rapidly to guarantee the security of our Muslim Kurdish people according to its constitutional responsibilities," the statement said. Al-Sadr's political committee is composed of senior members of al-Sadr's movement.

Iraq Kurds warn Turkey over raids

This is from the bbc. Interesting that there is no warning to the US which at the very least opened up Iraqi airspace to the Turkish aircraft and probably provided intelligence as well. The Kurds are well aware of US double crosses so maybe they don't feel it is worth commenting upon!
I guess it was impossible to work out a compromise that was acceptable to Turks and Kurds. Certainly the US has been most reluctant until now to sanction Turkish attacks, hoping that the Kurds or Iraqi govt. would act.


Iraq Kurds warn Turkey over raids
The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq has warned Turkey to halt its strikes against rebel Kurdish positions in the border area.
Massoud Barzani said he "vehemently condemned" the bombardments, which he said had killed innocent people.

Turkish jets have carried out three strikes on Kurdish targets and one ground foray over the past eight days.

Turkey blames rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for launching attacks on Turkey from bases in Iraq.

Ankara approved cross-border raids on PKK bases in October, saying the Iraqi government and its US backers were not doing enough to halt attacks.

Formal complaint

"The bombing targeted safe and secure areas and innocent people," Mr Barzani told a news conference in the northern city of Suleimaniya.




"Several people were either killed or wounded. We held consultations with [Iraqi] President Jalal Talabani and we will continue our consultations with other concerned parties to put an end to these aggressions and put an end to the shelling of villages."

President Talabani - also a Kurd - was standing beside Mr Barzani as he delivered the condemnation.

He said his government had lodged a formal complaint with Turkey - but that he did not want to worsen tensions over the issue.

Turkey's ambassador to Iraq has been summoned to the foreign ministry to hear a formal complaint, reports the BBC's Humphrey Hawkesley in Baghdad.

Up to 10 people are reported to have been killed in the strikes - it is not known whether they are rebels or civilians.

As many as 2,000 people have fled the areas under attack.

US support

In a telephone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, US President George W Bush reiterated his backing for Turkey's operations against PKK rebels, said a White House spokesman.

They discussed "the importance of the United States, Turkey and Iraq working together to confront the PKK", said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

The PKK - which is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, and the EU - is thought to have about 3,000 rebels based in Iraq.

For decades, it has been fighting for a Kurdish homeland separate from Turkey.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7159529.stm

Published: 2007/12/24 17:49:08 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Turkish planes bomb northern Iraq in hunt for PKK

Interesting that the bombing was cleared with the US not the central Iraq govt. It shows who is important in Iraq, the US rather than the Kurdish regional govt. or central govt. The bombing may very well increase tension between the Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish authorities. It may turn the Kurds the staunchest US allies against the US as well.

Turkish planes bomb northern Iraq in hunt for PKK
16 hours ago

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — Turkish planes bombed suspected rebel bases in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing one woman, damaging infrastructure and forcing villagers to flee, local officials said.

Turkey's general staff said its warplanes had hit the "regions of Zap, Hakurk and Avasin as well as the Qandil mountains" -- known to harbour rear bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Turkish military said the bombardment began at 1:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday) and all its aircraft had returned safely to base by 4:15 am (0215 GMT Sunday). Artillery continued to pound the targets once the planes left.

The raids, which Turkey's armed forces' chief said were carried out with US approval and intelligence, were condemned by the Iraqi government, which called in the Turkish ambassador to explain his country's actions.

"This attack has destroyed hospitals, schools and bridges. We demand that Turkish authorities stop such actions against innocents," deputy foreign minister Mahmoud al-Hajj Humoud said in a statement late Sunday.

Turkey's army chief General Yasar Buyukanit said the air strikes had been carried out with Washington's approval and using US military intelligence, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"The United States gave intelligence," General Buyukanit was quoted as telling the private television channel Kanal D.

"But what is more important is that the United States last night opened northern Iraqi airspace to us. By doing that, the United States approved the operation," Buyukanit said.

"The PKK should watch its step. It should not forget that, for us, its camps and movement in northern Iraq are like a 'Big Brother' show," the general said, referring to the popular reality TV show.

US President George W. Bush last month said Washington would provide Ankara with "real-time" information on rebel movements from its satellites.

In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed a "successful" operation.

"Last night, the Turkish armed forces carried out a comprehensive air strike against targets of the terrorist organisation in northern Iraq," he said in a televised speech.

"I am satisfied to say that, according to our preliminary evaluations, the operation, undertaken under night conditions, was successful."

The air strikes killed a woman and seriously wounded five other civilians but inflicted no losses on the PKK, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported from Iraq.

"A woman was martyred and five people were heavily wounded" in the village of Leejuwa near the Qandil mountains, Democratic Communities of Kurdistan (KCK) spokesman Ferman Garzan was quoted as saying on its Internet site.

The KCK is an umbrella organisation bringing together the PKK and affiliate groups.

The village was badly damaged in the bombing and two school buildings were destroyed, Garzan said.

"There are no losses on the guerrilla side," he added.

The Iraqi Kurdish militia that provides security in north Iraq said that according to preliminary reports, eight Turkish warplanes bombed villages along the border near the Qandil mountains.

"Some families are fleeing from the villages attacked today. We have dispatched our border teams to check the casualties and damage," said a spokesman, Jabbar Yawar.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan denied any civilian areas had been hit.

"You should trust statements made by the Turkish armed forces," he said in televised remarks.

The PKK, which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984, said the strikes lasted eight hours.

"An air strike by scores of warplanes and artillery attacks took place against PKK positions," the group said on its Internet site, adding that the raid followed a month of reconnaissance flights by US planes.

The air strikes were at least the second Turkish operation against the PKK inside Iraq this month. Turkish helicopters pounded suspected rebel bases on December 1.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek warned Turkey would launch more cross-border strikes if necessary.

"The government, working in harmony with all state institutions, primarily the armed forces, is determined to take this scourge off the country's agenda," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

The Turkish parliament authorised cross-border operations in October, but Ankara has so far held back from any ground assault amid strong lobbying by Washington

Former leader of Kurd rebels reveals retreat into Iran

This is from the Independent. It seems that the PKK are transforming into good terrorists by going into Iran and stepping up attacks there. The US may even be providing them weapons as they apprently do for the PJAK the Iranian branch of the PKK. In many news reports the PJAK will not even be mentioned though they are close to the PKK and even share facilties.

Former leader of Kurd rebels reveals retreat into Iran
By Patrick Cockburnin Arbil
Published: 05 November 2007
Turkish Kurd guerrillas are leaving Iraqi Kurdistan for Iran in order to avoid an attack by the Turkish army according to a former leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK.

Osman Ocalan, brother of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, said: "the PKK has decreased its forces in Iraqi Kurdistan and they are moving to Iran. It is part of PKK tactics that when they feel pressure in one country they move to another."

President George Bush and the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are to meet today in Washington to discuss what can be done about the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan, from which it has been staging attacks on Turkish army units.

The news that the PKK is moving its mobile fighters into Iranian Kurdistan – where they have escalated attacks on Iranian government forces – further complicates any action against the guerrillas.

Mr Ocalan was at the top of Turkey's most wanted list until he left the PKK because he had fallen in love with a woman who was a fellow PKK fighter. PKK rules forbade relationships between guerrillas, so they fled the mountains in 2004, where he had lived for 18 years, in order to marry.

As a founder member of the PKK and the brother of its revered leader, Mr Ocalan is well informed about the actions and intentions of the organisation. In an interview in Arbil he estimated the total strength of the PKK guerrillas at just under 7,000. "There are 2,750 fighters in Turkey," he said. "A further 2,500 are in the border areas of Iraq and 1,500 are in Iran." It is the PKK's war in Iran, where there is a Kurdish minority of four million, that is escalating. "In the last six months the PKK has started a war against Iran."

"There are more and more fighters in Iranian Kurdistan and the Iranian Kurds support the PKK strongly." The shift of part of the PKK into Iran to evade a Turkish military operations and to attack Iranian forces faces the US with a problem. America condemns the PKK when it is killing Turkish soldiers in Turkey as "terrorists", but has not similarly denounced the section of the PKK, known as PJAK, which has killed as many as 150 Iranian soldiers and police in Iran. Iran claims that the PKK receives covert support from the US.

The PKK is skilful in exploiting the fact that the 25 million Kurds in the Middle East have no state of their own, but are spread across eastern Turkey (where they number 15 million), northern Iraq (five million), Iran (four million) and Syria (one million). "In this instance the partition of Kurdistan works in our interests," Mr Ocalan said.

One reason for the intensification of PKK attacks on the Turkish army is the movement's concern about the health of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on the Turkish island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara. "The Turks want to kill Apu [Abdullah's nickname]," he said of his brother. "He can't breathe very well."

Escobar: Double-Crossing in Kurdistan

Escobar writes for the Asia Times and usually his articles are excellent analyses. This comes from Information Clearing House website. Note that there is an Iranian branch of the PKK in northern Iraq funded by the good old USA. The Iranian branches cross border raids are into Iran so the US is quite happy about them. They are good terrorists and on no account should someone get the idea that they are to be eliminated as part of the war on terror. This all just shows what crap the war on terror is. The war is on any resistance to US hegemony. It just happens that the some of that resistance comes from radical Islamist terrorists of the likes of Al Qaeda. Neither Iraq nor Iran had anything to do with Al Qaeda at least until after the US invaded Iraq and then Al Qaeda established itself in Iraq.

Double-crossing in Kurdistan

By Pepe Escobar

11/01/07 "Asia Times" -- -- The George W Bush administration would not flinch to betray its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan if that entailed a US "win" in the Iraq quagmire. And it would not flinch to leave its Turkish North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in the wilderness as well - if that entailed further destabilization of Iran. Way beyond the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) vs Turkey skirmish, one of these two double-crossing scenarios will inevitably take place. Washington simply cannot have its kebab and eat it too.

The Bush administration's double standards are as glaring as meteor impacts. When, in the summer of 2006, Israel used the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah to unleash a pre-programmed devastating war on Lebanon, destroying great swathes of the country, the Bush administration immediately gave the Israelis the green light. When 12 Turkish soldiers are killed and eight captured by PKK guerrillas based in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration urges Ankara to take it easy.

The "war on terror" is definitely not an equal-opportunity business. That has prompted Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to mischievously remark, regarding Turkey, "It's as if an intruder has gatecrashed the closed circle of 'we', the domain of those who hold the de facto monopoly on military humanitarianism."

The US and Israeli establishment regards Hezbollah as a group of evil super-terrorists. But the PKK consists of just "minor" terrorists, and very useful ones at that, since the US Central Intelligence Agency is covertly financing and arming the PJAK (Party for Free Life in Kurdistan), the Iranian arm of the PKK, whose mission is to "liberate" parts of northwest Iran.

Not accidentally, the new PKK overdrive coincides with US - and also Israeli - covert support for the PJAK. Israel has not only invested a lot in scores of business ventures in Iraqi Kurdistan, it has also extensively trained Kurdish peshmerga special commandos, who could easily share their knowledge with their PKK cousins.

The new PKK offensive coincides with a PKK flush with new mortars, anti-tank weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and even anti-aircraft missiles. And most of all, the PKK drive coincides with the mysteriously vanished scores of light weapons the Pentagon sent to Iraq with no serial numbers to identify 97% of them.

The person responsible for this still unsolved mystery is none other than the counterinsurgency messiah and top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. The suspicion that the Pentagon never wanted these weapons to be traced in the first place cannot be easily dismissed. Either that or the PKK has been very active lately in the black market for light weapons.

The Turkish-Israeli plan
US corporate media totally ignore the US/Israeli coddling of the PJAK - and by extension the PKK. The larger context is lost. No one bothers to ask how come the Bush administration seems to be such a huge fan of a greater Kurdistan.

As much as the PJAK - and the PKK - use American largesse for greater Kurdistan ends, the Bush administration uses especially the PJAK for its wider "war on terror" target: the destabilization of Iran. Turkish-US relations in this case are no more than a casualty of war. Now the Turks are up not only against Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but also the US and the European Union in Brussels. And in addition, the PKK denies it has attacked Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey has angrily reacted to the US Senate proposal for "soft" partition of Iraq. This is the famous US "Plan B" for Iraq - more an "A" than a "B" because it was floated years ago. And the authors are Israel and ... the Turks themselves.

The plan has been extensively documented, among others, by the Center for Research at the Kurdish Library in New York. According to its "Kurdish Life" newsletter, "Back in 1990, Turkey's then prime minister Turgut Ozal made a deal with the US and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani. Masterminded by an Israel obsessed with breaking up the 'sea of Arabs' in the Middle East, the plan has proceeded apace ever since, influencing and directing virtually all of Washington's political and military tactics in Iraq. And yet even today it remains nobody's business."

The Israeli mastermind was Leslie Gelb, a relatively moderate Zionist. The plan duly featured in the Turkish press at the time. It proposed a federal Iraq, with a Kurdistan, a section of Kirkuk and Mosul for the Turkomans; and the rest, in fact most of the country, for "the Arabs", Sunni and Shi'ite alike.

To get their autonomous mini-state, the Iraqi Kurds just had to guarantee to smash the PKK. As for Turkish Kurds, the Turkish prime minister's spokesman said at the time that since "two-thirds of Turkey's Kurds are scattered through the country" and the rest "fully integrated into Turkish society", they would have no business dreaming about autonomy.

Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Kurdish leaders, rival warlords and wily opportunists, duly fulfilled their part of the deal - especially in October 1992 during a joint offensive with the Turkish army against the PKK. They may have sold out the PKK 15 years ago, but that won't happen again; at least that's what the two have vocally promised. For their part, the PJAK-PKK have been tremendously helpful for the Bush administration agenda of "destabilizing" Iran.

The Kurdish Life newsletter argues that the cause of Turkey's current woes is not the US or the Iraqi Kurds. It's a self-inflicted wound, all spelled out in Ozal's plan. "With his untimely death in 1993, the plan was revised, with an autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to include Kirkuk, and more, and the remainder of Iraq to be divided between Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs. The Republicans of the Bush administration cemented it into the Iraqi constitution under the rubric 'federation'."

That's no less than the "soft" partition the US Senate recently voted for. That's the future Washington wants for Iraqi Kurdistan. And that's the scheme the US - and Israel - don't want their ally

Turkey to spoil by attacking the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. No wonder the Turkish leadership - not to mention Turkish public opinion - is fuming.

Chronicle of an invasion foretold
To compound this misery, the much-touted Turkish invasion has been in the making for months. As early as March, Bush administration officials were promising the Turks that US special forces would dislodge the PKK from the Qandil mountains. Nothing happened.

In April, Barzani was threatening "to take responsibility for our response" if the Turks interfered with a referendum on the integration of oil-rich Kirkuk into Kurdistan. Also in April, the US prohibited Turkish cross-border raids, according to the Turkish daily Sabah. The massing of Turkish soldiers at the Iraqi border started in May.

Then in June, Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit virtually spelled out in public what this was all about, "There is not only the PKK in northern Iraq. There is Massoud Barzani as well. Turkey cannot afford an independent Kurdish state headed by Barzani on its southern border." Barzani - who for Turkish popular media is the country's public enemy number one - answered back with a startling concept; he said that if Turkey invaded, "We would deal with it as an Iraqi issue."

So what kind of Kurdish "sovereignty" is this? Iraqi Kurds detest, and ignore, the Baghdad government like the plague, and prize their independence; but as soon as they're threatened, they instantly seek refuge under Baghdad's (clipped) wings.

Kurdistan and its mountainous 75,000 square kilometers is not really Iraq. Baghdad is an entity far, far away. Iraqi Kurdistan has its own constitution, parliament, anthem, legal code, language, currency and media - and most of all the well-trained peshmerga army. A democracy it is not - because virtually everything is subordinated to the two warlords turned politicians, Barzani and Talabani.

The KRG has paid the price for Kurdistan as a "model" of a functioning Iraq by collaborating no-holds-barred with the US since the early 1990s. In June, Barzani confirmed that the PKK is an Iraqi problem, "A Turkish invasion would be first of all an attack on Iraqi sovereignty, and then an attack on the Kurds." Following Barzani's logic, since Iraq is under occupation, the Turks would be actually invading a colonial possession of the US. Thus it should be Petraeus to confront the Turks about what they're up to. Washington in a way has proved its point: Iraqi Kurdistan is a fragile entity that only exists because it always depended on American protection.

Turkey and Iran, united
Kurdistan's pull in Washington is guaranteed thanks largely to Qubad Talabani, son of President Jalal Talabani, also known in Kurdistan as "Uncle Jalal". While dad sells Kurdistan as an indisputable success story, son lobbies furiously, to the extent that Frank Lavin, US under secretary of commerce for international trade, recently went to Kurdistan to promote it as a gateway for US businesses in Iraq.

But to believe that Ankara will tolerate an oil-rich, water-rich Kurdish mini-state on its southeast border, creating a magnet for Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iran and Syria, is to believe in miracles. Not only Turkey and Iran are vehemently against it, but also Saudi Arabia (the House of Saud believing that a Kurdistan counterpart - Shi'iteistan in southern Iraq - would be subservient to Iran). What the Bush administration's games have achieved so far is to unite Turkey and Iran on the issue.

Turkey regards the Kurds just like China regards Tibetans and Uighurs; they are part of a unitary Turkish state and have no right to autonomy. If Washington condemns China for its repression of Tibetans and Uighurs, it should behave the same way regarding Turkey. Not only will this not happen, but now the Americans need the Turks more than the Turks need the Americans.

A true measure of White House and neo-conservative desperation to facilitate the relentless surge towards war on Iran is whether it would be willing to plunge Iraqi Kurdistan into war, compromise the Turkish-Iraq corridor (through wich flows 70% of US supplies to Iraq) and future US Big Oil investments in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Barzani keeps insisting he and Washington are in sync, both wanting a peaceful solution for this royal mess; but he always points out "we are a nation" which will not accept Turkish threats.

US plans for Iraqi Kurdistan, stretching back to that 1990 Israeli-devised Turkish plan, are in jeopardy. And once again all because of the enemy within.

Washington played the ethnic card in Afghanistan, pitting Tajiks against Pashtuns; the result, apart from a never-ending war in Afghanistan, was that Pashtuns on both sides of the border united and are now destabilizing even further the US ally, Pakistan.

Washington played the Kurd card to destabilize Saddam Hussein's Iraq and as a beachhead for its control of the country after the invasion. Not only Iraq turned into a quagmire, Washington helped to plunge Kurdistan into the line of (Turkish) fire.

There's no evidence these lessons have been learned. No matter what happens in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration will still insist on the ethnic card to precipitate regime change in Iran.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

Kurdish leader defies Turkish invasion threat.

THis is from the Independent.
The Kurds are certainly showing they will not be puppets in fact will not even co-operate with the US or central government when it doesn't suit them. This can only lead to a Turkish incursion as I doubt the US or Iraqi govt. will do anything but wring their hands even though the US calls the PKK terrorists!


Iraqi Kurdish leader defies Turkish invasion threat
By Patrick Cockburn in Iraqi Kurdistan
Published: 29 October 2007
Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurds of northern Iraq, expressed defiance yesterday in the face of a threatened invasion by 100,00 Turkish troops, and was scornful of Turkey's claim that it wants only to pursue Turkish-Kurd rebels.

"We are not a threat to Turkey and I do not accept the language of threatening and blackmailing from the government of Turkey," he said from his mountain fortress of Salahudin 10 miles north of Arbil. "If they invade there will be war."

Mr Barzani is President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq which enjoys quasi-independence from Baghdad and has stronger military forces than half of the members of the UN.

He was in no mood to buckle under Turkish pressure to take military action against the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who have their hideouts in the mountain ranges along Iraqi Kurdistan's borders with Iran and Turkey. "My main mission would be not to allow a Kurdish-Kurdish fight to happen within the Kurdish liberation movement," he declared.

Mr Barzani said Turkey's attempt to solve its Kurdish problem by military means alone had not worked in the past 23 years and would not work now. It was in 1984 that the PKK took up arms, seeking independence or autonomy from theTurkish state that refused to admit that it had a Kurdish minority of 15 million.

Mr Barzani also said that he was increasingly convinced that the Turkish objective was not the PKK but Iraqi Kurdistan, which has achieved near-independence since 2003. He said he was convinced Turkey's claim that its target was the PKK "is only an excuse and the target is the Kurdistan region itself". When the KRG put its peshmerga (soldiers) on the border with Turkey to control the areas where the PKK has sought refuge, Turkish artillery had shelled them, he said.

Mr Barzani appears to believe there is no concession he could offer to Turkey which would defuse the crisis because he himself and the KRG are the true target of Ankara.

Turkish military action might be largely symbolic with ground troops not advancing very far, but even this would have a serious impact on the economy of the KRG. The Iraqi Kurds would also be badly hurt if Turkey closed the Habur Bridge, the crossing point near Zakho through which passes much of Kurdistan's trade. Some 825,000 trucks crossed the bridge in both directions last year. Asked what the impact of the closure of Habur Bridge would be on Iraqi Kurdistan, Mr Barzani said determinedly: "We would not starve."

Turkish artillery is already firing shells across the border in the high mountains around Kani Masi, a well-watered border village in western Kurdistan, famous for its apple orchards. The shelling is persistent and is evidently designed as warning to the Iraqi Kurds. "We are afraid but we have nowhere else to go," said Mohammed Mustafa, an elderly farmer.

For the moment, the villagers are staying put. Many of them in this area are Syriac Christians whose parents or grandparents emigrated to Baghdad but had returned recently because of fear of sectarian killing in the capital. Omar Mai, the local head of Mr Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kani Masi, said that seven villages in the area had recently been shelled.

He said that there were no PKK in the villages and that they stayed permanently in the high mountains. Another reason for the PKK guerrillas making themselves scarce in this area is that there are Turkish outposts and garrisons already inside Iraq, set up during previous incursions. At one point near the village of Begova the snouts of Turkish tanks point menacingly down the road.

Driving to the top of a mountain where peshmerga were dug in, Mr Mai explained with some pride the intricate geography of the frontier. On one hilltop below us was the Turkish army, identifiable by the red Turkish flag, while a few hundred yards below the hill, separated by a flimsy fence, were Iraqi Kurdish frontier guards living in a long white barracks. In a grove of trees behind this building was a villa that was also occupied by Turkish troops.

Further north, hidden by folds in the mountains, are the Turkish guns that intermittently bombard this area. If the Turkish army does want to advance here there is not much to stop them, but it is unlikely that they would find any PKK, scanty in number and well-hidden in caves, in this vast range of mountains and valleys.

Turkey threatens incursion after Iraq talks fail

Unless the US comes up with some action rather than words it seems Turkey will be virtually forced to attack the PKK. The US is obviously very soft on certain groups it labels terrorists.


Turkey threatens incursion after Iraq talks fail
Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:07 PM EDT



By Thomas Grove

SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Saturday to order an incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish guerrillas after the failure of talks with Iraq aimed at averting a cross-border raid.

"The moment an operation is needed, we will take that step," Erdogan told a large flag-waving crowd in Izmit. "We don't need to ask anyone's permission."

The talks collapsed late on Friday after Ankara rejected proposals by Iraqi Defense Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim for tackling guerrillas based in northern Iraq as insufficient and because they would not yield results quickly enough.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, and mortars, on the border for a possible offensive against about 3,000 rebels using Iraq as a base from which to carry out attacks in Turkey.

The United States, which was also represented at the talks, opposes a major incursion, fearing it could destabilize the relatively peaceful north of Iraq and the wider region.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its separatist campaign in 1984, since when more than 30,000 people have died.

Erdogan took a swipe at western countries for not cracking down on the PKK and said calling it a terrorist group, as the United States and European Union do, was not enough.

"We want action, and if you can't show action, you fail the sincerity test," he said. "Those who overlook terrorism are in cooperation with terrorism," he told a conference earlier.

Army sources told Reuters on Saturday that military planes were making reconnaissance flights along the mountainous border to photograph PKK camps in northern Iraq. Helicopters were patrolling villages and soldiers sweeping roads for mines.

"DETERMINATION TO FIGHT"

Erdogan played down comments by Turkey's armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit that the Turkish army, NATO's second largest, was waiting for him to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on November 5 before a major incursion.

U.S.-Turkish ties have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.

Senior Turkish diplomats say Erdogan has given Washington and Baghdad a limited time to show concrete results or steps to be taken against the PKK. The meeting in Washington will be the last chance, they told Reuters.

Any major offensive, expected to involve ground and air forces, would first have to be approved by the government.

"I don't know what will happen before the American trip," Erdogan said late on Friday.

On Saturday Buyukanit, in a speech to mark Monday's Republic Day, said the army would fight until it had destroyed the PKK.

"We feel the pain of our martyred heroes deeply. But that pain increases our determination to fight," the text of his speech read. "Those who make us suffer cannot even imagine the suffering we will inflict on them; on this we are determined."

Ankara has threatened sanctions against Iraq and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan raised the possibility again on Saturday. He said the government would use political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and military "instruments" to fight the PKK.

"Which of these instruments will be used, to what extent and when is being determined in a general strategy," he told reporters as he left for an official visit to Iran.

In the southeastern city of Sirnak, about 1,000 people demonstrated against the PKK, which has killed some 40 people in the last month and, after its latest major attack, said it took eight soldiers prisoner.

"For every 12 martyrs, 12,000 more Turkish martyrs are born," chanted protesters, who came from all over the province that has Iraq as its neighbor.

The military has carried out as many as 24 limited operations into northern Iraq against the PKK, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said on Friday. Helicopter gunships and F-16 jets have attacked rebel positions inside Iraq in recent days.

Turkey had asked Iraq to hand over PKK leaders but the central government has little control over semi-autonomous northern Iraq, run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The KRG, led by Masoud Barzani, says it has no control over the PKK and Barzani has vowed to fight any Turkish incursion.

(Additional reporting by Evren Mesci in Ankara and Emma Ross-Thomas in Istanbul)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Reuters 2007.

Turkey Demands PKK extradition

Imagine the US is in a war on terrorism and in territory occupied by it, it refuses to do attack a group it categorises as terrorists or even demand they leave! Does the US think that Turkey is going to sit on its hands forever! As Chomsky has shown there are different kinds of terrorists. These are the kind who are not applauded but are tolerated.

Turkey demands PKK extradition
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer
Published: 27 October 2007
The US military commander in northern Iraq said yesterday he plans to do "absolutely nothing" to counter Kurdish rebels who are staging deadly cross-border attacks into neighboring Turkey.

It was the most blunt assertion yet by an American official in the last few weeks that US forces should not be involved in the fight. The Bush administration has said repeatedly that the border crisis should be resolved through diplomacy.

Turkey's top military commander said Friday that Turkish leaders will wait until its prime minister visits Washington before deciding whether to mount a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets President George W. Bush in Washington on Nov. 5.

"The armed forces will carry out a cross-border offensive when assigned," private NTV quoted Gen. Yasar Buyukanit as saying. "Prime Minister Erdogan's visit to the United States is very important. We will wait for his return."

Turkey's deputy prime minister, Cemil Cicek, said the government had demanded the extradition of Kurdish rebel leaders based in Iraq's north. During talks with a visiting Iraqi delegation, Turkish war planes and helicopters reportedly bombed separatist hideouts within the country's borders.

Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reported Turkish airstrikes on suspected rebel positions Friday and Ankara has threatened a large-scale offensive into Iraq if US and Iraqi authorities don't stop the rebels. On Friday, Iraq and Turkish officials held the latest in a series of diplomatic meetings aimed at ending the standoff.

Asked what the US military was planning to do, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said: "Absolutely nothing."

Mixon said it is not his responsibility, that he has sent no additional US troops to the border area and he is not tracking hiding places or logistics activities of rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK.

US pressures Turkey not to Attack PKK in Iraq

This is from Juan Cole's blog. As I understand it the US has already turned over security in the area to the Kurdish authorities so it is not willing to intervene. Of course the whole affair shows the US hypocrisy about terrorists. If the PKK were Al Qaeda in Iraq the response would certainly be different, but it is Turkish troops being killed not Americans so it doesnt matter.

US Pressures Turkey not to Attack


The Bush administration made a diplomatic 'full court press' with Turkish leaders to dissuade them from attacking the Kurdish Workers Party [PKK] guerrillas hiding out in Iraq after the killing of 17 Turkish troops and the capture of 8 others by the PKK on Sunday. Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Tayyip Erdogan is alleged to have told US Secretary of State Condi Rice that the only way for the US to forestall a Turkish invasion is for its military to arrest the PKK leaders in Iraq themselves and to turn them over to Ankara.

Under all this American pressure, The PKK is said to be offering a conditional ceasefire with Ankara. The 'conditional' part doesn't seem very promising to me.

Although the US says it cannot control the PKK because it has few troops in the north of Iraq, this excuse neglects another reason that the US is essentially coddling a terrorist group that is killing fellow NATO troops. The fact is that the PKK is being coddled by Massoud Barzani and his Peshmerga, who could stop them hitting Turkey if they so desired. The other fact is that the US only has one really reliable ally in Iraq, which is the Kurds, and their paramilitary or the Peshmerga is the only element in the new Iraqi army that fights with any spunk or initiative. The US cannot afford to alienate Barzani or the Peshmerga; hence it is forced to try to wheedle Turkey into inaction in the face of a rather dramatic set of provocations.

Turkey to approve troops to Iraq in defiance of U.S.

The US seems to think nothing of snubbing and irritating Turkey even though it is a key ally in the Middle East and provides significant logistic support for its operations. It has done less than nothing about the PKK. In effect it turned over security to the Kurd authorities who are loathe to do anything against the PKK.
Although the Turks will probably not attack the PKK in Iraq right away, their patience must be wearing very thin and most of the public is demanding more action.



Turkey to approve troops to Iraq in defiance of U.S.
Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:42pm EDT Iraq seeks talks on Turkey threat

- Turkey will defy international pressure on Wednesday and grant its troops permission to enter northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels based there, though it has played down expectations of any imminent attack.

Washington, Ankara's NATO ally, says it understands Turkey's desire to tackle rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but fears a major incursion would wreck stability in the most peaceful part of Iraq and potentially in the wider region.

Turkey's stance has helped drive global oil prices to $88 a barrel, a new record, and has hit its lira currency as investors weigh the economic risks of any major military operation.

Parliamentary approval would create the legal basis for military action, essentially giving the army a free hand to act as and when it sees fit.

By law, Turkey's parliament must approve the deployment of Turkish troops abroad. Parliament is expected to approve the request from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet by a large majority following an open debate.

"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right conditions," Erdogan told his ruling AK Party on Tuesday.

"This is about self-defense," he said in televised remarks.

Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi lobbied Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Tuesday to refrain from military action and to seek a diplomatic solution.

Erdogan is under heavy public pressure to hit the PKK camps in northern Iraq after a series of deadly rebel attacks on Turkish troops.

APPEALS UNHEEDED

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, asked about possible Turkish action in northern Iraq, made a veiled appeal for restraint. "Any measures by any country should not create any concerns," he told reporters in New York.

"We are going through a very difficult and sensitive period in Iraq. We need full cooperation and support from the countries in the region," he said, noting that Turkey would host an international conference on Iraq in early November.

Washington and Baghdad have so far failed to take action against the estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas hiding in northern Iraq, despite repeated Turkish appeals over a number of years.

Ankara knows Baghdad has little clout in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, whose leaders have consistently refused to take up arms against their ethnic kin in the PKK. Washington's own forces are sorely stretched in central and southern Iraq.

Brent Scowcroft, a former U.S. National Security Council adviser visiting Ankara on Tuesday, said Washington should have done more to address Turkish concerns about the PKK.

"We have taken some steps but they have been very inadequate and we are trying to improve cooperation between Iraq and Turkey on dealing with that," he told Reuters.

He said that any Turkish incursion into northern Iraq was likely to destabilize the area and complicate an already complex situation there.

"But also the Turks are an ally and they are suffering from PKK activities across the border, so it's a balancing act," he added.

Turkish opposition parties strongly back the plan for military action, with only the small pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) expressing concern about the implications.

"Military methods alone cannot bring a solution," DTP leader Ahmet Turk said.

Many Turks regard the DTP as a mouthpiece for the PKK, which Ankara blames for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Turkey conducted large military operations in northern Iraq against the PKK in the 1990s but failed to wipe out the rebels.

Some analysts say that despite its tough rhetoric Turkey may limit itself to aerial bombardment of rebel targets and small forays across the border while avoiding a major incursion.

(Additional reporting by Paul de Bendern and Patrick Worsnip)



© Reuters2007All rights reserved

Turkey escelates action near border.

The US and Kurdistan seem to think that they can put off dealing with the PKK issue indefinitely. It is virtually inevitable that there will be a Turkish incursion given that nothing has been done. The US passage of the Armenia genocide motion will not help. Imagine if the Iranian Revolutionary Guards actually made raids across the Iraq border and engaged in firefights and ambushes of US or coalition troops. The US would certainly take the opportunity to chase them across the border and tell Iran to keep them home or else. The other irony in this is that according to the US the PKK is a terrorist group. So while it fights one terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, it allows another the PKK safe haven in northern Iraq. Of course it leaves anti-Iranian terrorist groups alone as well.

Turkey escalates action near Iraq border By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 10, 7:27 PM ET



SIRNAK, Turkey - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a possible prelude to a cross-border operation that would likely raise tensions with Washington.

The military offensive also reportedly included shelling of Turkish Kurd guerrilla hideouts in northern Iraq, which is predominantly Kurdish. U.S. officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize other areas of Iraq and oppose Turkish intervention in the relatively peaceful north.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that preparations were under way for parliamentary authorization of a cross-border operation, and told private CNN-Turk TV that the motion might reach Parliament on Thursday. The preparations "have started and are continuing," he said. An opposition nationalist party said it would support the proposal.

If parliament approves, the military could choose to launch an operation immediately or wait to see if the United States and its allies decide to crack down on the rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

"If you're against (the rebels), make your attitude clear and do whatever is necessary," Erdogan said in comments directed at Washington. "If you cannot do it, then let us do it."

Turkey and the United States are NATO allies, but relations have also been tense over a U.S. congressional bill that would label the mass killings of Armenians by Turks around the time of World War I as genocide.

Later Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 in favor of the measure, sending it to the House floor.

President Bush strongly urged Congress to reject the bill, saying it would do "great harm" to U.S.-Turkish relations. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkish air space. About a third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq also goes through Turkey.

"Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as strongly as we believe they will," Gates said.

Turkey has raised the possibility of impeding logistical and other U.S. military traffic now using the airspace.

"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to commonsense," President Abdullah Gul was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Anatolia.

An Iraqi government spokesman said a Turkish military incursion would be regarded as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.

"We are aware of the size of the threat Turkey is subjected to, but this does not give Turkey the right to enter Iraqi territories," said Ali al-Dabbagh.

Turkey has conducted two dozen large-scale incursions into Iraq since the late 1980s. The last such operation, in 1997, involved tens of thousands of troops and government-paid village guards. Results were inconclusive.

Top NATO commander Gen. John Craddock, the senior U.S. soldier in Europe, indicated that he could do little to stop a Turkish incursion.

Craddock was asked by reporters in Washington whether he can influence Turkey's actions in terms of Iraq.

"I won't say in terms of Iraq," he said. "I will say that I talk with my counterparts, military leaders in Turkey, frequently, and we discuss issues about their border. And I'll leave it at that."

The latest Turkish military activity followed attacks by rebels that have killed 15 soldiers since Sunday.

Turkish troops were blocking rebel escape routes into Iraq while F-16 and F-14 warplanes and Cobra helicopters dropped bombs on possible hideouts, Dogan news agency reported. The military had dispatched tanks to the region to support the operation against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which the U.S. has branded a terrorist organization.

Also Wednesday, assailants hurled a hand grenade at a police vehicle in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing a police officer and wounding four other people, according to reports and officials. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels have carried out similar attacks.

Elsewhere, authorities detained 20 Kurds, including eight women, at the Habur border gate with Iraq, the Sirnak governor's office said.

State-run Anatolia news agency said the suspects — most of them university students — were detained as they entered Turkey.

Turkish military leaders have described an incursion as a necessary tactic to push back the rebels and disrupt their safe havens and supply lines. The government is also deeply frustrated at its inability to curb attacks by concentrating on operations within its own borders, and under pressure to show resolve to an outraged public.

But such an operation could harm relations with Washington, create instability across the border and destroy livelihoods in the poor region. Turkey provides electricity and oil products to the Iraqi Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, and the annual trade volume at Habur gate, the main border crossing, is more than $10 billion.

"If this border gate is closed because of war, then everybody in this region will suffer," said Mehmet Yavuz, a Turkish truck driver, hauling cement to the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil. "This border gate is daily bread for us."

PKK rebels kill 13 Turkish soldiers.

THe entire article is at Reuters.
The US has done nothing to dislodge this rebel group, a group it considers terrorists. The Kurds also seem to stall indefinitely. It is unlikely that the Turks will be patient much longer but will cross the border and attack PKK bases in northern Iraq.

PKK rebels kill 13 Turkish soldiers
Sun Oct 7, 2007 4:35pm


By Ferit Demir

TUNCELI, Turkey, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels shot dead 13 Turkish soldiers on Sunday, the worst such incident in years and likely to put more pressure on the government to authorise a cross-border military strike against Kurdish bases in Iraq.

The soldiers were killed after the army -- which has boosted its troops in the southeast and introduced security zones limiting access for civilians in the region -- killed a PKK suspect earlier in the day in fighting in Sirnak province.

"Thirteen members of our armed forces were killed in an attack ... carried out by terrorists on one of our units serving in the Sirnak region," a General Staff statement said.

"The terrorists were pursued under fire by our units to escape routes out of the country to be stopped from leaving," it said in an apparent reference to Iraq, which borders Sirnak province.

Some 3,000 PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq and launch attacks on security and civilian targets in Turkish territory. Thousands of PKK rebels are also believed to be inside Turkey, which is seeking European Union membership.

The Turkish armed forces favour a cross-border operation, but Washington fears such a move could destabilise the only relatively stable part of Iraq. Turkey is a key NATO ally.

The ruling AK Party government has been reluctant to push for a cross-border operation, seeking instead to pressure Washington and Baghdad to act.



PRESSURE MOUNTS

"Those who create, feed and support terrorism should know that no force can stand against the determination of the Republic of Turkey to protect its inseparable integrity," the state Anatolian news agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying.

Last month Ankara and Baghdad signed an agreement to help clamp down on PKK militants on Iraqi territory, but it did not give Turkey permission to follow rebels into Iraq.

Turkey has criticised both Iraqi and U.S. authorities for failing to control the rebels.

There have been pockets of intense fighting in the southeast between the Kurdish rebels and the army before winter sets in.

US officers meet regularly with PKK terrorists in Iraq

Anyone with eyes can see the total hypocrisy of the US with respect to its relations with groups that it calls terrorists. If they are useful to US policy the US will not try to eliminate them as the war on terror would demand but instead negotiates with them to serve US ends. This exposes the moral bankruptcy of the war on terror.
The US view of itself as fighting evil is entirely bogus as is shown by the fact that the same groups of jihadists that were once heroes in the fight against Evil when the Evil Empire was the Devil of the Day are now themselves the Evil Demons and Islamofascists who are the target in the morality play called the War on Terror. The jihadists haven't changed throughout all this just their relationship to the US: allies are good, enemies evil. US propaganda embodies a form of moral nihilism that makes use of US citizens belief in the moral uprightness of their country to sell aggression and US hegemony worldwide.
This is fromo a Turkish newspaper.Daily Telegraph: US Officers Have Regular Meetings with PKK Terrorists Print

Tuesday , 11 September 2007





* By Taner BAYCAN (JTW)

British Daily Telegraph claimed that the US officers have regular meetings with the PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq. Damien McElroy in his report mentioned “US army helicopters are reportedly used to shuttle officers to regular meetings with Kurdish fighters”. Mr. McElroy interview with the head of the PKK terrorists, Murat Karayilan (means ‘Black Snake’ in Turkish language). Mr. Karayilan accepted the US assistance to the PKK yet argued that the US did very little for the Kurds and can do more.

Iran accused the US last week of supporting the terrorists against Tehran. Similarly the Turkish media blamed the Americans of being supporter of the PKK terrorism although the PKK is a terrorist organization according to the US laws.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ihsan Bal from Ankara-based USAK, one of the leading Turkish think tanks, told the JTW that the US should do something immediately against the PKK terrorists, otherwise Turkish-American relations will be damaged. Similarly Dr. Sedat Laciner said “All signs clearly show that the US ignores the PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq”. “The PKK is a terrorist organization. Americans and the EU say so. If US ignores or supports the PKK in the region, the US’ fight against global terrorism will lose its base. Turkey’s support, as moderate Muslim country, in fighting terrorism is crucial. However if you support my terrorists, I can not help you in fighting against your terrorists. The US’ strange policies regarding the PKK terrorism nourishes anti-Americanism in Turkey. The US lost at least 30 years in Turkey. If Washington thinks the Turkish people or politicians forget all these, they are wrong. Nobody in Ankara has forgotten the Johnson Letter for instance, and they will remember how the US is not co-operative against the PKK terrorism” Dr. Laciner added.

The PKK has armed terror bases in Northern Iraq. The number of bases is about 20. The number of the PKK terrorists is about 5.000 in Northern Iraq. The US promised to remove all of the PKK bases yet no concrete step has been taken.

10 September 2007

US sponsoring Kurdish Guerilla Attacks on Iran

This would explain why the US has done nothing to meet Turkish demands to dismantle PKK bases in northern Iraq. In fact the US has apparently turned over security to the Kurdish Regional Government which in turn has done nothing. The US has classified the PKK as a terrorist group but in the case of Iran there is a clandestine war with the US using terrorists as its proxies. This is hardly new, Bin Laden and his fellow jihadists were terrorist proxies against the Evil Empire when the USSR installed a pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan.

Report: U.S. Sponsoring Kurdish Guerilla Attacks Inside Iran
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/27/1356250
We speak with independent journalist Reese Erlich about his report on Iranian Kurdish guerillas based among their Kurdish bretheren in northern Iraq. Erlich writes, "Kurdish and American sources say the United States has been supporting guerilla raids against Iran, channeling the money through organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan."
Reese Erlich, an independent radio producer and journalist. He reports on Iran in the latest issue of Mother Jones and is author of the forthcoming book "The Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis."

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AMY GOODMAN: We are going to turn now to Reese Erlich, an independent radio producer and journalist, who reports on Iran, in the latest issue of Mother Jones, and is the author of the forth-coming book The Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy in the Middle East Crisis. I spoke with him yesterday in San Francisco and asked what effect the Security Council sanctions will have on Iran.

REESE ERLICH: I think the newest U.N. sanctions were clearly sponsored and passed only because of U.S. pressure. They don't do a lot to actually effectively impact Iran that much. They increase the freezing of some Iranian individuals' assets, a few other things. They also, it might be noted, reiterate the U.N. call to make all of the Middle East nuclear free and that includes Israel. And I'm sure that's not something the Bush administration is going to trumpet when it talks about those latest U.N. sanctions. Again, I think in the wider context, the sanctions that passed by the U.N. are part of an escalating effort to pressure Iran to basically toe the line for U.S. interests in the area.

AMY GOODMAN: In the latest edition of Mother Jones, you have a piece where you talk about the Iranian/Kurdish guerrillas. Explain who and where they are.

REESE ERLICH: In Northern Iraq there are three Iranian Kurdish groups that operate and that have compounds and do political organizing. Keep in mind that the Kurdish people of Iran face a great deal of oppression, they're not allowed to learn in their own language in the schools. They face discrimination. They're a great deal poorer than the rest of Iran. So the Kurdish people have very legitimate grievances against the government in Tehran. The U.S. has taken advantage of that.

In the case of one group, the P.K.K. or the Kurdistan Workers Party and they are along with Israel sponsoring them to carry out guerrilla raids inside Iran and its part of a much wider plan by the United States to foment discontent and actual terrorist activities by ethnic Iranians in various parts of Iran. And when I was in northern Iraq, I was able to determine that that kind of activity is going on from Iraqi soil under the Kurdish controlled areas of Iraq, into Iran.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you get to the guerrilla camp?

REESE ERLICH: Well, it's quite interesting, two cell phone calls and a drive up into the mountains. One of the arguments by the Kurdish regional government of Iraq and of the United States is that they can't find these guerrillas because it's so inhospitable territory that no one can find them. They're operating from secret bases, et cetera. But all I did was drive up into the closest Iraqi village and asked the local driver and they say oh, yeah, which of the guerrilla camp do you want to see and we'll take you right up to them. So they are very easy to find.

AMY GOODMAN: So now, explain the difference. Explain the P.K.K. and the P.J.A.K.

REESE ERLICH: The P.K.K. is the mother organization if you will. It was founded by Oshelan, the Turkish Kurd who is now in jail, charged with terrorism. The P.K.K. by the way, is listed on the United States State Department List of Terrorist Organizations. The P.J.A.K., the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan is the Iranian affiliate. The P.K.K., about two years ago split into four parties in each of the countries where is the Kurds live. In Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. So the P.J.A.K. is the Iranian affiliate. Basically they're still part of the same organization. In order to get to the P.J.A.K. interviews that I did, you had to go through two P.K.K. based camps with walkie-talkies and soldiers and guerillas and so on. For all intents and purposes they're the same thing.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you explain the U.S. relationship with these organizations?

REESE ERLICH: Well, it's very complicated. Because on the one hand, the United States is very much opposes to the P.K.K.'s actions in Turkey. On the other hand they're supporting P.K.K.'s attack on Iran. This is kind of typical of the clandestine efforts by the United States when we saw the U.S. support for the Mujahadeen against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They sided with some pretty nefarious characters who ended up forming al Qaeda and bombing New York.

So once again, the U.S. is allying with one faction of this party, but not with the other, playing a very dangerous game and they're playing a very similar game with the Mujahadeen al-Halb, another Iranian group and with groups in Baluchestan which is near the Pakistan Iranian boarder where some revolutionary guard buses were blown up. It's a very very dangerous, duplicitous game that the United States is playing.

AMY GOODMAN: You talked about how Ochelan’s political organization, Radical Kurdistan’s Workers Party, P.K.K. is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. And then P.J.A.K.’s relationship with the party supposed to be at arms length. You had to pass through two P.K.K. checkpoints on your way to the guerrilla camps each of them relaying information up the line via walkie-talkie?

REESE ERLICH: That's exactly right. No among other Kurdish groups that I spoke to, no one thinks that the P.K.K. and the P.J.A.K. are really separate organizations. At a minimum they very clearly coordinate their activities, get funding, weapons, et cetera. But I think in practice, their function is one organization.

AMY GOODMAN: And the Kurdish organizing in the University of Sulamani?

REESE ERLICH: Well, that’s very interesting. The political parties in northern Iraq, the Iranian Kurdish political parties include the K.D.P.I. which is the Iranian Kurdish -- it's a Kurdish party of Iran – let’s try that again, K.D.P.I. is the Democratic Kurdish Party of Iran, and Komala, are two long standing organizations, they carry out political organizing among Iranian Kurds. As I mentioned, the situation is very difficult for Kurds living in Iran. They cross over into the border into Iraq sometimes. It's very easy to get across the smugglers trails. So those two parties have Peshmurga guerrilla groups, but they are not engaged in armed activity against the United States. So when you go to the University in Sulamani, the different Kurdish parties have their supporters and they organize house meetings and various kinds of political activities to support their demands within Iranian Kurdistan.

AMY GOODMAN: Reese Erlich, the Guardian newspaper recently reported that the Bush administration is scrambling to prevent Turkey from attacking Kurdish controlled areas in Northern Iraq. U.S. officials fear such an attack would open up a third front in the battle to save Iraq from disintegration. Turkish sources said special forces operations have already begun in northern Iraq to target fighters connected to the P.K.K. the Kurdish Worker’s Party.

This would not be the first time Turkey’s invaded Northern Iraq 10 years ago. Turkey sent 40,000 troops into Iraq. But there has been no large scale Turkish interventions since the U.S. invasion. The U.S. Has vowed to crack down on the P.K.K., but Turkey accuses the U.S. for playing a double game in Northern Iraq. Officials say the C.I.A. is covertly funding and arming the P.K.K. sister organization the Iran based Kurdistan Free Life Party to destabilize the Iranian government.

REESE ERLICH: That's exactly what I was alluding to earlier which is, the U.S. plays a very, very dangerous game by supporting some in the ethnic communities who have legitimate grievances against Iran. So the Turks know exactly what's going on, they don't believe the disclaimers issued by the United States. They have their own agenda to pursue. The Kurds of Turkey face a great deal of oppression, probably even worse than inside Iran. There have been horrendous crimes committed by the Turkish government against the Kurdish population and for some, the P.K.K. is seen as a legitimate resistance organization. The problem of course is it's more or less a cult formed around Oshelan and you've got two, the Turkish government on the one hand and the P.K.K. on the other, neither which offer a real alternative for the Kurdish people.

So Turkey has indeed invaded Northern Iraq in the 1990's in an attempt to wipe out the P.K.K. which was unsuccessful. At a time when the U.S. is escalating the war in Baghdad, threatening to attack Iran, suddenly Turkey could get involved in clashes with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq. So what is now a mess, will become an incredibly bigger mess.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally Reese Erlich, the relationship of Britain and Israel, both U.S. Allies with these parties.

REESE ERLICH: Israel is backing various Kurdish groups. Both among the Iraqi Kurds as well as the P.J.A.K. among the Iranian Kurds. For Israel that have a long history of supporting non-Arab countries in an effort to divide the Arab world so they supported the Shah of Iran, Hali Salasi in Ethiopia. Turkey, they were allied in Turkey for many years and they see trying to use the Kurds in the same way. You have Israeli security officials training the guards at the Arabial Airport in northern Iraq. You have training of special anti-terrorism squads. I think they're working with P.J.A.K. although this is all denied by P.J.A.K. and the Israelis are also playing a very dangerous game because they are intervening in the affairs of Iraq and causing a great deal of trouble both for Iran and now they're outs with Turkey who was their long-time ally.

AMY GOODMAN: You described in your forth coming book about Israel participating actively in -- with Mossad agents posing as businessmen setting up shop in the K.R.G. soon after the 2003 U.S. invasion, in B.B.C. TV, discovering Israeli former special forces soldiers training Kurdish security at the airport. Say more about that.

REESE ERLICH: Yeah, exactly. The B.B.C. did a very good television special in which they interviewed these former Israeli intelligence agents who are now allegedly working as private contractors, much like the C.I.A. does with it's agents around the world. So it was on TV and when I asked the Iran -- the Iraqi officials about this, they denied everything, even though they had been on TV and an obviously reputable news organization. I had talked to various people who had met with supposed Israeli businessmen who were much more interested in arms trades and intelligence and that sort of thing.

So the Israelis have significantly stepped up their activities in northern Iraq. I think if ultimately the Iraq war goes very badly for the United States, as all indications are that it will, eventually Iraq will split into three different countries including an independent Kurdistan on the north and the Israelis hope to benefit from that by having a beachhead against the Sunni and the Shiia and Arab parts of Iraq and as well as the other neighboring Arab countries. That's a long time goal of the Israelis.

AMY GOODMAN: Reese Erlich is an independent radio producer and journalist, he reports on Iran on the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine. He is the author of the forth coming book The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy in the Middle East Crisis. I spoke to him in San Francisco.


www.democracynow.org

US Turkey ties face crisis over PKK in northern Iraq

As Juan Cole mentions on his blog. This could become another front in the Iraq war. The US has turned over security to the Kurds in the area as if washing its hands of the issue. THere are reports that Iran is shelling some areas as well since Kurdish rebels use border areas as a base to attack inside Iran. I wonder if the US black ops are actually supporting that.


US ties face second crisis over Iraq
Military-to-military and political ties between NATO allies Turkey and the US reached a historic low level on March 1, 2003, when the Turkish Parliament rejected a motion to allow US troops to launch a second front from Turkish soil during the US invasion of Iraq.




Since then, relations between the two militaries in particular have witnessed normalization, even if they are not yet completely back on track.

But the increased potential for the Turkish military to invade northern Iraq to crush Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists has restarted the infliction of serious damage on Turkish-US military ties, say well-informed Western sources.

A Turkish invasion of northern Iraq, the only quiet part of a country in which US-led coalition forces have been engaged to halt fierce sectarian violence, would mean for Turkey, in the words of a Western military analyst, "Goodbye to the US and to the EU, which Turkey seeks to become a member of, as well as goodbye to billions of dollars coming into Turkey helping the recovery of its fragile economy."

Senior US sources are quoted by Western military analysts as saying that Turkish-US ties have been going through a dangerous and sensitive time as the Turkish military has created the potential to invade northern Iraq. On June 3 US Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned Turkey against sending troops into northern Iraq, as it has threatened, to hunt PKK terrorists.

According to Western military sources, with the Turkish military's possible invasion of northern Iraq, Turkish-US relations have been going through one of the worst times of their history, with such an invasion constituting the biggest threat to furthering instability in Iraq in particular and in the Middle East as a whole. The same sources quoted senior US officials as believing that the military is hiding behind the government by urging it to make a political decision for the invasion. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meanwhile, says that if a written request is made by the military, Parliament would consider it.

The politicians, preparing for early general elections on July 22, do not seem keen to allow the military to invade northern Iraq, believing such a move would create serious turmoil for the region -- triggering Iran and Syria to follow suit -- for Turkey's relative stability. A statement made by Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyakanıt on Thursday during a reception at the Finnish Embassy, saying that the "the Turkish soldier is not a neighborhood bully. There is need for a political directive [for a cross-border operation]," has at least signaled that the military will not invade northern Iraq without permission.

Büyükanıt made those remarks upon questions over the latest press reports that the Turkish military had entered northern Iraq to prevent PKK terrorists from infiltrating Turkey from safe havens located in the neighboring country. The invasion reports were denied by Turkey, the US and the Iraqi Kurds.

Soon after his remarks during the Finnish Armed Forces Day, the General Staff released a statement on its Web site, at midnight on Thursday, vowing to give the necessary response to PKK terrorists, hours after the terror organization detonated a roadside bomb in southeastern Turkey, killing three Turkish soldiers and injuring six other people.

The attack on Thursday evening occurred in an area that the Turkish military had declared a “temporary security zone” amid concern that it might stage a large incursion into Iraq to pursue PKK terrorists.

The General Staff statement also called on the nation to show its reaction. There was the “expectation [on the part] of the Turkish Armed Forces that the Turkish nation will show its mass reaction to resist in the face of these terrorist actions.”

The military said the country’s national and unitary structure was in danger and that escalating attacks have shown the real aim of the “separatist and racist terrorist organization.”

Meanwhile, a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq, stated the Western military analysts, may lead to the official declaration of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, something that Turkey is adamantly against.

During a visit to Greece in April of this year Gen. Büyükanıt, in response to a question, stated that it was impossible for them to accept a new state established on its doorstep.

Psychological warfare

As a Turkish invasion in northern Iraq is possible, part of the TSK’s reactions, which included building up forces on the Iraqi border coupled with statements saying that military intervention is an option to stop the PKK terrorist infiltration into the country, has been a psychological war the military has launched, recalled a retired Turkish general.

“I believe that Turkey can only solve the PKK problem inside Turkey by also addressing the region’s economic and social problems. The military has been pursing a policy of escalation by exerting pressure on the US (to do something against the PKK in northern Iraq), on the Kurds and on the government. It may not in the end use force through the invasion of Iraq but could succeed in persuading the Kurds and the US in particular to do something against the PKK, such as cutting off logistics in the region,” said the same source.

Through the psychological warfare, the TSK also wanted to retain their favor with the public, the majority of whom believes, albeit wrongly, that an invasion of northern Iraq will reduce considerably the PKK threat.

Hot pursuit and buffer zone

Though Turkey, the US and Iraqi Kurdish leaders denied a major invasion into northern Iraq by the Turkish military, sources in the region told Today’s Zaman that hot pursuit operations, with around 10 Turkish soldiers in each case, have been taking place on-and-off inside northern Iraq in about a 15 to 20-kilometer zone.

This is coupled with mortar shelling by the Turkish soldiers inside northern Iraq from within Turkey.

Over speculation that the Turkish military may set up a buffer zone inside northern Iraq in areas bordering Turkey, Western sources stated that the US in particular would not allow Turkey to do that as it would be similar to an invasion of a sovereign state.

Some Turkish officials have said that if troops stage a major incursion into Iraq, they might set up a buffer zone in Iraq to try to stop terrorist infiltration.