Iraq Border: Turkey keeps cross-border operation on hold

Lale SARIIBRAMIOGLU (TZ)

Turkey keeps cross-border operation on hold

As the snow started melting in the mountainous border region in southeast Turkey, local media have reported that the Turkish military has reinforced its troop strength in the area with armored vehicles and tanks to deter any Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) infiltration into Turkey from northern Iraq.

The reports were coupled with reports coming from northern Iraq that Turkish troops had taken up positions there close to the Turkish border area. The latest report first came from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. But while the Turkish military has denied this report, Western sources have raised skepticism over the news from PUK, which is not in control of the region.

Instead another Kurdish group, the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (IKDP) is in control of the region, recalled one Western diplomat, questioning the reliability of the PUK report. Since there is no border security on the Iraqi side of the border and the PKK terrorists are allegedly in full control of those areas, it would not be surprising that Turkish troops might occasionally enter northern Iraq, albeit in a very small area, to deter the PKK from infiltrating into Turkey, said one Western analyst.

But the liaison office based in Turkey’s Silopi township, near the Iraqi border where US and Turkish military officials coordinate contacts between the Turkish troops in Turkey and in northern Iraq, as well as between the Turkish and the US forces in Iraq, has reportedly observed no such Turkish troop crossing the border. Today’s Zaman has also learned that the TSK has also informed some NATO member countries about its reinforcements in the Southeast in the past two weeks.

Time not ripe for Turkish operation in Northern Iraq

Turkey has never ruled out a military option in the form of cross-border operation into northern Iraq to pursue the PKK terrorists, although it is conscious that such an operation would only be a short-term solution in the struggle against the PKK.

But both Turkish and Western military sources have told Today’s Zaman that a Turkish cross-border operation into northern Iraq does not seem possible in the coming weeks, since several generals, including Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun, will be in Washington next week to attend the annual meeting of the American-Turkish Council (ATC).

“It would not be wise for the Turkish military to send troops to northern Iraq while its generals are attending a meeting in Washington. The Turkish military will not like to look foolish,” stated one Western diplomatic source in Ankara.

Turkey has also been lobbying the US intensely, in particular the Democrats, who took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate during last year’s November by-elections, to convince them not to adopt a resolution terming the killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide. Crossing the border into northern Iraq at such a crucial time would not serve Turkish interests either, while Turkey has been pressing hard to convince the Democrats and the strong Jewish lobby to pull the resolution from the table, said another Western diplomat.

Cross-border threat to deter PKK and US

But Turkey does not rule out a possible cross-border operation into northern Iraq, although it knows that it will only serve Ankara’s interests in the short term. Ankara wants to keep this option on the table, partly because it seeks to deter the PKK from any intensified attacks, but also to give a message to its close NATO ally, the US, that it should take all necessary measures to finish off the PKK camps in northern Iraq and avoid endangering the fragile stability in the north of the war-torn country.

But neither Turkish officials, nor some Western analysts, rule out the possibility of a Turkish cross-border operation at any time, particularly if the PKK stages a big assault leading to the deaths of hundreds of Turks.

22 March 2007

Todays Zaman

http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=43636