The Turkey Problem

While much of the world has focused on the Iraqi war and especially the sectarian violence/tension between the Sunni and Shia communities, as well as Iran's influence, tensions have been growing between the Turks and the Iraqi Kurdish population. There has long been a rift between the Turks and the Kurds and the Iraqi war has only raised the pressure between the two groups.

For many years the Turkish government has cracked down on Turkey's separatist Kurds but now the Turkish government is about to launch incursions into Iraq. They have done this before but given the extremely unstable situation in Iraq this time could be very different and not in a good way.

SIRNAK, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish warplanes bombed positions of suspected Kurdish rebels Wednesday, and the prime minister said preparations for parliamentary approval of a military mission against separatist fighters in Iraq were under way.

A cross-border operation could hurt Turkey's relationship with the United States, which opposes Turkish intervention in northern Iraq, a region that has escaped the violence afflicting much of the rest of the country.

U.S. officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize areas of Iraq outside the predominantly Kurdish northern region.

The military activity followed attacks by PKK rebels that killed 15 soldiers since Sunday and prompted Turkey's government to push for a possible cross-border offensive against separatist bases in Iraq. Turkish Kurd rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Turkish troops were also shelling suspected PKK camps in the regions of Kanimasa, Nazdur and Sinath, in northern Iraq, from positions in Turkey's Hakkari province, just across the border, Hurriyet reported.

GOI: There are many questions to consider with this anxious situation. How will the Iraqi government respond to an incursion into their country? Specifically, how will the large percentage of Kurds in the Iraqi parliament, including the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani re-act? How will the U.S. government/military re-act? How will Iran act given they too have a sizable Kurdish population and share a border with Iraq as well as Turkey?

Those of us who understood the region before the disastrous invasion of Iraq have long wondered if/when and how Turkey would embroil itself in the Iraqi instability. I figured it was a matter of time and it appears that things are going to get even more complicated for everyone over there. Great (insert sarcasm).

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