Turkish Military Leader Prepared to Lead Attacks in Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/world/europe/13turkey.html>
April 13, 2007
Turkish Military Leader Prepared to Lead Attacks in Iraq
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

ISTANBUL, April 12 — The head of Turkey's armed forces said publicly
on Thursday, in the military's sharpest language to date, that he was
prepared to conduct operations in northern Iraq to crush Kurdish
rebels hiding there.

It is a frightening situation for the United States, which is
struggling to keep the war in Iraq from spreading beyond that
country's borders. And while the threat is not immediate — it would
require approval from the country's diverse Parliament — the issue has
grown more urgent here in recent weeks, spurred by highly publicized
funerals of soldiers killed in battles with rebels and by calls for
action from politicians of all stripes.

"Should there be an operation into northern Iraq?" said Gen. Yasar
Buyukanit, Turkey's chief of staff, speaking at a hastily convened
news conference in Ankara, his first since taking the position eight
months ago. "If I look at it from an exclusively military point of
view, yes, there should be. Would it be profitable? Yes, it would."
Still, he added that, "For a cross-border operation, there has to be a
political decision."

The remarks, the most strident in a series of recent expressions of
rising frustration by Turkey, ratcheted up pressure on Iraq over the
presence of Kurdish rebels based in the autonomous region south of the
mountainous and porous border between Iraq and Turkey.

The issue is highly sensitive. While Shiite and Sunni Arab politicians
in Iraq appear to be increasingly resistant to American influence, the
Kurds remain the United States' strongest allies in an increasingly
bloody war.

But the United States is also an ally of Turkey, and the government
here is growing increasingly frustrated that it is not able to use its
leverage in a country occupied by its fellow NATO member.

General Buyukanit criticized Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader of
northern Iraq and a major American ally who dismissed Turkish concerns
about looming Kurdish autonomy in a recent interview with an Arabic
television station, but said he held the United States responsible.
When entering northern Iraq today, "You are met by Kurdish flags, not
Iraqi ones," he said.

In a briefing in Washington, Sean McCormack, State Department
spokesman, said that Turkey "faces a real threat," from the Kurdish
rebels, whose organization, known by its acronym, the P.K.K., has been
declared a terrorist organization by the United States. But military
intervention, he said, was not the answer.

Turkey's growing nervousness over Kurdish influence on its doorstep
has developed into recent shifts in policy. The state minister for
trade, Kursad Tuzmen, was quoted by the Anatolian News Agency in
recent days as saying that the government planned to open a border
crossing with Syria at Akcakale over the next two months to keep the
flow of Turkish goods moving south in case the single border crossing
with Iraq was shut down. The government also has plans to open three
additional border crossings with Syria, he said.

The parliamentary chairman, Bulent Arinc, who spoke at a news
conference before General Buyukanit, said that the Americans had
abandoned the Kurds in the past, a piece of history that could repeat
itself. "Even under Saddam, every time the Kurds revolted, trusting
the United States, they always perished, lost and felt wretched. I
advise them to be cautious also today."

"The U.S. leaves this region," he added, "but we have been here for
thousands of years."

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul.
--
Yoshie