DON’T ROAST TURKEY
Times of India
Oct 19 2007
Despite calls from the United States and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki to show restraint, the Turkish parliament authorised its
army to launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in
Iraq on Wednesday. The move has created fears that such an incursion
could destabilise a peaceful part of Iraq and ignite a regional crisis
with unpredictable consequences. Oil prices have already surged to
a record high making a seemingly local crisis a matter of global
concern. President George Bush has begun intense diplomatic efforts
to convince the Turkish government against the incursion.
However, past indifference of the US about the outlawed Kurdish
Workers’ Party (PKK) staging attacks against the Turkish army does
not leave a lot of room for persuasive negotiation. US forces are
stretched too thin to be able to be shifted to the north. In recent
weeks, PKK guerrillas have killed 15 Turkish troops and 12 civilians.
There is no real doubt that the PKK is striking from sanctuaries in
northern Iraq. And the US and Iraqi governments have failed repeatedly
to pressure Kurdish leaders into closing their borders to prevent
cross-border raids or to expel separatist rebels.
Tensions have been increased by the introduction of a Bill in the US
House of Representatives that wants to belatedly recognise Turkish
atrocities against its Armenian population in the early 20th century
as genocide. California’s powerful Armenian lobby was instrumental
in pushing the Bill, though concerted opposition has left the
passage of the Bill now in doubt. However, the damage has been
done. Turkey is outraged that the US would meddle in its internal
affairs by gratuitously bringing up actions taken against Armenians
by the Ottoman empire nearly a century ago. This has unnecessarily
complicated the case for the US to persuade Turkey to refrain from
attacking the Kurdish part of Iraq.
An opinion poll shows that nine out of 10 Turks are now hostile to
the US, whose interests they increasingly perceive to be against
their own. This crisis indicates a failure on the part of the western
world to deal with Turkey. The EU continues to waffle over Turkey’s
inclusion in the union, and US politicians, displaying bad timing,
have embarrassed a country that is trying hard to demonstrate that
Islam and democracy can coexist. It is extremely important, therefore,
that the US now convinces Turkey that the PKK will be denied sanctuary
in Iraq, if the world is to be spared the consequences of an entirely
avoidable flare-up.