Berkshire Eagle, MA
Oct 20 2007
Turkey’s troubling threat
Editorial
Article Last Updated: 10/20/2007 06:47:07 AM EDT
The long-standing enmity between Turkey and the Kurds of bordering
northern Iraq is a conflagration waiting to happen, and the Turkish
parliament’s authorization of cross-border incursions to root out
Kurdish rebels from their mountain bases may ignite it. The United
States has little pull with Ankara, but the European Union, which
Turkey desperately wants to join, does, and the member nations should
use it to restrain the government from actions that could be
disastrous.
Among the many after-effects of America’s toppling of Saddam Hussein
was the freeing of the Kurds from Mr. Hussein’s tyranny. The Kurds
have largely steered clear of the Sunni-Shiite civil war tearing
apart the country, and as they slowly carve out an autonomous region
on the Turkish border, Ankara worries that Kurds in Turkey will
demand similar independence. Turkey accuses Iraqi Kurds of crossing
the border to assist restive members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
in their periodic battles with the Turkish military, which Massoud
Barzani, the president of the Kurdish region in Iraq, denies.
A Muslim nation and a member of NATO, Turkey, for centuries a shaky
bridge between Europe and Asia, is desperately trying to keep a foot
planted in both the West and the East. It is a difficult trick, which
the Bush administration has made much more difficult.
Ankara opposed the invasion of Iraq, refusing to allow the White
House to launch planes from its military bases, because it knew the
invasion would destabilize the country. Turkey wants to maintain
friendly relations with Iran and resents White House efforts to
pressure it to join its sanctions campaign. The government’s
crankiness over a House resolution declaring Turkey’s World War I-era
massacre of Armenians to be genocide is part and parcel of its
unhappiness with Washington.
If Turkey invades northern Iraq it may create another Chechnya. Its
forces will have difficulty rooting out the Kurds from the mountains
they know so well and Kurds in Turkey will become more rebellious.
Iran and Syria may follow Turkey’s lead and invade sections of Iraq
that they have an interest in exploiting or subduing.
Barzani has urged Ankara to engage in talks about the alleged border
incursions and Ankara should take up that offer. If Turkish leaders
are reluctant to do so, the European Union should not be reluctant to
lean on them. A Turkish incursion into Iraq would have repercussions
that will be felt around the globe.
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