U.S. TALKS SEEK TO LIMIT TURKISH ACTION IN IRAQ
Mandy Kirby
Global Insight
November 5, 2007
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in the
U.S. capital, Washington D.C., for crisis talks with U.S. President
George W. Bush today, following an international meeting in Turkey
on the future of Iraq. Erdogan is reserving the right to conduct
incursions into Iraq to pursue rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), despite opposition from Iraq and the United States. Turkey
believes that though the United States and Iraq have professed
support in combating the rebel threat, concrete measures have not
been forthcoming, and has stepped up its position with threats to
impose economic sanctions on northern Iraq through the closure of
a key border gate. The issue of co-operation from the northern Iraq
autonomous Kurdish government is also problematic. Ironically, though,
Turkey itself is stalling, holding back from action in the hope of a
suitable concession from the United States. Today’s talks will see
Erdogan try to extract that concession, allowing it to climb down
from threats of military action. Recent stand-offs over a bill in the
U.S. congress over the recognition as genocide of the slaughter of
Armenians in 1915-1918 by Ottoman troops appear to have diminished
somewhat, as support for the bill has waned.
Significance:The United States knows that Erdogan is prepared for an
incursion, with full knowledge of the costs and risks involved.
Troops have been deployed across the south-eastern border, reinforcing
an area which is generally heavily militarised. However, Erdogan also
knows that the U.S. not likely to come on board after military action
had been launched. The best hope for the meeting is a promise that the
150 most-wanted PKK rebels in Iraq and elsewhere, mostly Europe, will
be targeted and extradited by the United States with the help of Iraq.