Sunday, the Turkish government announced the deaths of three more Turkish soldiers near Turkey’s border with Northern Iraq:
Istanbul – Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four others wounded in a bomb attack by Kurdish militants in the southern Turkish province of Sirnak near the border with Iraq, Turkish media reported Sunday.
The remote-controlled explosion late on Saturday occurred only hours after the funeral of four other soldiers who had died in a separate attack in the neighbouring province Siirt. […]
Meanwhile, a militant of the illegal Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) was killed in clashes with Turkish security forces in the Eastern Anatolian highlands, it was reported. […]
The incidents were the latest in a series of PKK attacks in recent weeks,which have led to tensions also between Turkey and Iraq as the PKK militants also operate from Northern Iraq.
That’s seven Turkish soldiers killed in the last few days, presumably by the PKK, a Kurdish political party and militant organization dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state containing the Kurdish portions of Northern Iraq, Southeastern Turkey Northeastern Syria and Northwestern Iran. The same organization to which officials in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq have been extending winks and nods ever since Saddam was removed from power.
The Turkish military has amassed thousands of troops near its border with Iraq, declared the entire area there a temporary security zone to which martial law applies, and allegedly conducted cross border raids into areas of Iraq which supposedly shelter PKK fighters.
(cont.)
Three Turkish officials described Wednesday’s cross-border operation as a “hot pursuit” raid that was limited in scope, and one of them said troops returned to their bases by the end of the day. Turkey has conducted such brief raids in the past, but the latest incident comes as rebels are escalating attacks in their decades-old fight for autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul denied forces had entered Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s government has officially condemned the raids, but its Foreign Minister is also offering to negotiate with Turkey regarding its security concerns regarding the PKK’s increased terrorist activity inside Turkey, provided the cross border attacks by the Turkish military stop immediately.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has told the BBC his government is ready to discuss with Turkey how to deal with the PKK Kurdish separatists. […]
Mr Zebari told the BBC’s Arabic Service that Iraq was ready to talk about the activities of the PKK in northern Iraq, and other matters of concern to Turkey.
“We are open to dealing with these positively,” he said, “but not via an intensive and large-scale bombardment of border areas.”
And what has been the US contribution to lessening the possibility of an all out war between Turkey and Iraq’s Kurds? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s ineffectual public remarks criticizing Turkey’s government yesterday:
Rice, speaking in New York to a panel of journalists and editors, said it’s “not good for anybody for a robust move across the border.” She described it as “not good for Iraq and not good for Turkey.”
The statement by Rice suggested Washington has acknowledged that Turkey might conduct limited incursions across the rugged frontier against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party. Iran has also clashed with Iranian Kurd fighters who have bases in remote, mountainous areas of northern Iraq, and Iranian forces reportedly participated in the overnight shelling.
Yes, “not good” for anyone. And this is all you have to say about the situation, Madame Secretary?
Let’s get real. There currently exists a low level war between Turkey and the Kurds in Northern Iraq, one which is close to becoming a much larger and wider conflict. The Bush administration has apparently thrown up its hands, unable or unwilling to piss off the Kurds by demanding they reign in the PKK militants, but also unwilling to send American forces to the the Kurdish border with Turkey to forestall any further military “incursions” by the Turks.
I don’t know if it is because they are so consumed with their surge strategy into Baghdad and the other Sunni regions of Iraq, or too focused with their disinformation campaign hyping the threat posed by Iran, but Bush and Rice apparently are willing to allow events to play out between the Turks and the Kurds without any significant involvement by the US government to head off a full scale war, one that could easily lead to further destabilization around the region, drawing in Syria and Iran, as well.
Then again, maybe that is the administration’s plan. Let chaos reign to promote the the need for a “South Korean solution” in Iraq where we keep thousands of American troops “over there” in permanent bases for decades because of all the “instability” in the region. And (but always said sotto voce, and never for public dissemination) to insure multinational oil companies their not insignificant share of the Iraqi crude oil pie, of course.
The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. “So where is the oil going to come from?… The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies,” he said.
Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq’s oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through “production-sharing agreements” (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world’s two largest producers, is state controlled.
Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.
Eyes on the Prize, boys and girls, eyes on the prize. Who cares if a few thousand Turks and Kurds kill each other over ethnic and territorial disputes, so long as American troops help secure the oil wealth of Iraq for Exxon and BP? Not Dick Cheney and the neocons, that’s for certain.
