Posted on 02/08/2004 12:06:20 PM PST by Destro
IRAQ: Turks Threaten to Invade
February 8, 2004: On January 14 of this year Turkey's prime minister said that “Iraq's neighbors” won’t allow Iraq to shatter “along ethnic lines.” Turkey would act to stop an independent Kurd state in northern Iraq. This is not a new Turkish fear. For almost two decades “The Kurd War” has flickered in southeastern Turkey. Here’s the direct quote of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "If Iraq moves toward disintegration, neighbors will get involved. Both Syria and Iran think the same way." The Turkish government has made it plain to the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority), to the US, and to the Iraqi Governing Council that Turkey won’t permit an independent Kurdistan. That suggests Turkey would send troops into Iraq, and provoke “a wider war.” Which is why the Baath holdouts and Al Qaeda are trying to provoke the Kurds into opting for independence instead of a federal arrangement in Iraq. The Ansar al-Sunna Army that claimed to have carried out the two suicide bombings February 1 in Iraq’s Kurd areas remains a shadowy outfit. However, 109 Kurds died in the terror attacks in Irbil. The US Army said that Ansar al-Sunna is probably a splinter group of Ansar al-Islam, Al Qaeda’s chief Iraqi connection. The group is also called Jaish Ansar al-Sunna (Army of the Supporters of the Sunna). (Austin Bay)
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