Posted on 06/16/2007 6:24:20 AM PDT by Atlantic Bridge
The threat of an invasion didn't materialize, and yet the Turkish army's activities in northern Iraq Wednesday revealed that it is only waiting for the right opportunity to launch strikes against the Kurdish separatist organization PKK in northern Iraq. Emotions are running dangerously high.
For several minutes every television channel in Turkey carried the same images: weeping mothers desperately throwing themselves onto flag-draped coffins, huge crowds waving flags and chanting slogans against the Kurdish separatist organization, the PKK, and officers offering their condolences to the grieving mothers.
The funerals of seven young recruits killed earlier in the week in a PKK suicide bombing at a police station in Tunceli turned into mass demonstrations against the PKK and at least indirect support for the military, which for weeks has been asking the government for permission to finally march into northern Iraq and "deal with" the PKK.
For a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, it seemed as if General Yasar Büyükanit, the chief of staff of the Turkish army, had already given Turkish troops their marching orders. Kurdish sources reported that large numbers of troops had already crossed the border into northern Iraq. Amid denials from the Turkish military, the Kurdish regional government in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil later also announced that the reports were false. According to a military spokesman, there had been no invasion. Instead, the army had only conducted a limited operation on the Iraqi side of the border to pursue "terrorists." But the campaign shows that the Turkish military is armed and ready, and is only waiting for an excuse to finally take action.
Turkish soldiers take part in a military exercise 50 km from the Iraqi border on Thursday. Tensions have been rising after cross-border incursions by Kurdish rebels, based in northern Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
I can’t figure the Turks out. Before the war began back in Mar 2002, they were all for it. Then they changed their mind and would not let US troops in to stage. Now they are with us again.
What’s it going to be there Turks and when are you going to change your minds again?
If we leave Iraq, the Turks will do it.
Can we stick to facts in discussing the posted article?
15 August 2006. U.S. Calls on Kurdish Group To Stop Terrorist Acts, Lay Down Arms. PKK violence has killed 30,000 since 1984, including 500 in 2006.
It ain't the government or any of our Kurdish friends that Turkey is after.
"'Since August 15, 1984, PKK violence has accounted for the deaths of more than 30,000 Turkish security forces and civilians,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement August 14. . . Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people, primarily Turkish Kurds, are believed to belong to the PKK, which formally changed its name to Kongra-Gel in 2003. A majority of PKK members – between 3,000 and 3,500 -- are operating out of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, according to the State Department’s 2005 Country Reports on Terrorism."
Turkey has gone after the PKK in northern Iraq before. I thought we had agreed to help them eliminate the PKK.
BTW, the Turkish Chief of Staff is the same general who said of his own government, "'There is a reactionary threat in Turkey,' Buyukanit said in a keynote address, alluding to Islamists who reject the modern republic's separation of state...." http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Turkey/10071934.html
Sorry but you cannot separate the PKK from the same folks who helped the vanguard of US troops before and during the Iraq invasion. The political base is the same as the party that runs northern Iraq.
This is wishful thinking on behalf of the leftist media, just like the reports 2 weeks ago about a Turkish invasion.
Since the media cannot find anything currently that makes the Iraq situation look bad, they have to speculate about things that have not happened in order to make Iraq look like a failure.
What do you think about the Turks that genocided the Armenians? Are they not terrorists? What about Israel that fought for their independence?
I'd love to see sources that prove that the PKK helped our forces. I'd forward the info to General Ralston.
To wit, "U.S. Consultations with Turkey and Iraq on Counterring the PKK. General Joseph W. Ralston, U.S. Special Envoy for Countering the PKK. Foreign Press Center Briefing Washington, DC September 27, 2006 . . . 'I will not meet with the PKK. We do not meet with terrorist groups. The PKK is declared a terrorist group, not only by Turkey and the United States and the United Kingdom, but the entire European Union.'"
http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/73275.htm
Perhaps I misunderstood your comments?
Do you assume I would have supported them when they did it? We fire bombed Dresden and Tokyo, should we consider ourselves in a war between nations in this also? Israel was attacked by forces trying to exterminate them, a little different than blowing up car bombs in a crowded market, how you can compare the two is beyond me.
In some cases, yes, it may be difficult to separate the Kurds who politically support both the PKK and the US - but perhaps we can separate out those who actually carry out the terrorist attacks. Even if a Kurd thinks the US is great, if he still goes to Turkey and plants a bomb killing 5 civillians - then he’s a terrorist. And many of the PKK members are clustered in camps in northern Iraq. And it’s those who carry out direct attacks on the Turkish people that Turkey wants to stop, not the entire Iraqi Kurdish population.
I think he’s talking about the Stern Gang and LEHI when the British occupied Palestine in the late-40’s.
The Armenians also genocided Turks. Since it is possible to become a Turk, we should all become Turks and annex Turkey as the 51st State and change the national bird to the turkey as Benjamin Franklin suggested.
The only thing you need to know about Turks is that one: They are muslims who lie about being “secular” and two: They have genocided more Christians than anyone else.
In short - They are a horror show.
The Armenians also genocided Turks
Bold faced lies are fun to toss around huh? ...tell that “joke” to the 3 million Christians who were brutally murdered by Muslim Turks in the 20 th century alone
Truth can be surprising.
Truth can be surprising.
Only to the gullible and ignorant.
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