Turkish army chief wants Iraq op

Now this should liven up the Iraqi melting pot...

Local print press here in Belgrade are running stories that the Turkish military is close to ousting the civilian government too!!!

 

THis could get interesting......

Who would the US back?
Who would the iranians back?
Who would the Syrians back?

What price a barrel of oil?

What effect on the surge, when every Kurdish Solider, fcuk off stright up north to take on the Turks. I can just see the Sunni's extracting maximum pain in Kirkuk and Mosul......

 

The Turkish military have been making noises about invading Northern Iraq for a while now, why has it ballooned up now?
If the Turkish military do stage a coup how will the Americans react? It would totally screw up there application for membership of the EU and make resolution regarding Cyprus very difficult.

 

Here's the current official US State Department view...

State Department Press Briefing, 12 April 2007

 

Because the PKK ran a nasty operation in Turkey a few days ago that took a good few lives - including military. The top man wants to hit back.

BBC report from 4 days ago.

Don't put too much faith in Serbian newspapers. May never happen.

 

Do the Americans have to convince the Turkish Government or the Military? Will the army listen if the Government agrees to show restraint?

 

You guys need to go back through ypour BBC monitoring unit reports. Nobody probably bothers to read this any more.

Iran, Iraq and Turkey all used to mount cross border operations in this region over the last 30 years. They were always carefully co-ordinated so that earch army was deconflicted in terms of time and space so that they never confronted each other. Because it was tucked away, your media ( apart from BBC Caversham park) never noticed it.

This is only coming to light now because the loose american cannon has entered the equation, perhaps EU membership might be tipping the issue as well??

 

Here is a little tale of Kurdish doings:

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherjones.com%2Fnews%2Ffeature%2F2007%2F04%2FKurdistan_Shlomi.html

 

Yes they are, only the border will be moving South.

 

Or, they could end up co-habitating as the border also moves sideways.

 

will there be any resolution to this? I thought the Turks and PKK had agreed a ceasefire? What caused it to fail?

 

True but according to the Turkish Press (no idea if this is the Scotsman or news of the world in Turkey) the military has been voicing rather loudly its wish for a secular president. Take into account that the president is elected by Parliament, a parliament currently 2 thirds controlled by members of the former Islamic party ousted in the late 90s. The military, academics and lawyers don’t want a religious presence within the state, yet the "Islamic cronies with secret plans" control the government. The Turkish military has flexed its muscles before when it didn’t like the government, why not again? And if it does what’s saying its new found pair of brass ones one mean some holidays over the border for some units? Take into account the elections happen at the start of May then things be me interesting pretty soon.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=171049

 

Interesting, I understand that Kirkuk will be the next flashpoint. "The Kurds want to get their hands on it because it's got oil and would make a future separate Kurdistan a viable state. It's coming to the crunch with a referendum on the future status of the city due before the end of this year."

 

The Kurds want a state, and at the moment they see the US as shielding them so they can establish one - hidden behind the figleaf of "federalism".

Trouble is, the Turks, Iranians and those Iraqi politicians currently not spread over their Parliamentary dining room all agree that they're not going to get one. You will see them co-ordinate their operations as they have done before.

The US is in a bit of a pickle here - it can back the Kurds - staunch defenders of female circumcision, errm sorry I mean freedom and democracy and keen members of Peshmerga death squads getting payback on the Sunnis, errm sorry I mean the Iraqi Army or a member of NATO robustly pursuing terrorists who murder civilians within their borders errm or do I mean a nation state seeking to sort out troublesome ethnic minorities using methods they developed on the Armenians and Assyrians a century or so ago.

I believe the phrase is "sh!t sandwich".

In the short term in Turkey I see the decision depending on the outcome of the arguments between those who seek to play the long game, simply wait for the US to leave then do the deed while the world watches the rest of Iraq burn and those who want to go and mallet the terrorists right now and screw the US, if it really is a war on terror then shut up and step aside Uncle Sam.

 

The bigger question is will the Turkish military mount a coup?So much hypocrisy in the Middle East and whatever answer you choose someone spits there dummy out!