This Is No Surprise
BBC reports: Iraq fears Turkey troop build-up
Iraq says Turkey has 140,000 soldiers along its border, prompting fears of an incursion against Kurdish guerrillas.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari an ethnic Kurd himself, said his government was against any breach of Iraqi sovereignty.
He called for talks with Ankara to solve the issue.
Turkey accuses Kurdish separatists of staging attacks from inside Iraq. It has often warned Baghdad that it is prepared to take military action.
If the PKK weren’t enough, Turkey is also under pressure to respond to the recent bombing that killed more than 100 people in Amirli, a Turkman village. The Turks have shown great concern over the fate of their ethnic cousins, the Turkmeni, in Iraq. There are elections looming, so I wouldn’t put too much faith in slow, patient diplomacy.
2 comments
The threat of Turkey involving itself in the Iraq conflict has existed since day one. What is of real concern is that they have taken the step of positioning such a large force on the Iraq border. If they do cross into Iraq, which I believe they have some legitimate right to do, it is going to escalate the tension considerably. Just another example of the foreign policy leadership of shit for brains.
They tried to buy off the Turks before the Iraq invasion and botched the job badly, which made any Turkish assistance political suicide within Turkey, and then they failed to deal with the Kurdish militants.
If the Turks go into Kurdistan, the fat will be in the fire for the entire region. Kurdistan is the only semi-stable area of Iraq and an American exit route. We could lose all of our US bases in Turkey and one of our strongest allies.
The PKK is trying to start a war, and someone needs to stop it.