Saturday, February 23, 2008

Turkish Operations In Iraq

 Turkish forces invaded the mountainous border region of Iraq following a sustained air and artillery attack. The operation is aimed, tacitly at the Kurish Workers Party, the PKK. The PKK has conduced numerous raids into Turkey over the issue of a sovereign Kurdish land. 

The traditional lands of the Kurdish people chris-crossed  by the modern borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Armenia. 

The has operated out of the Kurdish-controlled north of Iraq, referred to as Iraqi Kurdistan, much to the Turks' annoyance. 

It is widely acknowledged that the PKK has conducted terrorist operations and poses a threat to Turkey security. The United States and the international community support and understand the Turks' pursuit of their members. Even the presence of Turkish special forces in Kurdish-controlled Iraq is an accepted reality to the Kurdish party.

Yet as the one relatively stable portion of post-Saddam Iraq, there is a fine balance that must be maintained. Turkish concerns about a Kurdish state growing in both power and influence on its border are understood, but as a potentially stabilizing factor in the precarious future of Iraq, the Kurds' own sovereignty and sense of safety must also be maintained.

Via the World Politics Review blog, the Turkish paper Hurriyet has ongoing coverage of the operation.


- Murphy

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