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Turkey Authorizes Iraq Incursion
Turkish soldiers patrol on a road in the southeastern province of Sirnak, along the border with Iraq, on the day that cross-border actions were authorized.
(By Kadir Konuksever -- Associated Press)
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A U.S. general and Turkish general assigned to oversee U.S.-Iraqi efforts against the PKK left their jobs this year, frustrated that neither Americans nor Iraqis placed any priority on the problem, U.S. and Turkish officials said.
Turkish officials said Wednesday that Iraqi efforts to shut down PKK operations and financial accounts and turn over leaders to Turkey could help avert military action.
Turkey has had limited numbers of troops in northern Iraq since before the 2003 invasion. Morrell said there are now two or three battalions that function mainly as observers. "They are pretty much confined to their bases," he said. "Their movements are limited and must be coordinated with us."
Although the Turkish government now has the authority to strike, some Turkish officials and military experts warned that the military would face serious obstacles in all types of cross-border action, including many of the same problems the U.S. military has experienced in Iraq.
Turkish troops have conducted 24 cross-border attacks in northern Iraq since the conflict with PKK rebels began 23 years ago, according to Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek. That included several operations with tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy aerial bombardments.
The military never routed PKK rebels from northern Iraq. Now the task will be harder because the PKK has been embraced by the local Kurdish population and its authorities, officials and analysts said.
Retired Maj. Gen. Armagan Kuloglu said the military's first choice of missions is likely to be repeated "short-time operations," using attack helicopters or other aircraft to attack PKK cells.
He cautioned that those kinds of attacks require extremely precise, difficult-to-obtain intelligence. He said bombing operations and targeted attacks are also treacherous because PKK members blend easily into the civilian population.
Another option is a large-scale military invasion to establish a buffer between PKK strongholds in Iraq and the Turkish border and to attempt to root out guerrillas. But similar attacks in the 1990s failed.
"The worst-case scenario is to create a buffer zone and stay there," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a political commentator with close ties to the military. "They know they will be hampered there not by the PKK, but the pesh mergas," the local Iraqi Kurdish militia forces that assisted the United States in the north during the invasion of Iraq.
"It will be easy to get in, but very difficult to get out," Birand said.
"We've been hearing from the military commanders this will not mean the end of the PKK," said Sami Kohen, a columnist for the daily Turkish newspaper Milliyet. "What they say is they need to be there. They need to get into their hideouts. . . . There is no other way."
