Iraqi Kurds Threaten to Force Turks Out

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kurds_turkey&cid=540&ncid=1473

IRBIL, Iraq - The Kurdish government in northern Iraq (news - web sites)'s Irbil province threatened Tuesday to close down the offices of a Turkish-led peacekeeping force if Ankara did not pull it out voluntarily.



In October, the Kurdish Parliament in Irbil sent a letter to officials in Washington, London and Ankara, saying the Peace Monitoring Force must leave the Kurdish area because it is no longer needed after the ouster of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), said Neschirwan Barzani, prime minister of the area of northern Iraq controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.


Turkey sent the force to northern Iraq in the last decade to patrol a line separating rival Kurdish groups — the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The force of about 400 is mostly comprised of Iraqi Turkmen and Iraqi Assyrians, but is commanded by Turkish officers — the Kurds' biggest objection.


"We asked for a meeting to be held for this subject to be determined and for the dissolution of PMF," Barzani told The Associated Press.

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[Trajan]

1. There is NO WAY ...

That an upstart Kurdish military juggernaut can win the day over the secular remnant of the Ottoman Empire ...

The Turks will crush them ....

Just the facts ...

[htuttle]

2. Define 'win'

If you mean you line both armies up in rows on the battlefield like it was 1870, then one annihilates the other, of course Turkey would 'win'.

But could the Turks realistically quell Kurdish resistance in Northern Iraq? I doubt it. Turkey would ultimately find it self in a situation all too familiar to residents of the US. Waist deep in Big Muddy.

I'm starting to believe that with advances in individual weaponry over the last 40 years, especially the RPG and the SAM, from here on any occupier ANYWHERE is going to find it impossible to quell a rebelling population without committing wide scale genocide.

Does Turkey still want to get into the EU? Then it should probably not consider committing genocide in Northern Iraq. Therefore, there will probably be an independent Kurdistan at some point in the near future, whether federalized into a larger Iraq or not, since there's little that can stop it.

[Go Eagles]

3. but

If there is an independent Kurdistan, especially if it is economically powerful from controlling the oil reserves in Kirkuk, where does that leave Turkey considering they are busy holding down their own Kurdish separatists at the border of Northern Iraq? Turkey already has a pretty bad humanitarian track record with the Kurds so I wouldn't put it past them to act if they feel threatened by an autonomous Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Your points about being in the thick of the mud are valid. There are any number of scenarios that could play out in that region and all of them are frightening from ethnic strife, civil war or a broader regional war.

[bemildred]

4. The Turks are screwed on this issue.

They can deal with it peaceably or they can have a big
ugly war and not get into the EU anytime soon. Why do
you think they did not support the US leading into the war?

This was all forseen. If anything, things in Iraq have
worked out worse than expected from a Turkish point of
view, and better than hoped for from a Kurdish point of
view. Uncle Sugar CANNOT afford to piss of the Kurds
right now, and the Kurd's know it. If Uncle Sugar gets
himself safely extracted from Iraq, the Kurds will have less
leverage, but that is not likely to happen without Kurd
cooperation. Catch-22, see?

Syria and Turkey - which have their own "issues" - recently
made up and had discussions about what to do about the
Kurds, a common problem for them. Don't be surprised if
Iran makes it a threesome.

[underpants]

5. Sounds like the makings of a ........civil war

I know this is about Turkish troops but once fighting starts up there it might just spread......gee if only someone had seen this coming.

[Dhalgren]

6. This is just the tip of the ugly iceberg

poking up through the Iraqi quagmire. You got Shit'ites in the south who might just love to make common cause with the Kurds - after all, they have a common enemy, the Sunni/Ba'athists of the north. Mix into this mirky soup the various cobbled-together tribes and it's civil war at its best! No body in their right mind (this is a slap at Bush) would ever consider stirring up this particular hornet's nest, yet this is the "facts on the ground". Now wouldn't a dandy outcome of Little George's War be the alignment of Turkey, Iran, and Syria? Not only will Turkey not be in the EU, it'll be out of NATO. Why to go George!