TIMES UK - Turkish Prime Minister warns US: we will attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq
Turkey will launch military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq despite frantic appeals for restraint from America and Nato, its Prime Minister has told The Times.
Speaking hours before the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, killed at least 17 more Turkish soldiers yesterday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey had urged the US and Iraqi governments repeatedly to expel the separatists but they had done nothing. Turkey’s patience was running out and the country had every right to defend itself, he said. “Whatever is necessary will be done,” he declared in an interview. “We don’t have to get permission from anybody.”
True but as I said earlier, they are liable to start something which ends with the dismemberment of Iraq, and the creation of a new Kurdistan with the USA as it's strongest ally.
Mr Erdogan, who begins a two-day visit to Britain today, also offered a bleak assessment of relations between the US and Turkey, a country of huge strategic importance to Washington. He said that a “serious wave of antiAmericanism” was sweeping Turkey, called America’s war in Iraq a failure, and served warning that if the US Congress approved a Bill accusing the Ottoman Turks of genocide against Armenians during the First World War, the US “might lose a very important friend”.
Turkey, as the VALLEY OF THE WOLVES clearly indicated has LONG not been a real friend to the AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE, BECAUSE it has clearly LONG harbored the anti American feelings inspired by the ascendant forms of Islam today, so please don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining, Erdogan.
George if you have brains left, signal by beginning the evacuation of Incirlik TODAY. If you don't have such plans, FIRE THE PLANNERS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST, and make the plans TODAY.
What is now going on is HUNTINGTON. The genocide resolution is merely an outgrowth. The PKK is an historical event that was ORDAINED by the Kurds placement for a millennium. This is not a 'blip'
The sombre and unsmiling Prime Minister was only a little less critical of the European Union, accusing some members of reneging on their promises to admit Turkey and claiming that the EU had inflicted a “big injustice” on his country over Cyprus.
Mr Erdogan’s belligerence will cause alarm in Washington and London, and was probably designed to do so. One aide said that he was engaging in “open diplomacy”. The Kurdish regional government, which has a force of about 100,000 men, has promised to resist any incursions. The PKK is threatening to destroy pipelines carrying Iraqi oil to Turkey, and the only peaceful region of Iraq could easily be plunged into chaos.
A Turkish attack on PKK bases in northern Iraq would also cause a serious breach with Washington. Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country of 75 million people, has Nato’s second-largest army, is a key ally in America’s “war on terror” and provides a vital supply route for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Late last night Mr Erdogan said that Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, had asked Turkey to delay any action for a few days. He told Dr Rice he expected “speedy action” from the US.
But in his interview with The Times Mr Erdogan was in no mood to heed Western appeals for restraint. The PKK was hiding behind the US and Iraqi governments, he complained. It was using American weapons. “We have told President Bush numerous times how sensitive we are about this issue but have not had a single positive result.”
Even if this settles down, the handwriting is on the wall.
It is time to consider the advantages of a free, UNITED Kurdistan, instead of hewing to the side of a Turkey, which we must respect, has seen it's people's vote, feeling and belief turn Islamist, and therefore ultimately at best, belligerently neutral.
This Kurdistan would harm Turkey, no doubt, but just as importantly, it would grievously injure Syria and Iran, and create a strong ally.
Aside from allowing our supplies a shortcut, how has Turkey been a NATO ally in this war? Educate me.
I am trying to imagine a situation in which an other NATO ally would take actions which would result in the USA and that ally literally finding their armed forces trying to kill each other. Turkey has been a strong ally in the past, but Korea was 56 years ago. Our IRBM's aimed at the USSR were removed from Turkey in 1963. What is between us now is the acceptance of the Valley of the Wolves as the truth of what America is.
F-15 Combat air patrols should be over northern Iraq, along with AC130's and A-10's on call. Incirlik should begin evac. While we should certainly DISARM the PKK, any Turkish invasion should be resisted by force of arms, and our intention to do so must be signaled ahead of time.
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