The Turkish parliament is expected to grant permission today for the country’s military to attack Kurdish PKK rebel forces in northern Iraq, who are blamed for a series of deadly attacks on Turkish troops.
While the parliament is expected to approve the action by a considerable margin, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is urging calm and insisting that military strikes within Iraq’s borders would not be automatic.
“Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right conditions,” Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday. “This is about self-defense.”
The Bush administration and General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, are pressing Turkey to show restraint, fearing that one of the most stable areas of war-torn Iraq could suddenly become the most volatile.
There are also concerns that even a limited war in northern Iraq could further destabilize the entire region.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has spoken directly to Mr Erdogan to assure him that the Iraqi government is committed to eliminating the bases of PKK militants in northern Iraq.
Yet the representations of Washington and Baghdad seem to ring hollow, given the Turks’ repeated but unsuccessful appeals for assistance to deal with the PKK’s persistent and deadly guerilla attacks.
Mr Erdogan also knows that the Maliki government has limited, if any, control over security in the relatively autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq’s north. It is equally clear that US forces are stretched to capacity in central and southern Iraq.
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to withdraw her support for a resolution that calls Turkey’s mass killings of Armenians in 1915 acts of genocide.
The Turks have spent millions of dollars lobbying against the resolution, and its passage would put Washington on a diplomatic collision course with Ankara.
Presently, the US can ill-afford any deterioration in relations since Turkey provides critical support in the Iraq war, including allowing US forces to operate out of bases in southern Turkey which are used to replenish supply lines to troops in Iraq.
Last week, all eight living former US secretaries of state and three former defense secretaries reportedly urged Ms Pelosi to walk away from the resolution for fear that it would damage US-Turkish relations and threaten security in the Middle East.
Today, Senior Democrats including Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania plan to hold a press conference to urge Ms Pelosi to abandon the resolution.
