Thousands of Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq this morning. They are chasing (Turkish) Kurdish insurgents that have been operating out of bases in the northern part of Iraq. These insurgent groups (part of the PKK or Kurdish Workers Party) have been conducting cross-border raids.
I do not blame Turkey for this, just as I do not blame Israel for going into the Gaza strip to blast insurgents hiding over there. Turkey must be allowed to defend itself. The blame falls squarely on the Kurdish separatists and the Iraqi Kurds that allow them to operate out of their territory (just as the blame in Afghanistan falls onto the Pakistani government for Taliban operations coming out of their country).
If the Turkish Kurds don't like living under Turkish law, they should move to Northern Iraq. Sounds pretty simple, and in my way of thinking, it is. Just as if 18% of Vermont wants to leave the US ... let's buy them plane tickets to the country of their choice. The Iraqi Kurds should have a zero-tolerance attitude about these separatist's operating out of their territory. That portion of Iraq is the biggest success story of the war ... so why screw it up?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Turkey Invades Iraq
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19 comments:
not that I want to distrub possible peace somewhere but it seems that if we want to spread democracy we have to allow small grass roots organizations that we may or may not disagree with exist. Women suffragists were not wanted when they first banned together and were often times thought of as harmful to democracy but in the democratic system they had to be allowed to gather and exist!
sarah ... these Turkish Kurds are "terrorists" and as far as allowing them to gather and comparing them to the women sufferagists ....
Or were you talking about the kooks in Vermont?
I say Turkey has the right to enforce their laws. If it means chasing someone across borders they should be allowed to do it. American law enforcement does it. So should every country who want to protect its people?
If these WERE grass root organizations, I would say what Sarah is saying
But these are terrorists.
As for Vermont, I say we allow them to remove themselves from the Union and see how long they last before they come crawling back.
Paul: Hasn't changed, this is the Government of Turkey...The military has asked permissiion for the raids but, they have not received it from Ankara.(but thats ok)....The tail wags the dog....Since Attaturk the military enforces the constitution Periodically, Turkey will send in troops to cleanse the PKK. The PKK for their part keep making these over the border raid into Turkey and make it back to Iraq to rest.....Turkey has asked the United States on numerous occasions to help them stop the raid across the border, but the PKK continued.
Sarah,,,I believe,the original Kurdistan encompassed parts of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, it was the British and French who administered these countries individually after the Great War WWI and the whole middle east was partitioned.
mike ... I live on the border, and believe me, we do not chase suspects into Mexico. On the occasions that police have gone into Mexico, they are arrested on firearms violations and violating Mexican sovereignty, it is an international incident and the officers end up spending a couple days in jail before we can get them back (I wouldn't want to spend a single second) in a Mexican Prison.
Aside from that, I agree with you that a nation should be able to chase terrorists across the border.
tapline ... that's pretty much why I am opposed to the idea of dividing Iraq into 3 seperate countries. We have had enough doing things the easy way, we need to make Iraq function as a whole, or we will have even more problems down the road.
Hello :)
Kind of you to visit my blog. I think the Turkish government is not only looking for compensation for loss of trade and tourism income. It is also trying to obtain assurances about the future of the Kurdish-run enclave in Northern Iraq. The Turkish government believes that if Iraqi Kurdish forces were to capture the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, then the Iraqi Kurds would have the financial independence to establish a separate Kurdish state.
puman, thank you for stopping by. The Kurds will get Kirkuk, it has always been theirs (though Saddam made a big effort to import Arabs from the South and re-settle them in Kirkuk ... as well as re-settle Kurds that were living in Kirkuk further north ... sounds a lot like what Hitler had Himmler do in Yugoslavia where he moved ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia into the lands of the Jewish people that he had relocated to the camps). The Turks are just going to have to deal with the fact that they will have a semi-autonomous Kurdish republic on their southern border. It is up to the Kurds to not allow their territory to be used as a launching pad for terrorists.
Just poppin by! Saw A NEW NAME on Pumans block and had to check.
So curios! Hi!
stellapolaris ... glad you popped by, feel free to come by anytime.
Mr champagne! ; not being formal at all! Just like the sound of the name!:)
Paul, I come by every day to read your posts which are always really interesting. You'll forgive me if I don't always comment, I'm not a political animal. x
Now I heard last night on the news that it really wasn't an invasion. Just a "hot pursuit". I am not sure I really understand the situation over there, so I don't feel competent enough to comment on the implications or reasons for it. Just wondering what you think about the reports today that it wasn't really an invasion.
My source is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19070463/
There are more "hot pursuits" than most of us know about. and not just on the north and south borders either. They just keep them cool and on the low down. That is all I can say about that
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mona ... you can call me anything you like. I can't take credit for my name ... my dad gave it to me.
akelamalu ... thanks for your faithful readership, you don't have to be a political animal ... I love you just the way you are
shelli ... if thousands of Mexican troops crossed the border into the United States, firing weapons and trying to destroy the enemy ... I think we would call them invaders. Although when hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants do it ... we call them economic refugees.
mike ... all I can say is that I have personal knowledge of what happens here on the El Paso/Juarez border, and "hot pursuits" are a no-no.
I hadn't heard about this yet. Thanks for the post.
myutopia ... often these cross-border raids are kept as quiet as possible by the Turkish government ... and they always deny they have occurred
Well, things could get real UGLY in the "Kurdistan" area. Today three Turkish soldiers were killed and six wounded, and the fighting continues. When we LIBERATED the country of IRAQ we were not planning on having a shooting match between the Turkish and Peshmergas. The last thing we want to see in IRAQ is a shooting match between those two groups with our GIs in the middle of the fight.
tlrb
tlrb ... luckily (or perhaps strategically) our troops are not near the northern border. The Turkish Kurds need to behave, and the Iraqi Kurds are the ones that need to make that clear to their northern neighbors.
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