Turkey and Iraq

Tension mounts

Turkey's incursions into northern Iraq on foot and by air

TURKISH warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel positions deep inside northern Iraq on Sunday December 16th in one of the biggest cross-border air strikes in recent years. The Turkish army declared that all their targets had been hit and the country’s hawkish chief of the general staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, dismissed reports of civilian casualties as “terrorist propaganda”. The bombings were followed the next day by an overnight incursion across the border by about 300 Turkish troops. They were said to be lightly armed, and only moved some 3km inside Iraq. But, taken together, the two actions were a considerable escalation in hostilities across the border.

The deployment of troops is believed to be the first such move since the Turkish cabinet backed action last month to hunt down Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in their bases over the border. And the evidence suggests that the raids were also prompted by Turkey’s closer military co-operation with the United States. Turkey’s most senior general said that the air strikes had been sanctioned by America, which had also provided the intelligence for them.

America has long opposed Turkish intervention in northern Iraq, fearing that this could destabilise the only relatively peaceful bit of the country. But America’s refusal to clobber the rebels on Turkey’s behalf has deepened anti-American feelings in Turkey. Recent polls suggest that a mere 9% of Turks like America. Many believe America is bent on establishing an independent Kurdish state that may eventually lay claim to Turkey’s own Kurdish provinces.

America’s approval for the air raids was thus aimed at salvaging relations with Turkey, an important NATO ally. But America must be hoping that the ground incursion does not get any bigger; Iraqi Kurds fret that the true aim of such an incursion is not to vanquish the PKK but to destroy their semi-independent statelet.

In exchange for American support for the air raids, and a promise to order the Iraqi Kurds to take action against the PKK, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is thought to have made his own promises to President George Bush; to recognise the Iraqi Kurds’ regional government and to craft a new amnesty law for PKK fighters. A previous amnesty that pardoned only those who would rat on their comrades proved a flop; last week the government announced it was tinkering with the law. It is expected to pardon all PKK soldiers who can prove they were not involved in any violence. After more than two decades of war against the rebels, Turkey’s generals and politicians concede that military measures alone cannot fix its festering Kurdish problem.