Turkey seeking authorization for War

Seemingly inevitable as it may be, it is still distressing to read of Turkey planning to invade Iraq.

The Turkish government has decided to seek parliamentary authorization for a cross-border military operation in northern Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels there, a party official said Tuesday.

The decision, which follows deadly attacks on soldiers in recent days that outraged the public, came in a meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from his ruling party, said a party official who was at the meeting. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

It was not clear when the bill would go before parliament, but the government wanted it to pass "as soon as possible," the official said after the meeting.

Source: Houston Chronicle

This is following a meeting of Turkey's government to decide on how to deal with two recent attacks in Turkey by the PKK one claiming 12 civilians and the other 13 soldiers. A spokesman for the government has said after the meeting "we are talking about the point where words do not suffice."

In other words unless the U.S. and Iraq do something about this now Turkey will authorize an invasion and, in spite of a recent agreement with Iraq, it's unlikely either will be willing to risk a major conflict in the only peaceful area of Iraq.

However, conditions are made worse by that fact that tomorrow a vote will be made on the Armenian Genocide bill by a Congressional committee, which will allow it to be put before a House vote. Turkey has threatened a serious response to this bill which would include:

1. Not extending the decree for permitting the passage of logistic needs of US soldiers from the İncirlik Air Base
2. Not permitting the use of the İncirlik Air Base as well as the US' use of Turkish land when withdrawing soldiers from Iraq
3. A slowing down of the cooperation in NATO
4. An agreement with Iran on the natural gas issue as well as seeking new agreements (which is already in the works)
   
5. The cancellation of the US Joint Strike Fighter Planes project
6. Ending the role of balance in Washington's Middle East policies.

Of course an invasion of Northern Iraq and alignment with Iran would certainly end the role of balance in the Middle East fulfilling the sixth reprisal. The first three reprisals would essentially go together and, if Turkey leaves the JSF project they may deal a greater blow to U.S. policy by joining the Russian PAK FA project.

Turkey was already being threatened with sanctions over their natural gas deal with Iran and if they take all of these measures in response to the Armenian Genocide resolution as well as an invasion of Northern Iraq, it's not likely anyone would object to placing sanctions on Turkey.

However, for now we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.