And The Turks Invade

This story is a lot more interesting, and far more important than any political news of the day. 

I have long worried about the boiling point that would at some point be reached in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.  There has been much concern about the ethnic desire to create a separate zone in the region for the Kurds, and how that idea would obviously impact Turkey.  The American invasion of Iraq has unleashed all sorts of consequences, the latest being the news today that several thousand Turkish soldiers crossed the Iraqi border to seek out Kurdish guerrillas.

The Turkish government has made heavy handed efforts to insure that Kurdish nationalism is rejected, even going so far as to ban the language until 1991.  The huge Kurdish population of the entire regional area that includes Iran and Syria, numbers roughly 30-50 million people, with 20% of that total residing in Turkey.  The regions within Turkey where these people live are treated as second-class areas, and economically deprived.  As a result a group fighting for broader rights, and in some cases actual separation from Turkey, was created.  The PKK has much support from the Kurds in Turkey, but the main desire from the people seems to be for social and economic betterment, and not the actual creation into a separate nation.

The obvious powder keg has been there for many decades, but with the tumult in Iraq as the result of the Iraq War, and the fractious society that is now a reality, all makes today’s events most alarming.  Add to the mix the statement by Turkish authorities that any confrontation with Iraqi Kurds would only trigger a larger cross border confrontation, and that should be more than enough to send alarm bells ringing in all sorts of diplomatic circles.

The fear of Turkey is the creation of an independent state in northern Iraq that would perhaps trigger the same nationalistic desires in Turkey.  But since Turkey is a NATO nation and we can not allow it’s separation, but at the same time also cannot allow the division of northern Iraq, one has to wonder what the strategic thinkers in Washington are planning to do.

Another daunting task for the Bush Administration that has proved it can’t ever make the right decisions in the Middle East.

Technorati Tags: Turkey, Kurds, IraqWar, PresidentBush, PKK