Give peace a
chance
24 October 2007
AGREEMENT with the Iraqi government to work together
on the Kurdish rebel problem is definitely the best bargain the Turkish
government could hope for at present. Uncomfortable as Edrogan was with the
military option, he could not have resisted overwhelming domestic opinion to
roll tanks and carry out strikes in Iraq’s Kurdish north for too long.
Therefore, the decision on part of
Ankara and Baghdad to yield to pressing international diplomatic pressure is the
most prudent step in the given circumstances, and stalls the fear of
considerable expansion of the violence-base, at least for
now.
It is important to note that while
the Kurdish rebels have troubled Turkey’s equilibrium since the early ‘80s, the
situation started spinning out of control only following Iraq’s massive security
breakdown that was prompted by the US invasion. And Turkey’s concerns
notwithstanding as parliament went for the yes-vote on the military option,
weighing heavily on the prime minister’s mind was no doubt the prompt Kurdish
threat of trapping the onslaught in a web of insurgency before expanding it to
deep within Turkish borders. Clearly, the recently bolstered government in
Ankara did not want to emerge with its tail between its legs once the dust
settled. But even though immediate chaos has been spared, there is considerable
weight in skeptics’ concerns that the deal to work together has only delayed the
inevitable. What Iraq’s forces can do to tame the wild Kurdish rebels, whose
commitment to their cause is clearly beyond question, is not the easiest course
to figure out. Not only is the Iraqi force inadequate for its own pressing
concerns, it is deeply divided, and cannot really risk coming back from such an
assignment with a red nose.
Perhaps what has been salvaged by
the Ankara-Baghdad handshake is realisation of the magnitude of the mutual
problem. Overall Kurdish designs of self-empowerment are a thorn in the side of
the Iraqi leadership also, with neither the Iraqi flag nor language being
recognised in ‘Kurdistan’. In all likelihood, both governments will leverage the
‘terrorist organisation’ tag bestowed upon the PKK by the US and EU alike, and
then bend the emerging situation to serve their own respective
concerns.
The
breakthrough is welcome, nonetheless, because it has avoided immediate violence.
As events in the troubled Middle East have shown over the last half-decade, once
the mayhem genie is let out, it becomes impossible to bottle again.
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