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Well, if Turkey doesn't initiate the hostilities, it's rather doubtful that the Iraqi Kurds will. Possibly Turkey might "pre-emptively" strike PKK "terror-bases" in Northern Iraq, but that would open such a huge can of worms that I'd rather not think about it...

Having said that, I would point out that Washington has named a "special envoy for countering the PKK" - who "sits on the Board of Directors of Lockheed Martin and serves as vice chairman of The Cohen Group, a lobbying firm that has represented Lockheed since 2004". In a freak coincidence Turkey bought a shitload of airplanes from Lockheed-Martin a few weeks later. Yet at the same time they are cooperating in "anti-terrorist" activities with Iran. So I'm not sure about the nature of the games that are being played here - but it doesn't sound promising... Especially given that the reaction of the Iraqi Kurds, through Barzani, to the rather unimpressive Baker report, which however explicitly denied the prospect of Kurdish autonomy, was to threaten that:

...Kurds will seek independence should the White House implement key proposals by the Baker-Hamilton report on Kirkuk, federalism, changes in the constitution, and control of oil resources...

The Turkish government's concept of what they have a say about, however is worrying...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Tue Dec 12th, 2006 at 12:45:45 PM EST
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