Turkey Breakfast

Turkey is considering an invasion of Iraq because of raids and bombings and murders carried out by the PKK operating from northern Iraq The PKK seeks a coherent national Kurdistan which would end up consisting of land in Turkey (bad for us as far as our 'ally' Turkey goes, but good for us in the case of a VERY strong Kurdistan), land in Syria (good/good), land in Iran (good/good) and land in Iraq (somewhat bad/good). Therefore devoid of any other consideration but American national security interests (for all you 'progressive' liberal neo isolationists, Ron Paul - istas, and paleo conservatives) it would seem on balance a GOOD thing for the PKK to succeed (with other efforts) in bringing about a Kurdistan. Needless to say, an invasion and OCCUPATION of northern Iraq by a Turkey guiltily enraged by an American congress determined to name the genocide of 1915 a genocide, would not only fracture NATO, but bring American and Turkish men to gunpoint with each other.


But according to Turkey, the PKK is a terrorist organization? Let's take a look at three sources, Globalsecurity.org, Federation of American Scientists (fas.org) and the Council on Foreign Relations
Globalsecurity.org:

Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan [PKK]
Kurdistan Workers' Party
People's Defense Force

Established in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds, by the late 1990s the PKK had moved beyond rural-based insurgent activities to include urban terrorism. The PKK sought to set up an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, where there is a predominantly Kurdish population.

Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. The Government of Turkey has long denied the Kurdish population, located largely in the southeast, basic political, cultural, and linguistic rights.

Since 1984 the separatist PKK waged a violent terrorist insurgency in southeast Turkey, directed against both security forces and civilians, almost all of them Kurds, whom the PKK accuses of cooperating with the State. The government of Turkey in turn waged an intense campaign to suppress PKK terrorism, targeting active PKK units as well as persons they believe support or sympathize with the PKK. In the process, both government forces and PKK terrorists committed human rights abuses against each other and noncombatants. According to the Government, from 1984 through November 1997, 26,532 PKK members, 5,185 security force members, and 5,209 civilians lost their lives in the fighting.

The PKK committed numerous abuses against civilians in northern Iraq throughout 1997. For example, on August 4, five persons were reportedly kidnaped from the village of Gunda Jour by a PKK band. Iraqi Kurds reported that on October 23, a PKK unit killed 14 civilians (10 of them children) and wounded 9 others in attacks on the villages of Korka, Chema, Dizo, and Selki. On December 13, seven Assyrian civilians reportedly were ambushed and killed near the village of Mangeesh. Many villagers in Dohuk and Irbil provinces, particularly those from isolated areas, were reported to have abandoned their homes and temporarily relocated to cities and lager towns to escape PKK attacks.

Abdullah OCALAN, was captured in Kenya in February 1999. The PKK observed a unilateral cease-fire since September 1999, although there have been occasional clashes between Turkish military units and some of the 4,000-5,000 armed PKK militants, most of whom currently are encamped in northern Iraq.

NOT GOOD GUYS

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