CIAO DATE: 09/2008
February 2008
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
On February 21, Turkish ground forces crossed the Iraqi border in an attempt to dismantle Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist camps, following weeks of periodic aerial bombardment that began in mid-December. The incursion was partly the product of a November 5 agreement between Turkey and the United States to share intelligence in fighting the PKK, a group that the U.S. State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization. On February 22, the White House backed the operation: "The United States agrees with Turkey that the PKK is a terrorist organization, and . . . an enemy of Turkey, Iraq, and the United States."
Despite active U.S.-Turkish cooperation, such incursions will not have the desired results unless the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurdish parties play a role in confronting the PKK -- and unless the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which control the western and southern flanks of the PKK enclave, respectively, share Ankara's interest in rooting the group out from northern Iraq. The PKK's terrorist presence there is not only an affront to Turkey's sovereignty, but also a threat to Iraq's unity and the KDP and PUK's authority in the region.
Resource link: PolicyWatch #1346: A Mutual Enemy: U.S.-Turkish-Iraqi Cooperation against the PKK [PDF] - 12K