Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Owen, Clarkston wa — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:28:55 GMT

Generally the Kurdish people from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria are our friends and allies. The Turkish Turks are allies in name only and not really our friends. The US should be careful about interfering in Kudish affairs.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

ric stoliker bridgeport ct — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:37:37 GMT

Turkish attacks on Iraq are an insult to the memory of the nearly 4,000 American soldiers killed in the ongoing effort to rebuild Iraq. Pres. Bush needs to warn Turkey that an attack on a country that we are trying to help is a serious provocation. Turkey is a neighborhood bully that has attacked and occupied parts of Greece & Cyprus exterminated Armenians and suppresses Kurdish nationalism. Who cares if the PKK are communists..so are China and Vietnam and their idealogy doesn't seem to get in the way!! Greece Bulgaria Armenia and the Kurds should form an anti-Turkish alliance.Time for Turkey to be held to account. The Soviet Union is gone and so should America's alliance with the turks!!!

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

John Ruseckas, Golden Valley, Arizona — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:21:47 GMT

So what does Turkey want? Would they like to bail out Chemical Ali from an Iraqi prison so that he could do his thing on Kurdish villages? Is it any Iraqi's fault that Turkish Kurds are finally insisting on basic rights that the rest of us take for granted? It's gonna be interesting. Bloody but interesting.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

JOHN FLORIDA — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:59:36 GMT

All i see here is Turks giving Iraq a warning to get the PKK under control. Iraq cannot expect us to fight this battle for them. This one's on the Iraqi government.We should sit this one out. The only thing we must do is keep the meddling neighbors out of it too.The GREAT SATAN is a little busy right now. we are kind of waiting for Pakistan to push AQI out of the tribal area into our waiting arms.And give them the total attention they so richly deserve once and for all.Maybe Bin Ladin will pop his head up just long enough to blow a window in it. ALLAH WILLING !!

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Delmar Fairchild, Barron, WI — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:40:18 GMT

The PPK has no business now in trying to take Turkish or Iranian territory. They should put away their arms, give back the Turkish soldiers they captured, apologize and join with the rest of the Kurds in building their own section of Iraq. It is the most peaceful area of the region and could be better without agitation by greed. The Kurdish area of Iraq is by all practical purposes the "New Kurdish Country". They should be proud to be able to work it out together. All they need is common sense.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

B. Finkey, Washington DC — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:13:44 GMT

I think that it is attrocious for the US and British governments to tell Turkey not to do anything about the PKK. What if Mexican militants were ambushing US troops in Texas with an aim of taking over the Southwestern US, or if the IRA was ambushing British troops with a goal of taking over part of Britan? I guarantee the US government and the British government would not look the other way. And yet, that is exactly what they expect Turkey to do in this situation.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

K. Cushing — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:57:38 GMT

I think the Turks have shown an inordinary amount of restraint in this issue. They have consistenly asked the US and Iraq to assist in stopping the PKK attacks... and nothing was done. Many of the arms used by PKK are from "US supplies" in Iraq... how they got there is not "officially know" but... somehow they make it from US custody to the terroists.

Turkey (Turkiye) deserves the US support to stop the killing of her citizens and soldiers.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Laura Ft Worth, TX — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:02:21 GMT

After reading about Turkey's airstrikes and mass troop movements today against the Kurdish rebels, I feel decidedly more fearful about our position in Iraq. I truly hope we do not become unfriendly with Turkey, by saaay... bringing up that whole Armenian Genocide thing, like I read some Americans were pushing for. We are now in a much more delicate and dangerous place. Hopefully diplomacy will win out over more violent conflict. What is it the PKK wants exactly, anyway?

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Muge Ferris — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:10:54 GMT

Since 1995 Turkey has lost many innocent people at the Syria and Irak border. PKK terrorists group killed pregnant women, children, and families. Approximately, 35.000 people gave their lives. What they all wanted to do is to create a conflict and try to invade some land so they could live within. Turkish Government asked help from Irak and USA to stop this violence. Unfortunately, it was not their interest to take Turkey seriously. Turkey has strong ties with USA as well as Irak. On the other hand, US and Irak were disinterested with the reality and the request. Well, I strongly believe that, Turkish government made the best decision for their country in order to protect in its borders. And it is about time to do an action. What bothers me the most all of a sudden all the nations around the world became touchy about it !..I do not understand why?

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Lisa McNeil,Alpharetta,Georgia — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:24:08 GMT

Dear Mr.Colt, This conflict in the presumably the most peaceful part of Iraq is troubling. These Kurdhish rebels or PKK as they are known need to be stopped. I can understand how Turkey would be angered by the ambush on their troops. The bureaucracy of the of the Iraqi governmemt is most likely to blame for the border tensions. It is just sad that innocent civilians are caught in the middle of the conflict. I hope there will be a way to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the two countries. At least try to keep one part of the country semi-peaceful. And work on the rest of the country next. Peace to all!

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

R. Gemine, Waterford, On — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:37:00 GMT

As i'm 1st in here i'm going to continue the discussion started in the last Turkish post.

1) The Turkish Armed Forces went into Cyprus in 1974 to stop the ongoing persecution of Muslim Cypriots by Christian Cypriots. Turkey is a DEMOCRACY that enforces the seperation of Church and State, unlike the U.S.. When I was stationed in Nicosia with UNFICYP in 1979, the head of the Greek Cypriot govt was the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church, an extremely fundamentalist organization and the Christians were blatantly the aggressors. The Turkish Army could have easily taken the whole island but they stopped when they had achieved their objective of bringing security to the areas being Harrassed (terrorized) by the christian population who, as in Bosnia, used religion as an excuse to steal land and murder men, women and children in the process. To reinforce my position that Turkey used restraint i will point out that the Turks had modern weapons and a high standard of professionalism in using them while the Greeks were mostly unpaid conscripts as young as 15 using all world war 2 vintage equipment which they didn't seem to know how to clean, never mind maintain. Even in 1979 it was estimated that if the Turks wanted the rest of the island it would take them @ 48 hrs to achieve it.
From the point of view of a frontline peacekeeper the Christians were 100% of the problem as they were causing 100% of the problems, both leading up to the Turkish intervention and continuing at least until I left to go rescue your embassy staff in Tehran.
The Kurds have far more real rights and protections in Turkey than say, a Lakota or Onondaga does in the U.S.. In Turkey you are free to do pretty much what you want, as long as you don't try pushing it on your neighbors, unlike the corporate funded, pseudo democracy of the U.S. Of course, some MALE Kurd's aren't to happy with the idea of say, equal rights for women, freedom of expression and things of that nature, kind of like the Taliban and Fundamentalist Christians in the U.S.
The PPK are recognized as a terrorist organization internationally, including the U.S. I believe, although the U.S. is doing nothing to curb them even though they are arming, training and engaging in violent acts in an area under U.S. political, if not military control. (bit hypocritical, isn't that?)
Another writer noted that "Turkey has never been a friend to the U.S." Actually if he knew his history at all he'd know that the opposite is the case, as in, 'the U.S. has never been a friend to Turkey'. Then again the U.S. has never been a friend to anyone unless there was a corporate profit in it. I am refering specifically to the two world wars and Vietnam here.
Turkey is neither a Muslim nor a Christian country, the people who originally initiated and enforced that did it to end mindless bloodshed in the names of two, supposedly peaceful religions.
That brings me to my closing point, The American Armed Forces can't even control the situation in one city, Baghdad, in a country that had a crappy army to begin with. I've served with American combat units and i've been up against the Turkish army. if i had to do both at the same time i'd be a hurtin unit right now. You think You're having a hard time in Iraq? Go toe to toe with the Turks and you'll find out how good your army really isn't. You've probably killed more Canadians than Taliban in Afghanistan and more civilians than combatants in Iraq. In short, although you talk a good war your military is more of a threat to your allies than your enemies. You should stick with making movies about it.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

brian watts — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:54:22 GMT

turn iraq over to turkey & restore the ottoman empire then iraq will be part of nato. talk about dancing on saddams grave! then we can pull out of europe & put our missiles in iraq1

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

ergun borhan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:14:53 GMT

Pkk so called rebels are all nothing but terrorists.they have killed 30.000 innocent people including kurds like themselves.the Turks have all the right by cleaning up these terrorists.they should have done this long time ago...

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

EzKurd — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:21:13 GMT

Turkish Junta need to late the government to resolve the issue in a peacefully. The fake Turkish democracy, which ruled by Junta in behind of scene. All Kurdish people want right and recognition for their culture, language, freedom & democracy. The god given people to this earth to enjoy their language, culture and freedom, but the Turkish Junta/government preventing Kurdish people to have any rights given by god. The Kurdish people have right to freedom and democracy, just like Turkish people enjoy.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Cenk Egrigoz, Cankaya , Turkey — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:47:09 GMT

Thanks for being honest...

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

jorge — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:45:29 GMT

Aww, what a shame! And just as Bush's surge was starting to work.

And this just came out of nowhere! Who would have guessed that an illegal invasion coupled with a horribly botched occupation would result in--of all things--chaos and violence spreading throughout the region.

It's inexplicable, I tell you!

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

kerem, istanbul, turkey — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:49:52 GMT

Firts of all I would like to thank Mr R. Gemine from waterfront, ON...The guy knows what he is talking about...everyone wants peace and unfortunately at this part of the world it comes with a price..we the turks are now ready to pay the price...if we r no longer allies with the US then so be it...its sad to c US weapons killing turkish civilians..the weapons i am talking about r the ones that have been sold to the terorist PKK by Blackwater...THIS IS A SHAME ON THE US GOVERMENT...and the turks will accept no excuse for this...Will someone pls tell me if the US has the right to invade Iraq from 10.000miles away why cant the tursk have the right to secure their border, rid the area from these terrorist and bring peace to the region...

Secondly I kinda like MR Brian Watts idea...I know it wont happen and to be honest I would want it to...But this area of the world has been causing problems for everyone since the end of the ottoman empire..a sad but true situtation...

Lastly... Everyone needs to kow, understand and accept the PKK is a terrorist organization..After 9/11 the first thing President Bush said to he rest of the world " You are either with us or against us in the fight against terrorisim...Now I ask MR Bush were do u place yourself with PKK and Turkey...R u with the turks or with the PKK??? Would be grt if Mr Bush could write something here too :)))

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

angelos zachios — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:55:35 GMT

The Turks having been fighting the Kurds for decades. We in the West hear nothing but the occasional incursion. The war will continue with heavy losses on both sides. Re: Cyprus and the Greeks. Keep in mind the Turks lost 3500 soldiers (Documented). Why didn't they take the whole island????........Peace not War!

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

kemal , mersin , Turkey — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:58:54 GMT

If so called Kurdish people want freedom from Turkey
they have to fight for it.
Man - if he is - should not harbour to tales such as
"we do not have jobs"
"we do not have any rights"
And so on.Because they only make people who live in Turkey laugh.
Coming to Turkish people
We will fight which is definate,no question about it.
The only problem is there is no decent warrior before us.Only a bunch of whimpering liars and their cronies .And ironically enough we do not call them Kurdish.Then who do we call under such name ? Every foreigner would notice it immediately when they spent couple of weeks in Turkey.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Phil — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:10:10 GMT

My major concern is the start of an ethnic war between the Kurds and the Turks. Is there any historical basis for such a conflict? What is the relative displacement of the respective groups over the Middle East? The PPK here might be a catalyst for a much larger disaster then what has happened so far. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the ensuing violence only now beginning to collect dust upon the shelves of history and the battle between Israel and Hamas still an issue being discussed, I think the U.S. is trying to prevent another mass inter-state conflict. The satisfaction of revenge for the deaths of your fellows is not so delicious if you have to swallow a genocidal war to boot. Again, I could be wrong, but I think that this is the underlying issue here.

Normalcy on the Turkey-Iraq border?

Nelson — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:43:49 GMT

C'mon guys! What's so hard about this? Let the Kurds secede from Iraq, and let them move in from Syria, Turkey and Iran and establish their own country. See that wasn't to hard. Same thing with Kosovo: The Albanians can move to Albania--that's an idea! This way we can avoid all these unnecessary war and pay attention in going after Bin Ladin, who is the head of Al Quada. You know... The criminal in charge of killing so many on 9/11.