What if Turkish Forces Went Into Northern Iraq?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 19:12 Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta
The Turkish Government is going to ask for Parliamentary approval to carry out punitive counter terrorism actions against Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. Hot Pursuit. Invasion. Call it what you may, but this will involve thousands of soldiers, an air campaign, armored thrusts, the whole shebang.
This is not going to be a good step for Turkey to take. Turkey is not going to listen to the USA (which certainly doesn't want Turkey to attack Iraq) because of the Armenian Genocide. But instead of me trying to explain why, here are some made up news-stories which may or may not reflect the future.
Dateline: 20 January 2008
More than 40 Turkish soldiers were killed when a Peshmerga suicide bomber blew himself up next to the Turkish military convoy which was on the way to Kirkuk. The Turkish military made a lightening campaign with armoured support thrusts into Northern Iraq in early November. The Kurdish forces, more typically known as a police force or at best a para-military force faded in front of the Turkish forces and are now in a full fledged guerrilla campaign against the Turkish forces. Previously, the PKK was rather isolated from the main Kurdish political parties but with the invasion, the PKK is now backed by all the Kurds. To further complicate matters, the Shia groups are providing support to the Kurds and more indirect support is being seen by Iranian based groups.
Dateline 15 March 2008.
A massive tanker bomb killed 200 civilians in a market place in northern Iraq. Al Queda in Iraq has announced that they were responsible and they will support the Sunni Turkish forces and target the Kurds. The Kurds are asking for support from their Shia allies and rogue elements of the al-Sadr army have released a statement promising retribution against Sunni's. More bodies discovered in Baghdad. In a separate report released today by UNHCR claimed that Baghdad is now almost completely ethnically divided. The Belfast solution of having tall long strong walls separating the communities is now being proposed. For all practical purposes, the walls already exist with local community check points in place with no sign of coalition forces or Iraqi forces.
Dateline 30 March 2008:
It was a bloody day in Turkey today with bombs in Ankara which blew up one of the Ataturk memorials, a bomb in south eastern Turkey town marketplace which killed 30 civilians, a series of bombs in Istanbul which targeted the American Library, HSBC Bank, European PR Office and other western targets. There were confused reports of groups claiming responsibility ranging from Islamists upset with the European Human Rights Court ruling on Sunni Islam teaching, a group allied to Al Queda claiming responsibility for the bombs against HSBC bank and American Library, and Kurdish separatist groups claiming responsibility for attacks on the Turkish civilians. A Turkish hardline judge was assassinated as he drove to his office by a suicide car bomb.
