U.S., Turkey work on plans for PKK (Kurds) in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20366024.htm

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Turkey and the United States are drafting plans to disarm Turkish Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq but the U.S. side needs more time before they set a date for action, a Turkish general said on Thursday.

Gen. Ilker Basbug, deputy chairman of the Turkish general staff, told reporters he expected plans to advance when his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Peter Pace, visits Turkey next month.

Turkey has been pressing the United States to use its forces in Iraq against the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which fought for an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s.

Several thousand PKK fighters have taken refuge in the Kurdish-run part of northern Iraq.

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[La_Serpiente]

1. Geezus

the region is going to become VERY destablized soon.

[mmm]

2. Those PPK fighters better get out of the mountains

and (dressed like sheep herders) start attacking US troops. It's called a pre-emptive strike.

Do PPK fighters look different from other folks in the area or could they blend in and attack US soldiers at will?
Do they possess RPGs and the like? Is it realistic to think
they will be easy to locate and identify? Is it morally
correct for the US to side with Johnny Turkey against the PPK?

[lindashaw]

3. One of the very first objections to the war was that civil war would

break out between Turkey and the Kurds. The Kurds are going to lose in this war, no matter what, because now the US says that a Shiite majority is okay in Iraq. (Thing is, the largest pool of oil is on Kurdish territory.) What have the Kurds ever done to deserve just mistreatment for all these centuries? Am I missing something in history?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Kurds fell for the same thing with old man Bush too. They never learn n/t

[hel]

5. Kurds want a country of their own

but they want it inside current Turkish borders, and they really do not have any majority there, only 20% to 40% most, I would say. Not unlike Israel, actually.

More than 35.000 people, mostly Turkish citizens, died because of PKK during the last two decades.

[BlackFrancis]

6. .

..

[BlackFrancis]

7. Kurdistan was also other countries

northern Iraq and Iran along with parts of Turkey made up historical Kurdistan and the Europeans basically erased them on the map.

I'm sure they don't care much about lines drawn down by their European conquerers from a century ago, and I don't know why anyone else would either.

[hel]

9. There has never been any Kurdistan

ever. All the lands belonged to the Ottoman Empire, for more than 500 years. You should research better.

[BuddhaGirl]

11. well, you mean Turkey doesn't recognize "Kurdistan"

but that is how the Kurds' homeland has been referred to, elsewhere.

[BuddhaGirl]

10. hmmm...

"More than 35.000 people, mostly Turkish citizens, died because of PKK during the last two decades. "

The Kurds have been victims of the Turks, too. :eyes:

[BenFranklinUSA]

8. Look like they will get their homeland...

...by being driven into N.Iraq
Better than nothing.