http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=49165 Right to self-defense Yusuf KANLI We appreciate U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson very much. He is a career diplomat trying to mend Turkish-U.S. relations with a very elegant style of diplomacy. Still, the fact that he speaks with a softer tone, and selects well the words he uses do not hamper his ability of delivering blunt messages to the Turks. "Turkey should not act alone," the ambassador told reporters on Monday as he was heading into a meeting with Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges President Rýfat Hýsarcýklýoðlu. He was answering a question by reporters who wondered how the United States would react to a possible Turkish operation into northern Iraq in view of the fact that the American envoy qualified the Israeli war on Lebanon as a "right to self-defense" by the Jewish state. He said the U.S. would not perceive well an intention by Ankara to engage in a unilateral act in northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) holed up on the Kandil mountain range who have been staging cross-border attacks in Turkey, killing many civilians and security personnel and escaping back into their safe-haven there. "Cooperation between Turkey, Iraq and the U.S. will produce better results than acting alone," he added. That's indeed the problem. While Turkey is wholeheartedly trying to support the Iraqi central administration in the hope that consolidation of the central rule in that country will help the creation of a better security atmosphere all over our neighboring country and at the same time boost border security, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two factions ruling the northern Iraqi Kurdish region -- has declared that an accord Turkey had signed with the former Saddam Hussein administration allowing Turkish troops to stage cross-border hot pursuit operations on the PKK elements in Iraq was no longer valid, while the northern Iraqi Kurdish entity -- which with U.S. blessing has been trying to consolidate itself as a full-fledged separate state -- has been very reluctant to take into consideration Turkey's security concerns and take action on the PKK presence in the region under its control that has become a territory off limits for Iraqi Arabs unless they obtain some sort of a visa from the local Massoud Barzani -- the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) -- government. Talabani sitting at the president's chair in Baghdad would not want to cooperate with Turkey and declare all past anti-terror cooperation schemes invalid, Barzani sitting at the "regional leader" chair at Suleymaniyah would not act against the PKK presence in northern Iraq, the American troops would not cooperate with Turkey citing their own security problems and Turkey would sit back and enjoy the situation as in that joke the elderly mother advises her daughter to make if she realizes that rape has become unavoidable. We are just frustrated sitting back and enjoying ourselves because we keep on receiving body bags from the Southeast and empty pledges from top U.S. executives and challenges from the Iraqi Kurdish chieftains who apparently believe that the current situation in their country is sustainable and the United States will be there forever to help them out. We no longer want to hear our American friends pledging to "double" their "anti-PKK cooperation" with Turkey. We want to see action, or they should just stay away, and not cripple our capability to act. What kind of a world is this? A country has all the legitimate "right to self-defense" and can open an all-out war on an independent country because terrorists held hostage three of its soldiers, but another country cannot have such a right and must wait for the appropriate time for its "allies" so that a "joint action" could be taken. When, who knows? Of course Turkey should act according to international law. Of course Turkey should -- as it has been doing for the past many years -- explain to the Iraqi administration in Baghdad and the American occupation commanders the need to act together against the PKK threat. But, Turkey should at the same time retain its right to take unilateral action as required by the national and territorial security of this country should such calls fall on deaf ears. Fine, Turkey should not act alone. When are we going to take action together? When are you going to close the terrorist hideouts in the Kandil range? When are you going to close down the Mahmour recruitment center of the gang in northern Iraq? When are you going to cut the financial network supporting the gang? How many of our loved ones need to die before you understand the severity of our suffering? Turkey is no banana republic that can leave its security to the mercy of others.
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