Are Syria and Iran Manipulating Turkey on Iraq?
By Walid Phares
PKK is the Kurdish Worker’s Party that adopted violence in its struggle against Turkey.
As the Turkish Parliament recently voted to authorize a limited invasion into Northern Iraq to fight the PKK militias, one can see the rising shadows of two hostile regimes in the region, eager to see a NATO member, Turkey, eventually clashing with the United States through their local allies in Iraq.
Indeed, the Iranian and Syrian regimes have been pushing the precarious mechanisms of a Turkish military intervention into Northern Iraq for a while now.
Logically, a collapse of security in the most secure part of Iraq would lead to a crumbling of the military stabilization of the country, a chief objective of US plans in Iraq.
But the Iran plans for Iraq, which I have analyzed in a previous article, consist of three types of destabilization: An Iranian push in the south, a Syrian opening for the Jihadists in the center, and dragging Turkey to a dogfight in the mountains of the north.
In order to launch the third leg preemptively into Iraqi Kurdistan, Tehran and Damascus have been pushing all the right buttons for the confrontation.
Iran’s shelling of villages in the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan over the past months aimed at encouraging Turkey to do the same.
Opening salvos by the Ayatollahs are to test the Kurdish and US reactions. Moreover, Iran’s Pasdaran - the Revolutionary Guard that provides training and support to terrorist groups throughout the region and abroad - is said to have infiltrated some circles within the PKK, since the latter was based in Syria a few years ago.
The PKK suddenly has been waging inexplicable operations inside Eastern Turkey with a new energy, after years of calm. Sources believe the PKK was manipulated by both Iran and Syria into these terror acts on Turkish soil while the official bases of the group are on Iraqi soil.
Hence the attacks triggering Turkish anger and responses may have been manipulated by the “axis.”
But the Syrian regime has another card it could have played. According to well informed sources in the region, and not to the surprise of experts, the Alawite regime in Syria (Alawites are important to the leadership of Syria, as President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez are Alawite) has had good relations with Alawite officers inside the Turkish armed forces.
The “Alawite connection” may have been activated to encourage a military response and incursion into northern Iraq.
But nevertheless, the Assad regime and the Turkish Islamist Government - reinforced by the last Presidential election in Ankara - have a joint objective interest in weakening the US presence in Iraq.
Assad thinks that he can help create a major Turkish-Iranian-Syrian alliance against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. And by the same logic, the Kurds, solid US allies, will be facing another formal ally of Washington on Iraqi soil: Turkey.
The plan is to drag the Turkish Army (traditionally not inclined to find itself face to face with its major ally) to enter a territory where “terrorists are based,” but where they could be indistinguishable from those Kurdish Peshmergas who are the backbone of the new post-Saddam Iraq.
The rest can be guessed.
As the “axis” is using all its cards to crumble Iraq’s and Lebanon’s democracies, the Kurds in Northern Iraq should have acted quickly and strategically. There shouldn’t have been any PKK bases in their areas because these are a recipe for disaster.
The situation in Iraq as a whole is still complex, precarious and explosive, despite the advances made by the new US military plans, including the surge.
The north must remain stable and secure and, above all, at peace with the only “NATO” border it has.
The other frontiers Iraqi Kurdistan has are with the Pasdarans and the Syrian Baath. Both want the new Iraq’s head (served up to them on a platter).
Instead of playing charms with Tehran and Damascus, the Kurdistan city of Soleimaniye must reinforce its own deterring force and maintain stability and peace on its northern border with Turkey.
Knowing all too well that the new Islamist Government in Ankara is shifting the grounds inside the modernist Kemalist Republic, Iraq’s Kurdish leadership mustn’t offer any reason for a Turkish adventure in their areas.
Hence, it is recommended that the Kurdish leaders of Iraq be the ones to reign in the PKK to avoid having the Turkish Army crossing the borders.
The US can - and should - broker arrangements between the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish military to avoid the rise of an anti-Kurdish Triangle in the region.
Alan Note: Sabotaging American efforts in this direction is the idiotic Democrat effort under self-serving, self-absorbed, lunatic House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid to incite Turkey into hatred of the USA by senselessly labelling a slaughter of Armenians by the Turks, about 100 years ago, as genocide.
Which it may well have been but why bring it up right now? Just when we need Turkey for our supply bases and not to invade Iraq.
To sabotage the Bush administration, of course!
And if the American people also suffer, the world situation suffers, Iran achieves political and strategic aims more easily, then who cares? NOT the DimicRats, who happily cut off the noses of the American people they claim to represent to spite our faces.
Wake up America! Bush and the Republicans are not perfect by any means but if you love your country and understand how the world functions, are by far the lesser of two evils. Rejection of the Democrats and their impractical "feel-good" suggestions, is not a political move but one of self-preservation!
Having written the comment I realized that Nancy Pelosi comes from among the people, a sample of whose mentality and mental accuity is listed below and vote for the Pelosis and Reids:
THEY WALK AMONG US
I was at the checkout of a Kmart.
The clerk rang up $46.64 charge. I gave her a fifty dollar bill.
She gave me back $46.64. I gave it back to her and told her that she had made a mistake in MY favor and gave her the money back.
She became indignant and informed me she was educated and knew what she was doing and returned the money again.
I gave her the money back again... same scenario!
I departed the store with the $46.64.
This actually happened to me in Austin at MoPac Blvd and Parmer Lane.
They Walk Among Us and Many Work Retail. And vote for Al Gore!
===================
I walked into a Mickey D's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a sandwich. I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little Chalkboard that said "buy one-get one free."
"They're already buy-one- get-one-free", she said, "so I guess they're both free"
She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door.
They Walk Among Us and Many Work Retail. And vote!
===================
One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!"
Someone looked up at the sky and said, "Where?"
They Walk Among Us! And vote!
===================
While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning.
She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?"
When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh I don't keep up with that stuff."
They Walk Among Us!! And vote!
===================
I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center.
One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open.
I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."
They Walk Among Us! And vote or Jack Murtha
By Walid Phares
PKK is the Kurdish Worker’s Party that adopted violence in its struggle against Turkey.
As the Turkish Parliament recently voted to authorize a limited invasion into Northern Iraq to fight the PKK militias, one can see the rising shadows of two hostile regimes in the region, eager to see a NATO member, Turkey, eventually clashing with the United States through their local allies in Iraq.
Indeed, the Iranian and Syrian regimes have been pushing the precarious mechanisms of a Turkish military intervention into Northern Iraq for a while now.
Logically, a collapse of security in the most secure part of Iraq would lead to a crumbling of the military stabilization of the country, a chief objective of US plans in Iraq.
But the Iran plans for Iraq, which I have analyzed in a previous article, consist of three types of destabilization: An Iranian push in the south, a Syrian opening for the Jihadists in the center, and dragging Turkey to a dogfight in the mountains of the north.
In order to launch the third leg preemptively into Iraqi Kurdistan, Tehran and Damascus have been pushing all the right buttons for the confrontation.
Iran’s shelling of villages in the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan over the past months aimed at encouraging Turkey to do the same.
Opening salvos by the Ayatollahs are to test the Kurdish and US reactions. Moreover, Iran’s Pasdaran - the Revolutionary Guard that provides training and support to terrorist groups throughout the region and abroad - is said to have infiltrated some circles within the PKK, since the latter was based in Syria a few years ago.
The PKK suddenly has been waging inexplicable operations inside Eastern Turkey with a new energy, after years of calm. Sources believe the PKK was manipulated by both Iran and Syria into these terror acts on Turkish soil while the official bases of the group are on Iraqi soil.
Hence the attacks triggering Turkish anger and responses may have been manipulated by the “axis.”
But the Syrian regime has another card it could have played. According to well informed sources in the region, and not to the surprise of experts, the Alawite regime in Syria (Alawites are important to the leadership of Syria, as President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez are Alawite) has had good relations with Alawite officers inside the Turkish armed forces.
The “Alawite connection” may have been activated to encourage a military response and incursion into northern Iraq.
But nevertheless, the Assad regime and the Turkish Islamist Government - reinforced by the last Presidential election in Ankara - have a joint objective interest in weakening the US presence in Iraq.
Assad thinks that he can help create a major Turkish-Iranian-Syrian alliance against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. And by the same logic, the Kurds, solid US allies, will be facing another formal ally of Washington on Iraqi soil: Turkey.
The plan is to drag the Turkish Army (traditionally not inclined to find itself face to face with its major ally) to enter a territory where “terrorists are based,” but where they could be indistinguishable from those Kurdish Peshmergas who are the backbone of the new post-Saddam Iraq.
The rest can be guessed.
As the “axis” is using all its cards to crumble Iraq’s and Lebanon’s democracies, the Kurds in Northern Iraq should have acted quickly and strategically. There shouldn’t have been any PKK bases in their areas because these are a recipe for disaster.
The situation in Iraq as a whole is still complex, precarious and explosive, despite the advances made by the new US military plans, including the surge.
The north must remain stable and secure and, above all, at peace with the only “NATO” border it has.
The other frontiers Iraqi Kurdistan has are with the Pasdarans and the Syrian Baath. Both want the new Iraq’s head (served up to them on a platter).
Instead of playing charms with Tehran and Damascus, the Kurdistan city of Soleimaniye must reinforce its own deterring force and maintain stability and peace on its northern border with Turkey.
Knowing all too well that the new Islamist Government in Ankara is shifting the grounds inside the modernist Kemalist Republic, Iraq’s Kurdish leadership mustn’t offer any reason for a Turkish adventure in their areas.
Hence, it is recommended that the Kurdish leaders of Iraq be the ones to reign in the PKK to avoid having the Turkish Army crossing the borders.
The US can - and should - broker arrangements between the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish military to avoid the rise of an anti-Kurdish Triangle in the region.
Alan Note: Sabotaging American efforts in this direction is the idiotic Democrat effort under self-serving, self-absorbed, lunatic House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid to incite Turkey into hatred of the USA by senselessly labelling a slaughter of Armenians by the Turks, about 100 years ago, as genocide.
Which it may well have been but why bring it up right now? Just when we need Turkey for our supply bases and not to invade Iraq.
To sabotage the Bush administration, of course!
And if the American people also suffer, the world situation suffers, Iran achieves political and strategic aims more easily, then who cares? NOT the DimicRats, who happily cut off the noses of the American people they claim to represent to spite our faces.
Wake up America! Bush and the Republicans are not perfect by any means but if you love your country and understand how the world functions, are by far the lesser of two evils. Rejection of the Democrats and their impractical "feel-good" suggestions, is not a political move but one of self-preservation!
Having written the comment I realized that Nancy Pelosi comes from among the people, a sample of whose mentality and mental accuity is listed below and vote for the Pelosis and Reids:
THEY WALK AMONG US
I was at the checkout of a Kmart.
The clerk rang up $46.64 charge. I gave her a fifty dollar bill.
She gave me back $46.64. I gave it back to her and told her that she had made a mistake in MY favor and gave her the money back.
She became indignant and informed me she was educated and knew what she was doing and returned the money again.
I gave her the money back again... same scenario!
I departed the store with the $46.64.
This actually happened to me in Austin at MoPac Blvd and Parmer Lane.
They Walk Among Us and Many Work Retail. And vote for Al Gore!
===================
I walked into a Mickey D's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a sandwich. I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little Chalkboard that said "buy one-get one free."
"They're already buy-one- get-one-free", she said, "so I guess they're both free"
She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door.
They Walk Among Us and Many Work Retail. And vote!
===================
One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!"
Someone looked up at the sky and said, "Where?"
They Walk Among Us! And vote!
===================
While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning.
She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?"
When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh I don't keep up with that stuff."
They Walk Among Us!! And vote!
===================
I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center.
One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open.
I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."
They Walk Among Us! And vote or Jack Murtha
===================
My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped.
She keeps it in the trunk.
They Walk Among Us! And vote!
===================
My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%.
Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases.
The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.
They Walk Among Us! And vote Democrat!
===================
I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up.
She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands.
"Now," she asked me, has your plane arrived yet?"
They Walk Among Us! And vote for Harry Reid!
===================
While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go.
He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6.
He thought about it for some time before responding.
"Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces."
Yep, They Walk Among Us! And vote for John Kerry
===================
They Walk Among Us, AND they Reproduce and Vote!
INCLUDING THESE APOLOGIES FOR HUMANITY
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