The Turks are coming

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

".....To say this is all part of a "structural crisis" between Turkey and the US would be the understatement of the century. Turkey is actually deciding nothing less than its real geopolitical position in a mesmerizing balancing act involving Iran, Israel, the Arab world, Europe, Russia and the US....

This mini-war transcends the PKK. Ankara's ultimate nightmare is an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, a virtual certainty after the incorporation of oil-rich Kirkuk through a referendum which should be held next month - but which will be inexorably postponed. Ankara regards this development as an inevitable - for them horrifying - consequence of the Bush administration's "vision" of a greater Middle East. The "vision" in fact presupposes the partition of Iraq......

Then there's the Iranian front. According to the independent Ankara Anatolia news agency, Gul and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad have had a most interesting phone conversation. Seemingly in sync, they agreed both their countries are victims of terrorism. This is essentially correct: as the PKK attacks Turkey, its Iranian arm, the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) attacks Iran.

What both presidents left implied is even meatier: as Washington manipulates the PJAK for attacks on Iran, it has left the PKK to its own devices. The Turks - faithful North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies of the US - know very well how Washington plays a double game, with intelligence covert operations funding and arming the PJAK. The PKK has made it to the extensive US list of terrorist groups; the PJAK has not. But the PKK and PJAK have the same leaders, have the same logistics base......

Worse, Turkish intelligence knows all about Israel training the peshmerga in Iraqi Kurdistan. This particular blowback would be comic if it were not tragic: instead of US/Israeli-trained Kurds plunging Iran into chaos, now we have irate Turks itching to invade US-protected Iraqi Kurdistan (or, as a matter of fact, to invade US-occupied Iraq)......

Talabani in fact does not care about Ankara; what he cares about is his American protectors. Take the words of Qubad Talabani, dad's son in Washington, when he told United Press International in May, "Kurds want the sort of 'strategic and institutional relationship' that Israel and Taiwan have with the United States ... We are seeking the same protection.".....

Bush was so obsessed with his "surge" in Iraq that he and the administration forgot about Kirkuk. Turkey against "evil terrorists"? Not really; looks like the preview screening of the Battle of Kirkuk."