Not so fast. The same applies to the State Department influencing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Shakespearean decision whether to "invade" or "not invade" Western/Syrian Kurdistan.
The fact is the AKP party in Ankara won't ask the Turkish parliament for it. They would simply invade Syrian Kurdistan -- even with a bunch of Turkish generals languishing in jail, accused of plotting a coup. Three Turkish brigades, tanks and artillery are already only two kilometers away from the Syrian border.
Ankara has crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan dozens of times in hot pursuit of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) guerrillas. The plot thickens, because at the same time Ankara has very close trade/diplomatic relations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG); in fact Ankara is now pitted against the Nuri al-Maliki government in Baghdad, as it began importing Kurdish oil directly, bypassing Iraq's central government.
In Pipelinestan terms, this is huge; Western Big Oil is absolutely itching to get as much energy from Iraqi Kurdistan (as well as from Azerbaijan) as humanly possible -- thus bypassing Iran and Russia.
A Turkish "invasion" of Syrian Kurdistan will not be too much of a problem in terms of Turkish relations with those paragons of democracy at the Gulf Cooperation Council; after all Qatar and the House of Saud are working side by side with Turkey towards the total destabilization of Syria.
But the Assad regime will see this as a war on Syria -- not only Syrian Kurdistan; after all Turkey hosts not only the Syrian National Council (SNC) but also thousands of Not Exactly Free Syrian Army (FSA) gangs, Salafi-jihadis included. Turkey is their logistical base.
And what happens if there's a flurry of bodybags shipped back to Ankara and Istanbul?
The Mad Turk Erdogan power-play may be unraveling. The Turkish army, the commercial bourgeoisie, the secular bureaucracy, they are all getting increasingly fed up with his Napoleonic dreams; hosting the FSA, crammed with jihadis; smuggling weapons into Syria alongside Qatar and the Saudis; deploying anti-aircraft batteries and even missiles on the border; threatening to invade Syrian Kurdistan; that's a bit too much.
But then again, maybe not. Ankara's wishful thinking big picture -- in a neo-Ottoman vein -- would certainly include some sort of economic annexation of northern Iraq and northeast Syria; both happen to be energy-rich -- and Turkey badly needs the energy. The problem is they're both inhabited mostly by Kurds.
Even Iranian Kurds are already stirring. [5] What happens when 17 million Turkish Kurds also decide to step into the action? Erdogan may be on his way to face Turkey's ultimate nightmare; the emergence of Greater Kurdistan.
Turkey shares borders with Iraq, Syria and Iran. The Kurds are beginning to sense the historical shift. Rick Rozoff at Global Research[6] correctly argues that "Turkey provides NATO -- and through NATO the Pentagon -- direct access to those three nations." But this may go way beyond "a new redivision of the Levant modeled after the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916."
Neo-Ottoman Turkey, NATO and the Pentagon may be on the same page at least for the moment. But a Balkanization of the Levant can only advance the emergence of Greater Kurdistan. It may advance Washington's strategic interests. But when Erdogan wakes up to the new reality -- to which his own policies have contributed -- it may be too late.
Notes:
1. Decision by Netanyahu, Barak to strike Iran is almost final - Israel TV, Times of Israel, Aug 13, 2012
2. We would know if Iran had made "a breakout' to the bomb, White House says, Times of Israel, Aug 13, 2012
3. Likely Scenarios for Israeli Attack Against Iran, RIANOVOSTI, Aug 13, 2012
4. Iran to Make own WMD if Israel Delivers Airstrike - expert, RIANOVOSTI, Aug 08, 2012
5. Kurds' have the right to demand federal areas: Kurdish Iranian MP, Al Arabiya News, August 12, 2012
6. Turkey: NATO's Neo-Ottoman Spearhead in the Middle East, Global Research, August 8, 2012
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
