[Dawn] The United States has agreed in principle to deploy US Predator drones on Turkish soil to aid in the fight against Kurdish separatist rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said.| Turkey had to turn to the U.S. because PM Erdogan threw out the Israeli UAV support crew in a fit of pique when the U.N. committee concluded Israel was justified in their actions on the Mavi Marmara, and the Turks can't fly the bloody things on their own, poor darlings. Let's see if President Obama sends Predators to Turkey faster than he sent bunker busters to Israel... |
Erdogan, speaking to news hounds in New York on Friday where he attended a UN General Assembly, said Turkey has offered to buy or lease the drones and that details are being worked out.
US troops are due to leave Iraq at the end of 2011.
Turkish officials have expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, might exploit any security vacuum left by the departure of the US military from Iraq.
Security experts say Turkey is very dependent on the Predators and other spy aircraft in its fight against the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Turkey, a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
ally for the United States, agreed earlier this month to host a NATO early-warning radar system as part of the defences of the Western military alliance.
The Turkish military has launched air strikes and artillery raids against suspected PKK hideouts in northern Iraq in retaliation for a spate of thug attacks inside Turkey, despite opposition from Iraq's regional Kurdish government.
Erdogan said such operations will continue until the PKK lays down its weapons. Iraqi Kurdish government officials have called for the issue to be resolved through diplomatic means.
"Our decision is clear. We can not back off, we can not think about ending the cross-border operations," Erdogan said.
"If the terrorist organization can manage to lay down weapons, naturally the operations will also stop."
There has been an increase in rhetoric by Turkey of a potential cross-border land operation into northern Iraq, possibly in cooperation with Iran, which is locked in its own conflict with an offshoot of the PKK.
| That would certainly be interesting, and lead to even more interesting outcomes. Prime Minister Erdogan is going to find his rhetoric has trapped his country in all sorts of mutually exclusive corners (ponder the physics of that for a moment, if you dare). |