!ᬠ�="justify">As it has become more likely that the Democrat party-controlled US Congress will pass a resolution in April, which would declare the killings of Armenians during 1st World War as genocide, speculations have intensified that Turkish-US relations will receive a blow.

The Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Ya?ar Büyükan?t left for the US yesterday amid such increased concerns following Turkish Foreign Abdullah Gül's recently ended visit to Washington.

Gül's visit was described by some US analysts as a failure, since he was unable to achieve any success in convincing the Democrats that an Armenian resolution would both hurt the ties between the two countries and the US interests. The refusal of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to meet with Gül has been a strong signal that passage of the Resolution is highly likely.

Turkey denies the allegations made by the Armenian diaspora that some 1.5 million Armenians died from slaughter and exile in a systematic genocide in 1915.
Republican President George W. Bush is known to be against the bill which has already been submitted to the foreign relations committee of the House of Representatives. But Bush's lack of control over the Democrat-controlled Congress weakens expectations that Armenian resolution will not pass.

It remains to be seen how General Büyükan?t could persuade the US side to cancel the Armenian resolution, but like Gül he will also touch upon other thorny issues between the two countries: such as the PKK's possible resurgence of its operations as snow melts in the region, the possible negative effects of the possible US-led coalition withdrawal from Iraq as well as the arms trade that both countries have speeded up, following the signing of major agreements such as the Turkish participation with the US Joint Strike fighter (JSF) program, before the Armenian Resolution could be approved by the Congress, which has a strong say in arms deals with the third countries.

Büyükan?t, who will be visiting the US as the official guest of the US Chief of Staff General Peter Pace, will also meet with political figures such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Head of the National Security Council Steve Hadley and the Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos, who are reportedly keen on finding out Ankara's response to the US-Israeli strategic partnership.
PKK operations in Europe and Turkish cross-border operation

As confirmed by both Gül and Ross Wilson, US Ambassador to Turkey, the latest operations launched in France and in Belgium against the PKK terrorists operating in those countries, culminating with the capture of 14 PKK members, became possible due to Washington's long term efforts it made with the European countries, to stop PKK's financial income that also helps the PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq to launch offensives mainly in Turkey's southeast regions.
The US efforts to persuade the European countries to halt PKK activities in Europe is part of a strategy to display to Ankara that Washington has been doing its best against the PKK, and that Ankara should not take any unilateral action by invading Northern Iraq to bomb the PKK camps.

But it is expected that a limited Turkish military operation into Northern Iraq - most possibly in late March - to render PKK ineffective, in coordination with the US, will be amongst the topics discussed between Büyükan?t and US officials.

A possible cross-border operation coordinated with the US is high on both the Turkish military and civilian agenda - even as it is understood by both that such an operation would not end the PKK problem as long as the root political, cultural and social problems of Turkey's approximately 12 million Kurds were not resolved.

But the government, which has entered into an election period of both Presidential and national elections, along withthe military has heightened the Turkish public expectations of such a cross border operation.

Iraq's disintegration concerns the Turkish military ...

Several Turkish journalists left for the US to cover Büyükan?t's visit to the US, and the Turkish military promised them that Büyükan?t would brief them about his contacts with the US officials.

Media interest in his US visit also underlines, among other things, the growing Turkish military weight being felt in the US as the direct military to military contacts have intensified following a serious set back in relations between Turkey and the USA when the Turkish Parliament rejected on March 1, 2003 allowing the US forces based in Turkey to open a second front for the US invasion of Iraq.

Büyükan?t is also expected to raise during his talks with the US officials, the Turkish military's concern over the possible disintegration of Iraq, in particular if US led coalition forces decide to withdraw. According to Büyükan?t, a US-led coalition withdrawal from Iraq would further destabilize the whole Middle East region.