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A motion to give authorization for a cross-border operation into northern Iraq will probably be voted on and passed by Parliament today, and it will be valid for one year. This is the right decision, and to a great extent Parliament will reach a consensus. But after the decision is made, the government, opposition and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) should think things through with cool heads.

Okish Armed Forces (TSK) should think things through with cool heads. Concerning the terrorist attacks of the PKK, all the politicians, military and civilian bureaucrats and intellectuals have to answer two questions and also consider a key fact about the Armenian resolution which was passed last week by US House of Foreign Relations Committee. Those questions are as follows:

1. Who in the PKK made the decision to launch the recent attacks? For example, could convicted PKK head Abdullah Ocalan have given orders from Imrali island, where he’s incarcerated?

2. Why have there been so many attacks of late?

Moreover, people should abandon their narrow point of view that if the US administration had wanted, it could have prevented passage of the Armenian resolution, for they should remember that the administration no longer has a majority in the US Congress. In addition, they should consider that Democrats will do anything to make the Republicans look weak, especially in the runup to the presidential and congressional US elections just over a year from now. Let’s go further and predict that the Armenian resolution will be passed by Congress this winter, barring unexpected developments, and President George W. Bush has no authority to veto it. The answers to those questions and reflections on the resolution should lead us to conclude as follows: The last thing that the Bush administration would want at this time is tension in relations with Turkey.

Let me say it another way: whoever is influencing the terrorist PKK, they want Turkish-US relations to falter at a time when the US has started to plan its withdrawal from Iraq and thus when it needs Turkey more than ever. Some people know very well that if Turkey goes into northern Iraq before the meeting of countries neighboring Iraq in Istanbul at the end of this month, this could prevent Turkey from playing a dominant role in Iraq and thus in the Middle East. The same people would be very glad if Turkey, bitterly disappointed by both the European Union and the US, grew completely introverted.

As it doesn’t want to lose Turkey, the US administration should accept these two points:

1. The US has messed up everything in northern Iraq, because not only the Shiite and Sunni regions, but also northern Iraq is helpless.

2. The US has no right to ask Turkey to be patient. If the US doesn’t want to be at odds with Turkey over northern Iraq, it should take joint action with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against the terrorist PKK in northern Iraq, and this action should have direct, concrete results.

Now it’s too late for more words. No ruling party in Turkey – even if it came to power not with 47% of the votes, but 97% – could ask the nation to be patient and wait yet again for the US to take action. Washington has no right to ask anything of Ankara. What’s more, the US administration should see that the latest PKK attacks were meant to ruin US plans in Iraq. If Turkey is supposed to help the US get out of the Iraqi quagmire, the US has to help Turkey get out of the PKK mess.”