Above: Kandil mountains, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, Iran, Turkey

Turkey bombed several villages in Northern Iraq yesterday the 16th: Zap, Hakurk and Avasin as well as areas in the Kandil/Qandil (Depends on who you talk to) mountainous region were hit. Apparently striking at the PKK (The Kurdistan workers party). There is an old Kurdish saying, ” The Kurds have no friends but the mountains. ” The strike lasted 3 hrs and began at 2300 GMT, 0200 local time. Iraq says Ten villages hit and 1 person killed, the PKK advise 7, 5 fighters and 2 civilians. A spokesman for the region’s president, Massud Barzani, said the military strike was a “violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and appears to be backed by the United States”. Turkey advise that they informed the US before they made the attack. The US say they were aware of the attack but did nothing about it. ” We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve, However, we were informed before the event, ” US EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD.

The Turkish Prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the raid a success. This raid is more than likely a response to rebel raids in Turkey recently, which caused mass outcry by the Turkish people for revenge. Ankara has 100,000 troops near the border with northern Iraq, including tanks, artillery and warplanes. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country’s second largest city after İstanbul. 3000 Pkk members are believed to be hanging around in the mountains, I think there was a movie about them made, except divided by ten. Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, demanded an immediate end to air strikes on Iraqi territory. The Turkish military government received approval from the Turkish parliament in October to take military action “at any time.”

On Wednesday April 7th 2005, Iraq’s interim National Assembly elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as president of the country . Mr. Talabani has stressed in the past that Iraq has no designs on Turkish lands. However Turkey feels Mr. Talabani has a soft spot for the Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq. So no love is lost between the two.

A 2005 Pew Global Attitude Survey indicates that large numbers of Turks not only oppose U.S. foreign policy, but don’t consider Americans to be honest. This may be a reflection of how relations between the US and the Turks really are going as the Turks want the PKK blown to crap and the Americans have enough problems in the rest of the country without having another 10-15000 guerilla warfare experts to deal with.

Turkey originally banned the US from using their airspace back on March 1st of 2003. Experts believe this was down to Turkeys hopes to extort the US for aid money and possibly to delay or halt the war as all the people in Turkey were addimently against the war in Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell travelled to Turkey in March of 2003 to talk about war developments. The Bush administration had also included $1 billion in its war budget for assistance to Turkey–though that money was still to be approved by Congress. No one has heard if Turkey got this money. “Turkey is a strategic partner and strong ally of America,” the President told reporters, sitting next to Erdogan the Turkish prime minister in the White House Oval Office in November. Turkey, a key US ally through which 70 per cent of its military air cargo reaches Iraq.