Act now

OPINION:

In recent weeks, as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has stepped up its murderous campaign to plunge Turkey and Iraq into war, well-intentioned Kurds have embarked on a PR campaign aimed at telling the world that the PKK is really interested in halting armed struggle and becoming a nonviolent political party. Apparently, the PKK didn’t get the message that it had become a “peaceful” political grouping: On Sunday afternoon, several hundred PKK fighters ambushed a group of Turkish troops on Turkish soil killing at least 12. Indeed, since the beginning of the year, scores of Turks have died in PKK attacks, including a dozen civilians who were dragged off a public bus and shot to death several weeks ago.

Along with PKK terror, and Turkey’s perception that the United States until very recently had done little to try to stop it, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has weighed in with some mischief of her own: She has pressed the House Foreign Affairs Committee to pass a resolution condemning Turkey for genocide against the Armenians between 1915 and 1923. This combination could do serious damage to U.S. relations with Turkey, a NATO ally which is playing critical roles in supporting U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two weeks ago, Ankara recalled its ambassador from Washington, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that U.S.-Turkish relations could be “cut off.” Milliyet, a pro-Western newspaper, ran a front-page editorial demanding that Turkey curb the usage of its military base at Incirlik by the U.S. military in response to the Armenia measure, which Mrs. Pelosi wants on the November calendar.

Since the U.S. deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003, Turkey has repeatedly demanded that the United States hit PKK bases in northern Iraq or force the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to take action. But until now, Washington has responded to Turkey’s complaints with excuses and empty promises to act at some point in the future. Well, as the late Redskins Coach George Allen used to say, the future is now. According to the Pentagon, more than two-thirds of all cargo shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan is sent through Turkey, which has given Washington blanket permission for military logistical operations using Turkish territory. Turkey, which has more than 1,100 troops in Afghanistan in addition to reconstruction teams, plays a vital role in maintaining security in Kabul. If Turkey were to reduce its military cooperation, it would undermine the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq put the lives of American soldiers there at risk.

One bit of good news is that the Bush administration has come to the realization that it needs to put pressure on the KRG now to eradicate the terrorist presence in northern Iraq right away. The failure to do so would be catastrophic for the Kurds and the Iraqi people as a whole.