The PKK Trap: Alternative Scenarios
The Turkish columnist Sahin Alpay examines alternative outcomes to the Turkish incursion into Iraq. If the operation succeeds in destroying the PKK infrastructure, this should be followed by amnesty for rank-and-file militants and a full raft of cultural, linguistic and economic reforms. Ideally, there would be cooperation among Ankara, Washington, Baghdad and Arbil and an end to the PKK threat. If the operation gets out of control (see my previous PKK blowback post) and the conflict widens to include skirmishes with Iraqi Kurds, this would support Turkish nationalist suspicions that the Kurdish regional government sponsors the PKK and trigger a region-wide Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Alpay argues that this is the trap into which the PKK has been trying to lead Turkey in order to shore up the PKK’s declining relevance to Kurdish aspirations.
To download Sahin Alpay’s column, click here: sahin-alpay-250208.doc
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