Posted on 10/14/2007 5:13:14 PM PDT by blam
US tries to halt Turkey attack
Diplomats fly to Ankara to stop military move against Iraqi Kurds after 'genocide' resolution
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday October 14, 2007
The Observer (UK)
Senior US officials were engaged last night in last-ditch efforts to persuade Turkey not to launch a major military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to target armed separatists. A team was diverted from a mission to Russia to make an unscheduled stop in Ankara yesterday. Against the background of the escalating diplomatic row between Turkey and the US over a congressional resolution that branded as 'genocide' massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, revealed she had personally urged Turkey to refrain from any major military operation in northern Iraq. The row between the two Nato allies comes against the dangerous background of a threat by the Turkish parliament to approve this week a 'hot pursuit' of the Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, across the border into northern Iraq.
The threat of military action came after last Sunday's killing by the PKK of 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush in Sirnak province, close to the Iraqi border. 'I urged restraint,' said Rice, on a visit to Moscow, acknowledging 'a difficult time' between the two countries as she described her telephone conversations with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, its Prime Minister and foreign minister.
'It's a difficult time for the relationship,' Rice said. 'We just thought it was a very good idea for two senior officials to go and talk to the Turks and have reassurance to the Turks that we really value this relationship.' Rice said that in her conversation with the Turks 'they were dismayed' by the congressional resolution. 'The Turkish government, I think,
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
Well, we can lay this at the feet of Nancy Pelosi. How far will we let this bitch go before we stuff her back in her rabbit hole?
really - the Turks have been after the Kurds for some time - long before the House committee action. i think you must lay it at the feet of the Turks. just ask the Kurds.
I wonder how much of a bite they are going to put on us so they’ll still be our friend? The last time our friend Turkey only charged us a paltry 30 billion. Inflation should play a part.
Thanks dems...oh wait, no it was the cut and run republicans that allowed the take over of congress by the dems...thanks once again.
The timing of this resolution sucks.
What the he!!. Screw Rice. And if this is the message from President Bush, this will do it for me. What is this, are we telling Turkey that the killing of them by the PKK is OK, that is pure stupidity.
Oh! Now I understand. Like killing of our soldiers by Iran is OK. What crap!
We entered the war in 2003. While there have been rumblings all along, it wasn’t until Pelosi pulled this resolution out of her ‘bag of tricks’ that Turkey publicly stated they were reconsidering their position in relation to this war effort.
If Turkey does end overflights and movements of supplies across it’s soil, it’s going to make things very difficult for our troops.
I know our country allows Mexican citizens to pour into our nation to attack our citizens, but I can’t blame Turkey for doing what we should have long ago.
You know folks, Muslim or not, people do have a right to defend their citizens.
Bush should enter an executive order declaring the genocide resolution a nullity and an abuse of power by the House.
If someone wasn’t aware this was talking about the country Turkey, that title would’ve seemed pretty funny.
See, propoganda from the socialist party and the drive by media DOES work.
OH Tamar you are funny Turkey are out of control
There have been times when I was spitting cotton after reading Powell and Rice’s demands that Israel show restraint. I don’t find this much different. If the Kurds are going to run incursions into Turkey, we can’t blame Turkey for getting pissed off about it.
BTW, why aren’t the Kurdish leaders smacking down their own, so this doesn’t get blown out of proportion?
I doubt the Kurdish leadership is actually involved, but they could help ease tensions.
What with Thanksgiving just over a month away, I don't think that's possible.
Rice urges restraint just like she did to Israel.
Why would any self-respecting country name itself after a "self-basting freezer eagle".
the defeatists believe that by making Turkey mad, they can hurt our war effort. There is no other reason for them to keep needling the Turks on this.
And just why are the always criminal Democrats weighing in on this issue?
To curry votes from the Armenian community in upcoming elections? No.
To sabotage the Bush-led American war effort in Iraq? Yes.
The Democratic Party is the chief enemy of the American republic - never forget that.
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