Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen here in April 2009. Turkey and Iraq have signed a preliminary accord on military cooperation, the Turkish army said.
Turkey's military dialogue with Iraq is possible because the US, currently planning to pull out of the country, has prepared the groundwork for this to happen. As a result, Gen. Ergin Saygun, then deputy chief of general staff, made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Jan. 15, 2008, meeting with Lt. Gen. Nasier Abadi, deputy chief of staff of the Iraqi Joint Forces.
At the time, Abadi described Gen. Saygun's visit to his country as the one that broke the ice in their countries' relations. The ongoing military-to-military talks between the two neighbors resulted in the signing of a military cooperation agreement last Tuesday in Ankara between the visiting Lt. Gen. Abadi and Gen. Hasan Iğsız, Turkey's deputy chief of general staff who replaced Gen. Saygun last year. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on June 9 between Turkey and Iraq paving the way for cooperation in military training, as well as in technical and scientific issues, said a statement posted on the Web site of the General Staff on June 10. The statement said preparations for the MoU had been under way for over a year, but didn't give any further details.
Turkey's signing of a military MoU with Iraq comes soon after an April 29 defense industry cooperation agreement was inked in İstanbul with Syria, another eastern neighbor of Turkey. As Syria and Turkey signed the agreement, their border units launched joint land exercises for the first time, signaling progress in efforts to increase mutual trust between the militaries of the two countries.
The Iraqi-Turkish military cooperation agreement signed last Tuesday following Syrian-Turkish military rapprochement is the continuation of a long-time Turkish effort to create a peaceful environment with its neighbors as a whole and with the volatile Middle East in general.
The Iraqi-Turkish military MoU establishes the basis for the two countries to discuss in depth Turkey's decades-long concerns over the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose members are based in the Kurdish-dominated northern part of Iraq. This military cooperation may enable support for Ankara in reducing the PKK threat coming from northern Iraq.
Gen. Abadi said in January of last year, soon after Gen. Saygun's visit to his country, that Turkey also had the potential to help build the Iraqi armed forces with its experience in this field. According to Abadi's remarks at the time, operational military cooperation with Turkey did not only include intelligence sharing on the PKK, but also the training of Iraqi military personnel as well as getting possible logistical support from Turkey.
The Turkish government has also engaged in dialogue with Iraqi Kurds on both the PKK and energy issues as the first oil began flowing from northern Iraq to Turkey's Yumurtalık pipeline in the south recently.
With the supply of US real-time intelligence on the PKK, Turkish warplanes have been bombing PKK hideouts in northern Iraq since December 2007 under parliamentary consent. Last year, Iraq, Iraqi Kurds, Turkey and the United States formed a joint committee and established a command center in Arbil, northern Iraq, to track the activities of the PKK and to carry out measures to curb terrorist activity.
The critical question that arises now as Iraq and Turkey have signed the military MoU is whether both countries will start talks on whether and how the Iraqi government and the military will allow Turkey to stage cross-border attacks inside northern Iraq to pursue the PKK once the US withdraws from Iraq. The US will withdraw most of its combat troops in the next 18 months. Roughly one-third of the troops will stay through 2011 to provide security and training.
There is a necessity for Turkey to obtain Iraqi as well as Iraqi Kurdish permission if it continues cross-border operations after the US withdrawal. Turkey should get this permission before the US troops leave Iraq so that the Iraqi military can learn how to cooperate and coordinate with Turkey in supplying real-time intelligence.
I hope Turkey won't need to stage cross-border operations into northern Iraq in 2011 as many Turks' patience wore thin a long time ago over the continued emphasis on military methods in dealing with PKK violence. But if they remain a necessity, then Turkey has to begin discussions with the Iraqis on the matter before the US withdraws.
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