BUYUKANIT IN US AMID LOOMING CRISIS OVER ARMENIAN RESOLUTION
Lale SariÝbrahÝmoÐlu Ankara

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 12 2007

As it has become more likely that the Democrat party-controlled US
Congress will pass a resolution in April, which would declare the
killings of Armenians during 1st World War as genocide, speculations
have intensified that Turkish-US relations will receive a blow.

The Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaþar Buyukanýt left for the
US yesterday amid such increased concerns following Turkish Foreign
Abdullah Gul’s recently ended visit to Washington.

Gul’s visit was described by some US analysts as a failure, since
he was unable to achieve any success in convincing the Democrats
that an Armenian resolution would both hurt the ties between the two
countries and the US interests. The refusal of Speaker of the House,
Nancy Pelosi, to meet with Gul has been a strong signal that passage
of the Resolution is highly likely.

Turkey denies the allegations made by the Armenian diaspora that some
1.5 million Armenians died from slaughter and exile in a systematic
genocide in 1915.

Republican President George W. Bush is known to be against the bill
which has already been submitted to the foreign relations committee
of the House of Representatives. But Bush’s lack of control over
the Democrat-controlled Congress weakens expectations that Armenian
resolution will not pass.

It remains to be seen how General Buyukanýt could persuade the US
side to cancel the Armenian resolution, but like Gul he will also
touch upon other thorny issues between the two countries: such as
the PKK’s possible resurgence of its operations as snow melts in the
region, the possible negative effects of the possible US-led coalition
withdrawal from Iraq as well as the arms trade that both countries
have speeded up, following the signing of major agreements such as the
Turkish participation with the US Joint Strike fighter (JSF) program,
before the Armenian Resolution could be approved by the Congress,
which has a strong say in arms deals with the third countries.

Buyukanýt, who will be visiting the US as the official guest of the
US Chief of Staff General Peter Pace, will also meet with political
figures such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Head of the National
Security Council Steve Hadley and the Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos,
who are reportedly keen on finding out Ankara’s response to the
US-Israeli strategic partnership.

PKK operations in Europe and Turkish cross-border operation As
confirmed by both Gul and Ross Wilson, US Ambassador to Turkey,
the latest operations launched in France and in Belgium against
the PKK terrorists operating in those countries, culminating with
the capture of 14 PKK members, became possible due to Washington’s
long term efforts it made with the European countries, to stop PKK’s
financial income that also helps the PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq
to launch offensives mainly in Turkey’s southeast regions.

The US efforts to persuade the European countries to halt PKK
activities in Europe is part of a strategy to display to Ankara that
Washington has been doing its best against the PKK, and that Ankara
should not take any unilateral action by invading Northern Iraq to
bomb the PKK camps.

But it is expected that a limited Turkish military operation
into Northern Iraq – most possibly in late March – to render PKK
ineffective, in coordination with the US, will be amongst the topics
discussed between Buyukanýt and US officials.

A possible cross-border operation coordinated with the US is high
on both the Turkish military and civilian agenda – even as it is
understood by both that such an operation would not end the PKK
problem as long as the root political, cultural and social problems
of Turkey’s approximately 12 million Kurds were not resolved.

But the government, which has entered into an election period of
both Presidential and national elections, along withthe military has
heightened the Turkish public expectations of such a cross border
operation.

Iraq’s disintegration concerns the Turkish military …

Several Turkish journalists left for the US to cover Buyukanýt’s
visit to the US, and the Turkish military promised them that Buyukanýt
would brief them about his contacts with the US officials.

Media interest in his US visit also underlines, among other things,
the growing Turkish military weight being felt in the US as the
direct military to military contacts have intensified following a
serious set back in relations between Turkey and the USA when the
Turkish Parliament rejected on March 1, 2003 allowing the US forces
based in Turkey to open a second front for the US invasion of Iraq.

Buyukanýt is also expected to raise during his talks with the
US officials, the Turkish military’s concern over the possible
disintegration of Iraq, in particular if US led coalition forces decide
to withdraw. According to Buyukanýt, a US-led coalition withdrawal
from Iraq would further destabilize the whole Middle East region.

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