BEKIR COSKUN: NORTHERN IRAQ AND ANKARA: THE ADMINISTRATION IS JUST PRETENDING

Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 17 2007

I have never seen a foreign policy like this before.

Let’s say that Turkey truly called its ambassador to the US back to
Ankara because of anger over the Armenian issue.

But now the Prime Minister is taking off for the US, accompanied by
drums and fanfare.

(True, the public could start up a whole "don’t go" campaign to keep
him from leaving. But I know that no one can hold this man back.)

(……..)

The loudest message coming out of this administration, which sent
a motion to the Turkish Parliament regarding a possible military
intervention in northern Iraq, is this:

"The motion does not mean that we will actually intervene…"

Administration spokesman, Cemil Cicek, when talking about the motion,
said "Inshallah we won’t have to use it."

Others in the administration backed this up:

"It doesn’t mean we will go…"

"Nobody is saying we need to go…"

"It will be fine if we don’t go…"

Just as I was writing this column, the Anadolu News Agency sent a press
release covering the Prime Minister’s speech to his AKP parliamentary
group yesterday:

"The passage of this motion by the parliament does not mean that
there will be any immediate over the border operation…"

I guess what this all amounts to is that this motion was actually
needed in order "not to enter into northern Iraq."

*

No doubt you understand:

They want to do something to fight PKK terror, but they are not able
to. And so they are trying to act as though they are doing something.

Which is why we see the tableau we have now before us.

(……..)

And we all also know that "BOP" or the Greater Middle East Project,
and its invaluable aspect, "moderate Islam," are in the bigger picture
a US project, and our current administration is composed of people
who are this project’s first volunteer implementors.

In short, the US is a supporter of this administration.

And for as long as the administration is indebted to the US, and
for as long as it stays on its feet thanks to the US, it cannot act
outside of what the US wants.

And so we see that the "motion allowing permission for an over the
border operation" part is for the crying mothers embracing the coffins
of their martyred sons, while the "this motion does not necessarily
mean we will enter northern Iraq" part is for the US.

I guess the shortest way to describe what we are seeing is this:

They are just pretending.