US diplomatic pressure over PKK bears fruit

By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

Prime Minister Erdogan held talks in Turkey with Condoleezza Rice

The release by the PKK of eight captured Turkish soldiers is a good prelude to the talks in Washington on Monday between President George W Bush and the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The American hope is that its extraordinarily intense diplomatic campaign of the last few weeks is bearing fruit and that Turkey will not launch, at least for now, a major incursion into northern Iraq.

A retired Turkish General Haldun Solmazturk told the BBC: "This release has eased the tension. Now I am quite confident there will not be a large scale invasion of northern Iraq, but some surgical operations pinpointing PKK targets are still inevitable I believe."

American game plan

The invitation for Mr Erdogan to visit the White House shows the importance the Bush administration has placed on this issue. It is culmination of the American strategy, which has been to take Turkish complaints seriously and to do something about them.

PKK fighters have bases in the mountains of northern Iraq

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared the way by paying another visit to Turkey and declaring after talks with Mr Erdogan in Ankara on Friday that the US considered the PKK "a terrorist organisation and indeed... a common enemy."

She had also encouraged a meeting between Turkish leaders and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. After those talks, Iraq made a commitment on Saturday that it was ready to act against the PKK.

The United States had been, and still is, concerned that a major Turkish operation would destabilise northern Iraq, one of the most peaceful areas in Iraq. It was also worried about a deterioration of relations with Turkey, upon which it relies for much of logistical support going into Iraq by air.

US influence

The American hand can be seen in the way that the soldiers were freed. Washington put pressure on the government of Iraq, whose President Jalal Talabani is himself a Kurd. The Iraqi government then urged the Kurdish regional government under Massoud Barzani, who, like Mr Talabani, is a former guerrilla leader in the fight against Saddam Hussein.

Click to view a detailed map of the border region Enlarge Map

Mr Barzani then effected the release by the PKK, the Kurdistan Worker's Party, whose fighters have bases in the mountains of northern Iraq near the southern Turkish border. The soldiers were handed over by the PKK to the Kurdish regional authorities in Iraq.

Mr Barzani's government is taking credit, perhaps anxious to show that its control is effective.

Fouad Hussain, head of Mr Barzani's office, said: "This issue proved one thing, that the Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi leadership, they are part of the solution. And they want to have a good relationship and they work to have a good relationship with Turkish people,"

The crisis is not over however, and the Turkish government will feel obliged to take further steps if there are any more ambushes of its soldiers along the border. The PKK might find it politic to lie low for the time being.

But its future ability to operate freely must be in doubt. Turkey has also managed to turn the attacks on its troops to its diplomatic advantage and has skilfully used its influence on the US to get the Bush administration on its side and to act on its behalf.

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