Ungovernability: U.S. Charged With Arming PKK Terrorists in Northern Iraq

July 3, 2007 (LPAC)--Turkish media is reporting, today, that four ex-members of the Kurdish terrorist group, the PKK, appeared at a press conference on Sunday saying that they had observed U.S. military vehicles delivering weapons to the PKK base at Kandil Mountain in northern Iraq. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara immediately rejected the claim, telling the Turkish news website Today's Zaman on Monday that "we don't help terrorists." Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said he was still awaiting a detailed report. He also said that a military operation is still an option against PKK bases in northern Iraq, and that Turkey would not seek approval from the US if its security and national interests are at stake.

Whatever the truth of this particular report, Turkey has long complained that the U.S. has done little or nothing to restrain the PKK from launching terrorist attacks in Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. Allegations that the U.S. is arming and training the PKK have been circulating since at least 2005.

A May 1, 2005 posting on the strategypage.com website, evidently by a Turk, says that PKK members were among the Kurds that the U.S. armed and trained prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

A Jan. 19, 2007 posting reports that the Turks are angry at the U.S. because it believes that the U.S. and the Iraqi governments know where two PKK leaders are hiding in Iraq yet they have not been arrested.

On Oct. 10, 2005, Today's Zaman reported that claims by Iranian National Security Chief that U.S. officials met with PKK leaders in Mosul were backed up by Turkish government intelligence reports.

A Jan. 9, 2007 commentary in the Turkish Weekly makes another point: that the PKK has become a tool of Israel and the US against Iran, something first reported by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The new Yorker in June, 2004. The article reports that the PKK's Iranian wing killed more than 100 Iranian security officers, last year, and that the PKK has offered an "open cheque" that says "use me wherever you wish."

As for the U.S. measures to prevent a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to attack the PKK bases, these measures serve to restrain Turkey, but not the PKK.