BY SEMIH IDIZ
MILLIYET- Necessary conditions are present for Turkey to conduct a cross-border operation against the terrorist PKK in northern Iraq. Article 51 of the UN Charter states that an attacked country may take any step until the UN takes necessary measures. If our Parliament passes the relevant motion, we will have laid the necessary legal groundwork.
But does lining everything up on paper mean that such an operation would be easy or successful? The answer is no! Because the issue has international dimensions.
Turkey was legally in the right in 1974 when it entered Cyprus. But this didn't prevent it from being branded an invader. This definition still prevails, and Turkey remains isolated on the Cyprus issue.
Today there is a belief that Turkey hasn't exhausted all peaceful means to counter the presence of the PKK in northern Iraq. That is what Iraqi Kurds say on international platforms.
The Iraqi Shiites' announcement that they would support the Kurds in case of a cross-border operation shows that Turkey wouldn't just have problems with the West. Of course Ankara doesn't have to take this seriously.
The US invasion of Iraq showed that a country with a powerful military which believes that it faces a serious threat may use its right to unilateral intervention even if it lacks the necessary legal framework.
At this point a second question comes to mind: Is it certain that we'll get the results we want as the result of such an operation?
Above all, if an operation is going to be conducted, we shouldn't announce it beforehand. Such operations should be launched unexpectedly in order to damage their targets quickly. As Mt. Kandil has long since been abandoned, such an operation should be conducted against PKK terrorist bases in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, which means an operation to areas where Kurdish peshmerga and soldiers of the US and other countries are deployed.
Such an operation targeting the Mahmur camp faces other difficulties, as it has the status of UN refugee camp.
Something many analysts warn of is PKK militants stepping up their bloody attacks in Turkey and so exacerbating domestic Turkish-Kurdish tensions.
Moreover, groups such as al-Qaeda, which has killed hundreds of innocent people in northern Iraq in recent days, also pose risks. Such groups are quite likely to also target the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in order to raise tension not only in northern Iraq but also in the whole region.
According to both government and military officials, comprehensive plans considering every contingency of a cross-border operation have been drawn up. I hope this is true, because we're talking about an asymmetrical fight.
For this reason, the risk of aggravating already bleeding wounds shouldn't be ignored.