BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- Not even two days after AKP Deputy Egemen Bagis, who is known to be active in shaping the ruling party's policy towards the US, told The Sunday Telegraph that the US should understand that Turkey is ready to enter northern Iraq even if it means conflict with Washington, we faced a new fiasco.
When syndicated Washington Post columnist Robert Novak, supported by the state-within-the-state, wrote that high-ranking US officials were discussing a joint military operation against terrorist PKK leaders together with their Turkish colleagues, another plan targeting the terrorist PKK went into the dustbin.
Now the PKK leaders can go on about their business untroubled.
But we can't say that that is something new. Because we've lost count of these fiascos.
In fact, it wasn't a fiasco. Our strategic ally is taking Turkey, which is trying to protect its national unity, for a fool.
This is also proven by press reports. Let's take a look:
In a May 8, 2003 telephone conversation, Richard Myers, then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked by his then counterpart Gen. Hilmi Ozkok why they didn't seize the terrorist PKK's arms, and this was his answer: "We will disarm and neutralize the PKK (KADEK). We are preparing plans to do so. Maybe Turkish soldiers won't have to be in northern Iraq then."
But more than four years, this plan has yet to materialize.
When President Bush decided to invade Iraq, everything, including the operation, was completed in nine months.
Another quotation comes from a June 26, 2004 column by Hurriyet's Sedat Ergin. According to Ergin, President Bush sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdodan on May 13, 2003, just a week before the Iraq war started, saying that they wanted to use Turkish airspace during the war. He also said that they shared Turkey's sensitivities over northern Iraq and that they would work together to prevent northern Iraq from becoming a shelter for the terrorist to attack Turkey.
But efforts towards this end also have yet to be seen. Leaving aside the US seizing the terrorist PKK's arms, the PKK is actually using US weapons against us right now.
As the situation is so clear, it's no surprise that news of the top-secret operation was leaked to the press.