BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- It would be easy to belittle Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Ankara this week. We have many reasons for doing so:
* The talks didn't result in a proper agreement. Instead of an agreement to cooperate against terrorism, only a memorandum of understanding was signed. A real agreement is said to be two months down the road.
* Maliki's government is falling apart at the seams. Resignations are mounting. Maliki has to rely on the Kurds in his Cabinet more than ever now.
* Even if the planned agreement is signed, it won't be easy to implement it, because the regional Kurdish administration is much more powerful than Iraq's central government.
* Thus, the chances that Maliki, whose days in office may be numbered, will be able to realize Turkey's expectations about the PKK are very weak.
All of this is true, including the part about Maliki's bleak political future. So under these circumstances, we shouldn't expect much from his visit. The memorandum of understanding was just better than nothing at all. That's that.
What was good about his visit, then?
* The Iraqi government recognizing the PKK as a terrorist group and expressing its determination to fight it.
* The central government's commitment to take the necessary measures to isolate and eliminate the PKK.
* The memorandum of understanding's creating a legal basis which can be referred to if necessary.
* Scheduling of preparations for the real agreement.
So what's the importance of all this?
Taking into account the weakness and even dysfunctionality of the central government, it's easy to see how difficult fulfilling this commitment will be. It's clear that the central government in Baghdad can't undertake a mission to start a fight against the PKK. Kurds control the northern region. We also know that northern Iraqi leader Massoud Barzani doesn't want to take part in efforts against the PKK.
Moreover, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari approving the memorandum of understanding and taking part in the talks is important, as he is of Kurdish origin and has close ties with the regional government in the north. In fact, including the northern Iraqi administration in this process will be helpful. Otherwise, all the documents and commitments will be for nothing.
One may ask what the point of negotiating with Maliki and signing some documents bilaterally is, but of course, one of the alternatives to a military operation is working with the Baghdad administration. As one of the people participating in the talks said, `Turkey is trying to push all diplomatic means. If they fail, it won't be blamed for having tried'.