The Turkish incursion into northern Iraq
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The history in general of the attack on Iraq (2002-03)
Turkey and the Anglo-American
war upon Iraq
- Turkey, US Deadlocked Over Overflights;
Troop Movement; Turkish forces cross the border to Iraq.
- By Zerin Elci (Reuters, Arab News), Al-Jazeerah, 22 March 2003. Turkey
delayed opening airspace to US aircraft, demanding control
of overflights and greater freedom to dispatch its own troops
over the border.
- U.S. dismayed as Turkish troops pour into
Northern Iraq
- Middle-East Realities, 23
March 2003. The United States has formally abandoned the
prospect of a northern front in the war against Iraq as
Turkey has once again balked at cooperating with the
U.S. war effort. But what is looming as a major crisis is
the danger that Turkey will militarily pursue its own
agenda in northern Iraq.
- Turks spark fear of new war
- By Peter Fray, The Age, 23
March 2003. Turkey yesterday dramatically raised Western
fears of a war within the war by sending more than 1000
crack troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq in
apparent defiance of the United States.
- US will ignore Turkey’s gray wolves
at its peril
- By K Gajendra Singh, Asia
Times, 25 March 2003. Many Turks think that in the
fast-evolving strategic situation in the region, there
might be an opportunity for Turkey to recover oil-rich
Mosul and Kirkuk, separated from the new Turkish nation by
the imperial powers after 1919. One of the reasons for
going into north Iraq is to protect their kinsmen the
Turkomans and their rights over the reserves of oil around
Kirkuk, now held by Hussein's Sunni Moslems.
- Caught between Turkey and U.S., Kurds are
squeezed by oil politics
- By Greg Butterfield, Workers
World, 3 April 2003. Turkey agrees not to send
additional troops into northern Iraq. Washington feared
the possibility of open warfare between the Turkish Army
and U.S.-allied Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. The
U.S. is counting on the Kurdish groups and their
militias—now officially under U.S. military
command—to aid U.S. Special Forces troops in the
north.