Yesterday, the Turkish foreign minister, Ali Babacan, told reporters in Ankara that his government was willing to give diplomacy a chance. He added that a summit scheduled for November 2 in Istanbul would be "an occasion to discuss all problems in Iraq, including our problem with terrorism."
The statement marks a retreat from a resolution passed by a vote of 507 to 19 in the Turkish parliament on Wednesday that authorizes cross-border raids into Iraq.
Turkey claims that members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, are hiding out on the mountainous Turkish-Iraqi border and that the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, as well as the Iraqi government in Baghdad, has done little to turn over PKK terrorists. In the past two weeks, PKK raids on Turkish military positions near the Iraqi border have claimed 15 lives, heightening tensions on the border.
An adviser to Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, Egemen Bagis, said in an interview with Bloomberg News that America should treat the PKK the same way it treats Al Qaeda.
America yesterday welcomed Mr. Babacan's statement on diplomacy, a State Department spokesman, David Foley, told The New York Sun.
"We encourage continued dialogue between Turkey and Iraq and the implementation of the counterterrorism agreement they signed September 28," he said. "We call on Iraqi authorities to take effective measures against the PKK threat. We stand ready to support in every way appropriate efforts by Turkey and Iraq to protect their citizens and stop this terrorist violence."
Yesterday, both President Bush and Secretary of State Rice placed calls to Ankara to talk the Turks down, as did Prime Minister al-Maliki of Iraq. On Monday, Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, made the case to President Gül of Turkey that an incursion into Iraq would further destabilize his country. Messrs. Hashemi and Gül are Islamists and members of their country's respective branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Prior to the Turkish foreign minister's statement, Iraq's Kurdistan regional government issued a statement of its own expressing concern over the parliamentary vote but also unequivocally condemning the PKK attacks. "The KRG condemns the killing of innocent people in Turkey and does not believe that violence solves any problem," it said. "The KRG supports a political process to achieve a comprehensive political solution to the problem of the PKK, which has lasted for 28 years."
The author of "Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence," Aliza Marcus, said she does not think the Iraqi Kurdish regional government particularly liked the PKK presence in northern Iraq.
"The Iraqi Kurds don't like having the PKK there, but there is little they can do," she said. "The PKK are in the very mountains the Iraqi Kurds used for years to fight Saddam Hussein."
The mountainous terrain and the coming winter, Ms. Marcus said, are one reason she does not expect Turkey to launch a full incursion into the mountainous border area in Iraq. "Turkey is genuinely angry. More than a dozen soldiers were killed in one attack," she said. "The weather conditions are difficult. It is hard to move ground forces when snow is beginning to fall in the mountains. To a certain extent, Turkey has made its point. It wants action, it is willing to take action, but it is willing to wait."
Turkish intelligence captured the PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in 1999 after he arrived in Kenya, having fled Greece. Since then, Ms. Marcus said, the organization has not been not as strong as it was in its heyday, the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2006, Mr. Öcalan's lawyer released a statement calling for a cease-fire between Turkey and the PKK.
The Turkish defense minister, Vecdi Gönü, is scheduled to meet Defense Secretary Gates on Sunday on the sidelines of an international conference in Kiev, Ukraine, according to the Anatolia News Agency.