8 January 2008
The terrorist car bombing that killed five people and wounded 68 last Thursday in southeastern Turkey was a local event with larger meaning.
The lethal blast must be seen against the backdrop of a domestic struggle over the political and cultural identity of Turkey. As such, it also has a bearing on Iraq's stability; on regional relationships involving Iran, Syria, and Israel; on Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union; and on what has become Turkey's troubled interaction with the United States.
Turkish officials blame the Kurdish guerrilla group known as the PKK for the bombing. It appears to be retaliation for recent Turkish air raids and artillery attacks against PKK forces in northern Iraq - attacks for which the United States provided intelligence information. This is a dangerous game for all concerned.
For the sake of Turkey's democratic development as well as regional security, Turkey's leaders must not allow patriotic passions to overwhelm prudent statecraft. The progressive currents in Turkish society stand to lose a lot if the country tumbles backward into a reprise of the dirty war that the military conducted against the PKK in the 1980s and '90s.
America and the countries of the European Union risk losing a valuable partner if the car bombing heralds a revival of that dirty war, in which hundreds of Kurdish villages in southeastern Turkey were razed. If Turkey's Western friends want it to continue the political, legal, and economic reforms required for accession to the EU, they must not only give Turkish leaders responsible advice, they must also be willing to give Turkey responsible assistance.
For the Bush administration, this means demanding that Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq - America's truest allies in Iraq - do everything they can to stop the PKK from using its mountain sanctuaries in the north of Iraq as staging areas for attacks inside Turkey. The administration is setting a dangerous precedent by helping Turkish forces to bomb PKK targets inside Iraq and conduct cross-border assaults on PKK bands. Whether or not President George W. Bush intends it, he is practically declaring that, despite the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Iraq's neighbors have a right to violate Iraqi national sovereignty.
Turkey today is poised between civilian and military primacy, between pluralism and a chauvinist nationalism. Turkish fears that Kurdish independence in northern Iraq will lead to demands for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey must not be allowed to drive Turkey's leaders into the arms of Iran and Syria, whose regimes are likewise determined to suppress Kurdish independence. And PKK car bombs must not derail Turkey's progress toward liberal democracy and ruin its chances of joining Europe.
Terrorism, and injudicious warring against terrorism, can have that kind of corroding effect.
