Promises, Promises

By Cernig

You would think that at least the Iraqis would bother to get their story straight before promising Turkey the moon.

Reuters:

Iraq said on Saturday it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.

..."The prime minister renewed the willingness of the Iraqi government to take steps to isolate the terrorist PKK, prevent any help reaching its members, chase and arrest them, and put them in front of the Iraqi judiciary because of their terrorist activities," Maliki's office said in a statement.

That was Satureday afternoon. That same morning, the Iraqi spokesman at the conference told the Associated Press:

Iraq warned that no one can stop Kurdish rebels in Iraq's remote northern border region from attacking Turkey, as tensions over the assaults overshadowed a major international meeting on Iraq's future.

``It's not in our capacity'' to capture the rebels, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. ``It's not even in the capacity of Turkey.''

So which statement is the real deal? Well, Reuters continues:

But the government in Baghdad has little influence over the semi-autonomous Kurdish regions in the north and the success of any measures against PKK militants would depend on the cooperation of Kurdish authorities. Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has so far refused to arrest PKK members.

Meanwhile, Kurdish printing presses are rolling out maps of an independent Kurdistan that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Persian Sea and annexes large chunks of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria thereby. These maps are selling like hot cakes in Kurdish markets. Draw your own conclusions about Maliki's promises.