S-2

"However the fly in the ointment is the PKK, if they could be persuaded by bribery and coercion to let up on Turkey well and good but if they continue to use the border as a safe haven while attacking turkey, then in the end Turkey would be compelled to retaliate with invasion."

It's hard to tell at this point. The operations last winter were only modestly protested by Kurds in key northern cities of Iraq. Very minimal noise by the Iraqi Kurd public and no defense made by PUK or KDP militias in support of the PKK.

Lots of possible reasons to include the Iraqi Kurds understanding the limitations that terrain and weather would inevitably play in the scope and outcome of these operations. All indications thus far also suggest that the PKK retains only very minimal support within the Iraqi Kurd communities and are generally alienated from mainstream Kurdish politics as they are increasingly seen as a threat to Kurdish autonomy.

I long ago predicted that Iraqi Kurdistan would become the final redoubt of the Kurdish diaspora. As such, it's security would/should be paramount when considered against an organization (PKK) who's actions could generate blow-back from Turkey that would destroy all of these hard-won recent Kurdish advances. Sorta the old Stalinist precept of defending the mother of the revolution (the Soviet Union) at the expense of risking all for the international proletariat.

__________________
"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski