Thursday, June 07, 2007

Getting Ready for Something

The Turks have declared a security zone north of Iraq's Kurdish region:



Turkish media reports Thursday said the areas would be off-limits to civilian flights. Others said the zones meant that additional security measures would be implemented, and entry into the regions would be restricted and tightly controlled.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the Turkish military released the coordinates of the areas that would be affected and said the zones would be in place until Sept. 9, but gave no other information.

Newspapers said the coordinates relate to areas of the provinces of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari. Sirnak and Hakkari border northern Iraq, while Siirt is farther north of the border. All three provinces have been the scene of fighting with Kurdish rebels.


While the Kurdish terrorism problem is certainly the likely explanation for the security measure, the security zone is also just west of the Iranian Kurdish region. What are the Turks getting ready for?


I wonder what we are doing at Incirlik lately?