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Give peace a chance

Therefore, the decision on part of Ankara and Baghdad to yield to pressing international diplomatic pressure is the most prudent step in the given circumstances, and stalls the fear of considerable expansion of the violence-base, at least for now.

It is important to note that while the Kurdish rebels have troubled Turkey’s equilibrium since the early ‘80s, the situation started spinning out of control only following Iraq’s massive security breakdown that was prompted by the US invasion. And Turkey’s concerns notwithstanding as parliament went for the yes-vote on the military option, weighing heavily on the prime minister’s mind was no doubt the prompt Kurdish threat of trapping the onslaught in a web of insurgency before expanding it to deep within Turkish borders. Clearly, the recently bolstered government in Ankara did not want to emerge with its tail between its legs once the dust settled. But even though immediate chaos has been spared, there is considerable weight in skeptics’ concerns that the deal to work together has only delayed the inevitable. What Iraq’s forces can do to tame the wild Kurdish rebels, whose commitment to their cause is clearly beyond question, is not the easiest course to figure out. Not only is the Iraqi force inadequate for its own pressing concerns, it is deeply divided, and cannot really risk coming back from such an assignment with a red nose.

Perhaps what has been salvaged by the Ankara-Baghdad handshake is realisation of the magnitude of the mutual problem. Overall Kurdish designs of self-empowerment are a thorn in the side of the Iraqi leadership also, with neither the Iraqi flag nor language being recognised in ‘Kurdistan’. In all likelihood, both governments will leverage the ‘terrorist organisation’ tag bestowed upon the PKK by the US and EU alike, and then bend the emerging situation to serve their own respective concerns.

The breakthrough is welcome, nonetheless, because it has avoided immediate violence. As events in the troubled Middle East have shown over the last half-decade, once the mayhem genie is let out, it becomes impossible to bottle again.