During my mid-1990's tenure in Iraqi Kurdistan, we called this the Annual Spring Invasion. 35-40,000 troops would enter and set up camp. Turkish General Staff and Parliament would make noise about protecting Turkey, and the Kurds would make noise about the destabilizing effects of the Turkish military activity.

There were a lot of local and expatriate folks working the area back then who believed that, among other things, with the fall of the Wall, the Turkish military needed a new boogey man to justify 1/5th of the GNP going into the military-industrial complex (lots of O-6's driving MB 500 series). There was plenty of credible information about KDP and/or PUK forces fighting alongside the Turkish tourists against the PKK.

My senior program officer, an Iraqi Kurd with more than a decade working these issues on the international scene, says this ain't nothing but a thing. No one wants to screw up the revenue streams heading in both directions.

Cheers,

Joe