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The Iraqi minister caught between the Turks and the Kurds discusses rising regional tensions—and the unexpected Syrian reaction—in the wake...
Interviewee: Steven A. Cook
Interviewer: Lee Hudson Teslik
October 11, 2007
Two different October 10 events rattled U.S. relations with one of its main allies in the Middle East, Turkey. First, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships launched attacks on Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq, despite U.S. warnings not to do so. Then, a panel in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives infuriated Turkey by passing a resolution on Ottoman killings of Armenians during the First World War, deeming them “genocide.” CFR’s Douglas Dillon Fellow Steven A. Cook says the two events pose a problem for U.S.-Turkish relations. As Turkey continues to amass troops on its border with Iraq, Cook says the ability of the United States to dissuade against a full-on invasion “has been compromised.”
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