Reconciliation, Sealed With a Bombing Run

Turkey's tumultuous year is coming to a fitting end in the desolate Qandil mountains straddling its border with Iraq and Iran. Weekend air raids aimed at Kurdish PKK separatists were the biggest Turkish incursion since the US seized Baghdad in 2003. But their significance is more political than military. They mark the moment Washington and Ankara kissed and made up.

Tensions with the US over PKK camps in northern Iraq, used to launch attacks in south-eastern Turkey, have been building all year. Speaking in Bahrain last week, Vecdi Gonul, Turkey's defense minister, gave fair warning. The PKK had "considerably augmented" its presence in Iraq's Kurdish areas in the past four years, he complained. The US, and its allies in the Kurdistan regional government (KRG), were simply not doing enough.

"There has been an enormous increase in victims - civilians and security forces: 140 killed this year," Gonul said. "We will not tolerate the use of Iraq for the launching of terrorist interventions. We will use all necessary means ... But it will not be an invasion. We are not targeting the local administration. Our sole aim is the destruction of the PKK presence."

Turkish officials privately attribute US reluctance to crack down on the PKK to its covert support for the PKK's so-called sister organization, the Pejak, or Free Life party of Kurdistan, which is battling over Kurdish areas of north-western Iran. This is seen as part of a broader US effort to counter Iranian meddling in Iraq and destabilize hardliners in Tehran.

Divisive presidential and general election victories by Turkey's moderate Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP), record levels of public anti-Americanism, and resentment about continuing human rights criticisms, further exacerbated strains with the US this year. But it was an attempt by Congress to pass a bill blaming Turkey for genocide against Armenians during the first world war that nearly brought outright rupture with Washington's Nato ally.

"The Democrats came to understand they were playing with fire," said a senior Turkish diplomat. "They were in danger of 'losing' Turkey." When the bill was effectively shelved, following intense lobbying by the White House and the Turkish government, the atmosphere changed appreciably, he said.

Top US generals, including General David Petraeus, the senior commander in Iraq, were dispatched to Ankara this autumn. A series of high-level meetings discussed the PKK problem.

The rapprochement culminated last month with a White House summit with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister. In return for Turkish restraint on large-scale ground operations (deemed unacceptable by the Iraqi government), the US promised to cooperate more actively with Ankara to curtail PKK activities. "Tension dropped considerably," the diplomat said. "There was no green light to Turkish armed intervention. But there was better information and intelligence sharing."

Official American statements in the wake of the air raids have been carefully worded. "We have not approved any decision. It is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event," said a US diplomat in Ankara.

General Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish general staff, was less coy. "America gave intelligence. But more importantly, America opened Iraqi airspace to us. By opening Iraqi airspace, America gave its approval to this operation." The KRG leader, Massoud Barzani, condemning the raids, also noted that they would have been impossible without "indirect US approval".

The deal's longevity may depend on Turkey simultaneously pursuing economic and legal means, such as a limited amnesty, to end the PKK insurgency. If Turkey overplays its hand militarily, the delicate new understanding with the US could falter.

But after the weekend's events, Ankara and Washington are in closer alignment than at any time since the Iraq crisis began. And Erdogan and the AKP, by bowing to public pressure for action and finally letting a restless military off the leash, have considerably strengthened their position at home.