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Another Bush Legacy in Iraq: Barzani asks PKK to Leave
http://www.juancole.com/2015/08/another-legacy-barzani.htmlAnother Bush Legacy in Iraq: Barzani asks PKK to Leave
By Juan Cole | Aug. 2, 2015
On Sunday morning, Kurdish separatist guerrillas launched a suicide-bombing strike on Turkish forces in Angri province, using a tractor laden with explosives.
On Saturday, the president of the Kurdistan Regional government of northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, condemned the Turkish airstrikes on Iraq and asked the PKK guerrillas to withdraw from the territories he rules. The KRG complained that the airstrikes had killed Kurdish civilians.
Barzani is likely worried that the PKK will become an even bigger factor in the politics of Iraqi Kurdistan now that it is being targeted. He wants both to placate the angry Turks and to constrain the radical Kurds.
The mainstream media in the US will not note that some of this recrudescence of ugly ethnic nationalism in eastern Turkey is the fault of George W. Bush.
