The Turkish Government demanded that the Iraqi Government launch more strikes against the PKK in Iraq. But Iraq is mired in its own troubles and is unable to undertake the mission. Therefore, Turkey's Parliament passed the proposal to enter Iraq and launch cross-border strikes.

"Actually, cross-border strikes against the Kurds were not rare among the four countries," said Wang, noting that preventing Kurdish independence has been a common historical understanding of these governments. Today the situation is different, because Iraq's political structure is under a multiple power distribution system that combines both ethnic groups and religious elements, he said. The Kurdish people are politically important as well. For example, the current Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is a Kurd. "This power structure is under U.S. support, because of the security considerations of Iraq," Wang said.

Hua Liming, former Ambassador to Iran, said the regional situation became more complicated after the Iraq war.

"The Kurdish area in Iraq is fairly stable, if compared to other regions in Iraq," he said, adding that there are fewer conflicts among religious and ethnic groups there. Also, U.S. ground forces will not enter the Kurdish region of Iraq, Hua said.

The Kurd issue has been a headache for the Americans as well, Hua said. "The problem is that Iraq's Kurds will not agree to fight with their brothers; if Turkey enters the area, should the U.S. force dispatch soldiers to the region?" he said. Among Iraq's ethnic groups, the Kurds have maintained the best relationship with the United States. If Washington backs Ankara's plan, it will offend its Kurdish allies in Iraq.

But Turkey, the only NATO member state in the Middle East, is of special strategic importance to the United States. Of the U.S. military's equipment in Iraq, Turkish airbases transfer 70 percent of air forces, 30 percent of fuel and 95 percent of armed vehicle. Losing Turkey as an ally would bode poorly for U.S. Middle East strategy, especially for its plan for Iraq, Hua said.

The two experts agreed that the United States would play the crucial role in the dilemma. "Turkey was angry about the U.S. Congress' resolution in early October, which accused Turkey's mass conflicts against Armenians during World War I was genocide," Wang said, noting that Turkey has reminded the United States of its significance in the region.

The agreement between Turkey and the United State will be the key, Wang said. Once Turkey launches a mass strike on the PKK in Iraq, the whole situation will be hard to control, Hua said.

"The United States has to comfort both Turkey and Iraq," Hua said. "On the one hand, it has to push the Iraqi Government harder to strike the PKK; on the other hand, it needs to persuade Turkey not to carry out large-scale strikes in Iraq."

Many PKK members have fled to Iran, according to the latest news reports. If Turkey also sticks to its plan of striking PKK members fled to Iran by crossing the border, the whole situation will be out of control. "It will create a Domino effect of suppressing the Kurds in the whole Middle East," Hua said.

About The PKK The PKK, a guerilla organization established in Turkey in 1979, wants to create an independent Kurdistan republic in the Kurdish residence area at the boundary region between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. The Turkish Government banned the organization, forcing it underground in southeast Turkey, where it has clashed frequently with the Turkish army. In the 1990s, the United States and European Union listed the PKK as a terrorist organization. Today, the PKK has more than 6,000 members, and its main sphere of influence is in north Iraq. Before the Iraq war started in 2003, the Turkish Government launched several military attacks against the PKK inside Iraq. In May 2004, the PKK said it would end the ceasefire that had been in place during the previous four years. Since then, and especially this year, the PKK's armed forces have been crossing the Iraq-Turkey border and launching several attacks in east and southeast Turkey. To prevent the PKK's attacks and settle the problem, the Turkish military planned to surround and annihilate the PKK by launching strikes in north Iraq. On October 17, the Turkish Parliament approved the government's motion to strike the PKK by entering Iraq. About The Kurds The Kurds have a long history in Western Asia. They make up the fourth largest nation in the Middle East with a total population of 30 million. The Kurdish people are mostly Sunni Muslims. Kurdistan used to be an independent province of the Ottoman Empire. It was divided into several countries after World War I, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Kurdish population of about 4 million in Iraq is about one fifth of the country's total population and constitutes its biggest ethnic group. This is the main reason that Iraq's Kurds want to create an independent Kurdistan. The Kurds live on about 80,000 square km of land in north Iraq, an area of geographic importance with abundant agricultural products and oil. In March 1975, after many rounds of negotiations, the Kurds and the Iraqi Government signed an agreement to establish an autonomous region in the north based on three Kurdish autonomous provinces. The Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two main armed political organizations in the Kurdish region, are fighting for an independent state. Due to the conflicts between the Iraqi Government and the two armed forces, many Kurds fled to Iran and Turkey in the late 1980s. In 1992, Iraq's Kurds held an election and set up a local parliament. In October 2002, they mapped out a Kurdish constitution and chose their capital. After the Iraq war, the Kurdish region became more independent. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)