Spotlight: Turkey's "offensive" against terrorism signals new cross-border operations: analysts

Turkey's projected "offensive" against terrorist groups, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), raises the possibility of new cross-border operations in the near future that would include northern Iraq, analysts said.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed on Sunday to pursue an "offensive" policy in the country's fight against terrorism, with a view to finding and destroying all terrorists.

"If we don't do this, we will have to continue living with the threat of terrorism," he said in a visit to troops tasked with fighting the PKK militants.

The PKK and the Islamic State (IS) are blamed for a spate of bombing attacks in Turkey in the past year that inflicted heavy casualties.

Ankara and the PKK have renewed fighting since July last year, shattering a two-year-old peace process, while the IS militants were declared to be cleared from the Syrian-Turkish border on Sunday after Turkey sent in military hardware and special forces on Aug. 24 for what it called Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria.

Analysts said the prime minister's speech indicates Ankara's readiness to conduct more cross-border operations, with the PKK camps in northern Iraq and Mosul most probably being the new targets.

The Turkish military are only flying warplanes now to bomb the PKK positions in Iraq's north.

"The introduction of this new strategy shows that Turkey has decided to expand its counter-terrorism operations beyond its borders, targeting terrorist organizations' nests," said Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, a professor of international relations from the Ankara-based Gazi University.

He told Xinhua that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the just-concluded G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, also signaled new possible cross-border operations in northern Iraq.

Erdogan told Obama that having a "terrorist corridor" on its southern border would not be acceptable for Turkey.

"The statement must be examined closely," Erol said, noting that Turkey's southern border does not solely consist of the Syrian border.

"We also have a border with Iraq in the south," he added.

In its Euphrates Shield operation, Turkey targeted as well Syrian Kurdish forces in its efforts to prevent Kurds from achieving autonomy or statehood in the northern part of Syria.

Anraka sees Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party and its military wing, the People's Protection Units, which have established cantons in northern Syria, as offshoots of the PKK.

In Iraq's north, the PKK has training camps mainly in Kirkuk, Hakurk, Zakho, Dohuk and Zap, which have come under constant air raids by Turkish fighter jets.

As he was returning from China, Erdogan referred to Mosul and Telafer, saying that the PKK wants to find a place for itself there, Turkish media reported.

Turkey seems more determined now to find and neutralize the PKK militants with its ground forces "wherever they are, in whichever cave and behind whichever stone," as the Turkish prime minister put it.

Ismail Hakki Pekin, former head of the intelligence department of the Turkish General Staff, said that effective cross-border operations require high-quality intelligence structure and developed intelligence sharing system with the neighboring countries.

"Ankara should launch cross-border operations if it could manage to supply maximum of information and with minimum number of units," said Pekin. "Otherwise the loss will be inevitable."

Turkey's intelligence unit, along with the military and police, is undergoing a revamp in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15.

Murat Bilhan, deputy chairman of the Istanbul-based think tank Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies, also cautioned that the more different fronts are opened, the bigger the loss is.

The former ambassador noted that the situation in Iraq is "different" and "very dangerous."

He argued that if Turkey's ground forces enter Iraq without having the consensus of other countries, the risk of Ankara's isolation could be irreversible.

"There is a big sensitivity of the international community in northern Iraq as it was the case in Bashiqa," Bilhan said, referring to Turkey's additional deployment of troops and tanks to the town north of Mosul in December last year, an episode that had strained relations with Baghdad.

Apart from PKK militants, there are also signs pointing to Turkey's willingness to move against Mosul to drive the IS out of the region.

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, has been under the IS control since June 2014.

A high-level U.S. delegation visited Ankara last week to discuss details of the Mosul operation and Turkey's possible contribution, Daily Sabah reported.

According to the daily, Turkey offered intelligence cooperation, including aerial reconnaissance and logistic support, as well as humanitarian assistance and emergency landing service.

It is still not clear whether Turkish ground forces will be involved in the operation.

"In case of Mosul, Turkey should be even more cautious and not take any unilateral step," cautioned Bilhan. Endit