The Foreign Service Journal, March 2010

36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 0 and centripetal forces lie, at best, just below the surface. • Turkish-Iraqi border patrol and military contacts remain inadequate, especially with the Peshmerga in the north. The continued presence of hundreds of Turkish troops in north- ern Iraq could be a point of conflict — or an opportunity for constructive en- gagement on both sides. • The PKK may stage its own flashpoint. It has no in- terest in promoting comity between Ankara and Baghdad or between Turks and Iraqi Kurds, or in the success of Ankara’s initiatives to address popular grievances among Turkish Kurds — any or all of which would further isolate it and undermine its interests. The United States should keep up a sustained conver- sation about Iraq with Turkey in 2010 and 2011. We should encourage Ankara’s continued engagement across the Iraqi political spectrum, especially its efforts to bolster moder- ates and work with the military. We and Iraq should continue to cooperate with Turkey as its forces go after terrorists in remote border areas, and U.S. officials in Ankara, Baghdad and Erbil must do everything they can to ensure that the newly re-estab- lished U.S.-Turkey-Iraq trilateral forum on the PKK produces results. Other ways to help include: encouraging trade and in- vestment in border areas, through the kind of preferential trade arrangements proposed in 2008 for Afghanistan and Pakistan; facilitating Iraqi natural gas exports to Turkey and through it to Europe; and conditioning multilateral assis- tance on Iraqi steps to integrate economically with Turkey and other neighbors. Iraq and Turkey can have a good future together, though that is by no means inevitable. Constructive ef- forts on all sides will contribute greatly to the chances of success. ■ F O C U S Washington should sustain the dialogue about Iraq with Turkey in 2010 and 2011.