Firsthand Experience

The international war on terror has attracted no shortage of allies in the past month, but few are likely to prove more useful than Turkey. NATO’s only Muslim member not only has historical roots in Central Asia and close ties to the region today, but also happens to be the only country with recent experience in the kind of combat the U.S.-led coalition will face in the months ahead. Starting in the mid-1990s, clandestine Turkish special forces waged a successful counterinsurgency campaign along the country’s rugged southeastern frontier against a foe — Kurdish rebels — that bears a notable resemblance to the enemy in Afghanistan.

Turkey is also ready, more or less, to serve. Two weeks ago, the country’s fractious coalition government overwhelmingly approved the deployment of troops to Afghanistan, should the call come. The Incirlik air base is already refueling allied bombers and fighter jets. And last week Turkey emerged as a potential leader of a post-Taliban peacekeeping force.

The support comes with reservations, however. Domestic opposition to Turkish involvement is growing, and even politicians who back the effort are desperately worried that a widening war will target Iraq, which would destabilize Turkey’s eastern frontier. But the lure of closer ties with the West at a time when the country’s economy is in desperate need of foreign aid has gained the upper hand, for now. "Turkey doesn’t see this as just the Americans’ fight," Foreign Minister Ismail Cem told Time last week. "We too have suffered from terrorism. This struggle is ours as well."

The "terrorists" in Turkish parlance are the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.), and the country’s experience fighting them in the caves and high mountains along the Iraqi border over the past decade underscores both the pitfalls and opportunities of an Afghan ground campaign. Ten years ago, the lessons were mostly negative. Turkey was locked in a "dirty war" with the Kurds that had left thousands of civilians, militants and Turkish soldiers dead and a growing number of people sympathizing with the rebel cause.

Then in 1995 the top brass decided to try something new. Teams of lightly armed special forces were dispatched along the frontier and into Iraq itself, denying the P.K.K. their traditional strongholds and forcing them to fight even in winter. In a tactic called the tiger hunt, commandos worked in tightening concentric circles to trap their prey. "If you see five P.K.K.s, send in 100 troops," was the motto. At the same time, the government launched a "hearts and minds" campaign and an amnesty to fighters willing to come out of the hills.

By the late 1990s the "dirty war" was largely over and the rebellion quelled, though the 1999 capture of P.K.K. leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya doubtless helped.

Turkish special forces could play a similar role in Afghanistan, or perhaps train and supply opposition fighters from the Northern Alliance. Ankara already has strong ties with General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his largely Uzbek supporters. The least politically sensitive job would be to head up, along with other moderate Muslim countries like Jordan, a peacekeeping force in the event the Taliban are driven from power.

Further engagement, however, will call for careful management at home. Recent polls show up to 75% of Turks are against the deployment of troops and half are opposed even to the U.S. bombing. Islamic solidarity, never far below the surface, is on the rise. "It has been reduced to us or them," complained Cuneyt Ulsever, a liberal columnist. Even political leaders have qualms, especially about the prospect of targeting Iraq. Toppling Saddam Hussein, they believe, would trigger the establishment of a separate Kurdish state in northern Iraq and spawn similar separatist ambitions in Turkey.

Still, the country has good reasons for helping out. Spurning the U.S. now would isolate Ankara even as it is seeking $9 billion in debt relief to help tackle the worst financial crisis in decades. The vote to commit troops to Afghanistan took place just one day before the World Bank was scheduled to announce a bailout, which it subsequently did. In fact, Western leaders have been remarkably sensitive to Turkey’s delicate position, says Cem. "There has been no attempt to impose a moral obligation." Rather, he said, discussions have focused on how friends can help each other in a time of need. Sentiment aside, it appears that both sides have something to give.