OK, this will be a short diary. There are several diaries up right now about the Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan, so I feel compelled to post some quick information because we actually work there, and I just communicated with our staff. The situation is not as bad as people describe.
According to my staff in Erbil, Dohuk and Suleymaniya, Kurdish radio and TV is reporting shelling and fighting between Turkish troops and PKK in Baradost, Mizuri Zhori and Barwari Bala along the border. Turkish troops and even some tanks have been stationed just within the Iraqi side of the border for nearly a decade, in a half a dozen small mounjtain-top camps. This creates anger and resentment on the part of the Iraqi Kurds who live there, but the Turkish troops remain. Certainly some Iraqi Kurds living along the border will be caught up in the fighting - they usually have second homes in the city and I'm sure they are moving there now. The Turkish air force occasionally bombs or strafes Iraqi Kurdish villages, and the Turkish special forces occasionally kill Iraqi Kurdish smugglers and farmers from time to time. This causes a great deal of anger, but all indications are that this is just another one of these low-level conflicts that people adapt to.
However, nobody I talked to expects a major invasion and the Kurdish media are treating this as yet another instance of bad behavior on the part of Turkey rather than a major threat. The peshmerga (Kurdish forces) are not mobilized, and there is no panic in the cities. It is business as normal in our offices and in the market. No Kurdish troops are being called back from Baghdad or Mosul - and if Turkey actually wanted to invade Kurdistan in a major way, every Kurd with a gun would be heading for the hills to fight.
This leads me to believe that the current fighting is going on with at least some communication between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdistan government.
Turkey conducts ongoing negotiations with the Iraqi Kurds on a number of issues - Turkey has invested heavily in Kurdistan and the border handles thousands of trucks a day. The two sides negotiate frequently on security, and the Kurdish Regional Government has an office in Ankara. It might even be possible that Turkey and the KRG have reached an agreement for Turkey to pursue the PKK across the border. The Iraqi Kurdish public is more and more resentful and angry at Turkey, so it is politically difficult for Barzani or Talabani to be seen backing Turkey against Kurds from Turkey. The advent of Kurdish satellite media and the rise in Kurdish national identity after 15 years of what is essentially independence has sensitized many Iraqi Kurds to the discrimination and violence faced by their fellow Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iran. However, both Barzani and Talabani are realists who have fought the PKK in the past, and have joined with Turkey against them as well. There may well be a deal. Certainly there is absolutely no indication that the Iraqi Kurds are mobilized or even slightly concerned about a full-scale Turkish invasion - which would be the case if Turkey decided to intervene unilaterally and in a major way.
This sort of massive invasion could occur in the future, but not as long as the US is in Iraq. Also Turkey is unlikely to stage a full-scale invasion, because the consequences would be a much, much worse guerilla war than the one the US is fighting in al-Anbar. Iraqi Kurdistan has 14,000 foot peaks, 120,000 armed fighters, 6 million people and there's no way Turkey wants to take that on right now. Turkey, the US and the Iraqi Kurds all understand that a major invasion is foolish, and everyone knows that the Iraqi Kurds have to sell out the Kurds of Turkey in order to maintain their own autonomy. It's an ugly world, but that's the reality. I hope that Democrats carefully consider the need for negotiations that maintain Kurdish autonomy and Turkish territorial integrity. Really, it is the only solution - the Kurds can't be forced back into Iraq against their will and Turkey has no hope of annexing or militarily defeating the Kurds over the long run.