TURKEY: NATO chief and commander of US forces in Europe Gen James Jones flew to Ankara yesterday in an attempt to defuse what his Turkish counterpart described as "the biggest ever crisis of confidence" between the two NATO allies' armed forces.
The surprise visit follows the arrest in northern Iraq last Friday of 11 Turkish soldiers alleged by Kurdish authorities there to be plotting the assassination of the new Kurdish governor of Kirkuk.
Senior Turkish officials describe the claims as "nonsense". The US army released the men on Sunday after 60 hours in custody.
For Turks, already angered by Washington's criticism of their parliament's refusal to allow US forces into Turkey back in March, that's not enough.
In telephone talks with US Vice-President Dick Cheney on Monday, Turkey's Prime Minister reportedly insisted the US troops responsible for the arrests be punished. The incident, Turkish analysts say, is just the latest evidence that the interests and concerns of US forces occupying Iraq differ from Ankara's.
The soldiers arrested on Friday were part of a contingent in Iraq since 1991 to combat Turkish Kurdish separatists hiding in the mountains there. The force also enabled Ankara to monitor the growing autonomy of Iraqi Kurdish authorities.
"Had Turkey fully co-operated with Washington back in March, this issue probably wouldn't have arisen", says political commentator Mr Mehmet Ali Birand. "But with the rest of Iraq in chaos, the Kurds have become Washington's only reliable allies. And they want the Turks out." Mr Birand said: "What Washington is saying is that the sooner Turkey finds a peaceful solution to its Kurdish problem, the better."
Iraqi Kurds are particularly dismayed by what they see as Turkish use of Iraq's Turkish-speaking Turkoman minority - most strong in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and Mosul - as a fifth column against them.
Yet, while one senior Turkish general played on deepening anti-US sentiments by describing Friday's arrests as evidence that Washington had sided with Iraqi Kurds against Ankara, most analysts are more moderate.
"Turkish troops will eventually have to withdraw," said one close observer of US-Turkish relations. "But Gen Jones's visit today suggests both that the arrests were local rather than official policy, and that Washington cannot risk jettisoning Turkey right now."