News has begun to filter in regarding a Turkish incursion into southern Kurdistan in violation of the UN Charter and in violation of the sovereignty of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish nation. It is becoming clearer that the existing Turkish government is seeking to avoid a domestic political crisis caused by its own political Islamist ideology in Turkey. What is still unclear is what exactly is happening. The latest reports from the Guardian indicate that: "Hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq on Wednesday pursuing Kurdish guerrillas who stage attacks on Turkey from hideouts there, Turkish security officials and an Iraqi Kurd official said." http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6689482,00.html
We look to a statement from the Kurdish Regional Government in this regard so that we do not strain relations, such as they are between the Kurdish Regional Government and the Government of the military of Turkey.
Today's Zaman had an Op-Ed article by Melih Can that presents the situation as if Turkey is an innocent victim and proposes a long-term strategy for such an invasion. Recently, such a proposal was publicly sought by the Turkish General Staff: "Asked about the probability of a cross-border military operation into north of Iraq, Gen. Buyukanit [General Yasar Buyukanit, current Chief of the Turkish General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, since August 28, 2006] said, "every military operation has a political goal. Political targets are achieved through military means." When asked if he would lay a written request on the matter, Gen. Buyukanit said, "I will not present a written request. On April 12, I mentioned what is needed." Responding to another question, Gen. Buyukanit said there was not only PKK presence in north of Iraq but also Massoud Barzani is a problem. "We have told this both to the Turkish people and the world on April 12. The military forces are ready. The political authorities will assess the targets. Shall we deal with only PKK or shall we do something about Barzani? [elected President of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, Massoud Barzani, since June 2005] What will be the target? This can not be done verbally. We have to receive written directives," Buyukanit said. http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-26889.html
It is clear that Melih Can's article is being presented to represent at least a wing of the Turkish Islamist-militarists. Further, the rhetoric appears to be matched up with the deeds of the Turkish military, so this hardly presents a case of some absent-minded professorial musing. Melih Can clearly demonstrates in the article that he prefers the boot of the Turkish military to the coffee of its cafes. In his article he proposes a political goal for Turkish military intervention, as if it was in direct response to General Buyukanit public statements . " The current developments in the region have, in a sense, forced Turkey into this situation. These developments could be summed up under the following headings: (1) the start of the US pullout from Iraq and US support and encouragement of various ethnic and sectarian clashes within the framework of its "New Middle East Strategy"; (2) an increased perception of threats aimed at Turkey originating in northern Iraq and the provocation of Turkey by the PKK-Barzani relationship; (3) the threats against the future of the Iraqi Turkmens and Kirkuk; (4) the irresponsible and one-sided stance of the US administration; (5) An increase in activities aimed at shaking the prestige of Turkey and the Turkish Armed Forces; (6) an increase in activities and force within Iraq coming from other countries in the region, most notably Iran; and (7) the domestic political situation in Turkey." http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=113312 Here Melih Can appears to be attempting to justify Turkey's aggression, even as it acts illegally (or prepares to take such actions) against the Kurdish people.
There are conflicting reports in regards to what is happening, and I by no means intend to speak as if I were on the spot reporting the news. It is too serious a situation to deliberately over-dramatize. The stakes for the Kurdish people is national survival. It is clear that this matter needs to be taken before the UN Security Council and Turkey needs to be admonished for its actions. It is further, clear that the EU and NATO should likewise be engaged in sanctions against this action, as it becomes clearer. The Turkish militarists and Islamists in Ankara have a new project for Turkey, it's called Iraq. The Turkish people have a traditional project all their own, it's called defending secular rule. They too have been as active as the Turkish military. " Around half a million people gathered in Istanbul today [April 29, 2007] demanding the resignation of the pro-Islamic government." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/29/wturkey129.xml So, too even the Iraqi Government has been busy trying to anticipate the next moves from the Turkish militarist/Islamists and have already warned them about any military moves they might have recently been planning. http://www.huliq.com/23462/iraqi-leader-warns-turkey-against-incursion-in-kurdish-region
Analysts are predicting that this is a false report already, but are suggesting future activity by Turkey. One analyst put it: "Reports that several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on June 6 appear to be false alarms. However, Turkey is likely to carry out a limited operation in northern Iraq at some point since Ankara faces building domestic pressure to root out Kurdish rebels." http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=289835&selected=Analyses It appears as though this analyst is predicting that this "false alarm" is really a practice run for a full-scale operation at a later time. There is little comfort and little demonstrated leadership from the Democratic or Republican Parties in regards to this entire situation.
Kurdish expatriates are being pulled out of the closets to promote an offensive targeted at the current KRG and the political parties of southern Kurdistan. From the Right, The Middle East Forum posted one such voice today. Kamal Said Qadir, who is currently residing in Vienna, Austria posted an article attacking the KRG for abuses of power, a breakdown of civil society, corruption and a lack of security. http://www.meforum.org/article/1703 Kak Kamal concludes his piece with a dreary and depressing evaluation of the internal situation within the Kurdish Autonomous Region: "Rather than create a model democracy, the Iraqi Kurds have replicated the governing systems of Egypt, Tunisia or, perhaps even Syria." One truly wonders why the poor Kurds are so demonstrably complacent in the midst of such 'oppression'.
It might interest the U.S. State Department, NATO and the EU the kind of strategic scenario that is being presented with this military strategy of the Turkish generals. On this Melih Can proposes to re-align Turkey with a new bloc when he states: " At this point, with an over-the-border operation, it appears that there could be: (1) a clarification of Turkish-Western relations and, in particular, current and future Turkish-American relations and the European Union accession process; (2) increased distance traveled when it comes to Turkish foreign policies with the "East" and, within this framework, the much-speculated-upon Turkish-Russian, Turkish-Iranian and even Turkish-Iranian-Russian relations; (3) the clarification of the future of Iraq and the likely "Kurdish state" and, within this framework, a testing of the partnership and friendship of Turkey-Syria-Iran;(4) clarification of the role and future of Kurds in the region, notably the direction that will be taken by Kurdish nationalism taking shape around the PKK and Barzani; (5) a new position to be taken by Turkey regionally and globally, and the clarification of factors determining whether or not Turkey is to be a global player; (6) a new understanding of the future of the terror problem in Turkey, as well as the dimensions and reality of theoretical "civil war scenarios"; and (7) a restructuring in Turkey with added clarification on the debates about leadership processes. " http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=113312
This particular op-ed piece presents a highly inflammatory scenario to the Kurdish nation and peoples, if there is any substance to it at all, or any governmental intention that lurks behind its publication. It proposes occupation by Turkey, confrontation with the US, the establishment of a Turkish-Syrian-Iranian bloc in the region, an effort to establish Turkish domination of the Kurds currently in the Kurdish Autonomous region, the repression of popular opposition in Turkey, both nationalist Kurdish and secularist opposition and a desecularization of the political institutions within Turkey. This is not simply an issue of media criticism, this is presented as a fait accompli and it is being played out at the expense of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples. There has begun what should prove to be a unifying of the two powerful mass movements around concrete political demands recognizing the democratic rights of the Turkish people and the national rights of the Kurdish people. There is in this a shining sun for a new day.
Wow, that's a new one, the Islamo-Turkish militarists!? This as a description of a Turkish military so antagonistic to Islamic influence in their government that they regularly launch coups against any leaders that stray from strict secularism? What's going on between the Kurds and the Turks has little to do with religion and much to do with age old ethnic rivalries and hatreds. The author is trying to spin reality to suit ideology.
The Kurds are eager to carve out a Greater Kurdistan in the region anyway they can, including through violent attacks on the Turkish people and their institutions through groups like the PKP, who operate from safe havens in Iraq, safe except when the Turkish army periodically crosses the border to counterattack. By our own extreme doctrines of the war on terror, what the Turks are doing is rather feeble. We would have, if the Kurds were hypothetically raiding our borders and blowing up people, decimated half of Kurdish Iraq by now with bombs and cruise missiles, invaded and overthrown the regional government and imprisoned and tortured their leaders, creating, of course, a violent backlash and new profit opportunities for our merchants of death.
But because we have a quid pro quo relationship with the Kurds and could care less about Turkish casualties, we have let them do their bloody thing while pontificating about terrorism when it is convenient. Meanwhile, there is a groundswell of anger in Turkey.
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Mac McKinney (40 articles, 53 quicklinks, 126 diaries, 878 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 9:08:50 AM
Yes, sort of like Israel has a right to defend her borders from rockets and suicide bombers in the North and on the West? Hmmm. These comments are pretty good about this article if you look at it in a fair and balanced way?
Of course when it comes to Turkey. We still remember the Armenians of WW I, do we not? How many were slaughtered?
And you mean Islamic Court is not held in Turkey and according to Sharia Law? I guess they ended the religious courts yesterday and I had not heard.
Turkey is light years ahead of countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, but they still have a long, long ways to go to be a fair and free society. Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) died way too soon. Now that was a true reformer.
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pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 12:26:44 PM
to have a well-formed opinion, but this looks like more of the clash that has been going on for many years: Kurds want and independent nation, Turkey is afraid that it will lead to rebellion in the southern region which is largely Kurdish and possibly loss of territory, and the two sides have going back and forth over the border for a long time. There is something similar with the Kurds and adjoining area in Iran. (And there is still some infighting amongst the Kurds as well.)
The Turks have been trying to get the UN to allow incursions into Iraq to go after Kurdish rebels. There is also a situation with the Turks living inside of Iraq. It's a mess.
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Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 998 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 4:48:16 PM
It's not the Turks. This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the Yanks. I saw the same scenario unfold in Vietnam and Laos. The CIA operative and their Special Forces made all sort of outlandish promised to the Montenyards, Mungs, Meos, Nungs, etc. It wasn't necessarily the average Green Beret of his CIA handler. The probably believed what they said. They were urged to kill Vietnamese who had terrorized them for centuries and they'd be protected. Then, of course, we abandoned them and as a consequence they have been exterminated. That's what's going to happen to the Kurds. It'll be a repeat of the Armenians genocide a hundred years ago.
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eagleeye (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 24 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 5:07:31 PM
It is good that people are finally responding and it is valuable that people recognize that they are not informed on this issue. There are some real facts though that have absolutely nothing to do with US foreign policy in Vietnam or the US occupation of Iraq. And that is the struggle of the Kurdish people for self-determination. It has been met with jihad that cost the lives of 10,000 Kurds in Iran under Khomeini. It has been met with the gassing at Halabja and the murder of hundreds of thousands of Kurds by Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the deaths of 30,000 Kurds by the Turkish military and the forced displacement of over 378,000 Kurds in Turkey. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/turkey0305/5.htm
The question for Kurds now has turned to when, not if, they will become an independent state. The US occupation was not solicited by the Kurdish people, but then neither were the mass murders by Iran, Iraq and Turkey. T
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Martin Zehr (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 75 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 6:52:07 PM
Again, we are reaping the harvest of cultural arrogance sewn in the 1920's primarily by the Brits and French with agreement of the US after WW1.For political reasons they divided the Kurds into three artificially drawn countries. The problem is more than cultural identity. To illustrate my point consider the clearer case of Papua New Guinea a 'country' of similar size as Texas but extremely mountainous (4th highest mountain in the world is there; Mt Wilhelm) each peak or valley potentially has a different language (over 800 of them!) The cultural differences can be extreme but they all seem to be divided on clan and tribal kinship basis. However, they take their identities from the land that each tribe inhabits. Their Gods, taboos, hierarchical power structures the things that make them who they are. By definition then, they are indivisible from their land and its clan and tribes. The concept of ownership of land is notcomprehended, anymore than me buying all the air or multi dimensional space theory.They see themselves as part from the land. The logical extension of this is that multi cultural; multi land remote central government is incomprehensible. Imagine The Fed were to decide Texas was too big and was to be divided between neighbouring states. I could here the guns cocking from Australia, and that's within the same country. Now imagine part was going to Mexico! Eeek! now, this is exactly what has happened to the Kurds and Palestinians. Their very identity is being threatened not only as a people but also as individuals and as we; all know nothing moves a person than self-identification, religion and greed.Regardless of the slant of this article, the undeniable fact is that our grandfathers built these edifices in sand and now we must do something other than tsk tsk or play politics before they swallow us. Moreover, there lies the rub we don't know enough to sort it and those who do play politics.
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Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 532 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 1:03:01 AM
