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Turkey fretting over escalation in Iraq
1.12.2006 |
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December 1, 2006
U.S. President George Bush went out of his way
Thursday to show Washington's support for the
government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as the
two men held talks in Jordan on ways to stem the
violence in Iraq.
The meeting took place amid growing frustration
within the United States over U.S. involvement in
the war, and warnings by Jordan's King Abdullah the
unrest could spread throughout the Middle East.
Those concerns are shared in nearby Turkey, as VOA's
Sonja Pace reports from Istanbul.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan told
lawmakers from his political party this week, a
dangerous game of escalation is being played out in
the Middle East. He added that, if the fire is not
stopped soon, it would engulf the whole region.
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Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan |
In particular, the prime minister warned against a
division of Iraq, noting that would be the beginning
of a huge disaster.
Turkey has watched nervously as war and sectarian
violence have engulfed its neighbor. But, what
worries Turkey even more is the possibility that
Iraq might split into three sectarian units - Sunni,
Shi'ite and Kurdish. In particular, the specter of a
Kurdish autonomous region, or an eventual
independent state on Turkey's border raises alarm.
Kurds are a substantial minority in Turkey - an
estimated over 15 million of them live mostly in the
impoverished southeastern portion of the country
(Turkey-Kurdistan). From the mid-1980s, the
government fought an all-out war with separatist
Kurdish guerrillas for some 15 years, and separatist
violence still flares up. Almost any actions, or
even statements by Kurdish activists are seen as a
threat to the Turkish state.
Istanbul-based Turkish writer and columnist Mustafa
Akyol has written extensively about the Kurdish
issue, and tells VOA, what happens with the Kurds in
neighboring autonomous Kurdistan region (northern
Iraq) matters very much to Turkey.
"Most Turks think, if there is a Kurdish state in
northern Iraq, it will, in a kind of domino theory,
influence our own Kurds, and our own Kurds will want
to join with them, and, then, we will be losing
Turkey's southeastern part, and, there will be a
greater Kurdistan, and, Turkey will be losing its
territory," he said.
The Kurds are an ancient people in the region and an
estimated 20-30 million live today in Turkey, parts
of Iraq, Iran and Syria, with smaller communities
elsewhere. Promises of an independent homeland after
World War I, were never fulfilled. Kurdish uprisings
were often brutally put down, most notably in Iraq
during the so-called Anfal campaign that prosecutors
say killed more than 180,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1987 and
1988, including some 5,000 Kurdish men, women and
children killed with chemical weapons in the town of
Halabja.
In Turkey, the separatist fight was spearheaded by
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, whose leader,
Abdullah Ocalan, was captured, tried and convicted
of treason in 1999. Turkey, the U.S. and the
European Union consider the PKK a terrorist
organization. More than 37,000 people have been
killed since 1984 when the PKK, took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey.
Amid the unrelenting sectarian violence in Iraq
today, the idea of splitting the country into
sectarian parts has been raised by some U.S.
politicians. However, President Bush said Thursday
that he and Prime Minister Maliki agreed this is not
a viable option.
"The prime minister made clear that splitting his
country into parts, as some have suggested, is not
what the Iraqi people want, and that any partition
of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian
violence. I agree," he said.
Such statements may come as a relief to Turkey, but
political sociologist Dogu Ergil of Ankara
University says a western-supported, autonomous
Kurdish entity already exists in northern Iraq, and
even that, he says, could prove a threat.
"Given the rate of development by foreign aid and so
forth … it seems that the place [Iraqi Kurdish
region] is the most stable place in Iraq, and it's
developing faster than eastern Turkey. And, soon …
it could be a center of attraction for the Turkish
Kurds, not only economically, but identity-wise, as
well," he said.
Many Turks fear that an autonomous Kurdish northern
Iraq is just the first step toward full
independence. Political scientist, Hasan Uenal of
Ankara's Bilkent University, says that is something
Turkey could not accept.
"Any attempt to set up a Kurdish state in northern
Iraq would be considered by the Turkish state as a
vital danger to Turkey," he said. "We would not let
that happen. We would not remain idle, and we would
do whatever we can to prevent that, to stop that, to
kill it off."
Some Turks say they would favor a military incursion
to stop that from happening. But, writer Mustafa
Akyol says he does not consider a military option
likely. Instead, he says, a friendlier approach is
needed.
"First of all, we should make our own Kurds happy,
so they will be happy citizens of the Turkish state,
and they won't need to join a poor Kurdistan in the
mountains of Iraq," he said.
Akyol says Turkey has relatively little leverage to
help calm the situation in Iraq. And so, for now, at
least, Turkish leaders watch their eastern neighbor
closely, and wait to see what happens next.
voanews com
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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