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Ankara incursion threatens only part of
Iraq still at peace
12.10.2007
By Patrick Cockburn |
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October
12, 2007
Turkey is threatening to send its troops into
northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas in a
move likely to destabilise the one part of Iraq
which is at peace.
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will
ask parliament next week to authorise a military
incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan after attacks by
Turkish Kurds killed more than 10 Turkish troops
last Sunday. Threatening a push into Iraq would also
underline Turkish anger at the US Congressional vote
describing the Ottoman Turk killing of Armenians in
1915 as genocide.
A statement from Mr Erdogan's office said: "The
order has been given for every kind of measure to be
taken [against the PKK] including, if needed, by a
cross-border operation."
An attack into Iraqi Kurdistan by Turkey would be
deeply embarrassing for the US because the five
million Iraqi Kurds are the only Iraqi community
which fully supports the US occupation of Iraq. US
reliance on Kurdish military units was emphasised
yesterday by a report that Peshmerga 34th Division
is to move outside the autonomous Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) area to guard roads between
Kurdistan and Baghdad.
The Turkish government was recently re-elected with
an increased majority but may wish to burnish its
patriotic credentials by authorising the army to
enter Iraq. There is continual tension between the
ruling AK moderate Islamic party and the secular
military establishment. A military assault would be
unlikely to achieve anything practical against the
PKK guerrillas who have camps and hide-outs in the
rugged mountains of Qandil along Iraq's borders with
Turkey and Iran.
Given the rebels' knowledge of the terrain and the
lack of roads, the PKK could disappear very easily.
The Turks would probably use helicopter-born troops
to try to surprise them.
The Iraqi Kurds believe they may be the real target
of any Turkish intervention since it would
destabilise their enclave.
Some Turkish Kurdish businesses, which had won many
contracts in Kurdistan, are returning to Turkey.
Hopes that the Kurdish economy could take off
regardless of the anarchy in the rest of Iraq have
been blighted by high inflation and lack of
confidence in local banks.
The impact on the region of a Turkish attack, if it
takes place, will depend on the extent of the
intervention. If it is confined to the mountains on
the frontier, where there are only a few villages,
then the KRG would be unlikely to respond. Turkish
incursions by 35,000 to 50,000 troops in 1995 and
1997 failed to achieve anything. But if Turkish
forces advance into important towns and cities then
Kurdish troops would be bound to respond. The KRG
will also want to prevent a precedent being
established whereby the Turkish army can cross the
Turkish-Iraq frontier at will.
Turkey has been alarmed to see the development of an
effectively independent Kurdish state in northern
Iraq and an Iraqi government in Baghdad in which the
Kurds play a leading role. It is particularly
anxious about the referendum which might lead to the
oil province of Kirkuk joining the KRG under a poll
which was promised under the constitution for the
end of 2007 but may now be delayed.
independent co.uk
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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)
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