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Iraqi Kurds prepare for possible Turkish
invasion
31.10.2007
By Ivan Watson in Iraqi Kurdistan |
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October
31, 2007
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- Turkey has
been beating the war drums for weeks, threatening to
launch military operations into neighboring Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The operation would attack Turkey's rebels from the
Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, hiding in the
mountains along the border.
The Turks are demanding that the Iraqi Kurds, who
control northern Iraq, rein in the PKK guerillas who
have staged cross-border raids into Turkey.
Top officials in the Kurdistan regional government
accuse the Turks of using the PKK as a pretext to
attack the Iraqi Kurds.
The Turks fear that the emergence of an independent
Kurdistan in northern Iraq could inspire Turkey's
own Kurdish minority.
Eeriness Along the Border
The village of Kashane lies in a deep-mountain gorge
between the last Iraqi Kurdish security checkpoint
and the border with Turkey.
This week, it was mostly deserted. Most of the
locals fled after days and nights of Turkish
artillery strikes in the hills nearby.
The once-popular picnic grounds and orchards near a
fast rushing river were eerily abandoned.
At the grounds on Monday, a handful of Kurdish PKK
rebels, dressed in olive green combat fatigues,
gathered wood by the river.
When a visitor approached, two armed fighters
appeared in a pick-up truck, loaded with firewood.
These PKK rebels wouldn't give their names, but
their accents identified them as Kurds from Turkey.
They said they are fighting for the cultural and
political rights of Turkey's long-oppressed Kurdish
minority.
"We are not afraid of Turkish soldiers and tanks,"
one fighter said. He pointed at the steep mountains
that cast a shadow over the valley and added, "Those
are our tanks."
Iraqi Kurds Caught in the
Middle
Iraqi Kurds have mixed feelings about the PKK.
Apple farmer Husein Kashane complained that one time
the rebels forced locals out of the valley and then
stole their crops and produce.
But, he added, he is much more afraid of nearby
Turkey.
"To be quite honest with you, Turkey hates all the
Kurdish people — whether they are PKK or not PKK,"
Kashane said. "They all hate Kurds."
Fouad Hussein, the chief of staff for Iraqi
Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani, thinks that the
Turks are using the PKK as a pretext to attack the
Kurds.
"The PKK is not the target. The target is Kurdistan
regional government," Hussein said.
Iraqi Kurds and the PKK
In the 1990s, Barzani's men fought side by side with
the Turks in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' against the
PKK, but today, Barzani has become a hated figure in
Turkey. Ankara refuses to officially recognize his
administration.
"They don't recognize us. They don't want to talk
with us, but they are asking us to fight for them,"
Hussein says. "How is it possible?"
Hussein said Barzani will not give in to Turkish
demands to extradite PKK leaders.
"They want to push us to fight another Kurdish
group, so there will be internal fighting between
the Kurds," Hussein said.
"And that means, actually, the experience in
Kurdistan will disappear and will be destroyed —
will be destroyed by the Kurds, through the Kurds
and killing the Kurds."
The Iraqi Kurds deny Turkish claims that they are
providing logistical, material and moral support to
the PKK.
They also argue that it is futile to try to dislodge
the PKK's battle-hardened guerillas from their
mountain hideouts. They say
hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi Kurds died
trying to do just this during the '90s.
Iraqi Kurdistan Prepares
for an Invasion
Kurdistan Regional Assembly Speaker Adnan al-Mufti
says the only solution is dialogue between the Turks
and the PKK.
"We ask PKK to not only announce [a] ceasefire,"
al-Mufti said. "To announce this [cease]fire without
condition, and to follow it forever."
While claiming he has no control over the PKK in
northern Iraq, Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani
has, at the same time, warned that if the Turks
launched a cross-border invasion, his men would
fight back. He added ominously that the conflict
could have ripple effects among Turkey's own Kurdish
minority.
On Monday, truckloads of helmeted Iraqi Kurdish
fighters rolled through the border town of Zakho —
within sight of Turkey. One Iraqi Kurdish official
said this was aimed at raising the Kurdish security
presence along the border.
Iraqi Kurds living within earshot of the frequent
Turkish cross-border artillery barrages have adopted
a fatalistic approach to the crisis.
Teashop owner Abdullah Mohamed Ali says his house
was destroyed twice in the '90s during Turkish
incursions against the PKK. He says he's not afraid
of another Turkish invasion.
"They have tanks and planes, and we have God who can
protect us," Ali said. "We have been living here for
50 years. We're not going to hand it over so
easily."
With neither side willing to compromise, Turkish and
Kurdish nationalism appears to be on a collision
course in the mountains in northern Iraq.
npr org
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