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Turkey's Kurds fear Iraqi Kurdistan
incursion to fuel conflict
17.10.2007
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October
17, 2007
SIRNAK, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Perched on a hillside overlooking
the mountainous Kurdistan's region "northern Iraqi"
border, Kurds in the southeastern Turkish town of
Sirnak are nervously monitoring preparations for a
possible cross-border military operation.
While concerned for their ethnic kin across the
border, they also fear any attempt by the Turkish
military to crush Kurdish guerrillas in Iraqi
Kurdistan region mountains 'northern Iraq' could
hurt their own region further and fuel wider
conflict in the Middle East.
"We are worried there may be a period of serious
conflict between regional powers if there is a
cross-border operation at a time when strains are
emerging between Iran and the United States," said
Mayor Ahmet Ertak from the Democratic Society Party,
which has strong support in the mainly Kurdish
southeast.
Sirnak is at the heart of a conflict between the
army and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels which
has torn at the fabric of southeast Turkey for a
quarter of a century, killing more than 37,000
Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas and
leaving the region impoverished.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Stirred into action by a sharp escalation of
violence in recent weeks and under growing public
pressure across Turkey to halt the bloodshed,
parliament was voting on Wednesday on whether to
authorise an incursion targeting some 3,000 PKK
guerrillas holed up in the mountains of Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq'.
Analysts still believe a major offensive is
unlikely, but if it does happen it is set to put a
further strain on already tense relations with the
United States, which is anxious to avoid
destabilising what is the most peaceful region of
Iraq.
It is also likely to cause deep dismay among
Turkey's Kurds.
Rizgin Birlik, a local leader of Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, said there was
widespread opposition in the southeast to an
operation, partly as a large number of Kurds on the
Turkish side of the border had relatives in Iraq.
"Kurdish people have suffered a lot. We haven't been
able to find peace. Everyone in the region is uneasy
with the thought of the troops going in," he said,
as two dozen people gathered for a traditional
Kurdish feast on the floor of his lounge.
RELATIVES IN KURDISTAN REGION 'northern Iraq'
Birlik's views were echoed on Sirnak's streets,
through which Turkey's army chief passed on Tuesday
on a flying visit which fuelled speculation about
the likelihood of an incursion.
"My uncle is a shopkeeper in Zakho (in northern
Iraq). We are worried about what will happen to our
relatives there. It doesn't matter whether Kurd or
Turk. I don't want anyone to die," said 25-year-old
teacher Murat Damar.
Aside from the bloodshed, local people say the
conflict has deep social and economic consequences.
Many teachers, as well as doctors and civil
servants, refused to transfer to a region which they
associate with a violent insurgency.
Livestock farming, once the economy's mainstay,
dwindled in the 1990s as clashes in the mountains
led to forced migration of villagers into towns like
Sirnak, fuelling unemployment. Some fear more
conflict could trigger fresh migration.
"Life will come to a halt in the region if there is
an operation. People may end up having no choice but
to leave," said Sirnak Chamber of Commerce Chairman
Halil Balkan.
As farming declined, border trade with Iraq has
become the lifeblood of the economy in recent years.
While fuel is imported from Iraq, consumer goods
flow the other way. Turkish Kurdish construction
workers and students have also poured into Iraq.
Exports to Iraq via Sirnak's Habur border gate,
which amounted to around $3 billion last year, were
set to fall this year and could be hit even harder
if there is a further deterioration of the security
situation, Balkan said.
He was already feeling the impact on his business of
the latest unrest. Security concerns forced him to
postpone a visit by a British company to view his
mining project in the mountains near the Iraqi
border.
In the municipality, Ertak said local people did not
believe another operation would help resolve the
region's problems.
"We don't want the conflict to widen. We want more
human rights, democracy and freedoms. We want the
country to develop."
Reuters
**
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)
wikipedia
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