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A last chance for reconciliation
21.10.2007
By Duraid Al Baik
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October
21, 2007
While the clouds of war loom over Iraqi Kurdistan,
indications are that Turkey will act wisely this
time and avert conflict. The series of events in the
past two months have been serious enough to push oil
prices up by more than $10 per barrel, but that does
not mean that another devastating war in the region
has become imminent.
At this stage, when Turkey weighs the pros and cons
of military action, I think it will definitely
realise that a war to eliminate 3,500 Kurdish
rebels, allegedly hiding in Iraqi territory, is not
in its favour.
If such a war is launched in Iraqi Kurdistan, there
is absolutely no guarantee that it will achieve its
stated objective of eradicating the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) rebels.
In order to help solve the crisis that threatens to
worsen the situation in the troubled region, we need
to look at the current state of affairs in a
balanced manner and stand at equal distance from all
parties, who need every possible help to avert war.
The political sphere is currently poisoned with a
great many double standards, and this is not helpful
in solving the crisis.
Firstly, one should not ignore the fact that Turkey
has every right to defend its territory against any
attack from the PKK and to do whatever it takes to
stop these attacks.
The US cannot tell Turkey to refrain from attacking
PKK bases in Kurdistan after it gave Israel the
right and the blessings to attack Lebanon in July
2006.
The PKK allegedly killed 30 Turkish citizens in
attacks on Turkey last month compared to Hezbollah's
July 12 attack on Israel in which three Israel
soldiers were killed and two kidnapped.
Israel later used this as a pretext to launch the
war against Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of
nearly 1,300 Lebanese, most of them women and
children.
Changing its stance
The European Union, on the other hand, cannot blame
Turkey for taking a tough stand against PKK
incursions because their troops went all the way to
Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government for
harbouring Al Qaida.
Another party that must change its stance towards
the crisis, in accordance with its policies in the
past three years, is the Iraqi government.
Iraqi politicians, who have been blaming
neighbouring countries for exporting terrorists into
Iraq, cannot defend Iraq becoming a hub for the PKK.
Equally, the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, which
spends millions of dollars on public relations
campaigns to attract investments in its "promising"
economy cannot explain to the world how a
responsible entity like the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) gives shelter to a terrorist group
like the PKK.
Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan cannot claim sovereignty if
they admit that they have no control over remote
parts of land where the PKK rebels are hiding. If
this was a genuine claim, then Turkey should be
allowed to settle its dues with the PKK.
All the rights on Turkey's side do not balance the
one devastating wrong of launching another war in
the region.
Turkey has to look for peace and stability from
within instead of going far inside Kurdistan to
attack rebels.
The Turkish government's move to incorporate its
Kurdish community in the political system has paid
dividends in the past three years, but it was not
enough to attract the PKK simply because its founder
Abdullah Ocalan is serving a life sentence in a
Turkish prison after he was captured in Kenya in
1999.
The peace initiative announced by Ocalan from his
prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara,
ordering PKK members to refrain from violence and
requesting them to seek political solution to
problems with Ankara, was not taken seriously.
The party, which formally changed its name to the
Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress and then to
Knogra-Gel, in line with the ideological
transformation that took place in the party, was not
encouraged by the Turkish government of the time.
Thus, this resulted in hawkish members of the party
taking over and renouncing Oclan's peace
initiatives.
Turkey has lost more than 30,000 people and $15
billion in the meaningless war in the south-east
Kurdish region in the country since 1984.
Immunity
The conflict can be stopped immediately if the
popular government of the Justice and Development
Party uses its strength in the parliament to pass a
law granting immunity to the 3,500 rebels sheltering
in Iraq and to pardon their leader in Imrali prison
instead of seeking authorization to launch a war
against these rebels.
It is clear that the limited immunity offered by the
Turkish authority to Kurdish rebels and those who
were not involved in fatal attacks against Turkish
citizens was not enough to break the vicious cycle
of violence in Turkey.
The Turks may find some justification for their
military action in Iraq but they will be admired by
the whole world if they free Ocalan and allow those
hiding in Iraq to come back safely to their villages
and towns.
Seeking peace needs more courage than launching a
war and the world is watching President Abdullah Gul
and Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan to see if
they can achieve a lasting peace in the region.
gulfnews com
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