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Opportunity For Turks And Kurds?
12.2.2007
By Richard Holbrooke |
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February 12, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- Whatever
happens in Iraq, we must try to limit the terrible
fallout from the war. The place to start should be
with our indispensable NATO ally Turkey, the
front-line state of the post-Cold War era, whose
relations with the United States have deteriorated
dramatically in the past six years.
The immediate issue is raids by Kurdish rebels
across Turkey's border with Iraq, which divides an
area inhabited on both sides by Kurds who have long
felt that they deserve their own country. Despite
centuries of enmity, rapprochement is in the
long-term interests of both Turkey and the Kurds of
northern Iraq. But such an effort would be
controversial and could be undertaken only with
strong American encouragement.
First, some essential background from Erbil, the
capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which I am visiting
after talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara. This
peaceful city is disorienting: Am I in war-torn Iraq
or booming Kurdistan? Will Erbil eventually become
the capital (or part) of an independent Kurdistan?
Or will this region become a battleground for
another war, this one between Kurds and Turks?
You can call this place Kurdistan, as its citizens
do, or northern Iraq, as the Turks do. But either
way, the overwhelming majority (98 percent in a 2005
referendum) of its 4 million people do not want to
remain part of Iraq. Who can blame them? Nothing
here feels like the Middle East. The Iraqi national
flag is banned; only the Kurdistan flag flies. And
although the Kurds are sending some of their
famously fierce warriors to Baghdad to support the
Americans, they fear that Gen. David Petraeus's plan
to turn the tide in Baghdad will not succeed.
Ever since a nation called Iraq was carved out of
the debris of the Ottoman Empire by Winston
Churchill and Gertrude Bell at the Cairo Conference
of 1921, Turkey and Iran have opposed independence
for the Kurds of northern Iraq because both fear
that an independent Kurdistan on their borders would
encourage existing separatist movements among their
large Kurdish populations.
This symmetry of fears has led to semi-secret
discussions and even some cooperation between our
NATO ally and that charter member of the "axis of
evil" on dealing with the PKK, a rebel group that
has conducted raids against both Turkey and Iran
from bases just inside northern Iraq for many years.
I would not rule out limited Turkish military action
against some of those bases -- especially since
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under
enormous political pressure to show strong
nationalist credentials against hawkish rivals in an
election year.
After years of mishandling relations with Turkey,
last year the administration appointed retired Gen.
Joe Ralston, the universally respected former NATO
commander, as special envoy for the PKK problem.
Ralston's intervention helped avoid a Turkish attack
in Iraq last summer, and he is accelerating his
efforts to get Erbil to rein in the PKK.
But there is a larger issue: the final status of
Kirkuk, the multiethnic city that sits in the middle
of a huge oil field and lies just outside the
official boundaries of Iraqi Kurdistan. The new
Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum this year
on whether Kirkuk is to be incorporated into the
Kurdistan region. The Turks -- who refer repeatedly
to the dangers to the Turkmen, their ethnic cousins
who live in Kirkuk -- have said that they will not
accept such an event. Avoiding a full-blown crisis
will require intense mediation by the United States;
unfortunately, Ralston's current mandate does not
include Kirkuk.
Despite their history, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan
need each other. Kurdistan could become a buffer
between Turkey and the chaos to the south, while
Turkey could become the protector of a Kurdistan
that, though still technically part of Iraq, is
effectively cut loose from a Baghdad government that
may no longer function.
In addition, Turkey has a major economic opportunity
in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) ; already, more than
300 Turkish companies and substantial investment are
a primary engine of Kurdish growth.
Rapprochement would require major undertakings by
both sides. The legendary Kurdish leader who is now
president of the Kurdish regional government,
Massoud Barzani, needs to rein in the PKK and pledge
not to interfere in Turkey's internal affairs. A
compromise that took into account legitimate Turkish
concerns would be necessary on Kirkuk; while this
would be difficult, especially for the Turkish
military, I believe it needs to be attempted, with
strong American encouragement.
History and myth make a Turkish-Kurdish deal
extremely difficult. It takes visionary leaders to
alter the stream of history. Charles de Gaulle and
Konrad Adenauer did it for France and Germany.
Nelson Mandela did it in South Africa. But such
people are very, very rare. Still, the crisis in
Iraq requires Turks and Kurds to think of their
common interest. Having just talked to the
impressive leaders of both sides, I believe they
understand that they face not just a crisis but an
opportunity.
Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, writes a monthly column for The
Post.
washingtonpost 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"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
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.
Turkey is home to some 20 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
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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