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Kurdish Patriotism in Iraq, Turkey Seek
Land of Their Own
28.3.2007
By Michelle Vu |
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In recent weeks, Turkey
has warned Kurds in Kurdistan autonomous region in
(northern Iraq) not to make any moves to declare
themselves independent from Baghdad. Turkey has a
large Kurdish population of its own, and the
government in Ankara is worried by the violence in
Iraq, fearing that it threatens the country's
territorial integrity.
March 28, 2007
You see the trucks long before you see Turkey's
border with Kurdistan-Iraq. For several miles they
line the roadside, loaded with steel, cement and
food.
It can take several days to secure permission to
cross into Iraqi Kurdistan territory. Yet every day
4,000 truckloads of Turkish goods cross the border
into Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) and Iraqi oil
crosses the border going out.
Many of these drivers are Turkish Kurds from the
southeast of the country, and they have a unique
opportunity to see life on both sides of the border.
Some of them, like driver Ethem Ozer, believe that a
single independent Kurdish state would better
support Kurdish families in both Turkey and Iraq.
"We want to unite,” he says. “Why do we want to
unite? There shouldn't be any problems between us.
If there is no business here, maybe they have some
business, so we go and work there. And if there's no
work there, they could come and work here. We have
rights, and so do they, and that's why we want to
unite."
But that kind of talk terrifies Turkey's government.
It vigorously opposes the idea of a Kurdish state
based on Turkish or Iraqi territory. Rebels trying
to achieve that goal are now based in the mountains
of northern Iraq. The Turkish government says
fighters with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
-- the PKK – are being given safe haven in
U.S.-Liberated Iraq, even though the U.S. government
brands the PKK a terrorist organization.
Abdullah Gul is Turkey's Foreign Minister. He says,
"We can't understand this, you see. If an enemy
regime gives this opportunity to them, we understand
this, you see. That is an enemy regime, you see. But
this is a friendly country. The country we are
helping. The country that is controlled by our
allies, and we are helping them. This is the
problem, you see?"
The U.S. government says it is taking action against
the PKK, in partnership with the Turkish government.
But the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson,
concedes there are other problems in Iraq that are
taking precedence.
"U.S. forces are rather busy. They face a number of
terrorist problems, a number of insurgent problems,”
the ambassador says. “They have focused their
primary energies on those insurgent issues that
directly challenge the center of gravity in Baghdad
and that challenge our forces.”
In the ancient backstreets of Diyarbakir, the
largest Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey, the PKK
does not appear to be winning the battle for hearts
and minds. This city was originally settled more
than 5,000 years ago.
Today it is home to Kurds who are struggling to make
a living, a fact that carpenter Sherif Uraki
believes the PKK doesn't fully understand. "What the
PKK is doing, or what the government is doing is not
important to us. We are just trying to earn enough
money to buy bread,” he says. “And from the early
hours of the morning we are working here. We are
just trying to take bread to our homes, and I don't
think either the PKK or the government has any idea
of the conditions under which we are living. We're
just trying to survive."
Ongoing instability could lead the Turkish army to
take up positions on Iraqi territory in a bid to
overcome the PKK.
Retired General Edit Baser is the Turkish
government's special representative on
counterterrorism. "You cannot just sit and watch
when your neighbor's house is on fire, OK? You got
to do something about it,” he explains. “Because
that fire may come into your house, your yard. So
you have to take some measures to avoid it, and to
help your neighbor if you can.”
The general and many politicians back in Ankara fear
Kurdish ambitions for a separate state making up
northern Iraq and Kurdish areas in Turkey. They have
already fought a 20-year war against the PKK and
seem ready to fight another if necessary. The Kurds
are caught in the middle and they wonder whether
events will bring them stability and opportunity, or
yet more uncertainty and distress.
Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi who is
visiting Turkey, on Tuesday warned against a
possible Turkish incursion into Iraq to fight
separatist Kurdish guerrillas and promised to
prevent cross-border attacks by the rebels.
"We want both countries to respect the borders of
each other and expect the sides to be against such a
thing," al-Hashimi said upon his arrival in Ankara
for a one-day visit. He was responding to a question
about a possible Turkish incursion into his country
to hunt down guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK.
voanews com | AFP
** 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 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 over 25 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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