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A trap in Mesopotamia
4.6.2007
By Nikos Konstandaras
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June
4, 2007
The buildup of Turkish military forces on the banks
of the Tigris is setting the scene for a dramatic
new episode in a region which, though home to the
world’s first civilization, has never stopped being
a battlefield. If the Turks do finally invade Iraq,
the result may remind us of the Delphic Pythia, who,
in answer to a question from King Croesus of Lydia,
declared that if he attacked King Cyrus of Persia a
great empire would fall. Croesus took this as a
green light, only to learn too late that it was his
empire, not Cyrus’s, that was destroyed.
On one side of the dispute is Turkey, the most
modern and powerful state in the region. On the
other are the Kurds, a great and historical nation
which, numbering about 20 million, constitute the
world’s largest nation without a state of its own.
Until today, the Turks enjoyed an overwhelming
advantage at every level. This is likely to give
them a dangerous sense of self-confidence because
today circumstances favor the Kurds to an extent
that Turkey may suffer incalculable military and
political damage.
The Kurds lived in the region for millennia before
the arrival of the Turks. Today they are divided
among four states, with most living in Turkey,
followed by those in Iraq, Iran and Syria. At the
Treaty of Sevres in 1920, the Kurds saw their dream
of a homeland almost become reality but the treaty
was stillborn. In 1945, in a part of Iran that was
occupied by Soviet forces, Kurds set up the Republic
of Mahabad. By the end of 1946, after the Soviet
withdrawal, this rebellion was crushed by the
Iranians. Later, backed by Iran and the United
States, the Iraqi Kurds rose against the regime in
Baghdad. But in 1975, the shah made a deal with Iraq
and abandoned the Kurds, as did the US. Inevitably,
after each rebellion the Kurds suffered terrible
reprisals. That is why they say the Kurds have no
friends but the mountains.
The struggle for a homeland continued with
unbelievable alliances and betrayals as the Kurds
played regional powers against each other, with
temporary victories and catastrophic defeats. In
1984, the Kurds of Turkey began their great war,
which has cost about 37,000 lives. In Iraq, the
Kurds continued to forge and break alliances with
Tehran and Baghdad. In 1991, at the end of the first
Gulf War, the US became a central player in this
eternal contest. The Kurds heeded the first
President George Bush's call for rebellion against
Saddam Hussein's regime but the Americans gave them
no support. Baghdad's vengeance was swift and
merciless as Iraqi troops regained control of
northern Iraq. The whole population of Iraqi
Kurdistan was forced to flee into the mountains on
the Turkish border. Washington had to intervene and
provide military cover to the Kurdish region of
Iraq, creating the conditions for the longest period
of Kurdish autonomy in our time.
Today, because of this long-term alliance with the
US, the Kurds are in a position of power in Iraq.
The country's president, Jalal Talabani, is a Kurd,
as are many other senior officials. Kurds form a
major part of the Iraqi armed forces and, in
addition to having guerrilla warfare stamped on
their DNA, they have now undergone formal military
training and are battle-hardened professionals. The
Kurdish region's leader, Massoud Barzani, has warned
Turkey that if it invades, his fighters may confront
the Turkish forces. In the summer of 1991, after the
US imposed a «no-fly» zone in northern Iraq, Iraqi
forces tried to re-enter the region. In one brief
fight near Sulaimaniyah, the Kurds quickly destroyed
a unit of Iraqi tanks, putting an end to the
incursion.
As true practitioners of realpolitik, the Kurds of
Iraq have in the past allied themselves with Turkish
forces against Turkey's Kurds, knowing that they
need Ankara's tolerance to survive. But now that
Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq is a fact, and
with the US making it abundantly clear that they are
not in favor of Turkish adventurism, the Iraqi Kurds
will fight. The Turkish tanks now massing on the
border may suffer the same fate as Saddam's when
they are forced to leave the plains of Mesopotamia
and enter the mountains. Also, if Turkish forces
start to lose blood and treasure in Iraq this may
prompt a broader rebellion in southeastern Turkey
that will be difficult to control. The military cost
will be inestimable, but the political one will be
even greater and will lead to greater Kurdish
confidence at Turkey's expense.
That is why if the United States and the European
Union are able to press Turkey into staying out of
Iraq, they will be doing Ankara a huge favor; they
will save it from a trap that Washington rushed
into.
Source: ekathimerini.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.
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.
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.
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
region
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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