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Turkey steps back from Iraqi Kurdistan invasion
after poll
24.7.2007 |
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July
24, 2007
As Turkey's government savoured an overwhelming
electoral victory yesterday, regional analysts
agreed that the immediate impetus for an invasion of
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) had receded.
Sunday's clear mandate for the Islamic-rooted AKP of
the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been
received as a snub to his secularist and nationalist
opponents, who put the fight against Kurdish
separatist guerrillas across the border at the
centre of their failed campaign.
Orhan Miroglu, one of the Kurdish politicians
elected to parliament, said the veiled threat of
military intervention and a massive military
build-up in Turkey's south-east had failed to
attract votes.
"Sunday's results are a victory for common sense and
civilian democracy over a politics of nationalism
and foreign intervention," he said in a telephone
interview from the southern port city of Mersin.
With more than
100,000 troops on the border,
Turkey's military has been talking about the
strategic value of Iraqi operations for months. But
it needs parliamentary permission to cross into
Iraq. Mr Miroglu, one of 24 deputies to be elected
from Turkey's Kurdish nationalist party, says he
will oppose an invasion. "We've had enough war," he
says.
On the Iraqi side of the border, Murat Karayilan,
the military commander of the Kurdish separatist
group the PKK, which has been at war with the
Turkish state since 1984, is still expecting a
fight. "The date of the Turkish offensive has drawn
near," he told the Associated Press. "We are ready
to defend ourselves." Despite repeated assurances
that it will do what is necessary to combat the PKK,
the signs are that the victorious Justice and
Development Party (AKP) has little enthusiasm for
starting a new war.
One of the most striking aspects of it winning 47
per cent of Turkish votes this weekend was the
increased support it gained from the south-eastern
heartlands of Kurdish nationalism. At least 100 AKP
deputies are of Kurdish origin. With unemployment in
some Turkish Kurdish towns higher than 50 per cent,
they know that war in Iraq is the last thing their
constituents want. For a start, much of Turkey's
$2.7bn (£1.3bn) trade with Iraqi Kurdistan is in the
hands of Turkish Kurds.
A security expert at the Ankara-based International
Strategic Research Organisation, Ihsan Bal, was
unwilling to rule out the likelihood of small
cross-border raids by highly-trained anti-terrorist
groups.
Anything bigger would be a sign of government
weakness, and the AKP has just been given an
overwhelming public mandate. "Soft power is in the
ascendant," he said.
How Turkish analysts interpret "soft power" depends
on their political allegiances. Umit Ozdag, the
author of an unsuccessful attempt last year to take
over the leadership of Turkey's newly elected
right-wing nationalist party, believes that Turkey
should simply impose sanctions on Iraqi Kurds.
Under pressure from the secular establishment, AKP
has until now avoided talking directly to the Iraqi
Kurdistan region president Massud Barzani and the
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Faruk
Logoglu, whose term as Turkey's ambassador to
Washington ended last year, said: "These are the
first people we should be talking to about the PKK.
I hope the government, now it has its massive new
mandate, will have the courage to enter into
dialogue with them."
independent co.uk
** 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.
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.
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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