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Washington, Baghdad silent on Iraqi
Kurdistan border conflict
3.9.2007
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September 3, 2007
Ankara,-- On Kurdistan region (Iraq's
northern) border, Turkey and Iran have a common
enemy in their sights.
The armies of both countries are engaged in conflict
with around 7,000 Kurdish militants who, tolerated
by the government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan
region, are entrenched in the mountainous frontier
region.
The militants belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), outlawed in Turkey, and the Party for Freedom
and Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) from Iran.
Here a forgotten war is being waged.
Iranian artillery fire targeting suspected PJAK
positions in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah and Erbil
is heard almost on a daily basis. Yet on the
political front, the conflict is little heard of.
Few seem to be troubled by this border war, save for
the residents of Kurdish villages who have been
forced to flee their homes.
In contrast to the ongoing car bombing campaign
targeting markets, bridges and barracks in the Iraqi
capital, the violence in the north seems to be
little more than a sideshow to the main conflict for
the politicians in the capital.
A lone voice of dissent in Baghdad is Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd. Notes of
protest are occasionally submitted to the Iranian
embassy over the shelling. And yet relations between
the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and the Shiite
administration in Tehran remain good.
Even in Washington, where any interference by Iran
in Iraqi affairs normally results in accusations and
warnings from the Bush administration, any
opposition to the Iranian attacks on the border
region remains firmly behind closed doors.
The problem for US President George W Bush is that
the two Kurdish parties of Massoud Barzani and Jalal
Talabani are his two staunchest allies in Iraq, and
must not be alienated for the sake of appeasing
NATO-parter Turkey.
'What is Washington to do in the dilemma of two
friends battling each other on an unwanted new front
in Iraq?' wrote Robert Novak of the Washington Post
at the end of July.
So far Bush has opted for a strategy of silence,
Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman charges. 'America
sees its ties with Turkey as more important than its
relations with the Kurds,' independent news agency
Voices of Iraq (VOI) quoted the conservative Islamic
politician as saying.
What is more difficult to understand however, is
Washington's silence on the Iranian artillery
campaign.
In Turkey, with at least 14 million Kurds
representing half of the worldwide population, the
lack of comment from across the Atlantic is the
subject of ever more bitter criticism.
Fresh reports that PKK rebels are using US weapons
to fight Turkish troops are stoking the sense of
anger. The arms are believed to stem from shipments
originally intended for use by Iraqi police forces.
Ankara will not however be drawn on the possibility
of a joint Turkish-Iranian push against Kurdish
militants in Iraq.
Although the Turkish army has massed 10,000 troops
along the Iraqi frontier and readied for a major
offensive, it has so far engaged only in minor
missions. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
appears committed to a policy of restraint.
'We hope that our allies will finally do something.
If not, however, there are many possibilities open
to us,' an advisor to the Turkish premier however
warned.
DPA
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