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Turkish troops out of Kurdistan!
24.2.2008
By Alan Thomas
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February 24, 2008
Within the past four days, following a lengthy
campaign of aerial bombings, a Turkish ground
invasion of
Iraqi Kurdistan has begun. 10,000 troops in total
rolled across the border on Thursday night,
according to the Turkish Daily News. This was on the
pretext of hunting members of the PKK who live in
camps around the mountainous north of the region. As
the troops (whose numbers have been massing on the
Iraqi border for months) went into Iraqi Kurdish
territory at around 7 pm, the Turkish army’s general
staff issued a statement which said:
“The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great
importance to Iraq’s territorial integrity and
stability, will return home in the shortest time
possible after its goals have been achieved”
Whether this is to be believed or not remains to be
seen. Indeed, if the “achievement of its goals” is
the elimination of the PKK “threat” then even taken
at face value the statement is cold comfort for the
Kurds - previous failed attempts by the Turkish army
to eradicate Kurdish nationalism resulted in a
bloody and drawn-out conflict between 1984 and 1999
which is reckoned to have claimed over 30,000 lives.
This is not a case of the military launching an
operation in defiance of a civilian government,
either. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK
Party government in fact ordered the attack,www.ekurd.net
it is believed with the
tacit support of the USA - in spite of some muted
protests. The US will certainly be loathe to enter a
direct confrontation with a NATO partner,
particularly a regional superpower of Turkey’s
standing in a part of the world where the USA is not
overwhelmed by huge numbers of Muslim friends.
The Kurdistan Regional Government, headed by
Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani,
has issued a statement condemning the invasion
whilst making clear that it does not support the PKK.
For the time being this will suit the Turkish
troops, whose lives would be made considerably more
difficult if Barzani were to order the mainstream
Peshmerga in the region to fire on the invaders. It
is, however, quite clear that the Peshmerga’s
neutrality in the conflict is far from guaranteed in
the longer term.
The conflict has escalated within the last 24 hours,
with the Turkish army claiming to have killed 44
rebels and the PKK responding with a claim to have
shot down a Turkish helicopter. The death toll will
undoubtedly continue to mount over the days and
weeks to come, almost certainly without any “clean”
outcome one way or the other. Conventional ground
forces have found since time immemorial that they
can hold an area,www.ekurd.net
only for it to be
reoccupied by guerillas once they leave. The PKK may
not have the forces to drive the Turkish forces out,
but neither do the Turkish army have the means to
eradicate the PKK. The result will be a bloody mess.
In a situation like this, progressive and left-wing
people worldwide should stand with the people of
Kurdistan whose territory is being overrun by
invading troops. We should condemn any civilian
deaths that the Turkish troops inflict, and we
should call for those troops to be withdrawn. The
Kurdish people have the right to their own
territorial integrity, and the language being used
by the Turkish government to justify the invasion
(”terrorists” in particular) is eerily remniscent of
the language used by US administration to justify
the war in Iraq. We on the left stand with oppressed
peoples, against such aggressors and we support the
right tonational self-determination. It is for that
reason and with those principles in mind that I
believe we should be calling for Turkish troops out
of Kurdistan.
liberalconspiracy org
**
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.
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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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