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Turkey's war is more than just a Kurdish
problem
27.2.2008
Opinion
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February 27, 2008
Turkey's current military offensive inside Kurdistan
region of 'northern Iraq' has touched off a crisis -
one to which several other players in the region
have contributed.
Although the ultimate responsibility for ending this
crisis falls on Turkey, all of the others, including
the United States, must do their part to prevent a
larger regional conflagration.
Turkey's ostensible reason for sending
10,000 troops into the
mountainous of Iraqi Kurdistan is to
punish the Turkish -Kurdish separatist PKK guerrilla
group known as the PKK for its 'terrorist'
operations and attacks on Turkish soldiers inside
Turkey.
However, the Kurdistan Regional Government in the
north of Iraq has charged that Turkey has an
ulterior motive: to destabilize that relatively
peaceful and prosperous area.
The Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan fly their own flag;
they have their own disciplined armed forces,www.ekurd.net
known as peshmerga; and
they prohibit the Iraqi Army from setting foot on
their soil. The Kurdish Regional Government suspects
that Turkey's fiercely nationalistic generals want
not only to deliver a blow to the PKK, but also to
show that they will not tolerate independence for
the Iraqi Kurds.
This is a reasonable assumption. Nationalistic
forces in Turkey make no effort to hide their
anxiety about self-determination for Kurds in Iraq.
They worry that Turkish Kurds - who have recently
gained greater cultural and linguistic rights
because of Turkey's efforts to gain acceptance by
the European Union - will contemplate an autonomous
Kurdistan region in Iraq and demand similar
self-government for themselves.
This intersection of unfounded paranoia with genuine
security concerns has to be addressed by the Bush
administration, the government in Baghdad,www.ekurd.net
and others who stand to
suffer if Turkey's violation of Iraqi sovereignty
sets off a spiral of destabilizing violence. Already
the Shiite militia leader Moktada al-Sadr has
threatened to send fighters to the north if Turkish
troops do not withdraw from Iraqi soil. And Turkey
is warning that it may leave troops in northern
Iraq, to block PKK routes into southeastern Turkey,
even after its main invasion force returns home in
two or three weeks.
The Bush administration should lean on Turkey, a
NATO ally, to stop its helicopter gunship and
artillery attacks - which are hitting civilian
villages, bridges and roads - and withdraw its
forces immediately.
America's only true ally in Iraq, the Kurds, should
be asked to prevent the PKK from conducting
cross-border operations in Turkey.
The soundest way for Turkey to thwart the PKK,
though, is to grant full cultural rights to Turkish
Kurds and to devote economic development funds to
the undeveloped southeast. Turkey ought to be a
showcase for minority rights in the region - instead
of the power that accelerates the ethnic and
sectarian mayhem that is tearing that region apart.
iht com
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Iraqi Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to
meet with its representatives in any official
capacity. That reflects Ankara's fear that any
international respect shown to the autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan region would only embolden Turkey's own
large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status.
Since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish
PKK rebels.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by
Turkey, U.S. and EU.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
**
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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