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Turkey in dangerous poker game
21.3.2008
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March 21, 2008
Turkey is playing a dangerous game of poker with the
European Union, Islamism, the armed forces and
nationalism.
Turkey continues to expend all its energies in
pursuing conflicting foreign policies. On the one
hand, despite severe setbacks it is resolutely
struggling for admission to the European Union. On
the other, however, it is barely making any efforts
to substantially change the country’s established
balance of power and social circumstances, and to
introduce reforms for EU membership. It is still
pursuing a policy which has brought it the reproach
that it wishes not only to join Europe, but at the
same time to regain control of northern Mesopotamia
with its rich oil and natural gas reserves, which
Turkey was obliged to cede to Iraq at the end of the
First World War.
Efforts to achieve EU-conform
constitution
However, it is also apparent that Turkey's prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is systematically
working on his own patchwork reform strategy,
although many in Turkey and in Europe disapprove of
it increasingly. Erdogan, a moderate Islamic
fundamentalist, chairman of the Justice and
Development Party (AKP) and ex-mayor of Istanbul,www.ekurd.net
is attempting to use
salami tactics. His basic objective is still to
introduce an EU-conform constitution for Turkey. At
the same time though, he is also trying to convince
the potential losers in such a constitutional reform
– such as the armed forces, Islamic fundamentalists
and nationalists – that essentially this would not
entail any fundamental changes for them. The first
reforms were introduced in the year 2005. Now
Brussels is urging Turkey to end the armed forces’
domination of politics once and for all, and to
ensure genuine civil rights for women, the press and
trade unions. Turkey should also give minorities
like the Kurds recognition and enter into political
dialogue with them. And finally, complete freedom of
religion should also be guaranteed.
Oil and gas keep passions
aglow
To begin with, in the face of vehement protests from
the armed forces and laicists Erdogan placated
Islamic fundamentalists by installing his right-hand
man, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Gül, as the new
president of Turkey. In an alliance with Islamic
nationalist hardliners, he also lifted the ban on
headscarves at universities. And the armed forces
were also given satisfaction: they were again
permitted to take action against PKK fighters in
northern Iraq, but once again they failed to destroy
the PKK militarily. |
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L), President
Abdullah Gül (R)
A symposium in Vienna against the poison gas murder
of Kurds; Andreas Schieder;, Sonja Wehsely
Kurds always celebrate the New Year together with
the beginning of spring – the Kurds in Vienna also
cherish that tradition |
The Turkish troops
were obliged to withdraw again due to international
pressure. Appeals for a political dialogue with the
Kurds are becoming louder, and Prime minister
Erdogan was forced to make a statement to the effect
that Turkey did not intend to occupy northern Iraq
militarily for any lengthy period of time.
This would probably not have led to the breaking–off
of accession negotiations with the European Union.
But by doing so, Turkey would also have endangered
its own vital interests in Kurdistan in northern
Iraq. These interests are indeed very considerable.
Turkish construction companies alone account for at
least 80 per cent of the reconstruction work in
Iraqi Kurdistan. Joint ventures in the oil, natural
gas and pipeline business are rapidly gaining in
importance. Iraqi Kurdistan has the largest reserves
of oil and natural gas in the world after Saudi
Arabia. Only very recently, the autonomous regional
administration of Kurdistan concluded new oil supply
agreements with Turkey. And this despite growing
protests from the central government in Baghdad.
Independent Kurdistan – oil
fields a crucial issue
At the same time, in northern Iraq Turkey is trying
to delay the establishment of an independent state
of Kurdistan for as long as possible. It is doing so
mainly by repeatedly contriving to postpone a
referendum on Kirkuk, the centre of the northern
Iraqi petroleum industry. Kirkuk still does not
belong to the autonomous region of Kurdistan in
northern Iraq. To begin with, Ankara attempted to
influence the outcome of a referendum on the Turkish
minority in Kirkuk, and then by a short-lived
military operation in northern Iraq. Its purpose was
to make normal conditions for a democratic
referendum on Kirkuk virtually impossible by
allowing the Turkish army to occupy the border
region. The Kirkuk referendum was therefore
postponed for six months as a result,www.ekurd.net
and is now supposed to
take place this summer. If, as expected, it produces
a Kurdish majority for Kirkuk, the oil centre would
formally become a part of the autonomous regional
administration of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. And
this would make a possible Kurdish state in northern
Iraq an economically viable proposition.
Does Europe end at the
Bosporus, or in Anatolia at Iraq?
Finally, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
caused a real shock in the West by saying in a
speech in Cologne that the assimilation of Turks in
Europe was a crime. This produced a wave of protest
and indignation. The general tenor was that Turkey
was not prepared to adapt to Europe, but wanted to
impose its Islamist nationalist system predominated
by the armed forces in the wings on the European
Union. If this really is Turkey’s ultimate goal, EU
Europe will continue to end at the Bosporus in the
future too, and not in Anatolia at the border to the
powder keg of Iraq.
City of Vienna remembers
Twenty years after the poison gas genocide of Kurds
in Halabja (Iraq), a symposium was held at Albert
Schweizer House in Vienna in mid March. The guests
included representatives of the Kurdish regional
government in northern Iraq, university professors
and representatives of the Austrian political
parties. Amongst them were the international
secretary, member of parliament Andreas Schieder,
Vienna’s city councillor for integration Sonja
Wehsely, culture spokesman councillor Ernst Woller,
and member of parliament Elisabeth Hlavac. The
symposium was also supported by the City of Vienna
(Municipal Department 17 – Integration and Diversity
and Vienna Culture).
Newroz 2008
Under the motto of “peace and democracy now –
multiculturalism is an asset”, a series of events
starting at 3.30 p.m. on 22 March will be held at
Vienna’s Gasometer to mark the Kurdish new year
celebrations.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
wieninternational at
Contributed by Ferdinand Hennerbichler.
** 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 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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