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Turkey and Iran expected to boost security
cooperation against Kurdish PKK and PJAK rebels
15.4.2008
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April
15, 2008
Ankara, -- Turkey and Iran will look to boost
security cooperation during the 12th meeting of the
Turkey-Iran High Security Commission in Ankara on
April 14-18. The agenda is expected to be dominated
by discussions about cooperation against violent
rebel Kurdish groups: the Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), which targets Turkey, and the
Iran's Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which
is active in Iran.
The eight-member Iranian delegation is headed by
Deputy Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtaj (Mehr News
Agency, April 13). The Turkish delegation will be
led by Interior Minister Undersecretary Osman Gunes
and is expected to include senior officials from the
Turkish National Police, National Intelligence
Organization (MIT), the Gendarmerie and the Turkish
Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Today’s Zaman, April
12). The previous meeting of the commission was held
in Tehran in February 2006.
The commission was first established in 1988 but for
the first decade of its existence was essentially
moribund. During the late 1980s and early 1990s,
elements from Iranian intelligence were in close
contact with violent Turkish Islamists, providing
them with arms and training in camps outside Tehran
and using them to conduct surveillance and carry out
attacks inside Turkey. The primary targets for
Iranian intelligence were exiled Iranian dissidents.
However, the Turkish Islamists trained in Iran also
assassinated foreign diplomats stationed in Turkey,
sometimes at their Iranian handlers’ behest, as well
as and prominent Turkish secularists. Although
Tehran provided little support to the PKK, it
tolerated the organization’s activities inside Iran
and offered a safe haven for PKK militants being
pursued by the Turkish security forces.
“Many times, I watched the PKK terrorists flee
across the border into Iran,” the late Gen. Dogan
Beyazit once told Jamestown. “Whenever we protested,
they would prevaricate and then send a car to the
border and tell us to go and look for ourselves. But
when we accepted the car would travel at 20
kilometers an hour, and then have a puncture or
break down or something. By the time we arrived
anywhere the terrorists had already gone. And then
the Iranians would deny that they had ever been
there. It was a lie, of course.”
It is now more than a decade, however, since violent
Islamists with links to Iranian intelligence carried
out attacks inside Turkey. Since the election of the
moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP)
in November 2002 and particularly since the
establishment of PJAK in 2004, security cooperation
has improved dramatically.
PJAK held its inaugural congress in April 2004, one
month before a PKK Party Congress voted to return to
violence after a five-year ceasefire. Although the
two are organizationally distinct, both have their
main training camps in the Qandil mountains of
northern Iraq and profess allegiance to the
teachings of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, who has
been imprisoned in Turkey since February 1999. There
is no evidence that the PJAK and the PKK have ever
staged joint operations although some militants have
moved from one organization to the other and there
have been indications of logistical cooperation.
Similarly, although Iran and Turkey have not staged
any joint military operations against the PJAK/PKK,
there has been intelligence cooperation. In recent
years, each country has also arrested militants from
the organization targeting the other. Iran, in
particular, has detained and extradited several PKK
militants to Turkey. In March the Turkish security
forces in the southeastern province of Van arrested
Memichir Eminzade, an alleged PJAK regional
commander, after he had crossed into Turkey from
northern Iraq (CNNTurk, March 19). Both Turkey and
Iran have also struck at Kurdish rebel bases in
northern Iraq. In December 2007, Turkey launched the
first of a series of air raids against PKK positions
in Irai Kurdistan region based on intelligence
provided by the United States. In February, Turkish
commandos staged a cross border raid against PKK
camps in the Zap valley (see Terrorism Monitor,
March 7). Iranian artillery has frequently shelled
PJAK positions in the Qandil mountains, most
recently last month.
On April 13 an explosion killed 12 people and
injured 160 more in the southern Iranian city of
Shiraz. The reason for the blast, which was
initially blamed on a bomb, currently remains
unclear. However, on April 13 Ronahi Ahmed, a member
of the PJAK’s political wing, issued a warning that
the organization had the ability to “carry out
bombings against Iranian forces” inside Iran.
“We can’t stand handcuffed when Iran is chasing us
on a daily basis,” she said. “Iran should be aware
that we have a long arm that can strike at
significant places inside Iran.” (AFP, April 13)
The PKK is also expected to step up its bombing
campaign inside Turkey in the months ahead (see
Terrorism Monitor, April 4).
The PJAK has long presented the United States with a
dilemma. Allegations, particularly by Tehran, that
the organization is backed by Washington have been
publicly denied. PJAK leader Haji Ahmadi was,
however, allowed to visit Washington in the summer
of 2007, when he met with some low-level U.S.
officials.
Nevertheless, since the United States began
supplying Turkey with intelligence against the PKK,
there has been a noticeable hardening in attitudes
towards Washington in PJAK propaganda. On April 13
Ahmed denied that the PJAK was receiving support
from the US. “We have no relations with the
Americans, and Iran’s claim that we have an alliance
with America is not true,” she said (AFP, April 13).
The precise agenda of the Turkey-Iran High Security
Commission in Ankara is currently unclear. However,
there is no doubt that both countries have
sufficient reason to want to boost security
cooperation against the PKK/PJAK. Yet Turkey will be
eager to avoid jeopardizing its access to U.S.
intelligence on PKK movements in northern Iraq by
being seen to be cooperating too closely with Iran.
For the United States, the dilemma is probably even
more acute. It has no desire to encourage Turkey to
cooperate more closely with Iran, least of all on an
issue with possible repercussions for stability
inside Iraq. Yet, while the PKK continues to pose a
threat to Turkey’s security, it is probably also
unrealistic to expect Ankara’s full cooperation in
any future international isolation of the regime in
Tehran.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
jamestown.org
* Since 1984 the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey Kurdistan). A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
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.
The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel
group PKK and its political wing on
the European Union's terror list.
PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan), Since
2004 PJAK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdistan province northwestern of
Iran (Iranian Kurdistan). Half the members of PJAK
are women.
*** 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
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
PJAK
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PEJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PEJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan
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