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US gave Turkey four Predator drones:
Turkey’s Consul-General in Iraqi Kurdistan
10.1.2012 |
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Diplomat Confirms Turkey Hosting US Drones
January
10, 2012
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Turkey’s Consul-General
in Erbil, Aydin Selcen, confirmed reports that the
US deployed drones to Turkey’s Incirlik air base
following its troop withdrawal from Iraq. In a
wide-ranging interview with Rudaw.net, Selcen
addressed Turkey’s policies regarding Syria, the US
and Israel, and its efforts to strengthen democracy
on its own soil.
Q: The
relationship between the US and Turkey seems fragile
at times, given the various conflicts and clashes in
the past. But government officials have repeatedly
stated that Turkey and the US are working closely to
plan a strategy for a post-Assad Syria. What is
specifically being discussed? Is it military
mobilization, setting up a buffer zone to prevent an
influx of refugees into Iraq, or financial or
humanitarian aid?
Aydin Selcen:
Well honestly speaking, I am the Turkish
Consul-General here in Erbil, and my
responsibilities consist of Duhok, Erbil, and
Sulaimani… Of course, I can share with you my own
personal opinions, but that wouldn’t mean much to
you because I’m not the right person to respond to
this question. I’m not in charge of either Syria or
Turkish-US relations, and I also don’t oversee
Turkish-Iraqi relations because I am here in Iraqi
Kurdistan in Erbil as consul-general.
But I can just share with you this – we are in
constant touch with the US through our ambassador in
Washington, D.C., where I also served for two years
just before coming here. He gave a statement at the
end of December, I guess to one of the leading US
newspapers, I saw it also in the Turkish news; he
said that Turkish-US relations have never before
seemed so robust as in recent decades -- actually,
in a long time. Our dialogue was so open and
comprehensive, so that’s the idea, or that’s the
statement of our ambassador in D.C. so I have to
take the same position as this statement.
Your question concerning post-Assad Syria, when will
Assad leave or when will the regime change, I don’t
know, but our policy is clear. Our prime minister
and our foreign minister made our policy on Syria
clear. First we tried to convince Bashar al-Assad to
implement reforms quickly and he didn’t, and now we
think that by killing his own people, he’s lost his
legitimacy. That’s why we are now definitely
convinced that this regime must change – Bashar al-Assad
must go. So that’s where we stand but we are talking
with many,www.ekurd.net
including our partners here in Erbil. We are also in
constant touch with our allies, like the US, and
France until recently, but also we’re in touch with
other regional powers.
Q: Do you think
that the Arab Spring brought the US and Turkey even
closer to each other? How has it affected the
relationship?
Aydin Selcen:
Again, this is another question really beyond my
(post). Iraq was the first country in the Arab world
to jump into the spring in 2003 within Iraq. In
Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, the region’s spring perhaps
started in 1992 when they freed themselves from
Saddam’s dictatorship. But we, as Turkey and the US,
are members not only of the same alliance – NATO --
but we are also members of the same family of
nations and we represent the same universal values
like liberty, law, state of law -- I mean the
supremacy of law and equality for law, the free
market economy and diversity.
Q: Going back to
US-Turkish relations, Turkey’s primary goal
regarding the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has
always been to aggressively eliminate or neutralize
them by force if necessary. But the US has viewed
the PKK fairly precariously. I know that recently
the US government gave Turkey four US Predator
drones, for air surveillance and monitoring and
intelligence gathering. How else has the US been
involved in Turkey’s campaign against the PKK?
Aydin Selcen:
You’ll have to allow me to correct a few of your
assumptions, in no particular order of priority.
Concerning the four Predator drones – they’re at
Incirlik (air) base. As they (the US) withdrew their
military, as our military ally, the US asked us
whether we could host the drones in our base and if
they could continue their operations and we said
yes. This is one thing. The other thing is that
there is ongoing intelligence between the US and
Turkey. This also includes the intelligence that
might emanate from those drones. These are technical
issues. The other thing is that the PKK is seen as
an illegal terrorist organization by the US and is
classified as such. And PKK leaders are designated
as drug smugglers by the (US) Treasury Department…
So we have ongoing cooperation with the US, but not
only the US – it’s trilateral cooperation, including
Iraq, Turkey and the US. And within the Iraq side
the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is also represented, so
that’s where we are.
Concerning our strategy, the democratization in
Turkey – what we call democratization progress –
which means the perfection of our democracy,
actually, is an ongoing struggle. We don’t only want
this for the Kurds, though the Kurds will benefit
from democratization. Just recently -- a couple of
days ago -- our Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc,
who’s also the spokesperson for the government, said
that in the new constitution, the Kurds will get all
of the rights that they demand. At the same time, we
have a security issue. We have a criminal
organization that we’re fighting against, an
organization that is targeting civilians. So any
democratically elected government’s first duty is of
course to ensure the safety and lives of its
citizens. We have also security and so we have to
adopt this two-lane approach.
Q: Along those
lines, I recently had the opportunity to interview
Osman Ocalan, (PKK leader) Abdullah Ocalan’s brother
in Koya city. He was of the view that this century
is the era for politics, diplomacy and democracy,
and that it’s time -- but that this applies not only
to the PKK but to Turkey as well. What are your
thoughts on that, on the military campaigns that
Turkey has been engaged in against the PKK?
Aydin Selcen:
First of all, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan,
Massoud Barzani, also in very firm terms said that
regarding the PKK in Turkey now, the climate and the
legal situation and everything -- the political
situation allows every view to be debated -- so
there is no need for a so-called armed struggle. But
terrorism in itself should be rejected. Massoud
Barzani himself conducted an armed struggle against
Saddam; an armed struggle can be tolerated only when
you have a dictatorship. You can’t talk about a
dictatorship in Turkey. On the contrary, you have to
realize that Turkey’s an open society. In his armed
struggle against Saddam, Barzani… nor Talabani the
(current) President of Iraq, had to resort to
terrorism. There was not one single attack in Mosul
or Baghdad or in Tikrit, for example. Were they not
capable of doing it? Of course. They had the ability
to kill civilians, Arabs or Kurds, but they never
used any terrorist tactics…
I have already in my answer to your previous
question explained our strategy concerning
democratization and safety. Certainly, a terrorist
organization should cease to exist. It doesn’t mean
elimination. But you can’t say that an army should
disarm or that a police force should disarm… for
example, in Mexico, they have the fight against drug
traffickers, do you think that the solution to the
problem is disarming the Mexican police? It’s not.
Q: But what can
be the solution then? Because right now what we have
is a tit-for-tat situation.
Aydin Selcen:
There is no tit-for-tat; there is no such thing… If
you visit Turkey -- if you go to Diyarbakir, if you
go to Sirnak -- you will witness the climate of
freedom that is reigning now. We are also the 16th
largest economy in the world. We have a Kurdish
nationalist party in our Parliament. We have another
Turkish nationalist party. Within the ruling party
we have maybe 75 Kurdish members of parliament. In
our government, we have four Kurdish ministers.
Turkey is not a military state – it is a total
democracy. The existing ruling party won 50 percent
of the vote in the recent election, and they won the
election on a platform of writing a new constitution
and continuing the democratization process. But our
citizens’ first right is the right to live. Also,
allow me to draw to your attention that the PKK, for
example, killed four Kurdish women – they were just
coming back from dinner. They killed a religious
person going to the mosque in the morning. They
exploded bombs in the hearts of Istanbul and Ankara.
Are these tolerable acts? Are these acts of
violence, of terrorism? I leave it up to you and
your readers.
Q: Turkey’s
relations with Israel haven’t been the best in the
past few months. Given Israel’s position as a major
US ally, does this affect your relationship with the
US?
Aydin Selcen: I
guess this question should be answered by the US…
how our alliance is seen with the US. We are an
important regional power and we are a NATO ally of
the US. Israel is not a NATO member, but of course I
know of their special connection to the US Congress.
And you see the presidential election process and
all of that.
We were one of the first countries in the world to
recognize Israel in 1948. We are not technically a
Muslim country, because we have a secular
constitution, but 99.9 percent of our population is
Muslim. So by that, we are the first Muslim country
to recognize Israel. We have our own Jewish
population – 30,000, more or less – so anti-Semitism
does not exist in Turkey.
But we are very critical of Israel’s foreign policy,
certain foreign policies. And especially when the
aid convoy (to Gaza) was attacked and six of our
citizens – one of them had dual US citizenship –
were killed in an air raid by Israeli commandos.
That really created a diplomatic crisis between our
two countries. Right now, the communication channels
are working, but it’s true that we have difficulty
looking this government in Israel in the eye --
Netanyahu’s government. And we especially have
difficulty with the foreign minister. But we know
each other very well, and we are two democracies in
this region.
Recently, (Hamas Prime Minister) Ismail Haniyeh was
in Istanbul and Ankara, maybe you saw it on TV. Just
one week ago, (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas
was in Ankara. So we enjoy good relations with the
Palestinians as well. But with Israel, after that
incident, we have to – I mean, the government made
the decision to end military cooperation and other
types of cooperation.
Q: Did cutting
military ties with Israel make Turkey more dependent
on the US in any way? In terms of military
equipment, hardware and intelligence?
Aydin Selcen:
That’s a technical question – but we have quite
strong military technology on our own. So I don’t
think that’s – I don’t know how to respond to that
question, but I don’t think it has a very critical
impact.
Q: Finally,
you’re a diplomat in this relatively small and
contained region with so many varying interests --
Turkey and the US each have their own interests
regarding each of these countries (Iraq, Kurdistan
Region, Syria) with their own differences. How do
you balance all of these interests?
Aydin Selcen: Of
course it’s a very difficult neighborhood. But we
are the open society in this neighborhood. We are
the democratic country in this neighborhood. We are
the country with ties to the West – like our NATO
membership, our OSC membership, our European Council
membership – like our history, which makes us a
European power, though our history also makes us a
Middle Eastern power. We have a more than 900
kilometer-long border with Syria. We have a very
long border also with Iraq, around 320 kilometers or
something like that. And we have a long shared
history with all these people and states. So we know
each other well…
There are 4 million Kurds living here. There are
three times that number living in Turkey at least.
So we have to continue interacting – but with some,
it’s easier, with the Iraqi Kurdistan region we
especially have a mutual interest and based on this
mutual interest, we have a common regional future.
We have a very solid political relationship… we are
constantly consulting politically.
High-level visits are now become normal. Twice,
President Barzani visited Turkey. Our prime minister
came here. Many of our ministers visited Erbil, like
our foreign minister, economic minister, interior
minister, minister of culture, education minister
and so on. We have cooperation.
We are a regional power. Even if we’re not a global
power, this is our neighborhood and we are going to
live with our neighbors. But while of course we are
trying to have influence, we are not imposing our
system as a model. But for those who want
inspiration from our system, our doors are open
because as I said, we are an open society.
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