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Turkish FM’s Kirkuk visit: A tit-for-tat
for Barzani’s efforts for a Kurdish region in Syria
7.8.2012
By
Raber Derayee —
Ekurd.net
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Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu kisses a Turkmen
child holding a Turkish flag during his visit to the
disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Thursday. photo AA.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Kirkuk
Governor Representative Najmaldin Karim. Photo: DHA
August 7, 2012
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid a
surprise
visit to the
disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk last week after
holding a meeting with the Kurdish leaders in Erbil
about the future of the Kurds of Syria following a
possible collapse of the Syrian regime setting off
criticism from Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi officials considered the unexpected visit
a “blatant interference in the Iraqi internal
affairs” while Turkish officials said it was a
“peaceful” visit to the city where the FM met with
the Turkmen community with whom Turks share close
ethnic and historic ties. Following the visit, Iraq
summoned Turkish ambassador to protest the visit
while Turkey summoned the Iraqi ambassador to tell
him that the Iraqi government’s statements were
“unacceptable”
When a high ranking foreign official such as
Davutoglu visits, without notice, a disputed city in
Iraq that is claimed by each of the Kurds, Arabs and
Turkmen communities that has been the source of
tensions between Baghdad and Erbil for years, it may
be deemed inappropriate. It may also be seen as the
“peaceful” visit that Turks claim, but I think there
is something else behind it: a tit-for-tat for
Kurdistan Region’s support for the creation of a
Kurdish region in Syria,www.ekurd.net
especially when Barzani admitted training Syrian
Kurds in Kurdistan Region to send them home to
“defend their areas”. Kurdish leaders also continued
their support for all Kurdish groups in Syria even
the one that Turkey accuses of having links with the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group that has
been fighting the Turkish state for almost three
decades.
Barzani’s late July remarks when he told Al Jazeera
that the Syrian Kurds were being trained in
Kurdistan Region so that they can go back to Syria
and “fill any security vacuum” that might come forth
in the wake of the fall of the Syrian regime, upset
the Turks so much that immediately after that they
threatened to use military force to intervene in
Syria if a Kurdish region was established where the
Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD) – a Kurdish
armed group allegedly affiliated with the PKK – had
any control. The Prime Minister Recepy Teyyip
Erdogan also appeared on TV saying Davutoglu will
visit Kurdistan Region to “share Turkey’s
sensitivities and determination on this issue” with
local administration officials.
Prior to the visit, a senior Kurdish official from
Barzani’s party said that Turkey should not push
away any Kurdish parties in Syria, even the PYD.
Turkey has been viciously fighting PKK and is
desperately trying to eliminate the group through
military force. The creation of a Kurdish region in
Syria is seen by Turkey as a potential threat to
Turkey because it fears that the PKK will use the
Kurdish region of Syria to attack Turkey. PKK is
already using the Kurdish region of Iraq as a launch
pad to attack Turkey and Kurdish leaders have made
it clear that they will not fight alongside Turkey
against the PKK despite their presence in the
northern mountainous territories of Kurdistan on the
Turkish border. Barzani once said that the blood of
a Kurds should never be shed by another Kurd in
response to Turkey’s pressures on Barzani to fight
against the PKK.
Davutoglu’s Kirkuk visit shows the extent to which
Turkey is ready to go to prevent the creation of a
Kurdish region in Syria. On the surface, Turkish
officials may say that they do not oppose the
creation of a Kurdish region in Syria provided that
it is not controlled by a group linked with the PKK.
But in reality, they oppose a Kurdish region in
Syria because that will no doubt encourage Turkey’s
own Kurdish region in the southeast will be
demanding the establishment of a similar region, not
to mention that it might open a new front for Turkey
to fight the PKK.
Davutoglu’s Kirkuk visit was a reminder for Barzani
and Kurdish leaders in Iraq that “we can meddle in
Kirkuk if you keep supporting the creation of a
Kurdish region in Syria where even PYD can exist”,
that Turkey will support the Turkmen in their claims
of Kirkuk being a Turkmen city which the Kurdish
leaders have been trying to incorporate into the
Kurdistan Region since 2003 and which the Kurds
fought over it for decades with Saddam Hussein.
History shows that Turkey has the potential to
intervene and divide the ethnic groups as in the
case of Cyprus in 1974. Davutoglu spoke to the
Turkmen community as if Turkey was going to
establish a Turkmen region in Kirkuk. Turkey has
considered Kirkuk a historically Ottoman and the
property of the Turkmen minority. “You waited for us
too long, but I promise you won’t wait for us that
long in the future.” He told the Turkmen community
of the city stressing on Turkish support for the
Turkmen.
More importantly, Davutoglu implicitly said that
Turkey recognizes Kirkuk as a Turkmen city and will
act accordingly when it comes to disputes between
the ethnic groups of the city. “Today we [Turkish
authorities] decided to make Konya city in Turkey
and Kirkuk sister cities. I am a Turkmen of Konya
and for that reason I feel your pain very well...
Wherever there is a Turkmen, we have felt
responsible towards them and protected them and we
will always do so” Davutoglu told the Turkmen rally.
Davutoglu chose a Turkmen city of Turkey instead of
a Kurdish city or just any other Turkish city, to be
a sister city of Kirkuk. Normally, when two cities
are said to be sisters, they are such because they
share something vital. In the particular case of
Kirkuk and Konya, that shared characteristic,
according to Davutoglu’s speech is the Turkmenness
of Kirkuk and the Turkmenness of Konya.
Raber Younis Aziz, a Kurdish
journalist and blogger from Erbil, the capital of
the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. He has worked
for AKnews as English News Editor and Managing
Editor.
A contributing writer
and columnist
for Ekurd.net. He can be reached at raber.younis@gmail.com,
or you can follow his blog http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com
Copyright
© 2012 Ekurd.net
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