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Messages from Davutoglu’s Visit to Erbil
6.8.2012
By Hiwa Osman
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Ekurd.net |
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Hiwa Osman, IWPR Iraq’s country director, previously
served as Iraqi president Jalal Talabani’s media
adviser. •
Read more by the Author
August 6, 2012
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s
visit
to Erbil and Kirkuk sent many messages to the Kurds
and Baghdad; the main one being Turkey is an
important, strong and stable player in the region.
But the visit also sent messages home to Turkey. The
headline of the daily Hurriyet on August 2 was:
“Barzani vows to fight common threats.” The
newspaper said Davutoglu conveyed Turkey’s
uneasiness over the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in
Syria.
On the same day, the newspaper Turkiye quoted
Davutoglu as saying of a three-hour-long meeting in
Erbil: “Barzani got the message,” and that
developments in Syria threatened stability in the
region.
As for the messages across the border, the Kurds
received the visit with a great deal of importance.
It was seen as a recognition of the important role
Erbil plays today, both inside and outside Iraq’s
borders.
The visit recognized that Erbil holds some cards in
the region. The foreign minister’s meeting with the
Syrian Kurdish opposition here reiterated that.
The visit recognized the status of the Kurdistan
Region. It gave the indication that Erbil is more
important than Baghdad for Turkey.
The other message that people here received was that
the road to
Kirkuk now goes
through Erbil and that Turkey stands at an equal
distance from all sides of the city.
In other words, Davutoglu showed no preferential
treatment for the Turkmen, despite his emotional
speech as a Turkmen from Konya at the Turkmen Front
headquarters. His pledge of support for Kirkuk was
an important signal of future plans for the city.
All these messages are with a view to creating a
stable, friendly and secure neighborhood for Turkey.
Davutoglu’s zero-problem policy may succeed on
almost all the Kurdish borders,www.ekurd.net
be they Syria, Iraq or Iran.
But this zero-problem policy stops at the Turkish
border because the question remains whether Turkey
is fit to play this role and send these messages
externally, while suffering from the same problems
internally.
Can Turkey imagine the Iraqi foreign minister, a
Kurd from Mosul, visiting Diyarbakir after obtaining
a visa and telling a Kurdish gathering there what
Davutoglu told the Turkmen in Kirkuk. Would Turkey
be able to tolerate that?
It is this inability to answer such a question that
makes it difficult for Turkey to play the role of
older brother in the region despite its many
strengths. Turkey needs to look inward and work on a
permanent settlement of its own Kurdish issue.
Only then can Turkey be an important, strong and
stable player in the region that can call the shots
and does not need to speak with one language at home
and another abroad.
Hiwa Osman is IWPR’s country director in Iraq, previously
served as Iraqi president Jalal Talabani’s media
adviser, a regular contributing writer and columnist for
Ekurd.net. Osman's
website is www.hiwaosman.com
Copyright © 2012 Ekurd.net
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expressed in this commentary are solely those of the
author
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