INSINCERITY STEMMING FROM THE US RAID IN ARBIL
by Semih Idiz
Milliyet, Turkey
Jan 15 2007
Turkish Press Warns Against Turkey-USA-Iraq Confrontation Scenario
The [11 January] raid by US forces on an Arbil office where
Iranians worked and the detention of the people there on suspicion of
"supporting terrorist activities" is interpreted in Ankara as "a sign
of American insincerity".
This event and other recent developments also explain why Prime
Minister Erdogan has accused the United States, which he once called
"our so-called strategic partner," of not being serious in the battle
against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party].
This is because the raid in Arbil – like the Al-Sulaymaniyah raid that
has gone down in our history as the "hooding incident" – shows that
the US army, which insists that it has "only limited room for military
action" in northern Iraq, can find "room for action" when it wants.
The Arbil raid also refutes the argument that American forces "do not
want to take action against the PKK in order not to anger the local
Kurdish administration." That is because the Kurds insist that the
Iranians who have been detained were there with the knowledge of the
Baghdad government and are upset about the raid.
‘Stay Away from Iran’
In this regard, Iraq’s Kurdish Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari,
disclosed that the liaison office where the detained Iranians were
working has been active in the country for ten years.
Kurdish observers also find it interesting that this raid occurred soon
after the visit Iraqi President Jalal Talabani paid to Iran a short
while ago with the purpose of building new ties with that country. In
sum, this raid is interpreted as a message of "stay away from Iran"
addressed to the Kurds.
Naturally, all these are noted down in Ankara. The anger of the Turkish
side is further fuelled by information that PKK militants on Mount
Kandil have access to various facilities, chiefly health care centres,
in northern Iraqi cities – with the knowledge of the US forces.
Another aggravating factor is that PKK leaders are able to hold press
conferences for the foreign media without any fear of being caught.
In sum, Turkish-US relations will evidently grow even more tense when
the PKK resumes its attacks in the spring. Since this would coincide
with the time when allegations of Armenian genocide will resurface in
the US Congress, bilateral relations are likely to sink to the bottom.
No Support Over PKK
It is now very clear that at this stage the United States will not
offer any support to Turkey on the issue of battling PKK terrorism.
Washington has also invalidated its own excuses for its inaction on
this issue with steps such as the Arbil raid.
If Turkish-American relations have any "strategic importance" left
in them for either side – and these developments make it hard for
us to answer in the affirmative – then the two sides need to create
a political climate that will contribute to their mutual interests
without delay.
Otherwise, it is not inconceivable that the Turkish government and
army might declare the United States, already seen as an "enemy"
by the Turkish people, as an "adversary" more explicitly and the two
sides might confront each other in a dangerous setting in northern
Iraq. This dangerous prospect, which was "inconceivable" in the past,
is on the verge of taking on the status of "certainly possible."