THE US DILEMMA: DO WE SHARE THE BURDEN OF TURKS, OR SUPPORT OUR CURRENT ALLY–THE KURDS?
by Aram Azez
OpEdNews, PA
April 20 2007
Despite all its negative approaches towards the US interests in the
region, Turkey is still considering itself an old ally to the US and a
member of NATO, which deserves to receive the same political, military,
and financial support from the US that it used to prior to the Second
Gulf War. However, with the backstab that the United States experienced
by Turkey when it engaged in the "Freedom Iraq Oppression," how much
more and for how much longer should the US take the burden of and old
"ally" when, in stead, it has the essential and loyal collaboration
of the Kurds?
The worst of Turkey’s burdens for the US to share are: financial,
military, and political support to cover up its unprecedented Kurdish
issue, the Armenian Genocide, the Islamic orientation, the Cyrus issue,
its human rights violations, its so-called freedom of expression,
etc. Most of these issues are conditions for Turkey’s membership into
the European Union. But Ankara is "allergic" to and quite sensitive
about mentioning any of these points. In many aspects, however, the US
has a responsibility to press Turkey to obey the criteria set by the
EU; otherwise, the load will not be an easy one for America to share.
It is a heavy weight on US shoulders to share with an old ally, which
is now a more restrictive and problematic regime for the World Super
Power in the region than any other country. Recently, the Turkish
government rejected, once again, the requests made by the US Air Force
to conduct training flights in the Mediterranean Sea air space and
overnight fighter air raids over Turkey. The main backstab by Turkey;
however, was when it declined the US troops access to their land in
the 2003 Iraq War, which is a clear factor in affecting the strategic
relationship between the two countries.
Moreover, Turkey threatens to invade the Kurdish region of Iraq every
now and then, further attempting to halt the US efforts in the area.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s political and military leaders are expressing their
need for more US military and financial support to eradicate PKK,
Turkey’s Kurdish rebels. Turkey is asking the US to be reluctant in
supporting the Kurdish objective over an independent Kurdish state
in Iraq’s northern region. The Bush administration is playing much
smarter than Turkey in this regard. The United States has come to
realize that the Kurdish leaders are their key ally, and they would
not jeopardize this robust relationship over an old, retired one.
Senator and wife of the former US President Clinton, has lately
realized the significance of this relationship. "I think we have a
vital national security interest and obligation to try to help the
Kurds manage their various problems in the north so that one of our
allies, Turkey, is not inflamed and they [the Kurds] are able to
continue their autonomy," she has said.
The only stable region that the US can depend on where it feels
welcomed, at the present time and in the aftermath of its potential
withdrawal from Iraq, is Kurdistan. US officials have now become well
aware of the Kurdish support for Americans in the region, and they
should respect Kurdish ‘sensitivities.’
Although the US blacklisted PKK, naming it a "terrorist" organization
in the 1990s – to keep Turkey happy at the time – it is now realizing
that taking action against any Kurdish political party would mean
taking action against the Kurdish nation as a whole. This is regardless
to the part of Kurdistan for which the party is struggling. If the
Bush administration will take Turkey’s burden at least in this matter,
it should prepare itself to face other more serious circumstances
in the region. Such a move by the US would be viewed by the Kurds as
another betrayal in a series of betrayals by America.
In 1975, Iran agreed with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
to close its doors and end its support to the Kurdish people,
leaving them at the mercy of Saddam Hussein in 1975 – still vivid
in the memories of the Kurdish people. In 1991, under the rule of
George Bush Senior, the US encouraged the Kurds to rise up against
the now obsolete Iraqi regime, but did not keep its promise, leaving
the Kurds, once again, completely helpless. As a result, more than
one million Kurdish civilians fled to neighboring Iran and Turkey.
The struggle to survive as a nation is a continuing theme for the
Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their
own. The Kurds are living in the mountainous border regions among
Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They are the second largest US ally,
offering their land to US forces as a frontier in the 2003 war on the
Iraqi regime. The Kurds have taken an active part in the Iraqi war
from its beginning. They collaborated with the US despite all fears
of more possible chemical attacks by Iraq – something the Kurds had
already experienced in 1988. Now, instead of another US betrayal,
the Kurds say they deserve full support of the US for an independent
Kurdish state.
Turks’ "Kurd-phobia"
Denying an ancient nation like the Kurdish nation, with all
assimilation and exodus, the eradication attempts by the Turkish
regime reached its climax in the 1980s. During the 1980 military coup
by Turkish leader and now ex-President Kenan Evren, who once denied
the very existence of Kurds in Turkey, the Kurds were given the lowest
status given to human beings in the history of mankind. His regime did
not only restrict the use of the Kurdish language; it also described
the Kurdish people, who had lived in the region for millennia prior
to the arrival of the Turks, as "mountain Turks". He said the name
"Kurd" came from the noise their boots made when walking in the
snow {Kurt.-Kurt}.
Even in the current millennium, Turkey’s worst nightmare remains to be
an independent Kurdistan. Ankara fears that such a move would bring
together some 40-45 million Kurds, the majority of whom live within
the borders of modern Turkey – in the country’s southeast boundaries.
Recently, to ease Turkey’s anxiety, President of Kurdistan Region
Massoud Barzani said, "Turkey should get used to the idea of an
independent Kurdistan." The independence and statehood for Kurds,
who live in a region that straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria,
is a "legitimate and legal right."
The scenario of an independent Kurdish state will move a step
closer by the end of this year, by which time Article 140 of
the Iraqi Constitution must be implemented. According to the new
Iraqi Constitution, this Article is to reverse the policies of the
"Arabization Campaign" conducted by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and
1990s which drove thousands of Kurds out of their homes and replaced
them with Arabs. After the "normalization" of the city, a census is to
follow, then the referendum during which the people of the oil-rich
city of Kirkuk will decide whether they want to stay as part of the
Iraqi federal government or to join Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
This will be a more painful time for Turkey.
US officials have been criticized by Turkish nationalists over the
usage of the word "Kurdistan." For instance, during his farewell
speech in Erbil, former US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, said,
"There has been too much pain and violence in many parts of Iraq, but
thank God not in Kurdistan." As usual, Ankara reacted to his remarks.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also pinched into the quarrel
after the Turkish government took her to undertaking over the use
of the word "Kurdistan." Speaking before the Senate Appropriations
Committee last February, Rice referred to the Kurdish rebels who
were "operating on the border between Turkey and Kurdistan." Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Rice’s description of the
region "wrong," adding that Turkey would pass "necessary messages"
to US authorities.
The Armenian Genocide – Another controversial issue for Turkey
According to PanArmenian.net, a group of prominent Armenians and
Turks initiated a third-party study in 2002 of the procedures of
1915-1918 when they equally came up to the International Center
for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). In a comprehensive report, the
New York-based organization fulfilled that the Armenian massacres
included "all of the elements of the crime of genocide" as distinct
by a 1948 United Nations convention. The Armenian Genocide Resolution
(S. Res. 106) calls upon George W. Bush to ensure that the foreign
policy of the United States reflects suitable sympathy and sensitivity
regarding issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and
genocide recognized in the United States evidence relating to the
Armenian Genocide.
U.S. President George W. Bush has also cited the ICTJ study in his
annual messages to the Armenian-American community. Bush’s most recent
statements called it "a significant contribution toward deepening our
understanding of these events". However, both the US defense secretary
and US Secretary of State have sent a letter to senior members of the
US Congress indicating the damage that Turkish-US ties could suffer
if the pending resolution on Armenian claims of genocide at the hands
of the Ottoman Turks is passed.
"It is no secret that the strategic relationship between the United
States and Turkey has undergone some turbulence in recent years,"
Gates said, in his first public speech after becoming Secretary of
Defense. It was not by accident that he spoke at a Turkish-American
event, Gates said, adding that Turkey and the United States should
avoid damaging attitudes, such as the Armenian genocide resolution
pending at the US Congress and the worsening anti-American stance
in Turkey.
Human rights and freedom of expression violations
Despite the escalating pressure by the European Union on Turkey –
an EU-hopeful country – regarding freedom of expression, in recent
years, hundreds of politicians, writers, journalists and academics
have been prosecuted in Turkey for expressing their views. Among
them were 2006 Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk and renowned Turkish
novelist Elif Shafak. According to Turkey’s Article 301, mentioning
the Armenian genocide or raising the Kurdish issue or praising Kurdish
leaders, are criminal offenses. According to this notorious Article,
criticizing Turkey in any way is considered "denigrating Turkishness
or undermining Turkey’s national unity."
A 92-year-old retired Turkish archaeologist, Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, who
is also an expert on the ancient Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia,
has claimed in one of her books that the headscarf worn by Muslim women
was first used by women in ancient Sumerian era – for pre-Islamic
sexual rites. She went on trial in Turkey for expressing her views,
which the government considered "insulting Islam."
In recent years, hundreds of prominent Kurdish politicians and
intellectuals have faced charges for referring to Abdullah Ocalan
as honorific, or simply for having raised the Kurdish issue. Current
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, himself, was accused of referring to
Ocalan as "Sayin" or esteemed in an interview in 2000. Prosecutors
examined recordings of the comments, but found him not guilty.
On March 6, a Turkish court ordered blocking access to You Tube because
of videos allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of
the modern Turkish state. Many Kurdish-English websites, newspapers,
and TV channels are also being banned in Turkey – something that
George Bernard Shaw of the New York Times called "the extreme form
of censorship". EU skepticism over an Islamic Turkish government
The skepticism of the European Union towards the efforts of Turkey’s
Islamist government to meet the EU standards has much elevated.
Turkey has been at the center of the altercation between Islamism and
freedom of speech. Scientists say religious Muslims in the government,
that has its roots in political Islam, are trying to push Turkish
education away from its traditionally secular approach.
Reuters newly noticed: Now here’s a hilarious conundrum for the idiot
left that cheers on reactionary Islamism as heroic anti-imperialism.
Are we supposed to oppose this garbage when conservative Christians do
it in the US, but support it when conservative Muslims do it in Turkey?
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has met and invited his Palestinian
counterpart Ismail Haniya of the hardliner Islamist Hamas movement
to visit Ankara. Haniya heads the new Palestinian government that
includes Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist group by Israel and
the West. Turkey also has strong relations with Iran, which nowadays
is almost an isolated regime in the international community, especially
in relations with the US and its allies.
Turkish Islamist administration was annoyed by an EU mug in Brussels
last March. The mug was offered to the French President by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel at the last European Union summit, but Turkish
media said the lid of the mug portrayed the 1799 defeat of Turkish
forces by Napoleon in Egypt. Although Turks are sensitive nationalists
in the matter of their related issues, experts believe that the recent
reaction by Turkish Foreign Minister was likely religion-related.
Another crucial trouble of Turkey with the EU is Cyprus. Last December,
the EU suspended talks in 8 of the 35 areas because of Ankara’s refusal
to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, an EU member
that Turkey does not recognize.
Now, it is still up to the US to decide whether to share Turkey’s heavy
burden, which includes political, military, and financial assistance
to overcome its ‘Kurd-phobia,’ the Armenian genocide, the Cyrus issue,
the human rights violations, trouble joining the EU and so forth. Or,
to support its’ new and loyal Kurdish ally in Kurdistan on which the
Americans can depend without facing any hostilities and where, from the
beginning of the Iraq War up to now – not a single US soldier has died.
Aram Azez is a Kurdish Political Journalist. He writes about
the Kurdish and Middle East Issues in both Kurdish and English
languages. Most of his articles are published in Kurdish-English
Newspapers and Websites(see for his articles
in English .) Currently he is editor-in chief of printed Kurdish
Newspaper, Newand .
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