World Magazine
Oct 19 2007
New battlefront
Turkey: Turkey’s parliament authorizes military into northern Iraq to
oust rebels
by Jill Nelson
Turkish soldiers patrol on the Turkish-Iraqi border
Iraq’s Kurdish north has been a sanctuary for thousands of Iraqis
fleeing the chaos and sectarian killings in Baghdad and the volatile
provinces. That could all change after Turkey’s Parliament burst into
applause on Oct. 17 upon authorizing a military incursion against
Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq – a blow to the battered Iraqi
government and its war-weary civilians.
Turkish leaders say that an assault is not imminent, but their action
provoked Washington and Baghdad. President George Bush urged Turkish
leaders to rethink the resolution. Iraqi leaders – fearful that such an
incursion could throw their only peaceful region into chaos – flew to
Ankara to persuade its leaders to engage in diplomacy instead of
combat.
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Journalist and political writer Kenneth Timmerman recently spent
several days with Iranian Kurdish rebels in Iraq who control some of
the area Turkey considers "cleaning out." The terrain is treacherous,
he said, with mountain peaks reaching past 10,000 feet and roads
susceptible to guerrilla attacks. He has little faith that Turkey can
maneuver a successful operation in northern Iraq. "The Kurds will do
what they have done for generations, which is to simply melt back
into the mountains," Timmerman told WORLD.
Classified as a terrorist group by the United States and others, the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has plagued Ankara for decades.
Although their quest for a Kurdish state within Turkey eventually
transformed into a less-threatening crusade for basic rights, an
escalation in violence in the past two years has rekindled old
hostilities. Two recent attacks – one that killed 13 Turkish soldiers
and a bus ambush that left 12 civilians dead – again brought the
Kurdish clash to the forefront of Turkish politics.
The vast majority of Kurds don’t support PKK and its splinter groups.
Iraqi Kurdistan depends on trade with Turkey to support the growing
population of both native Kurds and those newly displaced from the
south. President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, called on the PKK to
end its guerrilla warfare in Turkey and urged Ankara not to send more
troops into Iraq: "We consider the activities of the PKK against the
interests of the Kurdish people first and then against the interests
of Turkey."
David Cuthell, Executive Director for the Institute of Turkish
Studies, says the Kurds would have their own state "in a perfect
world" but are "cursed by geography and history." The Kurdish people
comprise an estimated 20 percent of Turkey’s population and have
substantial minorities in Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
Turkey has received its share of international criticism for
human-rights abuses against Kurdish minorities. And Timmerman says
the Kurds fighting today are quite different from the old PKK. Their
primary grievance is an article in the new Turkish constitution – set
for ratification later this month – stating that the people of Turkey
are Turks: "The Kurds believe – rightfully so in my view – that this
amounts to ethnic supremacy."
Complicating diplomacy is a congressional measure labeling as
genocide the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey during World
War I recently approved in the U.S. House. The resolution – largely
ceremonial and backed by Democratic leadership – lost steam after
almost a dozen lawmakers withdrew support. Some cited warnings from
the White House, which called the measure "dangerously provocative,"
while others attributed their shift to the possibility of Turkey
severing diplomatic ties while allies in the region are in short
supply.
Cuthell says the measure is philosophically bankrupt: "This is just
walking up to the Turks, poking them in the eye, and then asking them
to do a favor," he said.
Underlying the fear of severed ties with Turkey is the Iranian
threat. Timmerman, who serves as the executive director of the
Foundation for Democracy in Iran, suspects Turkey’s leaders are on a
journey toward an Islamic state and says the country’s recent
military and economic alliance with Iran, "which includes joint
military planning for the offensive against the Kurds," is
"especially troubling."
With winter around the corner, rebel activities are expected to go
dormant, providing new opportunities for diplomacy. "The U.S. and
Turkey have a real deep and profound congruence at many levels," said
Cuthell, "and we need to make sure we don’t let untamed remarks and
resolutions undermine what has been a long-standing and very solid
relationship."