Political Affairs Magazine
Oct 20 2007

Turks and Kurds Protest Iraq Invasion Policy
By Joel Wendland
Peace/antiwar 10-20-07, 9:44 am

Protests erupted this past week in Turkey and Iraq over Turkey’s
decision to authorize an invasion of Iraq in order to fight Kurdish
separatists.

In addition to the Kurdish Parties in Turkey, both the Labor Party of
Turkey and the Communist Party of Turkey rejected a bill put forward
by Prime Minister Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party to
authorize an invasion of Iraq to pursue Kurdish separatists
affiliated with the Kurdish Workers’ Party or PKK.

Evoking Bush-style demagoguery, Erdogan accused opponents of the bill
of supporting terrorism.

In a statement released on Thursday (10-18), the Labor Party said an
invasion of Iraq was no solution to the conflict over Kurdistan, and
"a new operation into North Iraq will only antagonize the peoples of
the same region."

The statement went on: "Our country and our peoples – both Kurds and
Turks – will suffer from the results of this war."

The Communist Party saw the vote not as a break with the Bush
administration’s policies in the Middle East but as a collaboration
with US imperialism and Bush administration aims in the Middle East.

The Communists, who held protests on Wednesday of this week in Ankara
over the invasion bill, said, "Our country faces security problems
but this problem comes from dependency on the USA, the love of the
European Union, the NATO membership, the secret agreements with
Israel and from sending our troops to death in order to serve the US
imperialism in Afghanistan. "

Weighing in on the the issue and describing the likely results of a
Turkish invasion of Iraq, northern Iraq International Committee of
the Red Crescent spokesperson Flamerz Mohammed said, "Any military
conflict in the region will bring about a humanitarian crisis as
civilians will be killed or displaced due to shelling and troop
incursions."

In an interview with Al-Jazeerah, Murat Karayilan, leader of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, accused the Turkish government of lying
about Kurdish fighters crossing the border from Iraq into Turkey.
There are enough Kurdish separatists in Turkey to conduct their
operations there, he said. PKK members or supporters do not need to
cross the border.

Accusing Turkey of using the threat to attack Iraq and subsequent
destabilization as a tactic to pressure President Bush to speak out
against a US congressional resolution condemning the Armenian
genocide, Murat Karayilan added, "Turkey’s aim is to attack Iraqi
Kurds" not PKK members.

Many Kurds in both turkey and Iraq seek the formation of an
independent Kurdistan whose territory would include portions of
present-day Turkey.

Additional coverage:
PA Radio: Rebuilding New Orleans and Bush’s Politics of Genocide

In a statement released earlier in the week, the Iraqi Communist
Party denounced the Erdogan policy of invading Iraq and the ongoing
shelling in mountainous regions in northern Iraq.

"While rejecting and denouncing this escalation," read an Iraqi
Communist Party statement, "we call for putting an immediate end to
it, and to stop, fully and once and for all, the use of violent means
and military force. The only means to achieve an effective and just
resolution of emerging problems is through dialog between the two
neighboring countries, and through peaceful negotiations that avoid
solving the problems of one side at the expense of the other."

Under pressure from the Bush administration, Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki declared the PKK a terrorist organization and has
offered to allow the Turkish invasion of Kurdistan, including
northern Iraq and even to conduct joint operations there.

Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds in Arbil, Iraq, in the semiautonomous region
of Kurdistan, took to the streets on Wednesday to protest Erdogan’s
invasion policy.

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, called for talks
between Turkey and his government in order to resolve the conflict
peacefully, but also promised to fight any aggression by Turkey,
according to the Associated Press.

ew/6029/1/290/