Los Angeles Times
Kurdish rebels offer Turkey a truce
PKK says it will stop cross-border attacks from northern Iraq if
Ankara drops threats of an offensive there.
By Ned Parker and Yesim Borg
Special to The Times
October 23, 2007
BAGHDAD – Kurdish separatists said Monday that they would stop their
cross-border attacks on Turkish forces if the Ankara government
dropped its threats to launch an offensive on their remote mountain
enclaves in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Turkey, stung by a weekend raid by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or
PKK, that left at least 12 of its infantrymen dead, has begun sending
troops to the border with Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region to
prepare for a possible strike. Many fear such a move could destabilize
the sole region of Iraq that has remained relatively peaceful since
the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
"If the Turkish state stops the attacks, this escalating environment
of tension will turn into a clash-free one," said a statement posted
on a rebel website by the PKK. "Our movement and people have the
strength to defend itself under any condition; however, we prefer to
solve the problems by democratic and peaceful ways rather than armed
struggle."
Last week, the Turkish parliament approved incursions into Iraq to
root out the Kurdish rebels. By Monday night, thousands of Turkish
troops were believed to be massed along the border, as Ankara
confirmed that eight soldiers also went missing in the deadly PKK
ambush on Sunday. The PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey consider a
terrorist group, said it had seized them and moved them to a safe
place. The PKK-linked Firat news agency reported shelling around the
Zakho region of Iraq on Monday evening.
In an attempt to stave off a regional crisis, President Bush took the
unusual step of calling the leaders of both Turkey and Iraq on Monday,
urging a joint effort against terrorist groups. The calls came a day
after an appeal to Turkey by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Turkey has indicated it would give diplomatic efforts a chance to work
before launching a major incursion.
A senior Bush administration official involved in talks with the
Turkish government said U.S. diplomatic efforts were focused on
pressuring Kurdish regional officials to stop PKK cells from operating
freely in the semiautonomous region of northern Iraq. Bush spoke with
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki by video, and the two agreed to try
to restrain the PKK, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White
House National Security Council.
Johndroe said Maliki agreed with Bush that "Turkey should have no
doubt about our mutual commitment to end all terrorist activity from
Iraqi soil."
At the same time, the Iraqi government and the ruling Kurdish parties
in the northern provinces of Sulaymaniya, Dahuk and Irbil have warned
Turkey not to cross the border. In his call to Turkish President
Abdullah Gul, Bush expressed "deep concern" about PKK attacks and
promised continued U.S. pressure on Iraq to stop the group from
operating in northern Iraq.
Bush, in his conversation with Gul, also reaffirmed his opposition to
a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, in which
1.5 million Armenians were killed in the early 20th century, Johndroe
said. U.S. officials have expressed concern that Turkish anger over
the genocide resolution could influence Turkey’s decision on whether
to launch a cross-border attack into northern Iraq.
The U.S. military has continued to insist it will not get involved in
Iraqi Kurdistan, where it currently has no combat troops. A senior
military official in Baghdad said Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the
commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has not been directly involved in
talks with the Turks or the Kurds.
"There’s nothing going on with us up there," said the military
official, discussing U.S. strategy only on condition of anonymity. "We
do have our hands full with what we are doing in all of our other
areas of operation."
At the same time, a new flurry of diplomatic initiatives is about to
begin. Iraqi officials said Turkey’s foreign minister was set to visit
Baghdad today and was due to meet with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar
Zebari, a Kurd, and that a delegation including Zebari could head to
Turkey by the end of the week. A meeting of regional foreign ministers
on Iraq is to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 2. U.S. Embassy
officials were meeting with Kurdish parliament members Monday, and
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, huddled with U.S. Ambassador
Ryan Crocker.
A Western advisor to the Iraqi government said the Kurdish regional
government could seal off the mountains and borders, where the PKK
moves freely. "They are letting anyone who wants have access to that
area. . . . They can cordon it off. They can isolate them and do a
better job of enforcing the border," the advisor said.
The PKK, which rose up in the 1980s in reaction to discrimination
against Turkey’s Kurdish population, carved out bases in Iraqi
Kurdistan in the 1990s. Over the years, it has fought intermittent
battles with both main Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the two parties have allowed the PKK
and its sister movement, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, to
operate in the frontier region bordering Turkey and Iran. The Kurdish
regional government is believed to offer no backing to the PKK, but
does little to limit the group’s activities in the rugged borderlands.
In the Qandil mountain range, PKK fighters, clad in olive fatigues and
traditional baggy pants, man checkpoints. The terrain is virtually a
state within a state. Kurds from Europe have visited to show their
support for the nationalist movement. Occasionally, Iraqi Kurds have
joined the fight.
Iraq’s Kurds suspect Ankara is flexing its military might in part
because it wants to weaken Iraqi Kurdistan and exert pressure on the
Kurds over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The city is home to a Turkmen
population, as well as Arabs and Kurds. Turkey has warned the city
should not be annexed to Iraqi Kurdistan.
With a November deadline for a referendum on its future about to pass,
Kirkuk’s future remains unsettled. "The aim is to really just weaken
and decrease the Kurdish region and make it weaker and smaller," said
Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman. "They are not aiming at the
PKK."
Many Iraqi Kurds, haunted by their tragic history under Saddam
Hussein, worry that the country’s Arab-led central government will try
to roll back their hard-won freedoms in the north, be it their ability
to negotiate oil contracts independently of Baghdad or to celebrate
Kurdish culture. They fear that the issue of the PKK is pretext for an
effort to erode their privileges.
Iraqi Kurdistan is the closest the Kurds have come to the dream of a
nation state, which they were first offered at the end of World War I,
only to be thwarted. The idea gained new life after the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, when Iraqi Kurds gained de facto autonomy under the
protection of U.S.-led forces barring Iraqi warplanes from Kurdish
airspace.
The flourishing Kurdish region has unnerved Turkey, Iran and Syria,
which enjoy uneasy relations with their own Kurdish minorities. In
Turkey, calls for action against the PKK mounted. Thousands of Turks
protested in cities across the country Monday for a second day.
Morning TV talk shows, which normally feature light fare, were solemn.
Most of the guests were relatives of slain soldiers, and broadcasters
wore black. TV stations canceled entertainment programs for the week;
other public entertainment was similarly canceled.
"Eyes on the government!" declared a leading daily, Milliyet, in a
front-page banner headline on a black background.
Times staff writer Parker reported from Baghdad and special
correspondent Borg from Istanbul. Special correspondent Asso Ahmed
reported from Dahuk, Iraq. Times staff writers Saif Hameed in Baghdad,
Tracy Wilkinson in Rome and Peter Spiegel, Paul Richter and James
Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: ,1, 4693192.story?ctrack=6&cset=true
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
