WHOSE SIDE WILL RUSSIA TAKE IN KURDISH ISSUE?

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.11.2007 GMT+04:00

At present Turkey distances away from the USA, and Russia should
promote the process.

The fact that the Kurdistan Workers Party, according to the
U.S. Department of States, is "a common enemy for Turkey and the USA"
is already clear. What could hardly be expected was that the Kremlin
subscribed to this opinion as well. "We consider the activities of the
Kurdistan Workers Party to be terrorist attacks and we condemn them. We
think that Turkey has the right to protect itself. But we believe that
the only way to solve the problem is the dialogue. Ankara needs to
start negotiating with a number of countries supporting the Kurdistan
Workers Party", announced the Kremlin Press-Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As the newspaper Hurriyat writes, for the first
time Russia officially qualified the Kurdistan Workers Party as a
terrorist organization.

In this case Russia’s position is a little strange, if we take into
account that the Kurdish separatism came into existence in 30’s,
when the Soviet Special Forces seriously took up the problems of the
Middle East.

However, Moscow strived to dispose the Kurds not against Iran, with
who the Soviet Union was in good terms in those times, but against
Iraq and Turkey, who are strategic allies of the West.

Opening the Mejlis Session in 1936, President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk mentioned, that among all the problems the country faces,
one of the most important one is the Kurdish problem, and called
"to put an end to it once and for all". After two years of repressive
policy regarding the Kurdish population, the Minister of Home Affairs
of Turkey Bayar announced that such a problem in the country stopped
existing.

"The history of the Turkish issue is formed in one sentence only:
Kurds have no national state. It’s a very big nation, whose population
is from 23 up to 35 million people. The Kurds realize that for the
first time over so many years they have the chance to create something
of its own. Especially in Iraq the Northern Part, populated by Kurds
and presently supported by the Americans, is de facto an independent
state. It has oil and a lot more to survive," thinks the Islam and
Middle East expert Alexei Malashenko.

>From the point of view of the Director of the Institute of Political
Research Sergey Markov presently Turkey distances from the USA
and Russia should promote this process: "Turkey is a politically
unappreciated country, and the thing is that it has always been
regarded as the puppet in the hands of the USA, and it has never been
taken into any consideration. But it’s obvious that Turkey stops being
a puppet, since it took no notice of the US request about not bombing
Iraq and not invading the country. We must repair our relations with
Turkey, and now we have the chance to noticeably improve our relations
with Turkey, integrating it into common economic area. By common
economic area we understand the countries running similar economy,
and which are deprived of the chance of being integrated into EU.

This is why we must also tell Turkey, that it should give rights to
the Kurds, and that it should show more tolerance of course. And I
think, that this is the case when one shouldn’t "strike an attitude",
but to use that chance for strengthening the influence of Russia".

It should be mentioned, that Turkey doesn’t enjoy one of its best
moments in its home policy. The power is in the hands of Islamists;
in the hands of the President, the Prime-Minister, who are opposed
by the Turkish Army. That’s why the fight against the Kurds is also
a concealed way of expression of the confrontation between secular
military men and Islamists. However, this victory may never be sealed.

Since 1984 the Kurdistan Workers Party has been fighting against
regular units of the Turkish Army and there is no end to this war. And
if Russia also gets involved, the Middle East will definitely have
a super-state, which will not listen to anyone, neither to Russia,
nor to the USA, and moreover not to EU. In future Turkey may follow
the example of the Ottoman Empire, but will have less complication
in fulfilling its plans, since the number of the Turkish nations is
growing. We only hope that the World Community will not give up to
blackmail and threats and will finally recognize Turkey the enemy of
the whole civilized world.