KURDISH LEADER SAYS TURKS WANT TO DESTROY IRAQI KURDISTAN’S STABILITY
Iraqi Independent Weekly Awene, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
Dec 12 2007
Text of interview with Nizamettin Toguc in Cirnak, northern Kurdistan,
by Shirin Ali Yunis entitled: "Nizamettin Toguc: Turkish governments,
including Erdogan’s, are enemies of the Kurdish people"
Nizamettin Toguc is a former DEP member of the Turkish parliament for
the city of Batman. In 1991, Toguc, Leyla Zana, Ahmet Turk, Orhan Dogan
[died of a heart attack in June 2007] and Zubeyir Aydar were elected
and formed a Kurdish parliamentary group. In 1993 he was seriously
injured in an attack by a Turkish chauvinist group.
Subsequently, he went to Brussels with a group of six Kurdish
parliamentarians and set up an office to defend the rights of DEP
parliamentarians and later established the Kurdistan parliament
abroad, laying the foundations for the Kurdistan National Congress,
KNK. He is now a member of the KNK leadership responsible for the
Kurdish community in Europe. We asked him a few questions about the
current status of Kurdish parliamentarians, the AKP [ruling Turkish
Justice and Development Party] policies and the recent crisis.
[Awene] What is the current status of Kurdish parliamentarians in
the Turkish parliament?
[Toguc] As you know, 22 members of the Turkish parliament are Kurds and
have immunity. They have set up a faction called Democratic Society
Party [Turkish: Demokratik Toplum Partasi], DTP, and are engaged in
a civil and democratic struggle for the settlement of the Kurdish
issue in a peaceful and democratic way. Regrettably, however, they
have been put under pressure from the outset by the Turkish regime
since they decline to describe the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] as
terrorist because the children or cousins of the parliamentarian are
guerrillas and they cannot describe their own children as terrorists.
[Awene] Do you consider the [government of the] Justice and Development
Party better equipped than previous governments to find an appropriate
solution?
[Toguc] The Justice Party has assumed power under a new guise and
wishes to regenerate Ottoman policies to annihilate the Kurdish
people. It continues efforts to establish an Islamic current in
northern Kurdistan to crack down on the PKK. I believe that Erdogan
follows a soft Islamic policy which is the most threatening policy
to eliminate opposition, particularly the Kurdish people. Therefore,
we do not see any difference between Erdogan’s government and previous
Turkish governments: they are all arch enemies of the Kurdish people,
but the previous government’s hostility was open while Erdogan’s is
more subtle.
[Awene] How does the Kurdistan National Congress view Turkish
hostilities?
[Toguc] The presence of the PKK in southern Kurdistan is not new since
the PKK guerrillas have been in southern Qandil [mountain range on
the Iraq-Turkey border] and the main PKK leaders are in Kani Cheng
(Qandil). The Turkish army has crossed the Kurdistan Region border
many times without achieving anything, and the Turkish government
had reached an agreement with the Ba’thist regime against the Kurdish
national liberation movement. The Erdogan government is well aware of
these facts but it has chosen to ignore them. I can confidently say
that Turkey uses the attacks to put pressure on the USA, particularly
following the US Congress resolution on the genocide killing of
Armenians. Therefore, Turkey’s objective may not be the PKK but the
Kurdistan regional government.
Turkey has always had three practical objectives that it dreams
about: firstly, to attack the PKK with the cooperation of the USA;
secondly, to destroy the stability in the Kurdistan Region and wipe
out the achievements made by the regional government; and thirdly,
to support the Kirkuk Turkomans in establishing an independent Turkish
region in the name of the Turkomans.
[Awene] Do you believe that Turkey will be able to cross the border
with the Kurdistan Region?
[Toguc] I do not believe so because it will backfire, since the whole
world has expressed its displeasure. It may launch air raids against
guerrilla positions but that will be of no consequence. I believe
that if Turkey crosses the border into Kurdistan, the region will
turn into another Vietnam.
[Awene] How do you assess the stances taken by NATO, Russia, China,
the USA and most of the major countries in the world, which are
against a military move by Turkey?
[Toguc] These are good and essential stances because a border-crossing
by Turkey will destroy the stability in southern Kurdistan, which is
the most stable area in Iraq. Furthermore, terrorist organizations
will replace the PKK if it moves out of Qandil and this will create
a big problem for the USA and the regional government.