Institute for Public Accuracy
News Release
Perspectives on Iraq, Turkey and Kurds
October 25, 2007
EDMUND GHAREEB
Professor at American University, Ghareeb is author of several books
including The Kurdish Question in Iraq and The Kurdish Nationalist
Movement. Ghareeb can assess the strategic interests of the various
political operators.
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SUREYA SAYADI, MD
An Iraqi Kurdish doctor and academic now living in the U.S., Sayadi is
an activist and closely monitors Kurdish media. She stresses the human
impacts of the conflict.
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BEN H. BAGDIKIAN
Professor emeritus and former dean of the Graduate School of
Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, Bagdikian is
most widely known for his book The Media Monopoly. He is also author
of Double Vision: Reflections on My Heritage, Life, and Profession,
which is in part about his Armenian heritage — Bagdikian’s family
survived a massacre in present-day Turkey.
He said today: "The face-off with Turkey over their decades-long fight
against their own independence-seeking Kurds, has become a multi-sided
dilemma for all parties. Kurds have lived for centuries in the
mountains that straddle the Turkish-Iraqi border. In Iraq, the Kurds
are among the U.S. Army’s most stable friends, and also occupy the
other end of Iraq in its oil rich region. Dilemma No. 1. But Turkey
hates the Kurds and hints it might stop cooperating with the
U.S. Dilemma No. 2. Turkey needs U.S. help to enter the European
Union. Dilemma No. 3. But the U.S. needs the big Turkish airfield to
supply Iraq. Dilemma No. 4. Bush has threatened Iran if it does not
stop nuclear development and Cheney has raised the threats of military
action against Iran. But Iran has oil and is Shiite. Dilemma No. 5. In
Iraq various Shiites are our ‘friends.’ But so is Israel a
U.S. friend. Dilemma No. 6. If we move militarily against Iran, it has
missiles it can send into Israel. Israel could fire back. Dilemmas 7
and 8.
"It is a mess with no way to satisfy all the conflicting problems
created when Bush decided he would try to dominate the entire Middle
East."
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VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR
Available for in-depth interviews, Saeedpour is editor of Kurdish Life
and director of the Kurdish Library. She said today: "The notion that
the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] is inaccessible is simply
ludicrous. Scores of Western journalists have visited their mountain
retreats. …
"Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department’s terrorist list; the
U.S. claims it doesn’t ‘talk with terrorists.’ But the U.S. — and
Israel — aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why?
The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK
attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish
military from retaliating. …
"For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington’s
bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been
more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their
takeover of ‘security’ in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the
pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been
joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the ‘Iraqi’
military) in ethnically cleansing ‘contested areas’ of non-Kurds in
advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction
these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall.
"Perhaps it all depends on who’s doing the cleansing. In 1992
Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia
ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish
community in the Caucasus — 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With
few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a
detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of
Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe
Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did
nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign
aid."
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167.
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