GUL IN WASHINGTON FOR UPHILL MISSION
Ilnur Cevik
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Feb 8 2007
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is in
Washington with a tough mission to raise controversial issues with the
American leadership ranging from the future of Iraq to the Armenian
resolution pending in Congress that could pollute Turkey’s relations
with the United States.
Gul is currently discussing Ankara’s frustration with American
inactivity against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in
northern Iraq, the future of Kirkuk as well as the Armenian resolution
against some political odds.
He is dealing with a wounded American administration that got a beating
in the mid-term congressional elections because of its current Iraq
policy. So this is an administration that can hardly concentrate on
the PKK holed up in the northern Iraqi mountains controlled by the
Iraqi Kurds, the close regional allies of the U.S.
It is also an administration that has to find a fine balance between
Turkey’s demands to wipe out the PKK in Iraq as well as delaying the
referendum on Kirkuk and the American need to court and appease the
Iraqi Kurds to recruit their backing to deal with the current mess
in Baghdad.
This is a dilemma for the Bush administration.
American officials who are hosting Gul in Washington have said they
fully understand the seriousness of the situation regarding the PKK in
northern Iraq but they also confess that there is not much they can do
to please Ankara by allowing it to launch a Turkish military operation
into Iraq at the cost of alienating the Iraqi Kurdish administration.
There are of course some positive developments where the Americans have
displayed some sensitivity to Turkish concerns on the PKK but they
are far from satisfactory for the Turkish public where people expect
the Americans to help Turkey launch a military operation against the
PKK in the Kandil Mountains and also apprehend PKK leaders and hand
them over to Turkey. Turks say if the Americans can arrest Iranians
in Erbil they can also do this with the PKK.
Besides this there is the issue of Kirkuk where Turkey says it wants
the referendum on the future of Kirkuk to be delayed while the Iraqi
Kurds insist the ballot should be held by the end of the year as
stipulated in the Iraqi constitution. Ankara fears the rights of the
Turkmens in Kirkuk will be lost in a fait accompli.
There too the Americans feel the issue is an internal matter for the
Iraqis to decide and thus are not prepared to challenge the Kurds
over the issue.
So at the bottom line, while the American’s cherish their strategic
alliance with Turkey, they are reluctant to deliver on the PKK and
on Kirkuk simply because they cannot afford to alienate the Iraqi
Kurds at this crucial stage when they need their help more than ever.
Gul should have realized that as he flew to Washington a long list of
Americans were visiting Erbil to discuss the future of Iraq with the
Kurdish leaders. There are rumors that the Americans are interested
in building a major military base in the region.
Besides all this, there is the Armenian issue that is sailing through
troubled waters in the Democratic controlled Congress. The pro-Armenian
lobby is pushing an anti-Turkish resolution in Congress and observers
said there is a real threat that the document may pass.
It is clear that while Gul has drawn American attention to the negative
impact of such a resolution in Turkey the American congressional
leaders are not too sensitive to these concerns. It is sad that Gul
could not meet key people in the new congressional leadership.
This is an uneasy trip for Gul not because Turkey’s importance for
the U.S. has diminished but because the Americans are sidetracked
with other considerations which may well be a passing phase but can
still damage Ankara-Washington ties.