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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti losses clawing them out of their strongholds. KRG officials have previously called for a political solution that would address concerns about Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority, and TIME Nov. Ol. 2007 suggested an amnesty for PKK re¬ bels. Both the PKK and the KRG have in the past denied Turkish claims that the rebels use Iraqi territory for crossborder attacks. Mr Zebari spoke in advance of a conference in Istanbul on Saturday bringing together Iraq and its neigh¬ bours. Iraq does not want the PKK issue to dominate talks but says the focus should be on security, refugee and energy issues. Turkey should show restraint over Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq so as not to make the situation worse but its security concerns are understanda¬ ble, a Kremlin spokesman said yes¬ terday, Reuters reports from Moscow Crocker to Turkey: Stay Out of Iraq Bu Scott MacLeod/Doha U.S. ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Croc¬ ker is urging Turkey to demonstrate "strategic patience" over recent attacks by Kurdish fighters inside Iraq, warning that a cross-border Turkish military strike is exac¬ tly what the PKK rebels are trying to pro¬ voke. Such an action, he told TIME in an interview on the eve of Friday's meeting in Turkey between Iraq and its neighbors, would be "highly destabilizing" in Iraq, and would not necessarily achieve the results desired by Turkey. Crocker also cited progress in reconciling Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ite communities during the two months since he and General David Petraeus reported to Congress. Despite re¬ cent Bush Administration saber-rattling on Iran, Crocker also said that he expects to hold another round of talks with Iranian officials about mutual concerns in Iraq. He credits the U.S. troop surge for some of the success in driving Osama bin Laden's follo¬ wers from Anbar province, but admits, "al- Qaeda is not defeated." TIME: What are the latest changes you see in Iraq? Crocker: The change in Anbar is the most dramatic. Levels of violence in Anbar are down to just about nothing. Fallujah and Ramadi, which became like Beirut in the early '80s synonyms for unchecked vio¬ lence and terror, are two of the quietest cites in Iraq right now. The Anbaris stood up against al-Qaeda. That was occasioned, of course, in large part by al-Qaeda's own ex¬ cesses they provoked a counterreaction. But I'm not sure that would have happened, or would have had the effect it did, if it had¬ n't been for the surge. The tribes knew that they weren't going to be alone in this. TIME: Anything else? Crocker: That phenomenon; al-Qaeda excesses elsewhere; people just being tired of years of violence, wanting something better; the surge it all started to multiply, through Baghdad, Diyala, the whole area around Baghdad, and it happened quick. I came in March, these kinds of things we're seeing now you couldn't even imagine then. This doesn't mean it's success. It's not. I wouldn't say we've turned a corner. There are huge challenges out there. Al-Qaeda is not defea¬ ted. But it really is different now. TIME: What about political progress? Crocker: The Iraqi government moved pretty quickly to try and take advantage of this change and consolidate it. There are now about 25,000 young Sunnis in Anbar who 12 are wearing the uniforms of the Iraqi police and getting their salary from the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad to keep the peace in Anbar province. You have some political movement you just didn't see before. The Sunni vice president went down to Najaf in October and called on Ayatollah Sistani. Ammar al-Hakim, the heir apparent to Ab¬ dûlaziz [al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shi'ite party in the government], went out to Ramadi to visit the [Sunni] sheikhs of Anbar. The sheikhs of Kerbala and Anbar have had two big meetings together, Shia and Sunni, and the two governors are coordinating on security arrangements for the Haj [the an¬ nual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca]. There is a new dynamic going on. The dynamic has become clearer. We were seeing the begin¬ ning of this before the testimony [to Congress] and referred to it, but it has be¬ come considerably more pronounced since then. TIME: Yet, the Iraqi government still hasn't moved on key U.S. benchmarks, like de-Ba'athification reform. Crocker: What we are seeing is national reconciliation, not through national legisla¬ tion, but through actual reconciliation. There is a lot of dysfunction in the Iraqi govern¬ ment. There is no question about it. You see it as they grapple with these major pieces of legislation. They need to show they can do a better, more focused job on this. TIME: How do you see Iran and the Shi'ite issue now? Crocker: You have Iranian influence, which is extremely negative. But even there, you see among the Shi'ites a reflection of what you see among the Sunnis. It is not as dramatic, but it's there. TIME: How do you read the situation in northern Iraq with the Turkish threats? Crocker: The north, clearly a problem. The PKK found ungoverned space, and they are using it to carry out a terror campaign against Turkey. It is not a sustainable situa¬ tion. Something is going to have to give here. We think it's very important that something comes through efforts by the Iraqis and others as appropriate to find ways to shut them down and eventually get them out, not through Turkish military strikes. TIME: What do you tell Turkey about how you will handle it? Crocker: It's the Iraqis who are going to handle it. They are talking about steps to try to interdict the flow of goods and people into W.":. and out of that area. Heightened security at airports to ensure they are not flying in from Europe, going through the airport and going into the mountains. Arresting them where they can be found. Tightening down with a view to disrupting their ability to organize up there. TIME: Does that address Turkey's concerns? Crocker: What we tell the Turks is, look, we understand your outrage. We share it. But you also have to think about consequences. If you are thinking about a military action, will it work? Will it achieve your end result? And what about unintended consequences? I think the PKK is trying to trigger a Turkish military action. That's why they are doing this. Why? So that the Turks will do some¬ thing that will really inflame Kurdish opinion in eastern Turkey. And give them what they lost in '99, which is an environment where they can resume a presence and operations inside Turkey. That's what they want. That's obviously what the Turks would presumably have an interest in not giving them. Again, it's going to take some strategic patience. TIME: What are the unintended consequences for the U.S. and Iraq? Crocker: It could be highly destabilizing in Iraq as well. I can't go off into wild hypotheticals. It would depend on what they did. But you are talking about a large-scale military operation. Large-scale military operations have consequences. TIME: Are you going to talk to Iran again? Crocker: I expect we will have another round. I can't say when. I'm certainly open to doit. TIME: What's holding it up? Crocker: It comes at the initiative of the Iraqis. I told them I'd be prepared to sit down. They'll tell me when. TIME: Is Iran resisting? Crocker: I really don't know.
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti vtmtwmmm*] u.S. provides 'actionable intelligence1 on PKK November 01. 2007 From combined dispatches. The United States has given Tur¬ key's armed forces "actionable intelligence" on rebels from the Kur¬ distan Workers Party, or PKK, based in northern Iraq, information that could be used to guide a military strike, the Pentagon said yesterday. "We are assisting the Turks in their efforts to combat the PKK by sup¬ plying them with intelligence, lots of intelligence," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. The Pentagon released the statement after Turkish officials reacted angrily to comments by a U.S. commander in northern Iraq late last week that U.S. forces were doing "absolutely nothing" to curtail PKK suspects operating from bases in Iraq's largely Kurdish north. But with Ankara threatening a military incursion into Iraq to deal with the PKK, the Defense Department ack¬ nowledged yesterday that the U.S. military has stepped up its own anti- PKK activity, including flying manned spy planes over the border area and ordering American troops to capture any rebels they find. Bloomberg November 01, 2007 U.S. and Iraqi officials have worked hard to head off a Turkish incursion, but Mr. Morrell said the information being given to Turkish planners could be the precursor to military action. "The key for any sort of military response from the Turks or anyone else is having actionable intelligence. That's a pretty high standard and we are making efforts to help them get actionable intelligence," Mr. Morrell said. The problem of the PKK, which the U.S. government officially has desi¬ gnated a terrorist organization, is one of the most delicate facing the Bush administration. Turkey, a key NATO ally, has complained repeatedly about PKK strikes from bases in northern Iraq and has massed about 10,000 troops on the border. Turkish helicop¬ ters have struck at PKK sites inside Turkey, and Ankara has said it is prepared to hit targets across the border if diplomatic efforts fail to bear fruit. But Iraq's Kurdish region is the most prosperous, stable and pro-American section of the country. A Turkish invasion is seen as greatly destabili¬ zing an already difficult security situation in the country. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Ankara this weekend and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with President Bush next week in Washington in a bid to repair frayed bilateral relations. Nursuna Memecan, a member of the Turkish parliament from Mr. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said popular frustration in Turkey over the lack of action against PKK bases in Iraq has soared in recent months. "All these journalists seem to have no trouble finding and interviewing the PKK leaders at their bases in Iraq, and yet the U.S. and Iraqi officials say they can't find them. People in Turkey don't understand," Mrs. Memecan said in an interview with editors and repor¬ ters at The Washington Times. Mrs. Memecan, a deputy to Mr. Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, said Turkey's government at a minimum wants PKK camps in northern Iraq shut down and rebel leaders either arrested or forced to leave the coun¬ try. "People in Turkey are sick and tired of the PKK issue," she added. Iraqi officials announced yesterday that they will be setting up more checkpoints along the country's border with Turkey to block food, fuel and supplies destined for PKK forces. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zeba¬ ri, a Kurd, pledged to cooperate with Turkey but warned, during a meeting with visiting Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, that a Turkish strike inside Iraq "would have serious consequences for the entire region." Separately, the Turkish Cabinet an¬ nounced new economic and diploma¬ tic sanctions against PKK rebels and "their associates," which could affect officials of the autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. Kurds in Turkey Who Backed Erdogan Civil War Now Fear By Avla Jean Yacklev ( Bloomberg) Kurds in southeast Turkey voted this summer in record numbers for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his promise to bring peace to their region. Now, with Turkish troops massed for a possible invasion of Iraq, the talk is of curtailed political rights and ethnic strife. Erdogan is threatening a full-scale military operation in northern Iraq to root out guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, after almost 50 soldiers and civilians were killed last month. Such a move would exacerbate tensions between Turks and the estimated 15 million ethnic Kurds in Turkey, who represent 20 per¬ cent of the country's population. "'The rising tide of nationalism feels di¬ rected at Kurds, and people here fear a civil war," said Fahri Timur, 33, head of the Human Rights Association in the Kur¬ dish town of Hakkari. "'This government has improved the situation for Kurds, but we can't expect respect for human rights in the middle of a war." On Oct. 17, parliament approved a milita¬ ry incursion into Iraq. Since then, there have been at least 17 attacks on pro- Kurdish Democratic Society Party offices, including arson and crowds smashing windows, said the party, which has 20 lawmakers in parliament. The U.S. opposes an invasion by Turkey, its only Muslim ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, because such a move might further destabilize Iraq. Erdogan, 53, is scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush in Washington Nov. 5. Turkey's top general, Yasar Buyukanit, has said the army will wait for that mee¬ ting before starting any major operation. Deployed on the Border The province of Hakkari, which has the same name as its capital and shares bor¬ ders with Iraq and Iran, was the site of an Oct. 21 clash with the PKK that killed 32 rebels and 12 soldiers. The Turkish army has deployed 80,000 troops on the border and last week shelled areas inside nor¬ thern Iraq. Security has tightened around the town of Hakkari, surrounded by mountains some 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) high and acces¬ sible by only one road. Guards now check travelers for identification, and Kurds armed by the government to fight the PKK perch on small ridges above the road, which snakes along the Zapsu River. Timur said the conditions are reminiscent of the period from 1987 to 2002 when Hakkari and other, mostly Kurdish, sou¬ theastern Turkish provinces were under martial law. Rebellion Kurds first revolted in the 1920s following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The newly formed Turkish republic crushed the rebellion. The next major uprising came in 1984, when the then- Maoist PKK took up arms against Turkey's government. Figh¬ ting was reduced to sporadic clashes after Turkish commandos captured PKK head Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 and forced most of the rebels to retreat to the mountains of northern Iraq. The death toll in the first half of this year is 225, compared with 294 in all of 2006, according to the tion. Human Rights Associa¬ People are jumpy, worried it's a return to dark days," said Hakkari Deputy Mayor Ismail Akboga. ' 'There was a collective sigh of relief as the worst of the conflict appeared behind us. Advances will be lost if there's a war." Akboga, a member of the Democratic Society Party, says the lives of Turkey's Kurds have improved, partly because of government efforts to comply with Euro¬ pean Union membership criteria. A prose¬ cutor is investigating Democratic Society after members declared Ocalan ' ' leader of the Kurdish people" at a weekend congress, Sabah newspaper said today. Turkey blames Ocalan, serving a life sen¬ tence in prison, for the deaths of the 40,000 people, who are mainly Kurds, who have died in the fight since the mid-1980s. with the PKK Political Solution 13
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