Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti
sync, both wanting a peaceful solution for this royal
mess; but he always points out "we are a nation"
which will not accept Turkish threats.
US plans for Iraqi Kurdistan, stretching back to that
1990 Israeli-devised Turkish plan, are in jeopardy.
And once again all because of the enemy within.
Washington played the ethnic card in Afghanistan,
pitting Tajiks against Pashtuns; the result, apart
from a never-ending war in Afghanistan, was that
mxfStaic November 01, 2007
Pashtuns on both sides of the border united and are
now destabilizing even further the US ally, Pakis¬
tan.
Washington played the Kurd card to destabilize
Saddam Hussein's Iraq and as a beachhead for its
control of the country after the invasion. Not only
Iraq turned into a quagmire, Washington helped to
plunge Kurdistan into the line of (Turkish) fire.
There's no evidence these lessons have been
learned. No matter what happens in the mountains
of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration will still
insist on the ethnic card to precipitate regime
change in Iran.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the
Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble
Books, 2007). He may be reached at
pepeasia@vahoo.com.
Iraqfs Kurds: rebel support, war fears
By DOUGLAS BIRCH -Associated Press Writer
about the need to crack down on the
IRBIL, IRAQ --When Turkey accu¬
ses Iraq's Kurdish officials of bac¬
king insurgents, one man they may
have in mind is Falkadin Kakei -
reportedly on Turkey's wanted list of
PKK. "I have seen over the past
couple of days the serious commit¬
ment to implement the range of
measures that will make a diffe¬
rence," Browne said.
Iraqi Kurds.
If so, it could signal a major shift in
the way Kurdish authorities deal with
Kakei, gray-haired and engaging, is
the PKK, which has waged war on
Turkey since 1984 in a campaign
the Kurdish region's minister of that cost an estimated 35,000 lives.
culture, a role that includes campai¬
gning to free what he calls Kurdish
political prisoners, including Abdul¬
lah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the
Kakei and other government officials
say they don't regard the PKK as a
terrorist group - though the United
States, the European Union and other
Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.
Kakei's dual loyalties - an official
within Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan
region and champion of Kurdish
nationalism - show why Kurdish
officials here have been slow to
move against Kurdish insurgents,
even as Turkey threatens to move
across the
hideouts.
border to strike rebel
Many of Iraq's Kurds share Kakei's
sympathy for Kurds in Turkey and
tolerance of the rebels' past brutal
tactics. But their continued tolerance
of the guerrilla group risks placing
them in the middle of someone
else's conflict and could threaten
their privileged place as Iraq's most
stable and prosperous region.
Now they face international pressure
to help uproot the rebels, known as
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or
PKK, from Iraqi mountain sanctua¬
ries used as staging areas for raids
across the border in Turkey. That
pressure is expected to rise Friday
in Istanbul during a regional confe¬
rence on Iraq's security.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has all but accused
Kurdistan's leader, Massoud Barza¬
ni, of helping the PKK. "He is in a
position of aiding and abetting the
terrorist organization in that region,"
Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper quoted
Erdogan as saying.
But British Defense Secretary Des
Browne said Thursday said he was
encouraged by talks with Barzani
16
governments insist it is.
"We fully sympathize with the fact
that ... the Turkish government and
the Turkish people have faced a
vicious set of attacks by the PKK,"
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicho¬
las Burns said Thursday in Vienna,
Austria.
The former Marxist group, which
once sought independence, now says
it is committed to democracy and
wants more cultural and political
rights for Turkish Kurds, but not a
separate state. It also claims to have
ceased offensive operations.
That hasn't stopped large-scale
clashes between the PKK and Tur¬
key, fighting which in recent weeks
has killed scores of Kurds and
Turks.
Kakei, who still wears the olive-drab
baggy pants and shirt that was his
guerrilla peshmerga uniform for 35
years, denied rumors that the go¬
vernment of Kurdistan turns a blind
eye to shipments of food and other
supplies to the wild border lands
where the group finds sanctuary.
He noted that the PKK has in the past
waged war against both the Kurdis¬
tan Democratic Party and the Patrio¬
tic Union of Kurdistan - which today
share power in Iraqi Kurdistan. For
years, Kakei ran clandestine radio
broadcasts for peshmerga insur¬
gents battling the regime of Saddam
Hussein.
"Not only do we not offer them any
help, the PKK is fighting us, even
now," Kakei said. "And they don't
seem to be in need of any help from
us, either, militarily or politically."
Kurdish Iraqi officials say they have
not moved against the PKK because
they don't have the resources. The
group's seasoned guerrilla fighters,
they say, would be impossible to
dislodge from their hideouts in the
soaring mountains of northern Iraq.
But Iraqi Kurds closely identify with
their ethnic brethren across the
borders in Turkey, Syria and Iran.
The Kurdish people feel they have
been subjected to political and cultu¬
ral repression in this, their home¬
land, since the days of the Ottoman
empire.
The current crisis has helped heal
some historical divisions among the
region's Kurdish communities.
"Now for the first time, the govern¬
ment of Turkey has united the Kurds
of Iraq and Turkey," Kakei said. "For
the first time, Kurds on both sides
are demanding the same thing."
After Turkey recently demanded that
Iraq extradite a number of PKK
officials, an Iraqi newspaper reported
that Kakei was one of those sought
by the Turks.
So far, the list has not been made
public. But Falah Bakir, Kurdistan's
foreign relations chief, told The
Associated Press the list included
only officials with the PKK.
Kakei told the AP he was not a PKK
official, but acknowledged he was not
popular
ment.
with the Turkish govern¬
Six months ago, Turkish officials
barred Kakei from attending a cultu¬
ral conference in Diyarbakir, in
Turkey's heavily Kurdish southeast.
The reason? "I think the main thing
and the only thing is that I have
always been calling for a peaceful
settlement of the Kurdish
Turkey," he said.
issue in
"I never hide my sympathy for the
Kurds of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The
problem is that anything in support of
the Kurdish is considered a terrorist
act."
In Kakei's view, the current crisis is
a result of a political struggle bet¬
ween Turkey's Erdogan and the
Turkish military, rather than Anka¬
ra's battle against terror.
Erdogan, Kakei pointed out, has
gradually given Turkey's Kurds
broader cultural rights and political
rights, angering nationalists and their
allies in the military. The current
crisis, he said, is an attempt by
Erdogan's enemies to wreck pro¬
gress for peace in Kurdish areas.
"The military is trying to roll back the
progress on the Kurdish issue over
the past five years," he said. "The
people who want to go on blasting the
border are the military."
Kakei said he and other Iraqi Kurdish
officials are pressing the PKK to halt
its insurrection. PKK leaders agree,
Kakei and other Kurdistan officials
claim, but have been forced to keep
fighting.
"Of course they are ready to lay
down their arms, but the Turkish
government is not allowing them any
chance," Kakei said. "The Turks
attacked them."
Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish officials
have called on Ankara to declare a
general amnesty for PKK fighters,
and to engage in talks with the group
over its demands for more autono¬
my.
Kurdish leaders here say Turkey
could squander an opportunity to
resolve the conflict. Since Ocalan's
arrest in 1999, Kakei said, more
moderate leaders are now charge of
the PKK and are ready for compro¬
mise.
"They are ready to sit with Turkey
and hold discussions," he said. "But
Turkey is closing every channel,
even with us."