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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti Turkish Daily News November 5, 2007 Thousands march for a peaceful solution to Kurdish question ANKARA- Turkish Daily News Thousands on Saturday gathered in Ankara to push the government to find a democratic solution to Kurdish problem at a time when Ankara is threatening Iraqi officials with a crossborder operation into northern Iraq if they don't take substantial measures against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK). More than 30,000 protestors called for a "free, democratic and equal Turkey," in the meeting organized by Turkish Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), the Confe¬ deration of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) and the Union of Turkish Doctors (TTB). KESK President ismail Hakki Tombul claimed that the Kurdish problem can be solved through its own dynamics. "Unconditional abandonment of armed methods is obligatory for taking neces¬ sary steps towards solution. It is not a motion or ireuters j i Nov 6, 2007 Turkish By Selcuk Gokoluk and Evren Mesci a state of emergency we need," he said at the rally, amid slogans and posters in Kurdish. Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies Sim Sakik and Selahattin Demirtas and Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÔDP) leader and Istanbul deputy Ufuk Uras were among the protestors. Third option for a new constitution Protestors criticized the ruling Justice and Deve¬ lopment Party's (AKP) policies concerning a new constitution, accusing the government of kee¬ ping the drafting process in the dark. "AKP aims to build a more conservative society, in accor¬ dance with the Turk-Islamic synthesis in which [the party] was born," said Tombul. He also condemned the economic perspective reflected in this draft, claiming that AKP was institutionali¬ zing neo-liberal economic policies and securing privatization policies by granting them a constitu tional statute. TMMOB president Mehmet Soganci argued in his speech that Turkey had been reshaped conveniently to fit the interests of the "capital," under the guise of acting in line with capitalist globalization. Protestors offered a third option for a constitution that ensured public services like education, health and social security and sup¬ pressed obstacles to freedom of associations and securing peaceful coexistence between cultures, identities and beliefs in society. The AKP charged a "scientific board" this sum¬ mer with the preparation of a draft constitution dubbed the "civilian constitution," to replace the one that was penned in 1982 under the authority of generals following the 1980 military coup. A draft of the constitution was leaked to the press in September, sparking a new wave of com¬ ments and criticisms on its content. PM says N.Iraq offensive planned Ah Turkish army will go ahead with an operation against Kurdish guer¬ rillas in northern Iraq, but diplomats suggested on Tuesday any action would be limited in scope. Erdogan held talks with President George W. Bush on Monday to push Washington to crack down on some 3,000 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists using northern Iraq as a base for attacks in Turkey. Bush said after their meeting that he was committed to countering the PKK, which he called their "common enemy" and offered to share intelli¬ gence with Turkey, a NATO ally. While the talks yielded positive results they were unlikely to be enough to allow Turkey to step back from pursuing a military offensive, even if limited to air strikes and special operations, Turkish diplomats said. "The U.S. has agreed to give Turkey 'actionable intelligence' and that means allowing us to take military action against the PKK once we have real time information," a Turkish diplomat told Reuters. In response to what it sees as foot-dragging by Iraq and a lack of pres¬ sure from the United States, Turkey has mustered 100,000 troops on the border with Iraq and threatened to go after the PKK if nothing is done to rein them in. The United States is against Turkey sending thousands of troops across the border, fearing it could destabilize northern Iraq and cause a bigger regional crisis. It has not opposed limited military strikes. Turkey is a crucial ally for Washington, which uses Incirlik air base to provide logistical support for its forces in Iraq. Erdogan said in Washington late on Monday that action was planned against the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey. "We are not on the eve of a war. We have made a decision on an opera¬ tion. I want to stress once again that what we will do is an operation," he told the National Press Club. Turkey's parliament last month approved a government request to permit major military cross-border operations into northern Iraq against the PKK in response to an escalation in deadly attacks by the rebels against soldiers and civilians. LIMITED OPERATION 46 Diplomats and analysts said Turkey was moving towards a limited offensive rather than a full-scale incursion which would harm Turkey's image abroad. Turkey's lira currency firmed 1.7 percent against the dollar on expecta¬ tions a major offensive was now less likely. "Although the meeting did not meet the expectations of the Turkish public, I think it satisfied the expectations of the government," Faruk Logoglu, an in¬ fluential former Turkish ambassador to Washington, told Reuters. "It's highly possible for Turkey to do some limited operations in the short term; either air strikes or some pinpoint operations by the Turkish spe¬ cial forces against PKK camps in northern Iraq," he said. An escalation in separatist violence in recent weeks has sparked a public outcry in Turkey with mounting calls for an offensive against the militants in northern Iraq. Erdogan said he had given Bush a list of five demands he wanted the United States to take against the PKK. These included shutting down PKK camps and cutting off logistical support. "We got what we wanted," Erdogan said. "Nobody is telling us not to do an operation," he added. Iraq has pledged to hunt down and arrest PKK leaders. But Baghdad has little influence over the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north and the success of any measures against the PKK would depend on coopera¬ tion of Kurdish authorities. General Hilmi Ozkok, who retired last year as the head of Turkey's military, said in an interview with Milliyet newspaper that a cross border operation would not eliminate the PKK. "The armed groups on the other side of the border have a great strategic depth. They pack up their bags and move back 200 km (125 miles)," Ozkok said. "But if you ask me if this operation will benefit (Turkey)? I would say of course it will. You will show a great will. You show that you are determi¬ ned to finish off (the PKK)." The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (Writing by Paul de Bendern, editing by Keith Weir)
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti TORONTO STAR Kurdistan: a state of calm in Iraq November 07. 2007 Semi-autonomous region serves as a showcase for U.S. Mideast hopes OAKLAND ROSS MIDDLE EAST BUREAU SHAQLAWA, Iraq-When people from southern Iraq journey north to a region called Iraqi Kurdistan, they typically are in search of one precious thing. Just ask Muhamad Sinan, originally from Baghdad, who now makes his home in this semi-autonomous state - a territory that is formally a part of Iraq but in practice almost a country of its own. What is so different here? Sinan replies at once. "The safety." The safety is right. The 20-something computer engineer is strolling with a friend along the main street of Shaqlawa, a pastoral commu¬ nity tucked in a green valley between a pair of tall mountain ridges, a 40- minute drive north of Irbil, the admi¬ nistrative capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Irbil, in turn, is just a short drive from either Kirkuk or Mosul, two especially lethal points on the web of urban Iraq where violence has become a way of life, or death, much as it has done in Baghdad itself. But here in Shaqlawa, visitors might almost think they were in a different world, and in many ways they are. Iraqi Kurdistan - population: about 5 million - is not a paradise on earth, but it is a pocket of calm, relative prosperi¬ ty, and considerable civility in what is perhaps the bloodiest-minded neigh¬ bourhood on the globe. Fewer than half-a-dozen terrorist at¬ tacks have occurred in Iraqi Kurdistan since the early 1990s. In many ways, this largely peaceful corner of the world's most war-ravaged land seems not to be a part of Iraq at all. Consider: Since 1991, when the United States imposed a no-fly zone in northern Iraq - preventing dictator Saddam Hussein from attacking the Kurdish region with warplanes - Iraqi Kurdistan has largely governed itself. Nowadays, the region has its own army - the legendary Peshmerga, whose name means "those who face death," a fighting force reckoned to include at least 100,000 men in arms or, by some estimates, even more. Iraqi Kurds also have their own flag, their own president, their own corps of international diplomats, their own lan¬ guage, their own TV channels and ra¬ dio stations. They have 42 government ministries, equally split between the two sides of a two-party ruling coalition. They have an international airport, with direct flights to Frankfurt, Dubai, Stockholm and Amman, among other destinations. In fact, about the only trappings of a modern nation-state that Iraqi Kurdis¬ tan now lacks are a seat at the United Nations and a currency of its own. Still, most Iraqi Kurds will say that they wish to remain a part of Iraq if only because, at the moment, they don't have much choice. Press them a little harder, however, and they will soon express a contradic¬ tory desire to someday be part of a larger Kurdistan nation, one that would also incorporate what are now parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey, home to mil¬ lions of ethnic Kurds. But that is a far-off prospect and may never be realized. "A dream is one thing, and practical matters are another," says Dalia Kaikhasraw, managing director of the Uni¬ versity of Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurdistan's foreign policy is no¬ thing if not practical, revolving around just one central imperative - whole¬ hearted support for the United States and for just about anything Washing¬ ton says or does. "No American policy would be refused in Iraqi Kurdistan," says Jawad Qadir, executive editor of The Kurdish Globe, a weekly English-language newspaper published in Irbil. "The Kurdish public are absolutely in favour of whatever the U.S. decides is best." If it were not for the United States, which rescued Iraqi Kurdistan from Saddam's genocidal fury in 1991 and then overthrew the dictator four years ago, it is likely that Iraqi Kurdistan would not exist at all. It certainly would not exist in its pre¬ sent form, a semi-autonomous region with its own political authority - known as the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, led by President Massoud Bar¬ zani - and its own bold development plans for the future. The territory also serves as a showcase for U.S. aspirations in the Middle East, the one jurisdiction where democracy, capitalism, and peace all seem to work, more or less. "We're also important to the U.S." says Kaikhasraw. "We back their policies in the region. Business is booming, with road cons¬ truction crews seemingly at work al¬ most everywhere, while new housing developments and infrastructural pro¬ jects worth billions are either on the go or on the drawing board. Dozens of yellow construction cranes tower above the low-rise skyline of Irbil, a sprawling city set upon a largely treeless plain beneath a sometimes punishing sun. With so much business activity, it is not surprising that corruption and ne¬ potism have put down roots in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Corruption is a big problem," says Qadir at The Kurdish Globe. "It has been recognized by everyone in go¬ vernment. It is a big problem, but it is not characteristic of Kurdish self-rule." Like almost all newspapers here, The Kurdish Globe is funded by politicians of one stripe or another - in Qadir's case, the government underwrites a portion of his budget - but he insists his staff still are granted some room for critical reporting. While far from true press freedom, this is an improvement on the Middle Eas¬ tern norm. Thanks to a law passed only last year, journalists who do run afoul of Kurdish authorities are protected from serving jail sentences for what they write or broadcast. The government here insists it does not imprison people for their political views, and Qadir says he is inclined to take the politicians at their word, albeit cautiously. "Young people feel political security," he said. "You can be against the government, and you can feel sure you will not end up in prison. I think this is our biggest achievement." 47
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