Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basin Ozeti<br />
on guerrillas from the Kurdistan Work¬<br />
ers' Party, or PKK, who use the jagged<br />
mountain bor<strong>de</strong>r frontier as a haven<br />
after attacks in Turkey.<br />
"We have taken the <strong>de</strong>cision to pur¬<br />
sue an operation," Erdogan said Mon¬<br />
day through an interpreter at the Na¬<br />
tional Press Club. "We are not seeking<br />
war," he ad<strong>de</strong>d, but he offered no specif¬<br />
ics or timing.<br />
His battle is largely one of percep¬<br />
tion, trying to convince the Turkish<br />
public that he is acting against the<br />
Kurdish guerrillas <strong>and</strong> that he has U.S.<br />
support to do so. But most analysts in<br />
Turkey expect any attack to be limited.<br />
Whatever the case, Erdogan's visit<br />
seemed to satisfy the Turkish public.<br />
"People are probably giving the gov¬<br />
ernment the benefit of the doubt at the<br />
moment," said liter Turan, a political<br />
science professor at Istanbul Bilgi Uni¬<br />
versity. "Most are relieved that no major<br />
operation will start on Iraq."<br />
But if a large attack were to occur,<br />
Turkish soldiers would encounter thou¬<br />
s<strong>and</strong>s of Kurdish pesh merga fighters<br />
who have formed a loose <strong>de</strong>fensive line<br />
that parallels the Turkish bor<strong>de</strong>r along<br />
the ridges of the Mateen Mountains.<br />
Kurdish lea<strong>de</strong>rs speak only generally<br />
about repelling an invasion, but political<br />
<strong>and</strong> military comm<strong>and</strong>ers here have<br />
specific instructions: Attacks on civilian<br />
villages will draw a fierce counterattack.<br />
"If the civilians face any problems,<br />
that is our 100 percent red line,"<br />
Muhammad Muhsen, a regional lea<strong>de</strong>r<br />
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of¬<br />
fice in Amedi, said in a recent inter¬<br />
view, before Kurdish authorities prohib¬<br />
ited local comm<strong>and</strong>ers from discussing<br />
the conflict with Turkey. Amedi an¬<br />
chors a large bor<strong>de</strong>r region where fight¬<br />
ers are camped on south-facing slopes<br />
as trucks bring pesh merga fighters <strong>and</strong><br />
weapons up curvy roads.<br />
Muhsen expressed a common fear<br />
among Kurdish comm<strong>and</strong>ers, that the<br />
Turkish military wanted to use recent<br />
guerrilla attacks as an excuse to damage<br />
the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq.<br />
Yet years of fighting the PKK have<br />
ma<strong>de</strong> for strange bedfellows, especially<br />
in Bamarni, a village north ofDahuk. In<br />
the mid-1990s the Kurdistan Democrat¬<br />
ic Party, the dominant power in western<br />
Kurdistan, allowed the Turkish mili¬<br />
tary to occupy several bases on the Iraqi<br />
si<strong>de</strong> of the bor<strong>de</strong>r, when both were<br />
fighting the PKK. The Turks now have<br />
about 1,500 soldiers at these bases, said<br />
a senior American military official in<br />
Baghdad who was not authorized to<br />
speak for the record.<br />
In Bamarni, Kurdish pesh merga<br />
fighters are now stationed at a camp be¬<br />
si<strong>de</strong> a Turkish air base that is home to<br />
dozens of tanks <strong>and</strong> armored vehicles.<br />
Turkish soldiers routinely dash out in<br />
gun trucks to <strong>de</strong>liver food to soldiers op¬<br />
erating tanks that oversee the air base.<br />
They also buy supplies at local shops,<br />
said Ahmed Saeed, a local political offi¬<br />
cial at a Kurdish outpost nearby.<br />
"They have no obstacles to going to<br />
the market," said Saeed, who estimated<br />
that as many as 400 Turkish soldiers <strong>and</strong><br />
50 tanks were at the base. The pesh<br />
merga never have problems with the sol¬<br />
diers, he said. But if heavy fighting<br />
breaks out he is not sure what to expect.<br />
"If they surren<strong>de</strong>r themselves to us,<br />
then we will not kill them, because we<br />
are peaceful," he said.<br />
Sabrina Tavernise contributed report¬<br />
ingfrom Istanbul, <strong>and</strong> an Iraqi employee<br />
ofThe New York Times contributedfrom<br />
Iraqi Kurdistan.<br />
car RodioJFrccEurop*<br />
f ftodiotiberty Iraqi Governor Calls Fe<strong>de</strong>ralism Best Solution<br />
November 6. 2007 I RFBRD-<br />
The governor of the Iraqi province of Al-Najaf says that fe<strong>de</strong>ralism offers the best solution for Iraq's regions to<br />
reconstruct <strong>and</strong> succeed economically<br />
PRAGUE - As'ad Sultan Abu Kulal said on a<br />
supporters of al-Sadr <strong>and</strong> supporters of other<br />
visit to RFE/RL in Prague today that his region<br />
Shi'ite religious parties, particularly the Su¬<br />
is using the <strong>de</strong>centralization of power in Bagh¬<br />
preme Islamic Iraqi Council. A major mo<strong>de</strong>ra¬<br />
dad to make many of its own <strong>de</strong>cisions. He says<br />
ting influence over the sometimes violent riva¬<br />
the result it that Al-Najaf has achieved economic<br />
lries between factions is the presence of Gr<strong>and</strong><br />
self-sufficiency, both in food <strong>and</strong> fuel.<br />
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the preeminent Shi'ite-<br />
The Al-Najaf governor acknowledged that his<br />
religious authority in Iraq.<br />
province has many starting advantages - inclu¬<br />
The Al-Najaf governor told RFE/RL's Radio<br />
ding a historically thriving tourism industry b<br />
Free Iraq that fe<strong>de</strong>ralism offers opportunities for<br />
ased on religious pilgrims flockingto the Shi'ite<br />
other parts of the country, too, <strong>de</strong>spite resistance<br />
holy city of Al-Najaf.<br />
to the i<strong>de</strong>a in some quarters.<br />
The religious tourism has boomed since the<br />
overthrow in 2003 of Saddam Hussein's regime,<br />
which greatly discouraged it. Recent years have<br />
seen investors build more than 450 hotels to<br />
lodge the pilgrims, many of whom are from<br />
neighboring Iran. The tra<strong>de</strong> also supports res¬<br />
taurants <strong>and</strong> specialty shops, generating enough<br />
revenue for the city to enjoy consi<strong>de</strong>rable eco¬<br />
nomic security relative to much of the rest of the<br />
country.<br />
Benefits Of Devolution<br />
But Abu Kulal says Al-Najaf has prospered in<br />
recent years mostly because the <strong>de</strong>centralized<br />
government in Baghdad allows local authorities<br />
to make many key <strong>de</strong>cisions on their own. He<br />
says the city's goal is to use this freedom to<br />
create self-sufficiency in fuel <strong>and</strong> food two key<br />
economic staples.<br />
"Our theory as a provincial council <strong>and</strong> civil<br />
administration is to build complementary, selfsufficient<br />
institutions for this purpose," he said.<br />
"For example, we are building the health sector,<br />
to have hospitals, <strong>and</strong> have medicine <strong>de</strong>pots.<br />
For energy, we are building power stations, in<br />
or<strong>de</strong>r not to need power transferred from other<br />
provinces. We are building oil refineries, so as<br />
not to be obliged to bring fuel from outsi<strong>de</strong> the<br />
province."<br />
Al-Najaf has been relatively free of unrest since<br />
major fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces<br />
<strong>and</strong> members of the Imam Al-Mahdi-Army in<br />
2004. The Al-Mahdi Army is loyal to radical<br />
Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who opposes the<br />
U.S. presence in Iraq.<br />
Control of the city today is shared between<br />
"We have tried during the last few years to<br />
practice a tiny part of <strong>de</strong>centralization, <strong>and</strong> you<br />
could see the huge change that happened when<br />
the state gave [us] a little bit of authority, <strong>and</strong> a<br />
little bit of funds," Abu Kulal said. "Despite the<br />
lack of local resources <strong>and</strong> human resources<br />
there was <strong>de</strong>velopment. But the problem that we<br />
face is that a part of the Iraqi people lack a kno¬<br />
wledge of fe<strong>de</strong>ralism."<br />
Fe<strong>de</strong>ralism remains a divisive issue in Iraq,<br />
where the Sunni community says it could lead to<br />
unequal sharing of the country's oil wealth or<br />
even break up of the country. Most oil wells are<br />
in the Shi'ite-majority south of the country or in<br />
the Kurdish north.<br />
Iraq's Kurds currently enjoy substantial autono¬<br />
my un<strong>de</strong>r Iraq's fe<strong>de</strong>ral system. Many Shi'ite<br />
parties are actively pressing for similar rights<br />
for southern areas.<br />
59