Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris
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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti<br />
<strong>and</strong> said sporadic clashes had been<br />
taking place insi<strong>de</strong> Turkey since late<br />
Monday. He spoke on condition of<br />
anonymity because he was not<br />
authorized to talk to the media.<br />
Witnesses also said the Turkish<br />
bombing lasted a half-hour in the<br />
villages.<br />
"I was on the other si<strong>de</strong> of the moun¬<br />
tain when I heard huge explosions <strong>and</strong><br />
could smell TNT pow<strong>de</strong>r all over the<br />
area," said shepherd Ibrahim Mazori,<br />
53. He said he sometimes spends a<br />
night or two in the villages while<br />
tending his sheep.<br />
Several hours after the dawn airstri¬<br />
kes, about a dozen warplanes <strong>and</strong> at<br />
least two helicopters were seen<br />
taking off from an air base in Diyar¬<br />
bakir, southeast Turkey. It was un¬<br />
clear where they were hea<strong>de</strong>d.<br />
Iraqi officials said helicopter gunships<br />
were responsible for the morning<br />
raids, while Turkish media reported<br />
warplanes were involved.<br />
By Nicholas Birch - YUKSEKOVA. Turkey<br />
Turkish threats to attack Iraq, which may be<br />
heightened by a kidnapping over the wee¬<br />
kend, are having the uninten<strong>de</strong>d effect of foste¬<br />
ring closer ties between Kurdish communities in<br />
the two countries.<br />
Turkish forces have been poised for weeks to<br />
cross the bor<strong>de</strong>r into Iraqi Kurdistan to clear out<br />
bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),<br />
which has used Iraq as a haven after attacking<br />
soldiers <strong>and</strong> civilians in Turkey.<br />
The latest such inci<strong>de</strong>nt came Sunday when<br />
Kurdish militants blocked a bridge leading to the<br />
village of Ogulveren near the bor<strong>de</strong>r with Iran<br />
<strong>and</strong> kidnapped two guards <strong>and</strong> five other young<br />
men, sources told the Reuters news agency.<br />
Rising anger in Turkey is directed not just<br />
against the PKK but also at the Kurdish-led<br />
government <strong>and</strong> military in northern Iraq, which<br />
are seen in Ankara as protectors of the militants.<br />
But many of Turkey's Kurds, while never parti¬<br />
cularly fond of their fellow Kurds across the<br />
bor<strong>de</strong>r, say any attack on the Iraq-based Kurds<br />
would drive fresh recruits into the h<strong>and</strong>s of the<br />
PKK.<br />
Ankara's stance is "pushing Kurds together <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>de</strong>epening the rift between Kurds <strong>and</strong> Turks,"<br />
said Sezgin Tanrikulu, bar association head in<br />
Diyarbakir, the southeastern Turkey's largest<br />
city. "Wounds are being created that will not be<br />
easy to heal."<br />
Five years ago, Turkish Kurds had little but<br />
contempt for Iraqi Kurdish lea<strong>de</strong>rs Jalal Talaba¬<br />
ni <strong>and</strong> Massoud Barzani. Kurds in teahouses<br />
It was the first major Turkish action<br />
against Kurdish rebels since Turkish<br />
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo¬<br />
gan met Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Bush in Washing¬<br />
ton earlier this month. The United<br />
States <strong>and</strong> Iraq have pressured Tur¬<br />
key to avoid a large-scale attack on<br />
rebel bases in northern Iraq, fearing<br />
such an operation would <strong>de</strong>stabilize<br />
what has been the calmest region in<br />
the country.<br />
Meanwhile, Kurdish guerrillas killed<br />
four Turkish soldiers in a clash Tues¬<br />
day in southeastern Turkey, Turkish<br />
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said.<br />
More than 50 Turkish troops have<br />
been killed in a series of hit-<strong>and</strong>-run<br />
attacks by Kurdish rebels since late<br />
September. Turkey says it has killed<br />
dozens of rebels.<br />
Turkey has massed tens of thous<strong>and</strong>s<br />
of soldiers along the bor<strong>de</strong>r with Iraq,<br />
but political <strong>and</strong> military analysts<br />
believe the Turkish military will<br />
concentrate for now on limited air<br />
raids <strong>and</strong> special, counterinsurgency<br />
November 13, 2007<br />
operations insi<strong>de</strong> Iraq rather than<br />
launch a large ground offensive<br />
against Kurdish rebels.<br />
A lengthy campaign involving large<br />
numbers of troops could get bogged<br />
down as winter swiftly approaches in<br />
the mountainous bor<strong>de</strong>r region, ma¬<br />
king it difficult for tanks <strong>and</strong> other<br />
heavy military equipment to function<br />
in bad weather.<br />
The United States has pressed Tur¬<br />
key to avoid an all-out cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r<br />
incursion, which could be politically<br />
damaging for the Turks <strong>and</strong> raise<br />
questions about whether their true<br />
goal is to punish the Iraqi Kurd admi¬<br />
nistration for their separatist aspira¬<br />
tions. Turkey fears its own Kurdish<br />
minority could become embol<strong>de</strong>ned<br />
by the success of Iraqi Kurds in taking<br />
control of their own affairs.<br />
However, air assaults conducted with<br />
the help of newly provi<strong>de</strong>d U.S. intel¬<br />
ligence could allow Turkey to chip<br />
away at rebel strength <strong>and</strong> show an<br />
angry public that it is taking substan<br />
tive steps to combat the rebel pro¬<br />
blem. Skeptics believe Kurdish figh¬<br />
ters have scattered from their camps<br />
or are ensconced in hi<strong>de</strong>outs that are<br />
difficult to spot from the air.<br />
U.S. authorities have agreed to share<br />
intelligence about positions of Kurdish<br />
rebels with Turkey, possibly enabling<br />
the Turkish military to carry out<br />
limited assaults.<br />
"The United States has <strong>de</strong>clared the<br />
PKK as the common enemy. The<br />
struggle against this enemy will be<br />
maintained until it is eliminated,"<br />
Erdogan told lawmakers in Parlia¬<br />
ment Tuesday.<br />
Kurds are a major ethnic group strad¬<br />
dling four Middle Eastern countries -<br />
Turkey, Iran, Iraq <strong>and</strong> Syria - totaling<br />
about 20 million people. Most live in<br />
Turkey, primarily in the southeast,<br />
where the PKK has been fighting for<br />
autonomy since 1984 in a conflict that<br />
has killed nearly 40,000 people.<br />
Cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r threat unites Kurds<br />
across southeastern Turkey dismissed them as<br />
"backward tribesmen interested in nothing but<br />
dollars from Washington."<br />
Today, that contempt has entirely evaporated.<br />
Instead of insults, many Turkish Kurds prefix<br />
mentions of Mr. Talabani <strong>and</strong> Mr. Barzani with<br />
the word "brej" a Kurdish expression of<br />
respect.<br />
Turkey was fiercely opposed to Iraqi Kurdish<br />
autonomy before dictator Saddam Hussein was<br />
toppled <strong>and</strong> remains so today. Despite Kurdista¬<br />
n's official status as an autonomous region<br />
within Iraq, Ankara still refers to Iraqi Kurdistan<br />
as "northern Iraq" <strong>and</strong> refuses to talk to its lea¬<br />
<strong>de</strong>rs.<br />
When a <strong>de</strong>legation from Baghdad arrived in<br />
Ankara late last month for talks with Turkish<br />
authorities, two Kurdish representatives were<br />
allowed in only because of the insistence of the<br />
head of the Iraqi <strong>de</strong>legation.<br />
"They were ma<strong>de</strong> to share the same hotel be¬<br />
droom," said one Istanbul-based newspaper.<br />
Turkish Kurds find this tone offensive.<br />
"I don't like Talabani personally," said one jour¬<br />
nalist in Yuksekova. "But when I see the Turkish<br />
media insulting him ... I interpret that not as an<br />
insult aimed at him personally, but at me <strong>and</strong><br />
other Kurds this si<strong>de</strong> of the bor<strong>de</strong>r."<br />
Turkey's worst fear is that Turkish Kurds will<br />
one day seek to merge their territory with Kur¬<br />
dish Iraq, but that seems unlikely. Despite their<br />
support for Iraqi Kurdish autonomy, most Tur¬<br />
kish Kurds who have visited Iraqi Kurdistan<br />
complain of conservatism, rampant corruption<br />
<strong>and</strong> limited <strong>de</strong>mocracy across the bor<strong>de</strong>r.<br />
Above all, Turkish Kurds say, they are far too<br />
embed<strong>de</strong>d in Turkish life to want to break off<br />
now.<br />
"Who do people in Yuksekova marry if it's not<br />
their neighbor?" asked Irfan Sari. 'Turks, not<br />
Iraqi Kurds."<br />
At a local nightclub, youngsters sing along to<br />
Turkish songs. Local businessmen divi<strong>de</strong> their<br />
time between here <strong>and</strong> Istanbul.<br />
Nobody puts the point more bluntly than Maaruf<br />
Ataoglu, Turkish Kurdish owner of a chain of<br />
restaurants in Turkey <strong>and</strong> Iraqi Kurdistan.<br />
"I may dream I was born American, but who<br />
would want to be born an Iraqi?" he asked. "If<br />
you had the choice between a country on its way<br />
to the European Union <strong>and</strong> one stuck in the<br />
Middle East, which would you take? Like every<br />
single Turkish Kurd, you'd choose Turkey."<br />
83