Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi<br />
Turkish Probe May 5,1995<br />
9<br />
.-<br />
Turkey, Iraqi Kurds Discuss<br />
Post-Incursion Security<br />
Rafit Gürdilek<br />
ile winding up its cross-bor<strong>de</strong>r operation<br />
insi<strong>de</strong> northern Iraq, now in its seventh<br />
~ week, Turkey has paced up its efforts to<br />
prevent the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party<br />
(PKK) separatists from r<strong>et</strong>urning to their mountain<br />
camps and hi<strong>de</strong>outs across the bor<strong>de</strong>r after the<br />
withdrawal is compl<strong>et</strong>e. For that, Turkey is seeking<br />
the cooperation of the Iraqi Kurds who have s<strong>et</strong> up<br />
their own regional administration in northern<br />
Iraq.<br />
A high-level <strong>de</strong>legation from the Kurdistan<br />
Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud BarzanÎ started<br />
a second round of talks in Ankara on<br />
Tuesday to discuss the terms of cooperation,<br />
which, in broad lines, involves<br />
increased KDP military presence<br />
on the bor<strong>de</strong>r to bar the reentrenchment<br />
of the PKK in the<br />
area,oin r<strong>et</strong>urn for Turkey's assistance<br />
for the rebuilding of around<br />
300 Iraqi Kurdish villages.<br />
Last month, a team of Turkish<br />
negofiators had an initial me<strong>et</strong>ing<br />
with the KDP lea<strong>de</strong>rship in<br />
Salahuddin, northern Iraq, and<br />
later m<strong>et</strong> in Erbil with Jalal<br />
Talabani, the lea<strong>de</strong>r of KDP's<br />
main rival, the Patriotic Union of<br />
Kurdistan (PUK). The KDP and<br />
PUK have been locked in violent<br />
clashes since last May and the<br />
fighting has reportedly claimed<br />
around 2,000 lives. Turkey has<br />
seen the Iraqi Kurds' internal conflict<br />
as a chief factor in the PKK's<br />
supremacy in the bor<strong>de</strong>r area, but<br />
its efforts to mediate a peaceful<br />
s<strong>et</strong>tlement b<strong>et</strong>ween the two si<strong>de</strong>s<br />
Massoud<br />
have been unsuccessful.<br />
Although PUK does not have a military presence<br />
along the bor<strong>de</strong>r strip, both Turkey and the KDP<br />
see its participation in the security cooperation<br />
scheme as essential.<br />
But Talabani has poured cold water on Turkey's<br />
hopes of enthusiastic cooperation by his reported<br />
statement that he would not prevent the PKK infiltrations<br />
into Turkey by military means, but would try<br />
to do it diplomatically. To the further chagrin of<br />
Turkish officials, Talabani reportedly told the<br />
French news agency AFP that he also does not<br />
consi<strong>de</strong>r the PKK to be a terrorist organization. The<br />
ability of the PKK militants who had surren<strong>de</strong>red to<br />
the Iraqi Kurds after another incursion by the<br />
Turkish Army in 1992 to rearm themselves and s<strong>et</strong><br />
up training camps had caused frictions in the relations<br />
b<strong>et</strong>ween Turkey and the PUK lea<strong>de</strong>rship.<br />
Following the conclusion of the second round of<br />
talks with the KDP <strong>de</strong>legation in Ankara, a team of<br />
PUK envoys is expected to arrive in the second half<br />
of May for similar discussions. But the signs are<br />
that the negotiations with the KDP team is also far<br />
from being a stroll in the rose gar<strong>de</strong>n.<br />
The KDP negotiators, hea<strong>de</strong>d by Sami<br />
Abdurrahman, a senior member of the KDP political<br />
bureau, and including Nechirwan Barzani, the<br />
nephew of the KDP lea<strong>de</strong>r, besi<strong>de</strong> the party's secu.<br />
rity officials, had three sessions of me<strong>et</strong>ings with<br />
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials also atten<strong>de</strong>d by<br />
Turkish military and security experts.<br />
A Kurdish source <strong>de</strong>scribed the talks as being<br />
''very frank and open" which, in diplomatic jargon,<br />
suggests the exchange of recriminations.<br />
Further distance has been covered<br />
since the si<strong>de</strong>s first m<strong>et</strong> in<br />
Salahuddin, but the <strong>de</strong>tails of the<br />
accord still have to be worked<br />
out, the source said.<br />
Confirming that the scheme<br />
involved the patrolling of the bor<strong>de</strong>r<br />
by the KDP peshmerges<br />
(fighters), he said the Iraqi Kurds<br />
were un<strong>de</strong>rtaking to do this not<br />
because Turkey wanted it, but<br />
because it was the Kurds' own<br />
task to make their bor<strong>de</strong>r secure<br />
for their neighbors.<br />
The Kurdish si<strong>de</strong> was insistent,<br />
on the other hand, on official contacts<br />
b<strong>et</strong>ween Turkey and the<br />
regional Kurdish administration -<br />
which Ankara has been avoiding<br />
so far - and more importantly,<br />
Barzani<br />
reconstruction of about 300 Iraqi<br />
Kurdish villages on the bor<strong>de</strong>r.<br />
The KDP says the res<strong>et</strong>tlement of the villages will<br />
provi<strong>de</strong> the necessary logistic support to its peshmerge<br />
who would be otherwise exposed and isolated<br />
on the hostile mountains. It says the res<strong>et</strong>tlement<br />
is also important for the Kurdish economy as<br />
the r<strong>et</strong>urning villagers will be able to till their land<br />
and reduce the bur<strong>de</strong>n on the cities where unemployment<br />
and crime is rampant because of the economic<br />
refugees.<br />
The KDP also requests Turkish cash and assistance<br />
for the building of roads and bridges to facilitate<br />
access to the villages.<br />
The material cost of the package had been tentatively<br />
estimated by the Kurdish sources before as<br />
being b<strong>et</strong>ween $30 million to $50 million.<br />
The Kurdish negotiators were expected to be<br />
received by Foreign Minister Erdal Inönü, due back<br />
from a short visit to Azerbaijan, before they r<strong>et</strong>urn<br />
home.•<br />
41