Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista,Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm ()zeti
The Los Angeles limes
25 October 2002 by Jeffrey Fleishman
Kurdish Dream of Nation Is a Nightmare for Turkey
Many messy sideshows are expected in a war to topple Saddam Hussein, but few will be more dangerous than in the
mountains of northern Iraq, where Turkey's national security will collide with Kurdish dreams of a homeland.
As diplomats bicker over the language ofU.N. resolutions, tensions are hardening along the 220-mile Turkish-Iraqi border.
Tents are being shipped in for refugees as the Turkish government prepares for possible deployment of thousands more
troops. These forces, according to Western diplomats and Turkish military analysts, probably would seize control of northern
Iraq shortly after missile strikes on Baghdad, to prevent the ~reation of a Kurdish state.
The focus is on the future of 3.5 million Kurds who are protected from Iraqi troops in the "no-fly" zone in the north. For
generations, the Kurds have wanted their own country, and, with the protection of U.S. planes, they have formed a de facto
state in the mountains. The prospect of an independent Kurdistan emerging from war's ashes, however, is unacceptable to
Turkey, whiçhhas spent billions fight!ng separatists among its own 13 million Kurds. "If the Kurds declare an independent
entity, it wouldn't.last more than a couple of days," one Western diplomat said. "The Turkish army will go in and shut it
down. How' wouldthe U.S. respond? What's more important to the U.S. -- an independent Kurdistan or a valuable, strategic
ally like Turkey?"
The dilemma is sensitive for Washington. Morethan 50,000 Iraqi Kurd fighters could help defeat the Iraqi president. But
Washington's relationship with the Kurds is angering Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization partner with airbases
and staging grounds for U.S. forces. Turkey is pressuring the U.S. to make participation in the war more palatable by reining
in the Iraqi Kurds and by providing economic aid to offset costs Turkey cannot afford.
U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks met with Turkish military officials this week to discuss what role their nation would play
in an Iraq invasion. The talks came as Turkish leaders expressed reluctance to join a conflict that would destabilize the
region and create more economic turmoil. And they complained that Washington has sent mixed messages about its intentions
for war and has provided no plan for the aftermath of any ouster of Hussein's regime. The Turks want a clear signal
from Washington that the Iraqi Kurds will be h~rd in check. Turkey already has 3,000 to 5,000 troops in northern Iraq to
contain the remnants of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebel group that fled Turkeyafter a cease-fire in 1999. In one
possible scenario, these soldiers, along with thousands of others, would sealoff northern Iraq, preventing the escape of
Iraqi soldiers and allowjng the Turks to crush any Kurdish move toward independence.
The Iraqi Kurds appear to sense the risks of declaring independence too soon after a war. Members of their two main political
parties -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party -- have been shuttlin~ to Ankara, the
.Turkish capital, in recent weeks in efforts to calm tensions. The Kurds say they are only seeking an autonomous enclave
in a postwar Iraqi federation. "Wewant a federal structure to safeguard our people so that no government in Iraq can
conduct war or genocide against us," said Safeen M. Dizayee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. "We want to keep Iraq
unified .... So long as Kurds do not have the ambition of an independent state, it should not bother our neighbors."
But it does. Turkey worries that the Iraqi Kurds will claim independence in the chaos of war. "That is the nightmare scenario,"said
Hnur Cevik, editor of the Turkish Daily News ..
The Kurds are this region's orphans. Nearly 22 million Kurds are scattered across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. They have
longed for an independent homeland, but language, political infighting and the Middle East's existing borders have
.made it impossible. Turkey fears that if Iraqi Kurds are granted too much autonomy or independence, it will stoke similar
aspirations among its own Kurdish population. More than 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, were killed and hundreds of
villages were destroyed in Turkey's IS-year war with the PKK. Iran also is worried that its 6 million Kurds will becomè
restive. . .
The prospect of granting Iraqi Kurds aspecialstatus could incite unrest among ethnic populations a~ross the region, said
Hasan Koni, a political science professor at Ankara University.
"When you look at the Middle East, you are looking at a place of ethnic tribes," Koni said. "If one tribe gets a federation,
"they'llall want federations and this means a whole resettlement of the Middle East will occur. If you give something to
one ethnicity, you have to give it to all. This is the danger ....The Turkish government is also loath to accept an independent
Kurdistan carved out of Iraq that would include the oil-rich towns of Mosul and Kirkuk, once part of the Turkish
Ottoman empire and a rallying cry for Turkish nationalists.
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