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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti FEBRUARY 24, 2003 WATCHING AND WAITING, WARILY: A Kurdish girl in the northern Iraqi town of Zewa gazes at the Turkish military buildup just one kilometer away Waron TwoFronts Under U.s. battle plans, Thrkey will occupy north Iraq-antagonizing the Kurds BY OWEN MATTHEWS AND Thrkish military, is to occupy "strategic po- BABAK DEHGHANPISHEH sitions" within a "secllrity arc" reaching as CALL IT MISSION CREEP, WITH far as 220 to 270 kilometers into Iraq. potentially disastrous conse- That's nearly the whole ofIraqi Kurdistan. . quences. When the Pentagon If so, this could spell serious trouble for first proposed launching a major the United States. KUrdish groups that U.S. assault on Saddam Hussein have enjoyed de facto independence from from Thrkey, Ankara .countered with a sce- Saddam's rule in northern Iraq strenuousnario of its own. To cope with an anticipat - .ly oppose aQYThrkish military presence in ed wave of refugees from northern Iraq, the the region. If it happens, in fact, Kurdish Thrks suggeSted sending in their own separatist groups inside Thrkey are al- . "peacekeeping force;' along with the Amer- . ready'threatening to resume the terrorist icans, to establish a secure buffer zone' campaign they waged in the early '90s, alongtheirsouthern border. killing 30,000 people. This poses an acute Nearly two months ofhard negotiation dilemma for Washington. }>ressed by.its later, the United States is close to securing timetable for war, the United States is permission to deploy an invasion force of inclined ~o agree to Thrkish demands. If roughly 47,000 troops in Thrkey. But . it does not, there may be no northern NEWSWEE~ has learned that Thrkey has front. But the .price will. be the. extra considerably raised its price. Ankara now headache of trying to defuse tênsions be- . says it will let U.S.troops pass through its tween the Thrks and the Iraqi Kurds. Failterritory only if an even larger number of ing could mean a 'I\irkish-Kurdish war .Thrkish troops, between 60,000 al\.d breaking out behind U.S. lines. 80,000, go in as well-and notjustwithin a The Thrks' concerns are equally clear. relatively narrow border zone. The new It's not just a flood of refugees that scares mission, according to sources close to the them-half a million in 1991. More, they want to prevent Iraq's Kurds from taking advantage of a U.S. invasion to declare independence from Baghdad and possibly seize the nearby Iraqi oilfields of Kirkuk and Mosul. Ankara also seeks to ensure that the rights of ethnic Thrkomans living in Kurdistan are respected in a post- Saddam Iraq. "If you want to prevent massacres and the diVision ofIraq;' says Prime Minister Abdullah GuI, "you have to take some precauti.ons." Iraq's Kurds don't see itthat way, however. Sabah Mustafa Mohammed, a Kurd- . ish peshmerga, or irregular soldier, fought . Saddam and is now ready to fight the Thrks, if ordered. A small Thrkish militàry contingent has already been sent to Iraq, chiefly to keep an eye on suspected terror- . ists. One of the Thrkish' bases lies inside Iraqi territory not far from Mohammed's home village of Zewa, a sleepy, snowy oneroad town with no electricity and a single dry-goods shop 25 kilometers south of the border. "These Thrks should go home," he says, decked out in a black and white checked kaffiyeh and camouflage jacket. 106
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Bërhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti ..' "For us, the Thrks and Saddam and never left. "We don't want are the same. They are both en- the Thrkomans becoming a , emies of the Kurds." ê Tiojan horse for 1ùrkish control," says a Kurdish offiCiai For now, Iraqi Kurd leaders e' are being a little more diplo- ~' present at last week's meeting matic-but only a little. "We ~ inAnkara. will refuse (Thrkish interven~ ~\, Such are the challenges facing the United States as it pre- tion]," says Sami Abdul Rah- ! man, 70, the deputy prime ~ pares for invasion. One White minister of the Kurdistan ~ House 'official told NEWSWEEK Democratic Party, which con- ~ last week that all these issues trois northern Kurdistan. The ~ have been thought through and party's representative in Wash- ~ were not a problem. The bigger ington, Farhad Barzani, is no ~ issue may be time. Pentagon officials acknowledge frustration less categorical. "We have told. Go. them: the Americans comes as TROJAN HORSE: Iraqi Turkomans could become a casus bellifor Ankara with Thrkey's bargaining. But liberators," he says. "But Thrkish troops will be seen as invaders." Front. Ahmet Aga wants the Thrkomans to Thrkey's cooperation, the United States if occupation is the price for Attempting to head off any clashes, U.S. be given an autonomous area of their own, may have little choice but to go along. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told Kurdish leaders in Ankara laSt week that they should Kurdish region, and claims that there are 2 forces in Iraq will apparently not be under covering much of the area of the current Moreover, at Ankara's insistence, Thrkish stand down their 50,000 peshmerga troops million Thrkomans in Iraq-rivalingthenation's 3.5 million Kurds. Western observers ordinate" through a joint headquarters in the U.S. command. Instead, they will "co- and not resist Thrkish forces. There's also an understanding between the Pentagon put the number of ethnic Thrkomans at Diyarbakir, one of the Thrkish air bases the arid Thrkey's military that U.S. forées will fewer than 500,000. United States will use. occupy Kirkuk and Mosul and handle all The fault lines are already widening. . Ironically, this is not at all what Thrkey the frontline fighting, while the Thrks secure the rear. Thrkish troops will surroun.d militia of roughly 3,000 men; at the party's cent ofThrks are against war, up from 88 Aga's Thrkoman party has its own armed wants. Opinion polls show that 94 per- but not enter the major Kurdish cities of cultural center in Èrbil, purportedly used percent last month. Former foreign minister Ilter Thrkmen reflects the fears of Erbil and Suleymaniye and keep a generally mainly for wedding and birthday parties, low profile to prevent clashes. Abdullah armed guards walk the surrounding walls. many when he warns that Thrkish troops Gul has also promised that "our troops will The Thrkomans have reason to be nervous. Last week Amir Azad, the party's de- the conflict could cause problems with could get "bogged down in a swamp" and withdraw when peace is restored." , That's the theory. In practice, Kurdish fense minister, was arrested at the Chwar Thrkey's application to join the European leaders fear that Ankara wants to lay its own Chra hotel in central Erbil by security offi- Union. Not to mention problems closer to claim to oil reserves in Kirkuk and Mosul, . cials from the Kurdistan Democratic Party. home. As Sabah Mohammed in the ,and that it intends to strangle the Kurdish Thrkomans quickly took that as evidence mountain village of Zewa puts it, "We ambition of creating an autonomous region' of pérsecution to come-as did the Thrkish press, which has begun comparing the with Saddam. Let them bring any other need only the U.S. Army if there is war within a federal Iraq. They are particularly suspicious of Thrkey's efforts to promote plight of the Thrkomans to that ofThrkish army along with them-except the Thrks." such radical Thrkoman leaders as Sanan Cypriots, in whose defense Ankara invaded the northern thirdof Cyprus in 1974 JOHN BARRY in With SAMI KOHEN in Istanbul and Ahmet Aga, leader of the Iraqi Thrkoman Washington 'For us, the Turks and Saddam are the same,' says one Kurd '.' . ~ " Turkey)i Arilly is alrèady , " in place in northe,r~ Ir~q,. , . ',.;, ' , • ',," ::, .:"','; ': ',:,; ••,'j' :' ~:"': (" ~.., ,,,L~F , '>':;i~ 107
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