.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 <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Riv~sta Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Öz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
,French-built nuclear reactor<br />
in June 1981.<br />
Had that action not been<br />
taken it is virtually certain<br />
that Iraq by now would be a<br />
nuclear weapon state and<br />
,quite possibly before their<br />
1990 invasion of Kuwait.<br />
France was within weeks of<br />
supplying uranium to the reactor.<br />
Ifthe reactor had gone<br />
critical, any future bOqJ.bing<br />
would have risked radiation<br />
clouds over Baghdad.<br />
Jordan àlso holds the key to<br />
creating stabilising links to<br />
Palestine on the West Bank.<br />
A countrY'in which over 80%<br />
are Palestinians is being skil- '<br />
fully led l?YKing Abdullah.<br />
In<strong>de</strong>ed, Jordan could beconie<br />
the first truly <strong>de</strong>mocratic<br />
Arab state with the king<br />
becoming a constitutional<br />
monarch while perhaps' holding<br />
special powers over the<br />
army. Iraq and Palestine<br />
could follow.<br />
,While there are grave risks<br />
involved in once more gomg<br />
to war with Iraq, they weigh<br />
less heavily in the balance<br />
against the enormous opportunities<br />
for peace and stability<br />
which the aftermath of<br />
, any successful war offers in<br />
the Middle East, Th maximise<br />
,those opportunities, George<br />
; Bush and Tony Blair must<br />
. not seek to profit at the<br />
expense of France and<br />
Russia, either politically or<br />
commercially over Iraqi oil,<br />
simply because they have not<br />
been prepared to fully participate<br />
either in the containment<br />
ofSaddam Hussein or<br />
his <strong>de</strong>feat. Probably neither<br />
country will v<strong>et</strong>o another<br />
security council resolution.<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Putin is pragmatically<br />
moving towards the US<br />
position but is unlikely to<br />
participate militarily. Presi<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
Chirac will keep his<br />
options open. As for Chancellor<br />
Schrö<strong>de</strong>r, he has locked<br />
, Germany into not participating<br />
even if the UN supports<br />
action. We will need the help<br />
of the EU as well as Islamic<br />
,countries in the post-war<br />
,period'and fortunately many<br />
arè privately supportive.<br />
Iraq has <strong>de</strong>monstrated to<br />
the UKwhat we should have<br />
learneq over the premature<br />
recognition of Croatia: that<br />
we cannot accept in the EU<br />
any system where we can be<br />
outvoted in the common<br />
foreign and security policy.<br />
Issues of peace and war are<br />
for each individual nation to<br />
<strong>de</strong>bate and <strong>de</strong>ci<strong>de</strong>.<br />
Lord Owen was Labour<br />
foreign secr<strong>et</strong>ary from 1977-<br />
'79 and co-foun<strong>de</strong>d the SDP in<br />
1981.<br />
comment@guardian.co.uk<br />
-J<br />
:Americans in talks<br />
.on Turkish troops<br />
Plan would allow Ankara's forces to go<br />
into north Iraq, but Kurds are balking<br />
By Dexter Filkins with C. J. Chivers<br />
The New York TImes<br />
ANKARA: American diplomats are<br />
engaged in <strong>de</strong>licate negotiations to allow<br />
tens of thousands of Thrkish soldiers<br />
to move in and occupy northern<br />
Iraq behind an advancing Anierican<br />
Army, officials said here Thursday.<br />
The plan, which is being hammered<br />
out in closed-door me<strong>et</strong>ings in the<br />
Thrkish capital, is being vigorously resisted<br />
by the lea<strong>de</strong>rs of Iraq's Kurdish<br />
groups, 'who fear that Thrkey's lea<strong>de</strong>rs<br />
may be trying to realize a historic <strong>de</strong>sire<br />
to dominate the region in a postwar<br />
Iraq without Saddam Hussein.<br />
The Kurdish officials say they fear<br />
that a military intervention by the<br />
, Thrks could prompt a similar move by<br />
, the Iranian Army into the region as<br />
vvelL<br />
'<br />
American diplomats and senior mil-<br />
. itary lea<strong>de</strong>rs, led by Presi<strong>de</strong>nt George<br />
w. Bush's special envoy, Zalmay,<br />
: Khalilzad, are said to be pushing the<br />
Kurdish' lea<strong>de</strong>rs to accept Thrkey's<br />
plans <strong>de</strong>spite their objections.<br />
, American officials, who have<br />
strongly supported the autonomous<br />
Kurdish region in Iraq over the past <strong>de</strong>-<br />
, ca<strong>de</strong>, are at the same time trying to secure<br />
the permission ofThrkey's lea<strong>de</strong>rs<br />
to use the country's bases for an attack<br />
intoIraq.<br />
A <strong>de</strong>al b<strong>et</strong>vveen the AmericanS and<br />
the Thrks moved a step closer to fruition<br />
Thursday when the Thrkish Parliament,<br />
in a session barrçd to the public, voted<br />
to allow American engineers to begin<br />
preparing Thrkish military bases for<br />
possible use by American troops.<br />
The prospect of a massive Thrkish<br />
intervention in northern Iraq raises the<br />
prospect of <strong>et</strong>hnic confli<strong>et</strong> b<strong>et</strong>ween the<br />
two historic enemies. The Thrks, who<br />
controlled the region during the days of<br />
.the Ottoman Empire: have spent the<br />
past <strong>de</strong>ca<strong>de</strong> quelling a bloody Kurdish<br />
insurgency within their own bor<strong>de</strong>rs.<br />
They have sought assurances from<br />
American officials that the toppling of<br />
Saddam's government will not lead to<br />
the establishment of a Kurdish state on<br />
their bor<strong>de</strong>rs.<br />
'<br />
"We have told the Americans and the<br />
Thrks that any outsi<strong>de</strong> intervention<br />
would not be welcomed," said Safeen<br />
Dizayee, an official with the Iraq-based<br />
Kurdish Democratic Party who is taking<br />
part in the talks. "I hope it would<br />
not g<strong>et</strong> out of control. But it could be<br />
suicidal to g<strong>et</strong> into som<strong>et</strong>hing like this<br />
if it un<strong>de</strong>rmine political stability."<br />
A Turkish government official,<br />
speaking on the condition of anonymity,<br />
confirmed that his government was<br />
planning to send troops into northern<br />
Iraq in numbers that would be greater<br />
, than those dispatched by the Ameri-<br />
: cans. He said that the troops would not<br />
take part in combat against the Iraqis,<br />
but would rather se~k to prevent the<br />
emergence of a Kurdish state in northern<br />
Iraq. The official said that the Thrkish<br />
forces could also keep in check any<br />
re-emergence of the Kurdish guerrillas<br />
who operated in southeastern Thrkey<br />
during the 1990s. .<br />
, The official ma<strong>de</strong> it clear that the<br />
, "Thrkish troops ~ould a<strong>et</strong>to protect<br />
themselves if they were attacked. '<br />
"Thrkey's troops will not fight," the<br />
'Thrkish official said. "They are not trigger<br />
happy. They are not looking to start<br />
som<strong>et</strong>hing. Even if they are fired on,<br />
they will act with restraint. But if things<br />
g<strong>et</strong> out 'of control, you know Thrkish<br />
soldiers, they will gain the upper hand."<br />
In remarks Wednesday to a group of<br />
Turkish newspaper reporters, the Thrkish<br />
prime minister, Abdullah GuI, was<br />
quoted as saying that his government<br />
was preparing to send a large military<br />
force in the region.<br />
The sizeof each projected military<br />
force - American and Thrkish- is still<br />
unclear. Western diplomats say that<br />
American officials have sought to base<br />
as many as 80,000 military personnel in<br />
Turkey for an attack on Iraq, but that<br />
they scaled back their initial request.<br />
In negotiations Thursday, Dizayee<br />
said, the Thrkish officials stated that<br />
they wanted Turkish forces to outnumber<br />
American ones by a ratio cif2 to 1.<br />
As a war in Iraq has loomed larger,<br />
Thrkey'~ lea<strong>de</strong>rs have taken steps to ensure<br />
agalDst a repeat of the Gulf War in<br />
'IQ91, when southeastern Thrkey was<br />
swamped by a half million Kurdish<br />
refugees who were fleeing Iraq's relentless<br />
attacJ4;s.Thrkish officials say that<br />
Reuters'<br />
Prime Minister Gui said Thursday that he<br />
still held out hopes for a peaceful solution.<br />
16