HADEP : Armed PKK a Threat / People of Northern Iraq May Choose to Join Turkey

NTVMSNB ^ | 11.29.2001

[Turk2]

The leader of HADEP (Peoples Democracy Party), the largest Kurdish political party in Turkey, Murat Bozlak has made a number of surprising comments in a press conference today.

...

"We also see the presence of 5000 armed PKK members as a potential threat to Turkey. This is a correct assesment. What must be done is to determine how to disarm these 5000 people with guns."

In response to the question from a reporter as to what he thought about recent scenarios about a military intervention to Iraq he said:

"The US, as the sole superpower in the world, wishes to make new arrangements all over the world. We want the operation if Afghanistan to be ended. We do not wish it to spread to Iraq. We do not believe that it is right for Turkey to enter Iraq either."

In his evaluation of allegations of intervention into Iraq, he stated that they opposed a forceful Turkish entry into Musul and Kirkuk.

However, Bozlak also made a surprising proposal:

"If the people there wish that Kirkuk and Musul join Turkey, Turkey should not go there and take the region by force. We think that there is nothing wrong with the case that if prior to an arrangement being made there, the people express their wish to join Turkey on their own free will and make such a decision. In fact, we believe that such an event would be beneficial."

[Turk2]

If Turkey has been oppressing these people so much, why would they want their brothers in Iraq to join the club too? They're anti-American (as all leftists are) and call PKK terrorists people but even these guys are able to come up with useful ideas every once in a while. (The translation could have been better but I am a little short of time and the guy is a politician that talks with strange sentences.)

[dennisw]

How much oil is up there?

[Turk2]

I have no idea but probably more than enough to cover Turkey's needs for more than a century.

[Turk2]

And Israel's too. Turks know who their friends are and they stick by them.

[meridia]

Turk2, all I can say for now is: WOW!

This is just amazing! I'll check back for some educated commentary later on tomorrow. THANKS for finding and posting this, it's incredible.

[Arkinsaw]

Hopefully Saddam will think about this a leetle bit. Bet this worries him more than anything else he's heard lately.

[meridia]

May I please ask a question, which may strike you as patently naive; but I'm curious to have it answered by someone KNOWLEDGABLE. Do you think it's *safe* for Americans to travel in Turkey?

[ChemistCat]

I hope our leaders here in the U.S. can see the wisdom of this method of solving the Iraqi problem. OBVIOUSLY it was a huge mistake to make Iraq in the first place. The Republic of Turkey would do the people in that area only good. The greater resources that would be made available to all will do more to integrate the Kurds with Turkish mainstream society than any amount of rhetoric from Amnesty International. Ottoman Empire Bump! No. Republic of Turkey bump! It can only be better than it was before.

[ChemistCat]

Meridia, I lived in Turkey. It's safer than anywhere else in the region including Greece. I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could. The food is wonderful! And I know that tourists and American dollars are especially welcome right now. Nobody in the world is as hospitable as the Turkish people.

[kuk77]

Overall, traveling to, and around, Turkey is as safe as traveling in the US (even before Sept. 11). However, a state of low-intensity martial law is still in effect in the Southeast, and it is a former "war zone", so to speak. Istanbul, Ankara, etc. are as safe as any large European or American city, and much much safer that other Middle Eastern Countries.

Check this link for State Department's briefing on traveling to Turkey (although it is a little outdated.)

[Shermy]

Ottoman Empire - 1914

Here's my solution. IMHO there should be a lot more red, though.

[a_Turk]

Do you think it's *safe* for Americans to travel in Turkey?

There's this site www.exploreturkey.com, where there's all kinds of info. If you dig around in there a little, youll happen across their Readers Corner.

For example Steve Anderson writes:

First, I must comment on the Turkish people. Never in my life have I met such fine, understanding, caring, helpful and deeply interesting people. Coming from America, home of the "Me Generation," it was a very welcome relief to discover a people that seemingly have no ego--the people's thoughts almost always seem to center around their family, neighbors, friends and society as a whole. They do not see thier individuality as the center of the universe like most people in most western cultures. There is a very sincere depth to them that is unmatched by any other culture I have visited.

Kathy MacPherson writes:

I found Sinan through Internet listings of a group of Turkish grad students at University of Conn. in Hartford. His sister, working on her MBA, responded to my e-mail and suggested that I contact Sinan. This was my first glimpse of the great warmth of the Turkish people. A stranger, with whom I'd just swapped a few words on the Internet, was immediately ready to pass me on to her family, who in turn set aside a whole day without hesitation, to squire me around Istanbul.

You get the picture. You'll have the time of your life!

[a_Turk]

Dude are you nuts? :) You can have all those Arabs. Plus, where's Israel?

[a_Turk]

NTV MSNBC has an English page bro.

[Shermy]

O.K., O.K. Israel and Kuwait, maybe other small Gulf states, Oman remain independent. I think definitely Turkey takes the east side of Saudi, where all the fun is. In fact, take the rest of the peninsula. Please. Pretty please.

By the way, I'm looking for other Ottoman maps. Most I find show earlier borders which show control of all the Balkans, which I doubt Turks today would not want. However, if someone could take this (or another) map and alter it so that it shows Greece and Cyprus painted with red, I would be eternally grateful. I think it would rile up a bunch of posters to an outrageously entertaining degree.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Turk2]

Turkey is safer for Americans than the US. Crime rates are very low compared to here. In addition to the stats, Turks a generally very warm towards Americans, as they are to pretty much anybody else.

[a_Turk]

By the way, I'm looking for other Ottoman Maps.

Like this one perhaps?

[vladog]

That whole area, including all of present day Iraq was part of the Turkish Empire. That Empire fell less that 100yrs ago. By Muslim thinking that was only yesterday. We could do worse than to encourage the Turk`s taking back some of their lost Empire. (Could not be run any worse that it is now.)

[Turk2]

:-) Thanks. This will save me a lot of time in the future.