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Posted on 10/12/2003 7:19:40 PM PDT by blam
Turks will bring chaos, say Kurds
Michael Howard in Irbil
Monday October 13, 2003
The Guardian (UK)
The Bush administration is in danger of scoring a disastrous own goal with its decision to bring Turkish peacekeeping troops into Iraq, a Kurdish leader has warned. Necirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government in Irbil and a key US ally in the war to remove Saddam Hussein, said the plan to bring Turkish soldiers to Iraq had needlessly upset the pro-American Kurdish population in the north, and was also opposed by Sunni and Shia Arab communities in central and southern Iraq.
"We believe that their presence, or that of any other neighbouring country, on Iraqi soil will only create instability," Mr Barzani told the Guardian.
"The question on the table is: how much respect has the US for the will and the wish of the people of Iraq, the governing council, and the political parties of Iraq?"
Mr Barzai's comments came as a delegation from the Iraqi governing council sought the support of Muslim nations at the summit in Malaysia of the organisation of Islamic countries for its opposition to the planned deployment of peacekeeping troops from any of Iraq's neighbouring countries.
Last Tuesday's vote in the Turkish parliament in favour of a force of about 10,000 soldiers going to Iraq created a rift between US officials and the US-appointed governing council, and raised dissenting voices from political and community leaders in the country. Another of Iraq's neighbours, Iran, signalled support yesterday for the council's stance.
Ankara, meanwhile, put the ball back in America's court at the weekend by saying that the US must "overcome the Iraqi opposition" to the plan before finer details are finalised.
The preferred US option is thought to be for the Turks to operate in areas north and west of Baghdad, towards the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
However, Fawzi Shafi Ifan, the mayor of Falluja, west of Baghdad, said Turkish troops there would be seen as "a punishment" by the Americans. He said Ankara would "find an occasion to revive its old projects and interfere in Iraq's internal affairs".
But it is in the northern Kurdish areas that the decision to deploy Turkish troops has been greeted with the most hostility, albeit tinged with a feeling of disappointment with their American allies.
"We just got rid of Saddam, must we now suffer from the Turks?" said Dara Ahmed, a trader in Irbil's Sheikallah bazaar.
Jamal Farraj, who owns an internet cafe near the city's ancient citadel, said: "We just want to be left alone and to run our affairs. The presence of Turkish troops, wherever they are, makes that much less probable. If they come here I will fight them, and so will we all."
Mr Barzani's administration controls Iraq's northern border with Turkey. He warned yesterday: "If the US insists on Turkish troops coming in, then we will be firmly against them coming through the borders of the Kurdistan region."
US officials insist they want to keep Turkish forces well away from Kurdish areas.
Turkey's generals, however, are thought to favour a deployment to the north of Baghdad.
A Turkish foreign ministry official rejected suggestions that the country had a hidden agenda in Iraq.
"If we had wanted to crush the Kurds, why did we let US and British airplanes here to protect them during the last 12 years?" he said.
Don't you have that backward? Anyway, there is a whole lot of growing up being done in Iraq right now, and the Turks are starting to participate in the process and become part of the solution.
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