Empty Bluffs: Turkey moves towards its own end
Globe Political Editor - by Azad Aslan
Since President Bush expressed his new strategy in Iraq, and outgoing US ambassador of Iraq, Zalmay Khalidzad's message to Turkey not to meddle with the internal affairs of Iraq with regard to Kirkuk issue, Turkey, a country with a sizeable Kurdish community, has intensified its threats against southern Kurdistan and criticized the US administration's ineffectiveness on the issue of PKK presence in Kandil Mountain.
Turkey has two main concerns in Iraq's politics. Firstly, Turkey aims to thwart the recognition of the Kurds as a distinct nation with their own regional government and parliament in a federal Iraq. For Turkey, which deny even the basic rights of the Kurds and has even refused to recognize the existence of the Kurds and their language for decades, to see a Kurdistan government in a federal country whose constitution recognizes the Kurds as a nation is an ultimate threat. An official recognition of the Kurds as nation in Iraq which itself is a member of the UN would, without doubt, bring the status of the Kurds in Turkey into a question. It would be difficult for the Turkish administration to continue its current policy of denying Kurdish existence. It would generate new international legal doors and opportunities for the Kurds to raise their case. After all if five million or so Kurds in Iraq are recognized as a nation why not the 15-20 million Kurds in Turkey. Turkey hopes that political chaos in Iraq and the possibility of US failure in Iraq may prevent such a 'nightmare'.
Secondly, Turkey intends to disrupt the processes of referendum in Kirkuk, which the Iraqi permanent constitution dealt with. It is a well-known fact that the result of the referendum will most likely secure the incorporation of the city into Kurdistan region. The two post-Saddam Iraqi general elections' result in the city of Kirkuk proved that the majority population of the city is constituted by the Kurds. Turkey fears that once the oil-rich city is incorporated into the Kurdistan region a move by the Kurds towards independence will be imminent. Such a move would most likely have immense consequences in the other parts of Kurdistan. The Kurds of the Northern Kurdistan, under the Turkish occupation for the last 8 decades or more, have never hesitated to move towards their freedom and independence. Since the Great Sheikh Said uprising of 1925, one-way or other, the Kurds have been in constant struggle.
Given the history of the last 6 years, particularly the period towards the US war in Iraq, suggestions that Turkish threats are nothing but empty bluff are common and its 'red lines' have been crossed time and time again. Under whatever pretext, whether the presence of PKK guerrillas in southern Kurdistan's mountains or protecting Turkoman community of Kirkuk, the invasion of southern Kurdistan by Turkey is impossible. Turkish military entry into southern Kurdistan would most likely bring the inevitable end of the Turkish Republic. Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani, responded strongly to the recent menace exhibited by the Turkish Prime Minister about the Kirkuk issue. Barzani warned that should Turkey involve itself in internal affairs of other countries then other countries would have the same right to get involved in the internal affairs of Turkey. Indeed Turkey has as much 'weak points' as that of Iraq. It would be much easier and effective for the Iraqi Kurds to support and ignite their brethren in the north than for Turkey to play the Turkoman card.
Like any other people on earth, the Kurds aspire nothing but to live in peace, stability, freedom and above else independence. Today or tomorrow, independence of Kurdistan will be realized with or without bloodshed.
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc0117AA.html