21
October 2003
2. "Kurd Sellout Watch, Day 232: Has Turkey changed its mind?", Still no word on when or where the United States will deploy Turkish troops to Iraq. Turkey's decision to grant the Bush administration's somewhat desperate request for troops has Kurds up in arms because of Turkey's long-standing opposition to Kurdish autonomy of the type currently enjoyed in Northern Iraq.
3. "Kurds' faith in new Iraq fading fast", Kurds worry that their fundamental political concerns are being swallowed by the ethnic, religious and political problems in post-Saddam Iraq. Their demands for a federal state appear to be falling on deaf ears.
4. "Washington consults with Ankara about "possible" deployment of troops", The United States said Monday it was still engaged in talks with Turkey over the potential deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq.
5. "Greece angry at Turkish general's "interference" on eve of FM's visit", Greece slammed Turkey's army chief Monday for interfering in bilateral relations after he suggested their problems could be resolved rapidly once Ankara is admitted to the European Union.
6. "Washington hopes vote in north yields progress in Cyprus unification", The United States said Monday that December elections in Cyprus offered a chance to end the 29-year division of the Mediterranean island.
1. - UPI - "Kurds applaud Turkey's no to Iraq troops":
ANKARA (Turkey) / October 20, 2003
Iraqi Kurds Monday welcomed Turkey's decision not to dispatch troops to Iraq as long as such a move was opposed by the Iraqi people.
The representatives of Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani in Ankara applauded the Turkish decision as a wise move.
PUK official Bahrouz Kakali told UPI Ankara's hesitation to dispatch troops to Iraq "was encouraging and indicated a Turkish acknowledgement of Iraqi fears, especially among Kurds."
He said the deployment of Turkish troops was opposed by all factions of the Iraqi people, and not only the Kurdish community.
KDP official Safin Dazeh said "the Turkish decision will pave the ground for better friendship and cooperation between the two neighboring countries."
Turkish Prime Minister Tayeb Erdogan declared Saturday his government
has given up on the idea of dispatching troops to Iraq as long as
they were not welcome in the Arab country.
2. - Slate - "Kurd Sellout Watch, Day 232: Has Turkey changed its mind?":
October 20, 2003 / By Timothy Noah
Still no word on when or where the United States will deploy Turkish troops to Iraq. Turkey's decision to grant the Bush administration's somewhat desperate request for troops has Kurds up in arms because of Turkey's long-standing opposition to Kurdish autonomy of the type currently enjoyed in Northern Iraq. Tensions are so high between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan that proximity would surely lead to bloodshed.
Since the agreement between Turkey and the United States was struck two weeks ago, conservative hawks who had been solicitous of the Kurds in the past, such as William Safire and the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, have been telling the Kurds to suck it up and welcome the Turks. This suggests that the unilateralist right loves the Kurds less than it loathes the idea of ceding control of Iraq to the United Nations—a prospect made more likely if the Turks don't come, since almost any other nation will demand greater U.N. control as a precondition to sending troops, which are badly needed.
Kurdish leaders have been screaming bloody murder since the agreement was reached, and so, less rationally, have many other Iraqis who fear the coming of a second Ottoman Empire. The United States has shown no outward signs of paying them any mind, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced this weekend that he won't send troops if Iraq doesn't want him to. "If the Iraqi people say, 'We don't want anybody,' there's nothing else we can do," Erdogan said. "If wanted, we'll go, if not wanted, we won't go." Does this mean the deployment really may not happen after all? Or is it a feint meant to pressure Americans with whom Turkey is currently negotiating over how free a hand the United States will give Turkish troops to suppress the PKK, an extremist Kurdish faction that has waged a long-standing guerrilla war in southern Turkey? If it's the latter, news that the PKK is now thought to be behind last week's bombing of Turkey's embassy in Baghdad will probably make the Americans more wary. (The Turks, of course, are well within their rights to demand that somebody—if not them, then American troops—punish severely the responsible parties.)
Then there's the Rummy Factor. All evidence suggests that the defense
secretary is losing influence over Iraq policy, but his views on a
Turkish deployment surely matter at least somewhat. And Donald Rumsfeld
is still stubbornly insistent, against all available evidence, that
the United States is in no need of foreign help. Although maintaining
that he is "very pleased" that Turkey will send troops to
Iraq, Rumsfeld emphasized in an Oct. 16 briefing that "whatever
ends up has to have been tested and agreed on by the Turkish government,
military, and the Central Command that's working with them, and the
Iraqi Governing Council." It's hard to see how Civil Administrator
Paul Bremer can get the Iraqi Governing Council to approve Turkish
troop deployment, when reportedly it took heavy-handed pressure from
Bremer to keep the council from officially condemning it a couple
of weeks ago. Is Rumsfeld the Kurds' last friend in the Bush administration?
3. - The Guardian - "Kurds' faith in new Iraq fading fast":
by Michael Howard / October 21, 2003
The kebab stalls and tea shops huddled at the foot of the limestone cliffs at the gorge of Gali Ali Beg in Iraqi Kurdistan are doing good business as Arabs from Baghdad and Basra picnic alongside local Kurdish families by the cool, frothy waterfalls.
The tourism boom in the largely tranquil north has been one of the most tangible benefits of regime change for the Kurds. To some it offers rare hope that the country's deep sectarian divisions, exacerbated by 35 years of Ba'athist rule, can finally be overcome.
But as the US and British authorities dither over Iraq's post-war political settlement, growing numbers among the strongly pro-western Kurds here worry that their fundamental political concerns are being swallowed by the ethnic, religious and political problems in post-Saddam Iraq. Their demands for a federal state appear to be falling on deaf ears.
"Kurds are realising that their special status in Iraq is no longer a given," said a European diplomat visiting the regional capital ofIrbil.
"Unless they believe that their position within a future Iraq will... consolidate their hard-won autonomy, it is uncertain that a majority would opt to remain within the current boundaries, despite what their more pragmatic leaders may tell them."
For most Iraqis, travel to the Kurdish autonomous zone had been almost impossible since it was established in 1991. Now Arabs and Kurds are seizing the chance to reacquaint themselves.
To visitors from the flat sun-baked south, the mountains and valleys of Iraqi Kurdistan seem like a different country. The red, green and white of the Kurdish flag flutters alongside the (pre-Saddam) Iraqi flag on public buildings. Streets in the cities of Irbil, Sulaimaniya, and Dohuk look neater and more prosperous than in other Iraqi cities. There are no glowering US military patrols, and electricity, fresh water and food are plentiful.
"We didn't know what to expect, we had grown so far apart," said Abdelsallam Majid, a civil engineer from Baghdad who had brought his wife and three children to Kurdistan for a holiday. "I thought the Kurds would want revenge on Iraq Arabs for the things Saddam did to them. In fact most of them blame the Ba'athists, not the Arabs themselves, and here every Kurd has welcomed us."
Another visitor, a Shia Arab businessmen from Basra, said: "We understand too well how our Kurdish brothers suffered under Saddam, and that means we can all work together for the good of all the Iraqi people."
Despite the optimism of Kurdistan's Arab visitors, US officials and
Iraq's leaders know that reconnecting the region to the rest of the
country will be difficult. Over the past 12 years Kurds, along with
the Turkoman and Assyrian minorities living in the self-rule area,
enjoyed a period of unprecedented autonomy - their safety assured
by US and British air forces.
Post-Saddam
Younger Kurds who have grown up free from the shadow of Saddam, now wonder what benefits there are from being a part of the tortuous political process currently taking place in "foreign" Baghdad.
Assad Nejmeddin, an English student at the university of Arbil, said: "I don't know why we're bothering with Baghdad. I and my friends don't even speak Arabic. We have done very well on our own for the past 12 years. Let's continue."
Another student, Dalia Hamida, complained about the US decision to request Turkish troops to come to Iraq: "We fought alongside the Americans. We didn't declare independence as the Turks said we would. And this is our reward."
The pressure is thus on Kurdish political leaders such as Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, both members of the Iraqi governing council, to deliver.
"The dictatorship that planned genocide against us, and practised ethnic cleansing has finished," said Jalal Talabani in an interview. "The Iraqi army and all other agents of repression like the security and intelligence services are also finished. We can sleep soundly."
Mr Talabani said other gains for the Kurds included a substantial political presence in the Iraqi capital - with five members on the Iraqi governing council and four ministers, including Hoshyar Zebari, the new Iraqi foreign minister.
Top of the agenda is a federal state, based on geography rather than ethnicity. They also want to see a reversal of the effects of Saddam's Arabisation campaign which involved ethnic cleansing from the oil-rich lands in and around Kirkuk and Mosul.
"Of the various groups who opposed Saddam Hussein [the Kurds] are the only ones with a large and easily defined constituency," said the European diplomat. "Compare that to the exiles on the governing council, many who have little domestic support, or the Shia who are confused and divided." The Kurds, he said, are "by some way the most organised and most coherent of the various groups bidding for a stake in the future Iraq."
Kurdish demands for one large federal unit may clash with Iraqi Arab nationalists, who want to keep Kurdish nationalism in check with a strong central government, as well as with Shia elements hoping for an Islamic state. Meanwhile, Iraq's neighbours, Turkey, Iran and Syria, are looking on with deep suspicion of the Kurds' new-found confidence.
Other sceptics point to the contradictions of asking for one large federal state while the Kurdish regional administrations are still divided - the result of a bloody civil war in the 1990s. Mr Talabani admits that the Kurds' many gains have still to be to "set in stone".
He said: "The borders of Kurdistan will be drawn as the Kurdish
people like. Some may want to divide us, but we won't have it. After
years of fighting for our freedom, everything depends on our ability
to convince our Arab brothers and the international community finally
to recognise our rights, within a democratic and federal system. We
are all united on that."
4.
- AFP - "Washington consults with Ankara about "possible"
deployment of troops":
WASHINGTON / October 20, 2003
The United States said Monday it was still engaged in talks with
Turkey over the potential deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq.
Washington was "continuing to consult closely with the Turkish
authorities on the details of their possible deployment," said
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli, after Ankara earlier
said the deployment of Turkish troops to Iraq was not currently on
the Turkish government's agenda.
Ereli said that the US ambassador to Ankara had met Monday with a
top Turkish Foreign Ministry official.
"We continue to believe that Turkey has an important role to
play in contributing to stability in Iraq," he said.
Turkey's Interior Minister Cemil Cicek said Monday the situation would
have to "move on" before such a deployment occurred.
The comments came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned
Saturday that Turkey would give up plans to send peacekeeping troops
to Iraq if they were not wanted in the war-ravaged country.
5. - EUbusiness - "Greece angry at Turkish general's "interference" on eve of FM's visit":
20 October 2003
Greece slammed Turkey's army chief Monday for interfering in bilateral relations after he suggested their problems could be resolved rapidly once Ankara is admitted to the European Union.
Greece "discusses with the Turkish government not with the military establishment," foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis told reporters following the comments by Turkey's influential army chief General Hilmi Ozkok.
The diplomatic spat emerged ahead of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's first visit Tuesday to Athens aimed at improving historically strained relations between the two neighbours and fellow NATO members.
In an interview with Greek daily Eleftherotypia published Saturday, Ozkok said the two countries' problems could be resolved "within a week" once Turkey becomes a member of the European Union.
Greece insists however that Turkey must resolve all bilateral disputes before it can start accession talks with the EU, which is set to evaluate Ankara's progress at the end of 2004.
The two have long been at loggerheads over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus as well as sovereignty over parts of the Aegean, the sea that separates them.
"Political leaders do not take into account the declarations by a military officer, whatever his rank," Beglitis said.
Gul and his Greek counterpart George Papandreou are also expected to discuss security during the 2004 Athens Olympics, a planned natural gas pipeline between the two countries as well as an accord to scrap double taxation for joint ventures.
Limiting the military's powers is a task of particular difficulty
for Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), a conservative
movement whose Islamist roots have caused suspicions among the military,
the self-declared guardians of secularism in the Muslim nation.
6.
- AFP - "Washington hopes vote in north yields progress in
Cyprus unification":
WASHINGTON / October 20, 2003
The United States said Monday that December elections in Cyprus offered
a chance to end the 29-year division of the Mediterranean island.
"We see the elections for the Turkish-Cypriot parliament as a
crucial opportunity for Turkish-Cypriots to express their will on
the central question of whether they desire a Cyprus settlement based
on UN Secretary General (Koffi) Annan's peace plan and EU membership,"
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
The United States and the United Nations blamed Turkish Cypriot leader
Rauf Denktash and his hardline nationalist policies for failing to
end the Mediterranean island's division.
The three main pro-European opposition groups in the TRNC have made
it clear that if they win in December, they could remove Denktash
as chief negotiator in unification talks, which have been stalled.
"In this sense, the elections are a referendum on the Annan plan
that the Turkish-Cypriots were denied when UN-sponsored peace talks
were abandoned by their side at The Hague," Ereli said.
"We hope the elections will be fully free and fair and that the
will of the Turkish-Cypriot people will be reflected in the choice
of negotiator for their community."
"There are a number of press reports concerning possible irregularities
in Turkish-Cypriot voter lists, such as the inclusion of dubiously
qualified voters.
"And these reports do cause us concern," he said.
Legislative elections are set for December 14 in the Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey.
The European Union has said it will admit only the internationally
recognized Greek Cypriot side if the Mediterranean island is not reunified
by May 2004.