The Kurdish PKK’s attacks on Turkey: The insurgency in Iraq that no one is talking about.
While the American news media reports sporadically regarding the insurgency in Iraq, we never hear of the unrest and insurgency that has battle lines drawn between the Kurds in the north of Iraq and Turkey. As recently as Sunday, October 7, 2007, Turkish forces were said to have shelled Iraqi territory, as a result of an attack by the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), during which 13 Turkish soldiers were killed in the southern province of Simak, Turkey. Kurdish farmers showed observers the craters left by Turkish artillery shells, which were well inside Iraqi territory. The media in this country chooses not to report anything regarding the conflict on the Turkish/Kurdistan border, as if it did not exist. The question is whether Turkey will send troops into Iraq to stop attacks by the PKK and what is the United States going to do about it?
A quick lesson in History, or how dumb has the American media kept the American people? The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own nation. At the end of WW I, the Kurds were promised their own state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but in 1923, The Treaty of Lausanne established the boundaries of the new State of Turkey, and the Kurds were divided into southern Turkey, the eastern area of the French mandate of Syria and the northern area of the British mandate of Iraq. The Kurds refused to assimilate and have been persecuted over the past eighty five years by both Turkey and more recently, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The PKK, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, was established in 1974 as a strong Communist organization, and grew to be a considerable threat to Turkey, as it was responsible for over 30,000 civilian deaths in the 1980s. The PKK has never been recognized by the Kurdish state in Iraq. By 1993, the newly established Kurdistan Democratic Party was in de facto control of Kurdistan due to the “No Fly Zone,” established by the First Iraq War and maintained by the US Air Force in northern Iraq. It supported the incursion of Turkish troops, and the CIA into northern Iraq to quell the PKK, try to establish a peaceful solution and undermine Saddam Hussein, but this failed. Turkey withdrew and the CIA abandoned any further attempts to use the Kurds to undermine Saddam Hussein. It left a dilemma for both Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan to arrive at a solution, which continues today and the PKK has continued to flourish, as it hides in northern Kurdistan and continues its attacks on Turkey. Ceasefires have come and gone, while the US sent in retired General and Supreme Allied Commander Joseph Ralston to coordinate US, Turkey and Iraq efforts to stop the PKK’s insurgency. The PKK remains a threat to Turkey, as well as Iraqi Kurdistan, which does not support the PKK, yet it continues to hide in the no man’s land of northern Iraq.
The consequences of a Turkish attack on the Kurdish state in Iraq have monumental consequences. Turkey has bilateral agreements with both Syria and Iran that if threatened by the Kurdish state, both nations would come to the aid of Turkey. Prior to this, both Syria and Ian supported the PKK, but they have reversed their policy. Iran’s decision to deny the PKK came as a result of the moderate Islamic government, now in power in Turkey. At present, the PKK is divided into two groups, one moderate and the other militant but its numbers are half of what they were ten years ago. The militant PKK has been in control since 2004. The US has branded the PKK a terrorist organization and has avoided involvement in the north, as it would take at least 10,000 US troops to deal with the PKK. We don’t have the manpower! On the other hand, the US has put pressure on the regional government in Kurdish north to disavow any association with the PKK. Turkey has amassed over 200,000 troops on the border of northern Iraq, while the new Kurdish regional government has organized an army of nearly 150,000 well trained troops. Although it may be impossible to resolve this age old conflict, the Bush Administration has one chance….and only one chance for a favorable legacy from its disastrous policy in Iraq. Unfortunately, it requires diplomacy, a word never used by the Bush Administration. If we seriously attempt to broker a peace between Turkey and the Kurds in Iraq, we might be able to keep the lid on a major conflagration in the Middle East. It is something that actually not requires privatization or money. It will require commitment and serious diplomacy. The question is, whether or not the Bush Administration is capable of dealing with this impending catastrophe?
Comments
Thanks for an objective and
Thanks for an objective and unbiased review. Now, over 4 months after it was written, the Turkish Army is in there for what it is worth. In my opinion, it will not solve the problem, with or without American diplomacy, good or bad. This age old situation has been going on for the last 40 years and will go on forever. Iraq today is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and this only increases and facilitates the aggression of PKK.
Although the US policy declares the PKK as a terrorist group, a couple of days after the Turks crossed over the border here we see the American Defense Secretary in Ankara, instructing them to stop the operation.
Remembering the Turks not allowing the US to transfer troops through Turkish territory back in the beginning days of Iraqi invasion, one wonders if the American indifference today is some kind of a penal reaction.
Ken G - Johannesburg, South Africa
As an update, four months
As an update, four months ago, no one wanted to discuss this problem, let alone try to deal with it! The only organization that was writing about it was Aljazeera, as the Western Press was too busy covering Brittany Spears! The United States must engage in aggressive diplomacy to avoid a major conflagration between the Turks and the Kurds in Iraq. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has removed the practice of “Diplomacy” from their list of agendas! The US may not have a considerable amount of influence in Istanbul these days, but Turkey wants desperately to become a member of the European Union. Eventually, Turkey will become a member, but here is an opportunity for the European Union to fill the gap, until a new Administration comes to office with, hopefully, a different slant towards using diplomacy as a fundamental tool in our Foreign Relations. In the meantime, The US must force the Kurdish government to keep the PKK out of their borders, thus not allowing Turkey any reason to invade. Turkish forces have been reported leaving northern Iraq, but this is just a momentary pause. When this article was written four months ago, it was estimated that the US could have sent the PKK packing with a force of 8,000 to 10,000 troops. That would have been a wise investment, considering the number of soldiers embedded in “The Surge.” We cannot solve the problem between the Turks and the Kurds, but we can secure the border of northern Iraq, if the US is calling the shots for rebuilding the new state of Kurdistan!
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