L'Irak promet d'arrêter les dirigeants du PKK
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-33078433@7-37,0.html
"Si le gouvernement irakien et l'autorité régionale du nord de l'Irak, ainsi que les Etats-Unis ne sont pas capables d'avancer, nous ne resterons pas assis les bras croisés", a dit Babacan à Bernard Kouchner, selon des diplomates turcs.
samedi 3 novembre 2007
Zionist Crimes against Humanity
VIDEO: Palestinian children continue to be detained in zionist prisons.
Please click on link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMb1Ye3qpWE&eurl=http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m37801&hd=&size=1&l=e
Please click on link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMb1Ye3qpWE&eurl=http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m37801&hd=&size=1&l=e
Bush broke promises to Turkey, says US former envoy
Warren P Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers
Friday November 2, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The retired general who served as George Bush's special envoy to deal with the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) today said the US has failed to keep its promises to Turkey to confront the Kurdish group
Retired air force General Joseph Ralston declined to say why he stepped down several weeks ago. But published reports have said that he was frustrated by the Bush administration's failure to act against the PKK.
He said Turkey may feel that it has no choice but to attack the PKK in northern Iraq.
In his first extended comments since his departure, Gen Ralston told McClatchy Newspapers the US is unwittingly "driving, strategically, the Turks and the Iranians together" because both nations share concerns about Kurdish separatist groups.
"The US government should make good on the commitments they have made to the Turks," Gen Ralston said.
The White House and the US military are wary about opening a new front in the war in Iraq - particularly in generally stable northern Iraq - by launching assaults against the PKK.
Neither the US-backed Iraqi government nor the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government has shown any inclination to go after the group.
The officer who commands U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Major General Benjamin Nixon, last week said he planned to do "absolutely nothing" to curb PKK activities.
Gen Ralston, a vice chairman of the Washington-based Cohen Group, a consulting firm, said the statement was "directly opposite" promises Mr Bush has made to Turkey.
Asked whether the Turkish military would invade northern Iraq, which PKK fighters use to launch attacks into Turkey, Gen Ralston said: "They're going to have to, in the absence of the US doing anything."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2204251,00.html
Friday November 2, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The retired general who served as George Bush's special envoy to deal with the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) today said the US has failed to keep its promises to Turkey to confront the Kurdish group
Retired air force General Joseph Ralston declined to say why he stepped down several weeks ago. But published reports have said that he was frustrated by the Bush administration's failure to act against the PKK.
He said Turkey may feel that it has no choice but to attack the PKK in northern Iraq.
In his first extended comments since his departure, Gen Ralston told McClatchy Newspapers the US is unwittingly "driving, strategically, the Turks and the Iranians together" because both nations share concerns about Kurdish separatist groups.
"The US government should make good on the commitments they have made to the Turks," Gen Ralston said.
The White House and the US military are wary about opening a new front in the war in Iraq - particularly in generally stable northern Iraq - by launching assaults against the PKK.
Neither the US-backed Iraqi government nor the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government has shown any inclination to go after the group.
The officer who commands U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Major General Benjamin Nixon, last week said he planned to do "absolutely nothing" to curb PKK activities.
Gen Ralston, a vice chairman of the Washington-based Cohen Group, a consulting firm, said the statement was "directly opposite" promises Mr Bush has made to Turkey.
Asked whether the Turkish military would invade northern Iraq, which PKK fighters use to launch attacks into Turkey, Gen Ralston said: "They're going to have to, in the absence of the US doing anything."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2204251,00.html
Istanbul Diplomatic Roundtable
While emphasizing they have no plans to 'hijack' a conference on Iraq, Turkish diplomats say their fading patience with US will be on the table
BARÇIN YİNANÇ
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News
While the mission of the diplomatic roundtable that begins today in Istanbul is set to envision a future Iraq, the host Turkey plans to pressure both that country and the United States to at last take action against the lairs of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) amid growing anger and calls from a terror-weary Turkish public for a cross-border invasion of northern Iraq.
....
The three terror-related articles of the summit declaration draft are as follows:
Article 17
Condemn all act of terrorism, in all its forms in Iraq, call for the immediate cessation of all such acts, and welcome the bilateral arrangements concluded between Iraq and neighboring countries regarding the fight against terrorism and encourage Iraq and its neighbors to establish efficient bilateral mechanism to eliminate cross border terrorist activities.
Article 18
Reaffirm obligations of all states in accordance with international law, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546 and other relevant resolutions to combat terrorist activities and prevent the use by terrorists of their territory for supplying, organizing and launching terrorist operations.
Article 19
Support the efforts of Iraq to prevent the transit of terrorist and arms to and from Iraq and to re-emphasize the importance of strengthening cooperation between Iraq and its neighboring countries to control their common borders.
Teröre Lanet – Barışa -Birliğe davet
Rassemblement « ENSEMBLE, DISONS NON AU TERRORISME »
Au regard de l’actualité internationale et compte tenu des tristes incidents qui ont eu lieu à Bruxelles récemment, plusieurs associations turques de Belgique ont pris l’initiative commune d’organiser ce samedi 3 novembre 2007 un rassemblement intitulé « ENSEMBLE, DISONS NON AU TERRORISME », à 14h, place Schuman, Bruxelles.
COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE
Chers Représentants des Médias,
Ce communiqué de presse est né d’une initiative menée en commun par diverses associations turques de Belgique.
Depuis le milieu du 20e siècle, le terrorisme est une tragédie vécue de près par l’humanité entière. L’histoire nous apprend que les idéaux poursuivis par les terroristes n’ont jamais pu être réalisés grâce à ce fléau, et qu’au contraire, il a toujours affaibli les peuples déjà fragiles au départ. Où qu’il agisse, le terrorisme obéit à un modus operandi nébuleux et à des lois maffieuses. C’est pourquoi, sans distinguer soldats et civils, femmes et enfants, jeunes et vieux, il inflige souffrance et désolation à l’humanité.
Nos pensées vont aux victimes, à toutes les victimes du terrorisme et à leurs proches, quelle que soit la partie du monde où il frappe.
La Turquie est, depuis de longues années, la cible du terrorisme, et a déjà vu des milliers de ses citoyens sacrifiés sur l’autel de ce fléau. La lutte contre le terrorisme occupe notre pays depuis des décennies, et les fonds qui auraient dû être consacrés au bien-être, à la prospérité et au développement du pays ont malheureusement été dilapidés afin de le neutraliser.
Le mouvement terroriste, encouragé par l’absence de véritable autorité centrale en Irak et par l’administration régionale du Nord de l’Irak, a relancé la machine de la terreur et poursuit ses actions meurtrières sans distinguer les soldats et les civils.
Le 21 octobre dernier, la perte de 12 soldats martyrs et l’enlèvement de 8 autres ont fortement bouleversé la population turque. Cette goutte d’eau a fait déborder le vase.
Le terrorisme est un crime contre l’humanité qui se nourrit du chaos, de la confusion et des faiblesses de l’autorité publique. C’est donc en multipliant les provocations que le terrorisme entend annihiler la paix sociale, la sécurité et la prospérité.
Cette vérité nous conduit à nous désolidariser totalement des débordements et des dégâts occasionnés récemment à Bruxelles par certains jeunes turcs ou d’origine turque. Nous demandons que les auteurs des SMS et des courriers électroniques qui ont conduit nos jeunes à plonger dans l’illégalité soient appréhendés. Le terrorisme et la violence sont liés et inacceptables, qui que soient leurs auteurs et leurs cibles.
Un des objectifs du mouvement terroriste PKK est de surfer sur les différences ethniques pour alimenter l’hostilité mutuelle. C’est la raison pour laquelle il est plus important que jamais de promouvoir la fraternité entre Turcs et Kurdes. La Turquie dispose d’assez de soleil, de lumière, de pain, d’eau et de terre pour tous ses citoyens. Il nous suffit de ne pas tomber dans le piège de ceux qui souhaitent tirer profit de notre discorde.
Certains médias européens doivent savoir une chose : le PKK est et n’est qu’un mouvement terroriste et il ne représente nullement la population kurde de Turquie. Pour comprendre cela, il suffit d’analyser les résultats des élections législatives turques du 22 juillet dernier. La population locale n’a pas dirigé son vote vers les tenants du séparatisme ethnique, mais bien vers les forces politiques qui défendent l’union des composantes ethniques et l’unité de la Turquie.
Nos amis européens doivent savoir une chose encore : le terrorisme du PKK n’est pas moins véritable que celui de l’IRA, de l’ETA ou d’Al Qaida. Il n’y a pas de bon terrorisme et de mauvais terrorisme. La Turquie a massivement soutenu les organisations internationales dans la lutte commune contre le terrorisme et on ne peut donc imaginer qu’elle soit laissée seule face au terrorisme qui la menace.
Si l’Union européenne est sincère concernant les réformes qu’elle demande à la Turquie de mettre en œuvre, elle doit lui apporter son soutien contre ce fléau. En effet, parmi les objectifs du mouvement terroriste, il y a aussi l’arrêt du processus d’adhésion de la Turquie à l’Union européenne, via la montée de l’insécurité et le déclin économique.
Pour conclure, nous invitons les Turcs de Belgique à agir raisonnablement, à rester scrupuleusement en dehors de toute réunion ou marche non autorisée, à s’abstenir de troubler l’ordre et la sécurité publiques et à faciliter le travail des forces de l’ordre.
Chers Représentants des Médias,
Les associations signataires du présent communiqué de presse organisent le samedi 3 novembre prochain, à 14h, sur la place Schuman, un rassemblement intitulé « ENSEMBLE, DISONS NON AU TERRORISME ». C’est sur cette plateforme et dans le respect de la procédure légale que nous allons exprimer notre ressenti sociétal. Merci d’avance d’en informer l’opinion publique.
Comité d’organisation
Fondation Islamique Turque en Belgique
Union des Démocrates Turcs Européens
Fédération Islamique de Belgique
Fédération Turque de Belgique
Union des Associations Turques
Association d’Entraide Emirdağ
vendredi 2 novembre 2007
Germany Reports: Kurds living in Germany are forced to hand over millions of euros to PKK terrorist group
Germany Reports PKK Funding as Tensions Rise on Iraq Border
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tensions have been rising on the Turkish-Iraqi border
While the tensions between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels continue, reports in Germany suggest that Kurds living in the country are forced to hand over millions of euros to the group.
Experts believe that while some of Germany's 600,000 Kurdish immigrants give the money willingly to fund its separatist campaign in southeastern Turkey, others are pressured into contributing under duress.
The PKK is an outlawed nationalist Kurdish guerrilla group waging a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1974. It took up arms against Turkey in 1984, aiming to create an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
A spokesman for Germany's BfV domestic intelligence services, commenting on the reports, said that the KONGRA-GEL, the PKK's political wing, is blackmailing Kurdish immigrants with mafia-like demands for protection money of one month's salary a year or much more in the case of wealthy businessmen. "In this way they collect millions of euros in Germany every year," the spokesperson stated.
The reports came to light in the wake of violent clashes between Kurds and Turkish nationalists in Berlin, Heilbronn and Mülheim at last weekend. In Berlin, 18 policemen were injured trying to break up fighting between the two sides, after Turkish nationalists held a march in support of Ankara's threat to launch strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The German intelligence services have since stepped up their surveillance of PKK activists in Germany. They estimate that there are 11,500 PKK members in Germany, of whom 1,000 live in Berlin.
Germany banned the PKK in 1993 after it carried out a campaign of fire-bombings on Turkish and German institutions in Berlin.
PKK activity in Germany intensifies
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German Kurds are pressured to contribute to the PKK cause
Experts have been monitoring an intensification of PKK activities in Germany, which is home to 2.5 million Turks -- the biggest Turkish community outside Turkey. PKK activity slowed down in 2003 but has gradually been picking up in the four years since, according to reports.
According to German police sources, the PKK is also involved in drug trafficking in Germany and uses the spoils to fund its separatist struggle. Police have confirmed that several investigations have revealed a link between the PKK and drug dealers.
Turkish intelligence services believe that the PKK raises 300 million euros ($430 million) a year and last year spent 15 million euros on arms, notably in Iraq. In April, police confiscated 16,000 euros in banknotes in a raid on 32 suspected members of the PKK in Bavaria in southern Germany.
In recent years, a number of PKK members have been arrested in Germany for securing financing for the group, which has been branded a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Last year German police arrested a Turk of Kurdish origin suspected of being the leader of the PKK and KONGRA-GEL in Germany and heading its fundraising and propaganda activities here.
./...
please click on:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2860955,00.html
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tensions have been rising on the Turkish-Iraqi border
While the tensions between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels continue, reports in Germany suggest that Kurds living in the country are forced to hand over millions of euros to the group.
Experts believe that while some of Germany's 600,000 Kurdish immigrants give the money willingly to fund its separatist campaign in southeastern Turkey, others are pressured into contributing under duress.
The PKK is an outlawed nationalist Kurdish guerrilla group waging a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1974. It took up arms against Turkey in 1984, aiming to create an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
A spokesman for Germany's BfV domestic intelligence services, commenting on the reports, said that the KONGRA-GEL, the PKK's political wing, is blackmailing Kurdish immigrants with mafia-like demands for protection money of one month's salary a year or much more in the case of wealthy businessmen. "In this way they collect millions of euros in Germany every year," the spokesperson stated.
The reports came to light in the wake of violent clashes between Kurds and Turkish nationalists in Berlin, Heilbronn and Mülheim at last weekend. In Berlin, 18 policemen were injured trying to break up fighting between the two sides, after Turkish nationalists held a march in support of Ankara's threat to launch strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The German intelligence services have since stepped up their surveillance of PKK activists in Germany. They estimate that there are 11,500 PKK members in Germany, of whom 1,000 live in Berlin.
Germany banned the PKK in 1993 after it carried out a campaign of fire-bombings on Turkish and German institutions in Berlin.
PKK activity in Germany intensifies
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German Kurds are pressured to contribute to the PKK cause
Experts have been monitoring an intensification of PKK activities in Germany, which is home to 2.5 million Turks -- the biggest Turkish community outside Turkey. PKK activity slowed down in 2003 but has gradually been picking up in the four years since, according to reports.
According to German police sources, the PKK is also involved in drug trafficking in Germany and uses the spoils to fund its separatist struggle. Police have confirmed that several investigations have revealed a link between the PKK and drug dealers.
Turkish intelligence services believe that the PKK raises 300 million euros ($430 million) a year and last year spent 15 million euros on arms, notably in Iraq. In April, police confiscated 16,000 euros in banknotes in a raid on 32 suspected members of the PKK in Bavaria in southern Germany.
In recent years, a number of PKK members have been arrested in Germany for securing financing for the group, which has been branded a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Last year German police arrested a Turk of Kurdish origin suspected of being the leader of the PKK and KONGRA-GEL in Germany and heading its fundraising and propaganda activities here.
./...
please click on:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2860955,00.html
Double-crossing in Kurdistan
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK02Ak01.html
OPINION
(Published in Asia Times online)
By Pepe Escobar
The George W Bush administration would not flinch to betray its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan if that entailed a US "win" in the Iraq quagmire. And it would not flinch to leave its Turkish North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in the wilderness as well - if that entailed further destabilization of Iran. Way beyond the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) vs Turkey skirmish, one of these two double-crossing scenarios will inevitably take place. Washington simply cannot have its kebab and eat it too.
The Bush administration's double standards are as glaring as meteor impacts. When, in the summer of 2006, Israel used the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah to unleash a pre-programmed devastating war on Lebanon, destroying great swathes of the country, the Bush administration immediately gave the Israelis the green light. When 12 Turkish soldiers are killed and eight captured by PKK guerrillas based in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration urges Ankara to take it easy. The "war on terror" is definitely not an equal-opportunity business.
That has prompted Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to mischievously remark, regarding Turkey, "It's as if an intruder has gatecrashed the closed circle of 'we', the domain of those who hold the de facto monopoly on military humanitarianism." The US and Israeli establishment regards Hezbollah as a group of evil super-terrorists. But the PKK consists of just "minor" terrorists, and very useful ones at that, since the US Central Intelligence Agency is covertly financing and arming the PJAK (Party for Free Life in Kurdistan), the Iranian arm of the PKK, whose mission is to "liberate" parts of northwest Iran. Not accidentally, the new PKK overdrive coincides with US - and also Israeli - covert support for the PJAK. Israel has not only invested a lot in scores of business ventures in Iraqi Kurdistan, it has also extensively trained Kurdish peshmerga special commandos, who could easily share their knowledge with their PKK cousins. The new PKK offensive coincides with a PKK flush with new mortars, anti-tank weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and even anti-aircraft missiles. And most of all, the PKK drive coincides with the mysteriously vanished scores of light weapons the Pentagon sent to Iraq with no serial numbers to identify 97% of them. The person responsible for this still unsolved mystery is none other than the counterinsurgency messiah and top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
The suspicion that the Pentagon never wanted these weapons to be traced in the first place cannot be easily dismissed. Either that or the PKK has been very active lately in the black market for light weapons.
US corporate media totally ignore the US/Israeli coddling of the PJAK - and by extension the PKK. The larger context is lost.
No one bothers to ask how come the Bush administration seems to be such a huge fan of a greater Kurdistan. As much as the PJAK - and the PKK - use American largesse for greater Kurdistan ends, the Bush administration uses especially the PJAK for its wider "war on terror" target: the destabilization of Iran.
Turkish-US relations in this case are no more than a casualty of war. Now the Turks are up not only against Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but also the US and the European Union in Brussels. And in addition, the PKK denies it has attacked Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Turkey has angrily reacted to the US Senate proposal for "soft" partition of Iraq. This is the famous US "Plan B" for Iraq - more an "A" than a "B" because it was floated years ago. And the authors are Israel and ... the Turks themselves. The plan has been extensively documented, among others, by the Center for Research at the Kurdish Library in New York. According to its "Kurdish Life" newsletter, "Back in 1990, Turkey's then prime minister Turgut Ozal made a deal with the US and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani.
Masterminded by an Israel obsessed with breaking up the 'sea of Arabs' in the Middle East, the plan has proceeded apace ever since, influencing and directing virtually all of Washington's political and military tactics in Iraq. And yet even today it remains nobody's business."
The Israeli mastermind was Leslie Gelb, a relatively moderate Zionist. The plan duly featured in the Turkish press at the time. It proposed a federal Iraq, with a Kurdistan, a section of Kirkuk and Mosul for the Turkomans; and the rest, in fact most of the country, for "the Arabs", Sunni and Shi'ite alike. To get their autonomous mini-state, the Iraqi Kurds just had to guarantee to smash the PKK. As for Turkish Kurds, the Turkish prime minister's spokesman said at the time that since "two-thirds of Turkey's Kurds are scattered through the country" and the rest "fully integrated into Turkish society", they would have no business dreaming about autonomy. Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Kurdish leaders, rival warlords and wily opportunists, duly fulfilled their part of the deal - especially in October 1992 during a joint offensive with the Turkish army against the PKK. They may have sold out the PKK 15 years ago, but that won't happen again; at least that's what the two have vocally promised.
For their part, the PJAK-PKK have been tremendously helpful for the Bush administration agenda of "destabilizing" Iran. The Kurdish Life newsletter argues that the cause of Turkey's current woes is not the US or the Iraqi Kurds. It's a self-inflicted wound, all spelled out in Ozal's plan.
"With his untimely death in 1993, the plan was revised, with an autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to include Kirkuk, and more, and the remainder of Iraq to be divided between Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs. The Republicans of the Bush administration cemented it into the Iraqi constitution under the rubric 'federation'." That's no less than the "soft" partition the US Senate recently voted for. That's the future Washington wants for Iraqi Kurdistan. And that's the scheme the US - and Israel - don't want their ally Turkey to spoil by attacking the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan.
No wonder the Turkish leadership - not to mention Turkish public opinion - is fuming.
Chronicle of an invasion foretold
To compound this misery, the much-touted Turkish invasion has been in the making for months. As early as March, Bush administration officials were promising the Turks that US special forces would dislodge the PKK from the Qandil mountains. Nothing happened.
In April, Barzani was threatening "to take responsibility for our response" if the Turks interfered with a referendum on the integration of oil-rich Kirkuk into Kurdistan. Also in April, the US prohibited Turkish cross-border raids, according to the Turkish daily Sabah. The massing of Turkish soldiers at the Iraqi border started in May. Then in June, Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit virtually spelled out in public what this was all about, "There is not only the PKK in northern Iraq. There is Massoud Barzani as well. Turkey cannot afford an independent Kurdish state headed by Barzani on its southern border."
Barzani - who for Turkish popular media is the country's public enemy number one - answered back with a startling concept; he said that if Turkey invaded, "We would deal with it as an Iraqi issue." So what kind of Kurdish "sovereignty" is this? Iraqi Kurds detest, and ignore, the Baghdad government like the plague, and prize their independence; but as soon as they're threatened, they instantly seek refuge under Baghdad's (clipped) wings. Kurdistan and its mountainous 75,000 square kilometers is not really Iraq. Baghdad is an entity far, far away. Iraqi Kurdistan has its own constitution, parliament, anthem, legal code, language, currency and media - and most of all the well-trained peshmerga army. A democracy it is not - because virtually everything is subordinated to the two warlords turned politicians, Barzani and Talabani.
The KRG has paid the price for Kurdistan as a "model" of a functioning Iraq by collaborating no-holds-barred with the US since the early 1990s. In June, Barzani confirmed that the PKK is an Iraqi problem, "A Turkish invasion would be first of all an attack on Iraqi sovereignty, and then an attack on the Kurds."
Following Barzani's logic, since Iraq is under occupation, the Turks would be actually invading a colonial possession of the US. Thus it should be Petraeus to confront the Turks about what they're up to. Washington in a way has proved its point: Iraqi Kurdistan is a fragile entity that only exists because it always depended on American protection.
Turkey and Iran, united Kurdistan's pull in Washington is guaranteed thanks largely to Qubad Talabani, son of President Jalal Talabani, also known in Kurdistan as "Uncle Jalal". While dad sells Kurdistan as an indisputable success story, son lobbies furiously, to the extent that Frank Lavin, US under secretary of commerce for international trade, recently went to Kurdistan to promote it as a gateway for US businesses in Iraq.
But to believe that Ankara will tolerate an oil-rich, water-rich Kurdish mini-state on its southeast border, creating a magnet for Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iran and Syria, is to believe in miracles. Not only Turkey and Iran are vehemently against it, but also Saudi Arabia (the House of Saud believing that a Kurdistan counterpart - Shi'iteistan in southern Iraq - would be subservient to Iran).
What the Bush administration's games have achieved so far is to unite Turkey and Iran on the issue. Turkey regards the Kurds just like China regards Tibetans and Uighurs; they are part of a unitary Turkish state and have no right to autonomy. If Washington condemns China for its repression of Tibetans and Uighurs, it should behave the same way regarding Turkey. Not only will this not happen, but now the Americans need the Turks more than the Turks need the Americans.
A true measure of White House and neo-conservative desperation to facilitate the relentless surge towards war on Iran is whether it would be willing to plunge Iraqi Kurdistan into war, compromise the Turkish-Iraq corridor (through wich flows 70% of US supplies to Iraq) and future US Big Oil investments in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Barzani keeps insisting he and Washington are in sync, both wanting a peaceful solution for this royal mess; but he always points out "we are a nation" which will not accept Turkish threats. US plans for Iraqi Kurdistan, stretching back to that 1990 Israeli-devised Turkish plan, are in jeopardy. And once again all because of the enemy within.
Washington played the ethnic card in Afghanistan, pitting Tajiks against Pashtuns; the result, apart from a never-ending war in Afghanistan, was that Pashtuns on both sides of the border united and are now destabilizing even further the US ally, Pakistan. Washington played the Kurd card to destabilize Saddam Hussein's Iraq and as a beachhead for its control of the country after the invasion. Not only Iraq turned into a quagmire, Washington helped to plunge Kurdistan into the line of (Turkish) fire. There's no evidence these lessons have been learned.
No matter what happens in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration will still insist on the ethnic card to precipitate regime change in Iran.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
Asia Times Online Ltd.
OPINION
(Published in Asia Times online)
By Pepe Escobar
The George W Bush administration would not flinch to betray its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan if that entailed a US "win" in the Iraq quagmire. And it would not flinch to leave its Turkish North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in the wilderness as well - if that entailed further destabilization of Iran. Way beyond the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) vs Turkey skirmish, one of these two double-crossing scenarios will inevitably take place. Washington simply cannot have its kebab and eat it too.
The Bush administration's double standards are as glaring as meteor impacts. When, in the summer of 2006, Israel used the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah to unleash a pre-programmed devastating war on Lebanon, destroying great swathes of the country, the Bush administration immediately gave the Israelis the green light. When 12 Turkish soldiers are killed and eight captured by PKK guerrillas based in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration urges Ankara to take it easy. The "war on terror" is definitely not an equal-opportunity business.
That has prompted Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to mischievously remark, regarding Turkey, "It's as if an intruder has gatecrashed the closed circle of 'we', the domain of those who hold the de facto monopoly on military humanitarianism." The US and Israeli establishment regards Hezbollah as a group of evil super-terrorists. But the PKK consists of just "minor" terrorists, and very useful ones at that, since the US Central Intelligence Agency is covertly financing and arming the PJAK (Party for Free Life in Kurdistan), the Iranian arm of the PKK, whose mission is to "liberate" parts of northwest Iran. Not accidentally, the new PKK overdrive coincides with US - and also Israeli - covert support for the PJAK. Israel has not only invested a lot in scores of business ventures in Iraqi Kurdistan, it has also extensively trained Kurdish peshmerga special commandos, who could easily share their knowledge with their PKK cousins. The new PKK offensive coincides with a PKK flush with new mortars, anti-tank weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and even anti-aircraft missiles. And most of all, the PKK drive coincides with the mysteriously vanished scores of light weapons the Pentagon sent to Iraq with no serial numbers to identify 97% of them. The person responsible for this still unsolved mystery is none other than the counterinsurgency messiah and top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
The suspicion that the Pentagon never wanted these weapons to be traced in the first place cannot be easily dismissed. Either that or the PKK has been very active lately in the black market for light weapons.
US corporate media totally ignore the US/Israeli coddling of the PJAK - and by extension the PKK. The larger context is lost.
No one bothers to ask how come the Bush administration seems to be such a huge fan of a greater Kurdistan. As much as the PJAK - and the PKK - use American largesse for greater Kurdistan ends, the Bush administration uses especially the PJAK for its wider "war on terror" target: the destabilization of Iran.
Turkish-US relations in this case are no more than a casualty of war. Now the Turks are up not only against Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but also the US and the European Union in Brussels. And in addition, the PKK denies it has attacked Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Turkey has angrily reacted to the US Senate proposal for "soft" partition of Iraq. This is the famous US "Plan B" for Iraq - more an "A" than a "B" because it was floated years ago. And the authors are Israel and ... the Turks themselves. The plan has been extensively documented, among others, by the Center for Research at the Kurdish Library in New York. According to its "Kurdish Life" newsletter, "Back in 1990, Turkey's then prime minister Turgut Ozal made a deal with the US and Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani.
Masterminded by an Israel obsessed with breaking up the 'sea of Arabs' in the Middle East, the plan has proceeded apace ever since, influencing and directing virtually all of Washington's political and military tactics in Iraq. And yet even today it remains nobody's business."
The Israeli mastermind was Leslie Gelb, a relatively moderate Zionist. The plan duly featured in the Turkish press at the time. It proposed a federal Iraq, with a Kurdistan, a section of Kirkuk and Mosul for the Turkomans; and the rest, in fact most of the country, for "the Arabs", Sunni and Shi'ite alike. To get their autonomous mini-state, the Iraqi Kurds just had to guarantee to smash the PKK. As for Turkish Kurds, the Turkish prime minister's spokesman said at the time that since "two-thirds of Turkey's Kurds are scattered through the country" and the rest "fully integrated into Turkish society", they would have no business dreaming about autonomy. Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Kurdish leaders, rival warlords and wily opportunists, duly fulfilled their part of the deal - especially in October 1992 during a joint offensive with the Turkish army against the PKK. They may have sold out the PKK 15 years ago, but that won't happen again; at least that's what the two have vocally promised.
For their part, the PJAK-PKK have been tremendously helpful for the Bush administration agenda of "destabilizing" Iran. The Kurdish Life newsletter argues that the cause of Turkey's current woes is not the US or the Iraqi Kurds. It's a self-inflicted wound, all spelled out in Ozal's plan.
"With his untimely death in 1993, the plan was revised, with an autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to include Kirkuk, and more, and the remainder of Iraq to be divided between Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs. The Republicans of the Bush administration cemented it into the Iraqi constitution under the rubric 'federation'." That's no less than the "soft" partition the US Senate recently voted for. That's the future Washington wants for Iraqi Kurdistan. And that's the scheme the US - and Israel - don't want their ally Turkey to spoil by attacking the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan.
No wonder the Turkish leadership - not to mention Turkish public opinion - is fuming.
Chronicle of an invasion foretold
To compound this misery, the much-touted Turkish invasion has been in the making for months. As early as March, Bush administration officials were promising the Turks that US special forces would dislodge the PKK from the Qandil mountains. Nothing happened.
In April, Barzani was threatening "to take responsibility for our response" if the Turks interfered with a referendum on the integration of oil-rich Kirkuk into Kurdistan. Also in April, the US prohibited Turkish cross-border raids, according to the Turkish daily Sabah. The massing of Turkish soldiers at the Iraqi border started in May. Then in June, Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit virtually spelled out in public what this was all about, "There is not only the PKK in northern Iraq. There is Massoud Barzani as well. Turkey cannot afford an independent Kurdish state headed by Barzani on its southern border."
Barzani - who for Turkish popular media is the country's public enemy number one - answered back with a startling concept; he said that if Turkey invaded, "We would deal with it as an Iraqi issue." So what kind of Kurdish "sovereignty" is this? Iraqi Kurds detest, and ignore, the Baghdad government like the plague, and prize their independence; but as soon as they're threatened, they instantly seek refuge under Baghdad's (clipped) wings. Kurdistan and its mountainous 75,000 square kilometers is not really Iraq. Baghdad is an entity far, far away. Iraqi Kurdistan has its own constitution, parliament, anthem, legal code, language, currency and media - and most of all the well-trained peshmerga army. A democracy it is not - because virtually everything is subordinated to the two warlords turned politicians, Barzani and Talabani.
The KRG has paid the price for Kurdistan as a "model" of a functioning Iraq by collaborating no-holds-barred with the US since the early 1990s. In June, Barzani confirmed that the PKK is an Iraqi problem, "A Turkish invasion would be first of all an attack on Iraqi sovereignty, and then an attack on the Kurds."
Following Barzani's logic, since Iraq is under occupation, the Turks would be actually invading a colonial possession of the US. Thus it should be Petraeus to confront the Turks about what they're up to. Washington in a way has proved its point: Iraqi Kurdistan is a fragile entity that only exists because it always depended on American protection.
Turkey and Iran, united Kurdistan's pull in Washington is guaranteed thanks largely to Qubad Talabani, son of President Jalal Talabani, also known in Kurdistan as "Uncle Jalal". While dad sells Kurdistan as an indisputable success story, son lobbies furiously, to the extent that Frank Lavin, US under secretary of commerce for international trade, recently went to Kurdistan to promote it as a gateway for US businesses in Iraq.
But to believe that Ankara will tolerate an oil-rich, water-rich Kurdish mini-state on its southeast border, creating a magnet for Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iran and Syria, is to believe in miracles. Not only Turkey and Iran are vehemently against it, but also Saudi Arabia (the House of Saud believing that a Kurdistan counterpart - Shi'iteistan in southern Iraq - would be subservient to Iran).
What the Bush administration's games have achieved so far is to unite Turkey and Iran on the issue. Turkey regards the Kurds just like China regards Tibetans and Uighurs; they are part of a unitary Turkish state and have no right to autonomy. If Washington condemns China for its repression of Tibetans and Uighurs, it should behave the same way regarding Turkey. Not only will this not happen, but now the Americans need the Turks more than the Turks need the Americans.
A true measure of White House and neo-conservative desperation to facilitate the relentless surge towards war on Iran is whether it would be willing to plunge Iraqi Kurdistan into war, compromise the Turkish-Iraq corridor (through wich flows 70% of US supplies to Iraq) and future US Big Oil investments in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Barzani keeps insisting he and Washington are in sync, both wanting a peaceful solution for this royal mess; but he always points out "we are a nation" which will not accept Turkish threats. US plans for Iraqi Kurdistan, stretching back to that 1990 Israeli-devised Turkish plan, are in jeopardy. And once again all because of the enemy within.
Washington played the ethnic card in Afghanistan, pitting Tajiks against Pashtuns; the result, apart from a never-ending war in Afghanistan, was that Pashtuns on both sides of the border united and are now destabilizing even further the US ally, Pakistan. Washington played the Kurd card to destabilize Saddam Hussein's Iraq and as a beachhead for its control of the country after the invasion. Not only Iraq turned into a quagmire, Washington helped to plunge Kurdistan into the line of (Turkish) fire. There's no evidence these lessons have been learned.
No matter what happens in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Bush administration will still insist on the ethnic card to precipitate regime change in Iran.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
Asia Times Online Ltd.
Great Mosque of SAMARRA threatened
Spiral Minaret of Samarra
Building of Iraqi police barracks threatens world heritage site
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2202649,00.html
Michael Howard in Erbil
Thursday November 1, 2007 The Guardian
The construction of a large police barracks close to the Great Mosque of Samarra and its famed spiral minaret is imperilling another of Iraq's precious historical sites, Unesco and senior archaeologists have warned.
Work on the building and a training centre for 1,500 Iraqi policemen is continuing in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, despite the addition this summer of the ninth-century remains of the capital of the Abbasid dynasty to Unesco's list of endangered world heritage sites.
There are fears that the police compound will prove an irresistible target for insurgents, and that the construction and operation of the barracks will damage the Samarra Archaeological City, one of the country's largest and most valuable historical areas, the Art Newspaper reported in its November issue.
Unesco officials said the dire security situation in Samarra had prevented them from taking any measures to secure and protect the site. Neither Unesco's office for Iraq, which is currently based in Amman, nor Iraq's board of state antiquities and heritage, had been consulted about the location of the new police building.
There were similar protests after reports of damage to ancient sites by US forces in Babylon and Nineveh, and international experts say the future looks bleak for Iraq's ancient heritage. Conservation projects in Iraq have stalled and many archaeologists have left the country.
Samarra's department of antiquities was looted and burned in May.
Nearly 50,000 packs of playing cards meant to help US troops avoid unnecessary damage to ancient sites and curb the illegal trade of stolen artefacts are to be shipped to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as training sites in the United States. Each card displays an artefact or site and gives a tip on how to avoid damaging historic treasures.
Two weeks ago, the police headquarters in Samarra, a focal point for the Sunni insurgency, was attacked by a suicide bomber in a truck backed up by 60 gunmen. Nearby buildings were destroyed.
A Unesco spokeswoman told the Guardian yesterday that it "remains very vigilant regarding the state of conservation of the Samarra Archaeological City".
One of the architectural jewels in Samarra is the 52-metre spiral minaret which is part of the Great Mosque of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, built in the ninth century. The minaret, which features on an Iraqi banknote, survived countless invasions and wars, but was badly damaged by insurgent fire in 2005 when American soldiers used it as a lookout post. The area close to the Tigris river also boasts remains of palaces, hunting parks and racetracks.
Alistair Northedge, professor of Islamic art and archaeology at the Sorbonne, told the Guardian the decision to base the police training centre so close to the ancient city was "quite unnecessary", and urged Iraqi authorities to use the acres of space elsewhere.
The lack of security has also interfered with the reconstruction of the city's al-Askari shrine, one of the holiest places in Shia Islam. The destruction of its gold dome by Sunni militants in February 2006 caused outrage among Iraqi Shia and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that pushed the country towards civil war.
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