Irak’ta Türkmenlere Yönelik Şiddet Neden Tırmanıyor
Hasan Kanbolat, ORSAM Başkanı, hasankanbolat@orsam.org.tr
Mayıs ayının ilk haftasında Irak Türkmen Meclisi’nde alınan karara göre, Irak Türkmen Cephesi’nin (ITC) yeniden organize edilmesi kararlaştırılmıştı. ITC’nin yeni başkanı milletvekili ve ITC Kerkük İl Başkanı Erşat Salihi olmuştu. ITC’deki yeni siyasi yapılanma sürecinden bir hafta sonra 12 Mayıs’ta sabaha karşı Erşat Salihi’nin Kerkük’teki evine saldırı gerçekleştirilmişti. Ev korunmasına rağmen evin tavanında açılan delikten içeriye patlayıcılar atıldı, evin etrafına mayın döşendi. Böylece, Irak’ta ilk defa bir Türkmen lidere bu büyüklükte bir eylem yapıldı. Neyseki, Salihi ve ailesi evde iken yapılan saldırıda kimse zarar görmedi. Ancak, olay yerini incelemeden dönerken Kerkük Emniyet Müdürü Cemal Tahir’in konvoyuna da bir saldırının gerçekleşmiş olması saldırının oldukça organize ve ısrarlı olduğunu gösteriyor.
Irak’ta düşük yoğunluklu şiddet günlük hayatın parçası olmuş durumda. Irak’ın genelinde günde yaklaşık 10-100 kişinin hayatını kaybettiği şiddet günlük hayatı etkilemiyor. Irak halkı kitselleşmeyen şiddeti normal karşılamaya başlamış. Ancak, Salihi’ye yönelik saldırının Irak’taki herhangi bir saldırıyla karıştırılmaması gerekiyor. Nitekim, saldırının öneminden dolayı Türk Dışişleri Bakanlığı da bir açıklama yaparak saldırıyı kınamıştır (12 Mayıs 2011/ No: 126).
Erşat Salihi, muhtemel bir saldırıyı beklediklerini, ancak saldırı nedeniyle herhangi bir tarafı suçlayamayacağını söylemiştir. Olay, siyasi bir mesaj ise bu mesajın sahibi kim? Mesajın içeriği nedir? Irak’ın üç kurucu unsurundan biri olmalarına rağmen 7 Mart 2010 genel seçimlerine kadar Irak siyasetinde varlık gösteremeyen Türkmenler, ilk kez 3 bakanla temsil edilmeye başlanmış ve Kerkük Vilayet Başkanlığını seçimle elde etmişti. Türkmenlerin Irak siyasetinde yer almasından rahatsız mı olundu? Türkmenlerin siyaseti öğrenmesi mi rahatsızlık yarattı? Türkmenler üzerinde Türkiye’ye mesaj mı verilmek isteniyor? Yoksa, Türkiye’nin ve Irak Türkmenlerinin değişen Kürt politikası mı saldırılar da etkili oldu? Bu soruların cevaplarını aramak için yakın geçmişe bakmalıyız.
ITC, 1995’de Erbil’de kurulmuştu. O zamanlar Türkmenlerin sloganı “Erbil Türktür, Türk kalacak”dı. Ancak, PKK’nın Irak’ın kuzeyinde barınarak Türkiye’ye sızması, PKK’nın faaliyetlerine Irak Kürtlerinin müsaade etmesi Türkiye ve Irak Türkmenleri ile Irak Kürtlerinin arasının açılmasına yol açmıştı. 2003’de ABD işgali sonrası ITC merkezini Kerkük’e taşıdı. Kürdistan Bölgesel Yönetimi’nin oluşturulması ve ITC’nin ‘Kürdistan’ adını kabul etmemesi, KYB ve KDP’nin haritalarında bölgesel yönetimin sınırları içinde Kerkük’e yer vermesi taşınmada etkili olmuştu. Kürkük’e taşınan ITC ile birlikte Türkmenlerin yeni sloganı “Kerkük Türktür, Türk kalacak” olmuştu.
Son yıllarda Türkiye’nin Kürt politikasında yumuşamanın Irak Kürtleri ile ilişkileri de etkilemesiyle birlikte Irak Türkmenleri ile Irak Kürtleri arasında da bahar havası esmeye başlamıştır. Bu bahar havası Türkmenlerin Kerkük Vilayet Başkanlığını seçimle elde etmesine de yardımcı olmuştur. Türkiye’nin Erbil Başkonsolosluğu’nu açması, Dışişleri Bakanı Davutoğlu, Sanayi Bakanı Çağlayan, İçişleri Bakanı Atalay’ın ziyaretleri sonrası Başbakan Erdoğan’ın da 29 Mart’da Erbil’i ziyaret etmesi, KDP’nin kongresine ITC’yi davet etmesi, ITC’deki değişime Kürtlerin olumlu yaklaşımı ve Salihi’yi tebrik eden ilk siyasi partilerden birinin KYB olması, 2003’den beri Erbil bürosu kapalı olan ITC’nin Erbil’de yeniden büro açmaya hazırlanması Türkiye ve Irak Türkmenleri ile Irak Kürtleri arasındaki güven bunalımının büyük ölçüde aşılmasına yol açmıştır. Ancak, bu yeni denge yeni kutuplaşmaların da önünü açmıştır. Tartışmalı bölgelerde Kürtlerin nüfus ve siyasi yönden yayılmasından giderek daha fazla rahatsız olan egemen güçler Türkiye’nin ve Irak Türkmenlerinin uzlaşmacı politikalarından rahatsız olmuştur. Nitekim, 15 Şubat’ta Kerkük’te üç Türk işçisi kaçırılarak Kerkük-Reşad’a bağlı bir Arap köyü olan Dogmat’da 70 gün tutulmuş, son 7 gün de sadece plastik bir boruyla nefes alabilecek şekilde bir çukura gömülmüşlerdi.
Bölge Araplarını yok sayacak hiçbir çözüm önerisinin Kerkük’e ve tartışmalı bölgelere huzur getirmeyeceği açık bir gerçektir. Aynı şekilde, Türkmenler ve Kürtler de yok sayılamaz. Bu nedenle, bölgede taraflar arasındaki diyalog arayışlarının dengeler gözetilerek yapılması tansiyonun düşmesine yardımcı olacaktır.
29 MAYIS 2011
http://www.orsam.org.tr/tr/yazigoster.aspx?ID=1989
lundi 30 mai 2011
dimanche 29 mai 2011
Can Turkey Unify the Arabs?
By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: May 28, 2011
GAZIANTEP, Turkey
LESS than a mile from the Syrian frontier, in the land of Kemal Ataturk, Ahmed Sheikh Said defies the identities that borders inspire.
Mr. Said was born in the Syrian town of Azaz and raised across a line on the map in Kilis, Turkey. A grocer, he speaks Turkish like a native to his customers, while holding an ear open to the Arabic telecasts of Al Jazeera playing in his store. His wife and his mother are Turkish, but Arab blood runs through his veins, he says, “till the end of time.”
“The bread of Azaz comes from Kilis, and the bread of Kilis comes from Azaz,” said Mr. Said, whose shop sits just off a road that once carried the business of the far-flung Ottoman Empire and now marks Turkey’s limits. “We’re the same. We’re brothers. What really divides us?”
As the Arab world beyond the border struggles with the inspirations and traumas of its revolution — a new notion of citizenship colliding with the smaller claims of piety, sect and clan — something else is percolating along the old routes of that empire, which spanned three continents and lasted six centuries before Ataturk brought it to an end in 1923 with self-conscious revolutionary zeal.
It is probably too early to define identities emerging in those locales. But something bigger than its parts is at work along imperial connections that were bent but never broken by decades of colonialism and the cold war. The links are the stuff of land, culture, history, architecture, memory and imagination that remains the realm of scholarship and daily lives but often eludes the notice of a journalism marching to the cadence of conflict.
Even amid the din of the upheaval in the Arab world, that new sense of belonging represents a more pacific and perhaps more powerful undertow pulling in directions that call into question more parochial notions. The undertow intersects with the Arab revolution’s search for a new sense of self; it also builds on economic forces now reconnecting an older imperium, as well as on Turkey’s new dynamism and on efforts to bring reality to what has long been nostalgia.
Its echoes are heard in the borderlands like Gaziantep, near Mr. Said’s shop, where businessman can haggle in a patois of English, Turkish, Arabic and even Kurdish. It is seen in the blurring of arbitrary lines where the Semitic script of Arabic and Kurdish tangles with the Latin script of Turkish across the borders with Syria and Iraq. It is noticed along the frontiers where Arab and Turkish nationalism, pan-Islamism and a host of secular ideologies never seemed to quite capture the ambitions or demarcate the environments of the diverse peoples who live there.
“The normalization of history,” proclaims the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has tried to reintegrate the region by lifting visa requirements and promoting a Middle Eastern trade zone, as it deploys its businessmen along the old routes and exports Turkey’s pop culture to an eager audience.
“None of the borders of Turkey are natural,” he went on. “Almost all of them are artificial. Of course we have to respect them as nation-states, but at the same time we have to understand that there are natural continuities. That’s the way it’s been for centuries.”
There is admittedly a hint of romanticism in it all. The Arab world may in fact be bracing for years of sectarian and internecine strife in places like Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. And in seeking to be a more prominent, and steadying, influence, Turkey’s ambitions may well be greater than its means. Still, economic realities are already restoring old trajectories that joined the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Iraq, tied Batumi in Georgia to Trabzon in Turkey, and knit Aleppo into an axis of cities — Mosul, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep and Iskenderun — in which Damascus, the leading but distant Arab metropole, was an afterthought.
THE DRAWING OF 20TH-CENTURY BORDERS rendered traumas large and small. Sectarian and ethnic cleansing after World War I rid Turkey and Greece of much of their diversity. The horrors of nationalism and the Holocaust made Salonica, a celebrated melting pot, unrecognizable in its modern incarnation. Even history’s footnotes were rewritten.
One example is Marjayoun, my family’s ancestral hometown in Lebanon, nestled near the Israeli and Syrian borders in the heart of the old Ottoman realm, and little more than an afterthought on maps these days.
No one in Marjayoun would necessarily pine for the days of the Ottoman rulers. Massacres occurred, and Jews and Christians faced discrimination in taxes and commerce. There was no such thing as equality. To this day, the darkest moments of Marjayoun’s history remain those last breaths of the empire — the seferberlik. It was the Ottoman name for the draft, but it came to represent the famine, starvation and death that World War I brought to the town, when the famished searched the manure of animals to find an undigested morsel of grain.
Yet more than a few in Marjayoun today might express a nostalgia for the time and place the Ottoman Empire represented, when Marjayoun’s traders ventured to Arish on the coast of the Sinai Peninsula and down the Nile to Sudan, by way of Palestine. The town was a way station on the route from the breadbasket of the Houran in southern Syria to Acre, the Levant’s greatest port on the coast of Palestine. Beirut was an afterthought. Marjayoun’s traders plied the steppe of the Houran, its gentry owned land in the Hula Valley, and its educated ventured to Haifa and Jerusalem to make their reputations.
World War I and the borders that followed augured the demise of this style of life, and not just in Marjayoun. The ideologies that gained prevalence in the town then were about contesting those frontiers — Arab nationalism, pan-Syrian nationalism and Communism, which itself was imagining a broader community. These movements failed as more borders were drawn in wars with Israel in 1948 and 1967. And with those lines on the map came a smaller sense of self. By the time Lebanon’s 15-year civil war began in 1975, ideologies had given way to identities, and most people in Marjayoun identified themselves simply as Christian, or perhaps Greek Orthodox, too unique to survive as a community.
A town of thousands is today a town of hundreds, strewn with the abandoned villas of another age. Hajar bala bashar, a friend once told me. “Stones without people.”
“A RECREATION OF THE HISTORIC AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT” is how Mr. Davutoglu describes his vision for the region. And indeed, that vision, which is effectively government policy, has touched in a nerve in Turkey, a country with its own unresolved questions of identity.
Just as Arab nationalism still runs run deep, with the fate of Palestine its axis, so does Turkish nationalism, which includes a sense that the country deserves a role in the region, and beyond that at least echoes of its Ottoman age. The more sophisticated Turks dismiss charges of a new rationale for Turkish imperialism and call the goal instead a peaceful partnership that might look like the free-trade zone that presaged the European Union after World War II.
“It’s been almost 100 years that we’ve been separated by superficial borders, superficial cultural and religious borders, and now with the lifting of visas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, we’re lifting national boundaries,” said Yusuf Yerkel, a young academic on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s staff. “Turkey is challenging the traditional understanding of policy in the Middle East in place since the 20th century.”
More than the talk of a salon, the vision comes at an obvious turning point in the Middle East. Though dealt setbacks by the Arab revolution — investments have been lost in Libya and the prospect of chaos stalks Syria — Turkey has stuck to its vision of an integrated region. A railway line linking Turkey, Syria and Iraq reopened last year; a fast train is to operate between Gaziantep and Aleppo. The resources of northern Iraq are strategic for Turkey’s plans to diversify its energy sources and to feed a pipeline from Turkey to central Europe. A common free-trade area has already been agreed upon by Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Turkish television series are dubbed into Syrian Arabic, and its stars’ posters sell by the tens of thousands in Iraq. In Baghdad, portraits of one famous actor are digitally altered to show him in traditional Kurdish or Arab dress.
Across the region, the Arab revolution has inspired a rethinking of identity, even as older notions of self hang like a specter over the revolts’ success. In its most pristine, the revolution feels transnational, as demands of justice, freedom and dignity are expressed in a technology-driven globalism. It echoes even in Turkey, where religious and national divides are increasingly blurred. Selcuk Sirin, a professor at New York University who has done extensive polling in Turkey, especially among youth, calls this the emergence of “hybrid identities.”
“Young people don’t buy into this idea of a clash, and they don’t buy into this idea of fixed identity,” he said. “They know how to negotiate these so-called polar opposites, and they’re looking for something new.”
THERE WAS A MOVIE more than a decade ago in Turkey called “Propaganda,” a dark comedy about the border drawn between Syria and Turkey, dividing family from family. It was inspired by the reality of relatives heading to the fence there on Muslim holidays — Bayram in Turkish, Id in Arabic — and throwing gifts to the other side.
These days, with the border effectively open, Syrians fill the hotels on weekends in Gaziantep, which is famous for its pistachios. Some merchants here talk about their trade growing tenfold since visa requirements were lifted. Debates rage over whether the kebab of Gaziantep is better than the kibbe in Aleppo.
Turks may still call a mess “Arab hair.” But they also judge a gift by the standards of “apricots in Damascus.” And the old notions of Ottoman tyranny (from the Arab point of view) and Arab betrayal in World War I (as Turks see it) have given way somewhat to the promise of profit in a market still booming even amid the uprising across the border.
Hakan Cinkilic, foreign trade manager of a plastics company called Sun Pet, is reaping the benefits. Nearly 80 percent of its products go to Iraq, and the company set up a factory in Jordan last year. Its exports have more than doubled since 2008. This year he has already traveled to Libya, the United States, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
As he spoke, his cellphone rang. It was a customer in Kirkuk, Iraq, who spoke to him in Turkish. A few minutes later, a businessman called from the West Bank. The conversation unfolded in English, punctuated by Arabic expressions inflected by the vowels of his native tongue. You wouldn’t call him neo-Ottoman, given the term’s suggestion of a resurgent imperialism. He’s not really Levantine, an identity whose borders hug the Mediterranean coast. He seemed post-Ottoman, reinterpreting the past.
“It’s natural,” he said simply.
via Can Turkey Unify the Arabs? – NYTimes.com.
Published: May 28, 2011
GAZIANTEP, Turkey
LESS than a mile from the Syrian frontier, in the land of Kemal Ataturk, Ahmed Sheikh Said defies the identities that borders inspire.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Corbis
Mr. Said was born in the Syrian town of Azaz and raised across a line on the map in Kilis, Turkey. A grocer, he speaks Turkish like a native to his customers, while holding an ear open to the Arabic telecasts of Al Jazeera playing in his store. His wife and his mother are Turkish, but Arab blood runs through his veins, he says, “till the end of time.”
“The bread of Azaz comes from Kilis, and the bread of Kilis comes from Azaz,” said Mr. Said, whose shop sits just off a road that once carried the business of the far-flung Ottoman Empire and now marks Turkey’s limits. “We’re the same. We’re brothers. What really divides us?”
As the Arab world beyond the border struggles with the inspirations and traumas of its revolution — a new notion of citizenship colliding with the smaller claims of piety, sect and clan — something else is percolating along the old routes of that empire, which spanned three continents and lasted six centuries before Ataturk brought it to an end in 1923 with self-conscious revolutionary zeal.
It is probably too early to define identities emerging in those locales. But something bigger than its parts is at work along imperial connections that were bent but never broken by decades of colonialism and the cold war. The links are the stuff of land, culture, history, architecture, memory and imagination that remains the realm of scholarship and daily lives but often eludes the notice of a journalism marching to the cadence of conflict.
Even amid the din of the upheaval in the Arab world, that new sense of belonging represents a more pacific and perhaps more powerful undertow pulling in directions that call into question more parochial notions. The undertow intersects with the Arab revolution’s search for a new sense of self; it also builds on economic forces now reconnecting an older imperium, as well as on Turkey’s new dynamism and on efforts to bring reality to what has long been nostalgia.
Its echoes are heard in the borderlands like Gaziantep, near Mr. Said’s shop, where businessman can haggle in a patois of English, Turkish, Arabic and even Kurdish. It is seen in the blurring of arbitrary lines where the Semitic script of Arabic and Kurdish tangles with the Latin script of Turkish across the borders with Syria and Iraq. It is noticed along the frontiers where Arab and Turkish nationalism, pan-Islamism and a host of secular ideologies never seemed to quite capture the ambitions or demarcate the environments of the diverse peoples who live there.
“The normalization of history,” proclaims the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has tried to reintegrate the region by lifting visa requirements and promoting a Middle Eastern trade zone, as it deploys its businessmen along the old routes and exports Turkey’s pop culture to an eager audience.
“None of the borders of Turkey are natural,” he went on. “Almost all of them are artificial. Of course we have to respect them as nation-states, but at the same time we have to understand that there are natural continuities. That’s the way it’s been for centuries.”
There is admittedly a hint of romanticism in it all. The Arab world may in fact be bracing for years of sectarian and internecine strife in places like Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. And in seeking to be a more prominent, and steadying, influence, Turkey’s ambitions may well be greater than its means. Still, economic realities are already restoring old trajectories that joined the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Iraq, tied Batumi in Georgia to Trabzon in Turkey, and knit Aleppo into an axis of cities — Mosul, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep and Iskenderun — in which Damascus, the leading but distant Arab metropole, was an afterthought.
THE DRAWING OF 20TH-CENTURY BORDERS rendered traumas large and small. Sectarian and ethnic cleansing after World War I rid Turkey and Greece of much of their diversity. The horrors of nationalism and the Holocaust made Salonica, a celebrated melting pot, unrecognizable in its modern incarnation. Even history’s footnotes were rewritten.
One example is Marjayoun, my family’s ancestral hometown in Lebanon, nestled near the Israeli and Syrian borders in the heart of the old Ottoman realm, and little more than an afterthought on maps these days.
No one in Marjayoun would necessarily pine for the days of the Ottoman rulers. Massacres occurred, and Jews and Christians faced discrimination in taxes and commerce. There was no such thing as equality. To this day, the darkest moments of Marjayoun’s history remain those last breaths of the empire — the seferberlik. It was the Ottoman name for the draft, but it came to represent the famine, starvation and death that World War I brought to the town, when the famished searched the manure of animals to find an undigested morsel of grain.
Yet more than a few in Marjayoun today might express a nostalgia for the time and place the Ottoman Empire represented, when Marjayoun’s traders ventured to Arish on the coast of the Sinai Peninsula and down the Nile to Sudan, by way of Palestine. The town was a way station on the route from the breadbasket of the Houran in southern Syria to Acre, the Levant’s greatest port on the coast of Palestine. Beirut was an afterthought. Marjayoun’s traders plied the steppe of the Houran, its gentry owned land in the Hula Valley, and its educated ventured to Haifa and Jerusalem to make their reputations.
World War I and the borders that followed augured the demise of this style of life, and not just in Marjayoun. The ideologies that gained prevalence in the town then were about contesting those frontiers — Arab nationalism, pan-Syrian nationalism and Communism, which itself was imagining a broader community. These movements failed as more borders were drawn in wars with Israel in 1948 and 1967. And with those lines on the map came a smaller sense of self. By the time Lebanon’s 15-year civil war began in 1975, ideologies had given way to identities, and most people in Marjayoun identified themselves simply as Christian, or perhaps Greek Orthodox, too unique to survive as a community.
A town of thousands is today a town of hundreds, strewn with the abandoned villas of another age. Hajar bala bashar, a friend once told me. “Stones without people.”
“A RECREATION OF THE HISTORIC AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT” is how Mr. Davutoglu describes his vision for the region. And indeed, that vision, which is effectively government policy, has touched in a nerve in Turkey, a country with its own unresolved questions of identity.
Just as Arab nationalism still runs run deep, with the fate of Palestine its axis, so does Turkish nationalism, which includes a sense that the country deserves a role in the region, and beyond that at least echoes of its Ottoman age. The more sophisticated Turks dismiss charges of a new rationale for Turkish imperialism and call the goal instead a peaceful partnership that might look like the free-trade zone that presaged the European Union after World War II.
“It’s been almost 100 years that we’ve been separated by superficial borders, superficial cultural and religious borders, and now with the lifting of visas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, we’re lifting national boundaries,” said Yusuf Yerkel, a young academic on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s staff. “Turkey is challenging the traditional understanding of policy in the Middle East in place since the 20th century.”
More than the talk of a salon, the vision comes at an obvious turning point in the Middle East. Though dealt setbacks by the Arab revolution — investments have been lost in Libya and the prospect of chaos stalks Syria — Turkey has stuck to its vision of an integrated region. A railway line linking Turkey, Syria and Iraq reopened last year; a fast train is to operate between Gaziantep and Aleppo. The resources of northern Iraq are strategic for Turkey’s plans to diversify its energy sources and to feed a pipeline from Turkey to central Europe. A common free-trade area has already been agreed upon by Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Turkish television series are dubbed into Syrian Arabic, and its stars’ posters sell by the tens of thousands in Iraq. In Baghdad, portraits of one famous actor are digitally altered to show him in traditional Kurdish or Arab dress.
Across the region, the Arab revolution has inspired a rethinking of identity, even as older notions of self hang like a specter over the revolts’ success. In its most pristine, the revolution feels transnational, as demands of justice, freedom and dignity are expressed in a technology-driven globalism. It echoes even in Turkey, where religious and national divides are increasingly blurred. Selcuk Sirin, a professor at New York University who has done extensive polling in Turkey, especially among youth, calls this the emergence of “hybrid identities.”
“Young people don’t buy into this idea of a clash, and they don’t buy into this idea of fixed identity,” he said. “They know how to negotiate these so-called polar opposites, and they’re looking for something new.”
THERE WAS A MOVIE more than a decade ago in Turkey called “Propaganda,” a dark comedy about the border drawn between Syria and Turkey, dividing family from family. It was inspired by the reality of relatives heading to the fence there on Muslim holidays — Bayram in Turkish, Id in Arabic — and throwing gifts to the other side.
These days, with the border effectively open, Syrians fill the hotels on weekends in Gaziantep, which is famous for its pistachios. Some merchants here talk about their trade growing tenfold since visa requirements were lifted. Debates rage over whether the kebab of Gaziantep is better than the kibbe in Aleppo.
Turks may still call a mess “Arab hair.” But they also judge a gift by the standards of “apricots in Damascus.” And the old notions of Ottoman tyranny (from the Arab point of view) and Arab betrayal in World War I (as Turks see it) have given way somewhat to the promise of profit in a market still booming even amid the uprising across the border.
Hakan Cinkilic, foreign trade manager of a plastics company called Sun Pet, is reaping the benefits. Nearly 80 percent of its products go to Iraq, and the company set up a factory in Jordan last year. Its exports have more than doubled since 2008. This year he has already traveled to Libya, the United States, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
As he spoke, his cellphone rang. It was a customer in Kirkuk, Iraq, who spoke to him in Turkish. A few minutes later, a businessman called from the West Bank. The conversation unfolded in English, punctuated by Arabic expressions inflected by the vowels of his native tongue. You wouldn’t call him neo-Ottoman, given the term’s suggestion of a resurgent imperialism. He’s not really Levantine, an identity whose borders hug the Mediterranean coast. He seemed post-Ottoman, reinterpreting the past.
“It’s natural,” he said simply.
via Can Turkey Unify the Arabs? – NYTimes.com.
jeudi 26 mai 2011
IRAQ: Thousands rally against U.S. troops
Thursday, May. 26, 2011
Iraq: Thousands Rally Against U.S. Troops
By AP / QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
(BAGHDAD) — Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters led a massive rally of followers of a hard-liner anti-American cleric on Thursday, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep U.S. troops in the country beyond the end of the year.
An estimated 70,000 supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr waved Iraqi flags and shouted "No, no, America!" as the tight columns of the unarmed but ominous Mahdi Army marched though one of Baghdad's poorest neighborhoods.
U.S., Israeli and British flags were painted on the pavement to be stomped on by the marching protesters, and Iraqi military helicopters buzzed overhead while soldiers stood guard to keep peace if needed.
The rally was a message to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about the staunch opposition by Iraq's most devout Shi'ites — and the ones who grudgingly helped him clinch a second term in office last year — to a continued U.S. military presence in 2012.
Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad, the 46,000 combat troops still in Iraq are required to leave by Dec. 31. But Iraq's widespread instability has led U.S. and Iraqi leaders to reconsider the deadline for the sake of the country's security.
"I am ready to fight the Americans whenever Sayyida (Muqtada) orders me to," Mohammed Moyad, 18, who said he skipped five days of school to train with his colleagues for Thursday's march.
Al-Sadr had not yet appeared nearly two hours after the start of the march, and his top aide, Salah al-Obeidi, said the cleric likely would not. Adoring crowds surged at a convoy of more than 10 white sport utility vehicles that was believed to be carrying al-Sadr, but it drove away without stopping.
Though the rally was billed as a peaceful demonstration, al-Obeidi said threats against the U.S. still stand if the troops stay. "We will be obliged to fight and do our best to liberate our country," he said.
Already, American forces in Baghdad and southern Iraq have seen an increase in rocket and mortar attacks as well as roadside bombs in recent months. U.S. officials have blamed the uptick on Shi'ite militias backed by Iran who are trying to take credit for driving American forces from Iraq.
Al-Obeidi said the point of the rally was to show that Iraqis are disciplined and can protect the country. A statement by parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, called the march "clear proof to Iraq's unity."
However, al-Nujaifi spokesman Mohammed al-Khalidi sought to distance the speaker from the specter of violence. He said al-Nujaifi is not necessarily against the U.S. presence but declined to elaborate.
U.S. officials counted more than 300 busloads — each carrying up to 70 passengers — who traveled from Iraq's south for the rally, and were joined by some of the roughly 2 million who live in Baghdad's northeast Sadr City neighborhood where it was held.
An estimated 18,000 militiamen wore matching T-shirts bearing the Iraqi flag as spectators burned American and Israeli banners. Small groups of youths along the parade route also struck Americans flags with twirling kickboxing moves to the delight of onlookers.
Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Lara Jakes contributed to this report.
Iraq: Thousands Rally Against U.S. Troops
By AP / QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
(BAGHDAD) — Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters led a massive rally of followers of a hard-liner anti-American cleric on Thursday, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep U.S. troops in the country beyond the end of the year.
An estimated 70,000 supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr waved Iraqi flags and shouted "No, no, America!" as the tight columns of the unarmed but ominous Mahdi Army marched though one of Baghdad's poorest neighborhoods.
U.S., Israeli and British flags were painted on the pavement to be stomped on by the marching protesters, and Iraqi military helicopters buzzed overhead while soldiers stood guard to keep peace if needed.
The rally was a message to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about the staunch opposition by Iraq's most devout Shi'ites — and the ones who grudgingly helped him clinch a second term in office last year — to a continued U.S. military presence in 2012.
Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad, the 46,000 combat troops still in Iraq are required to leave by Dec. 31. But Iraq's widespread instability has led U.S. and Iraqi leaders to reconsider the deadline for the sake of the country's security.
"I am ready to fight the Americans whenever Sayyida (Muqtada) orders me to," Mohammed Moyad, 18, who said he skipped five days of school to train with his colleagues for Thursday's march.
Al-Sadr had not yet appeared nearly two hours after the start of the march, and his top aide, Salah al-Obeidi, said the cleric likely would not. Adoring crowds surged at a convoy of more than 10 white sport utility vehicles that was believed to be carrying al-Sadr, but it drove away without stopping.
Though the rally was billed as a peaceful demonstration, al-Obeidi said threats against the U.S. still stand if the troops stay. "We will be obliged to fight and do our best to liberate our country," he said.
Already, American forces in Baghdad and southern Iraq have seen an increase in rocket and mortar attacks as well as roadside bombs in recent months. U.S. officials have blamed the uptick on Shi'ite militias backed by Iran who are trying to take credit for driving American forces from Iraq.
Al-Obeidi said the point of the rally was to show that Iraqis are disciplined and can protect the country. A statement by parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, called the march "clear proof to Iraq's unity."
However, al-Nujaifi spokesman Mohammed al-Khalidi sought to distance the speaker from the specter of violence. He said al-Nujaifi is not necessarily against the U.S. presence but declined to elaborate.
U.S. officials counted more than 300 busloads — each carrying up to 70 passengers — who traveled from Iraq's south for the rally, and were joined by some of the roughly 2 million who live in Baghdad's northeast Sadr City neighborhood where it was held.
An estimated 18,000 militiamen wore matching T-shirts bearing the Iraqi flag as spectators burned American and Israeli banners. Small groups of youths along the parade route also struck Americans flags with twirling kickboxing moves to the delight of onlookers.
Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Lara Jakes contributed to this report.
Korku, Engelleri Aştık biz...Sadun Köprülü
Yazan: Sadun KÖPRÜLÜ
Irak Türkleri için korkunç ve ürpertici yaşantılar hazırlayanlara Saddam rejimi ve ömrü billah düşman güçlerin oyuncağı olmaktan öteye gitmemiş, hep dış güçlerle el ele yürümüş –sözüm ona feodal aşiret reisi, işbirlikçiler Türk halkına karşı fırsatçı ve acımasız oldular.
Türkmen milletine Saddam rejimi gibi türlü baskılar uyguladılar: İşkenceler, tertip ve tuzaklar bir yandan, bir yandan hukuksuz özgürlüklerini ellerinden aldılar, yok ettiler veya yerlerinden yurtlarından ettiler ve etmeye çalışmaktadırlar. Mallarını mülklerini yağmaladılar.
Acı çileyle, sürgünle yok etmeye, haklarını gasp etmeye devam etmeleri yetmedi, özellikle Türkmen şehri Kerkük’e, yine bir ölçüde yerlerinden yurtlarından ettikleri başka unsurları getirip yerleştirdiler.
Olay petrol ve feodal güçlerin güç gösterisi sorunudur.
Bunları gerçekleştirmek için dünyanın gözüne baka, baka sistemli, planlı faaliyetlerini sürdürüyorlar.
Sanki dünya “üç buçuk eşkıya”ya teslim
Edilmişte Türk’ün yok edilişine hepten karar verilmiştir.
Görünüşe göre sanki mazlumların gücü sahibi kalmamıştır…
Ama Irak Türkleri hale bu maceraya karşı dayanıp durdular, korkmadılar, susmak bilmediler, her yerde haklarını aramaya gösterişlere katıldılar, şehitler verdiler, irada gücü ile zorluğa karşılık verebildiler.
Acıya, işkenceye, baskıya, çileye dayandılar durdular varlıklarını tüm dünyaya bildirdiler.
Çünkü Türk milleti olarak gururumuz, İlkemiz her şeyden üstündür, Eski dönemde Kerkük’te, Altunköprü, Tuzhurmatu ve başka Türkmen topraklarında, diktatör rejimi güvenlik, istihbaratı, her tarafı sarmıştı, hatta öyle bir duruma gelmiştir ki, millet kendi evinde ailesi içerisinde siyaset, Türkçülükten, Milletten, Kerkük ve öteki Türkmen yerlerinden ve ortalarında anne dilleriyle konuşmak, Türkçe türkü söylemekten, kitap, gazete, dergi okumadan dertleşmekten bahsetmeye çekiniyorlardır.
Kardeş, kardeşten, baba, oğuldan herkes birbirinden korkuyordur.
Yüzlerce genç, yaşlılarımızı boşu boşuna idam ederek kurşuna dizerek, birçoğunu da yıllar boyunca Türkçülük, milliyetçilik ile suçlayarak mahpushaneye atmışlardır.
Ama ne yazık demokrasi geldi diye sevindik buda çok sürmedi yine işbirlikçiler, Saddamcılar ve kopyaları iş başında hep eskiden yaralandıkları gibi bugünde onlara daha fazla önem verilmektedir, Mücadeleci dava adamları, şehit aileleri ve hapis, ,işkence görenler arka planda kalarak onları her bir türlü baskı ile yok etmeye çalışıyorlar
Ama bir türlü onlara karşı yüz be yüz duramıyorlar, güçleri yetemiyor millet arkalarında olduğundan dolayı.
Çünkü onlar yiğittiler, kahramandılar, korkuya, ölüme bile aldırmadan milli mücadele davalarını kanlarıyla, canlarıyla sürdürmektedirler.
Bizler geçmişte olduğu gibi bugünde
Değer arzularımızı beslemekle, varlığımıza göz koyan gururumuzu, özgürlüğümüzü hiç etmeye çalışanların karşısında, Ercesine korkmadan durarak, hiç kimsenin bizde hakkı yoktur, yalnız kendi başımızla, kanımızla, canımızla özgürlüğümüz için, mücadelemiz için, döktüğümüz arı temiz kanları meydanları kınamıyoruz.
Türklükle iftihar ederek yüce, Ulu şehitlerimizi anarak, acılarımızın tekrar geriye dönmesini isteyenlere ve tahta oturmayı hayal edenlere, sevenlere hiç
Hoş geldin demiyoruz, tahta oturanlar kutsal görevlerin düşünmelidirler, parayı masayı, sandalyeyi unutmalı, yalnız şehitlerin kanına, Türkmeneli Kerkük’e
and ederek, düz doğru milli yolda gönülden, çalışarak Türkçülük milliyetçilik görevini sağlam olarak yerine getirmeli,
Saddam cellât gibi, kendi milleti için diktatör olmamalı, çünkü her lideri millet lider eder, beğenmezse de millet onu yok eder düşürür, tahtan atar, indirir Dünyada
Ortadoğuda olduğu gibi.
En büyük sorunumuz korku idi, ama bugün bir kıyıcı diktatöre karşı, bunu aşarak, cellat Saddam düştükten sonra, yerini İşbirlikçi partiler, ajanlar, alınan insanlar alarak, onun yapmadığını Türkmen milletine karşı onlar uygulamaktadırlar.
Biz büyük bir milletiz, kendimize güveniriz, gururumuz, benliğimiz, varlığımız için her adımda ilerlemekteyiz.
Saddam yönetiminde kapkaranlık, dünyamızı çalışma, yorulmayla aydınlatarak, bu günde milli yolumuza, Saddam rejiminin düşmesi, halkın ayaklanması, ve karşı durması, irade ve sabırla, mücadeleye başlayarak, onları korku ve endişe içerisine sokmalı....
En büyük zulüm ve vahşete karşı duran, Irak Türkleri toprak, yurtlarımızı, köy, yerlerimizi, pisliklerden, kıyıcı kötülüklerden, zalimlerden, Türk düşmanlarından, işbirlikçilerden kurtarmak için, neler yaptığımızı dünya biliyor, Bunu, hiç kimse inkâr edemez, bizler yüce Türk milletinin oğullarıyız, baş eğmeden kimseye, ırkımızdan, Türklüğümüzden ölürüz hiçbir zaman tavız vermeyiz.
Tüm dünya basını ve yayınları buna şahittir, Duymayan duysun, bilmeyen bilsinler, bizler Irak’ta, büyük milletiz, bu toprakları biz kurduk, gelişleştirdik, uygarlık yaptık, tarih yazdık bizlerden önce bu topraklarda, hiçbir millet devlet yokmuş 6 devlet imparatorlar korduk, Irak Türkleri olarak tarih boyu bu topraklarda Devletler, bizim elimizle hüküm sürmüştür, korkmadan her türlü facia ve kaygı zulüm, işkence karşısında durup yenilmeden varlığımızı gösterdik, Bizi yok eden ve hayatımızla oynayan insanlara, hiç fırsat vermeyeceğiz.
Tarihimizin, hayatımızın kararmasını bilmiş ve anlamışız buna göre yolumuza başlamışız, bu nedenle tüm haklarımızı koruyarak başarmalıyız.
Ey kıralar, tiranlar, despotlar, kıyıcı diktatörler, dünyaya hâkim olmak isteyenler, bu mazlum insanların kaderinde oynayanlar, biraz kendinize gelin, önünüzü düşünmezseniz sonunuzu düşünün, bu dünya çok padişahlara, başkanlara hiç kimselere kalmamış ve kalmayacaktır.
Acaba sonunuzun, hesabından korkmuyormuşsunuz, utanmıyormuşsunuz.
Sizlerde, Saddam ve Saddamcılar, bu kutsal Türkmen toprak yerlerini kendilerine mal edenler, Türk yurdu Kerkük'ü kendi topraklar, malları sayanlar, artık sonunuz geldi, biz büyük Türk dünyasını, birleştireceğiz birliğimizi koracağız isterseniz, istemezseniz de bu topraklar, bu yerler bizlerindir ve bizlerinde kalacaktır.
Büyük tarihli, kültürlü, onurlu, töreli, güçlü atılgan yiğit Türk milleti ile bizler varız var olacağız.
Türkmenler, Azerbaycan Türkleri, Batı Trakya, Roman, Yunan, Makedonya, Ahıska, Batı Avrupa, Avustralya, ABD Türkleri, Dağıstan, Kuzey Osetya, Gagavuz,
Kara kaplak, Kırım, Tatar Doğu Türkistan,
Uygur Türkleri, Afganistan, Bulgaristan, Irak, Erdebil, Urumya, Türkmen Sahra, Tebriz, Tahran, Horasan, Kaşğar, Halaç, Zen can, Hehadan, Kazvin Türkleri, Irak Kerkük, Kale Hıristiyanları , Musul, Erbil, Diyala, Telafer, Bağdat Türkleri, Sincan, Telafer, Aziziye Türkleri…
Moğolistan ,Nugaya, Suriye, Heleb, Dımışk, Lazikiya, Hasaka, Teslima Türkleri, Kosova, Sancak, Baş Kurt isten, Çavuş isten, Yakut isten, Hakas, Altay , Tava, Kara çay, Kabart ay, Balkar, İnguşe Sibirya, Kızıl deriler, Filistin Ehzan, Cenin, Adana köy,Türkleri, Kahire, Cezayir, Tunus, Libya, Kıbrıs,Urdun, Hicaz, Şam Türkleri Türkmenistan, Azerbaycan, Türkistan, Kırgız, Özbekistan , Kazakistan, Tacikistan, Kara bağ, Çeçenistan, Bosna Hersek, Arnavutluk… Ve tüm dünya Türkleri birdir, bir gönül, bir eldiler, bir dildiler; hiç bir mezhep, din, renk ayrımı bizde yoktur ve olmayacaktır, çünkü bir yürek bir gönülüz.
Bundan dolayı bizler her Türk’e kanımızla, canımızla, malımızla her bir şeyimizle, yardım edersek öz milletimize yardım etmek oluyoruz ve hiçbir kimseye de ajans uşak olmayacağız. Türk milleti her nerde olursa olsun, kendi milletimizdir, kendi kanımızdır, canımızdır.
Türklük davamızdan bizi hiç bir güç kuvvet ayıramaz Atasözümüzde olduğu gibi, Et tırnaktan ayrılmaz.
Düşmanlar bizleri bir mezhep, iki din, üç, dört ülke, bu Türk’tür, bu Türkmen’dir, bu Azarıdır, bu Afşar, bu Gagavuz’dur diye ayırtmak istiyorlar, ama bunlar bu boş kafayı kötü davranışları iç, dış düşmanlıkları kin beslemekleri, hainliklerini yeter bıraksınlar,
Bizim varlığımızı unutmayacağız,hakkımız öcümüz her nasıl olursa alınacaktır, bizleri sevmeyenler kıyıcılar doğdukları günlerine pişman olacaklardır..
Düşmanlarda bunu iyi bilsin bir karış anayurt, baba ocağı topraklarımız Kerkük, Musul, Erbil’den ve Türk dünyamızdan ayrılamayız, vazgeçmeyiz, ölene, can verene kadar.
Başkaları ne derse desinler, bizler Türk’üz, Türk kalacağız, Anavatanımız Türkiye’dir ve nerde bir Türk varsa oradan sınır, topraklarımız başlayacak,
Oralarda Türkçülük, milli bayrağımız dalgalanacaktır.
Rahmetli büyük Atamız Mustafa Kemal Paşa Atatürk, ne kadar güzel belirtmiştir:
“NE MUTLU TÜRK’ÜM DİYENE!”
Tarihimiz Uludur yücedir milli yorumumuz da bu, ne yazık ki. Hem yazık, hem tarihimiz mücadelemiz anlamamız geregir toplumuzu biran önce uykudan kaldırmalıyız, ona göre hesap kitap etmemiz gereken çıplak gerçekte bu değil midir?
Rahmetli Türk Başbuğu Türkeş’in, tarihe gönderme yaparak belirttiği,”Türk’ün Türk’ten başka dostu yoktur” gerçeği, ne yazık ki uzak kalan bir bölüm kardeşlerimiz Türk’e, Türk dünyasına yakınlık, ilgi göstermemiş gerekmektedir yanlarında olmalıyız, sahip çıkmalıyız kendisini doğru Türk bilenler artık korkuyu unutsunlar Türkler yiğittir, yiğit, kahraman kalmalıdırlar.
samedi 21 mai 2011
Iraklı Bakan ve Valiler Yerel Yönetimlerin Sorunlarını ve Türkiye İle İşbirliği Olanaklarını Değerlendirdi
Bugüne kadar özellikle Ortadoğu ülkelerinden pek çok konuğu ağırlayan ORSAM, 18 Mayıs 2011'de Irak Vilayetlerden Sorumlu Devlet Bakanı Dr. Turhan Müftü, Bağdat Valisi Salah Abdülrezzak ve Divaniye Valisi Salim Hüseyin Alvan'ı konuk etti. Iraklı konuklar Ankara'da Rixos Otel'de “Irak’ta Yerel Yönetimlerin Sorunları ve Türkiye ile İşbirliği Olanakları” konulu bir konferans verdi.
http://www.orsam.org.tr/tr/trUploads/Yazilar/Dosyalar/2011520_orsam.turan.mufti.tutanaklar.pdf
mardi 17 mai 2011
Why violence against Turkmens in Iraq is increasing, by Hasan Kanbolat
16 May 2011, Monday
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Today's Zaman
Why violence against Turkmens in Iraq is increasing
According to a decision made in the first week of May in the Iraqi Turkmen parliament, the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) is to be re-structured. The new head ITC member of parliament and ITC Kirkuk City president is Erşat Salihi.
One week after the new political restructuring of the ITC, on the morning of May 12, Erşat Salihi's Kirkuk home was attacked. Despite the fact that his house was guarded, the attacker succeeded in tossing explosives into his house and planting mines around the outside of the home. And thus, the first large-scale attack on a Turkmen leader in Iraq took place. Luckily, no one was hurt during these events, even though Salihi and his family were at home during the attack. But the fact that the convoy of Kirkuk Police Chief Cemal Tahir was attacked as Tahir and his team returned from inspecting the evidence at Salihi's home shows that whoever carried out these attacks was very organized and resolute in their actions.
These days, low-intensity violence is simply a part of daily life throughout Iraq. And this violence, which kills anywhere between 10-100 people a day, does not actually affect daily life anymore. In fact, the Iraqi people have begun to view this sort of non-mass violence as normal. At the same time, one must not compare the attack against Salihi to other violence occurring in Iraq these days. In response to the significance of this particular attack, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs even issued a special declaration (on May 12) condemning it.
As for Erşat Salihi, he said that while he had been expecting an attack, he was not able to blame any particular faction for it. If this event was carried out with the intent of relaying a political message, who was behind it and what were the contents of the message? The Turkmens, despite being one of the three founding groups of Iraq, were not really present in Iraqi politics until the March 7, 2010 general elections, when they were suddenly for the first time represented by three ministers, as well as the Kirkuk provincial presidency. So have some factions been made uncomfortable by the presence of Turkmens on the Iraqi political stage? Does it bother some that the Turkmens are learning the art of politics? Was the message actually intended for Turkey via the Turkmens? Or is it Turkey's, as well as the Iraqi Turkmen's, changing Kurdish policies that were at play in this attack? We need to look at the recent past to find some answers here.
The ITC was formed in 1995 in Erbil. At the time, the Turkmen slogan was “Erbil is Turkish and will remain Turkish!” But the fact that the PKK was being sheltered in Northern Iraq and slipping over the border into Turkey and that the Iraqi Kurds were allowing the PKK to be active, wound up causing rifts between the Iraqi Kurds and both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. After the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk from Erbil. Influential in this move were the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Authority and the ITC's acceptance of the name “Kurdistan,” as well as the fact that Kirkuk was shown as lying within the borders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) maps of regional leadership. When the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk, the new slogan for Iraqi Turkmen became “Kirkuk is Turkish, and will remain Turkish!”
Over recent years, as Turkey's Kurdish policies have softened and their relations with Iraqi Kurds have improved, relations between the Iraqi Turkmen and the Iraqi Kurds also began to soften and improve. In fact, it was precisely this improved atmosphere that helped the Iraqi Turkmens successfully win over the Kirkuk provincial presidency. Events such as Turkey's opening a consulate in Erbil, visits to the region by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Industry Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Affairs Minister Beşir Atalay, and then a visit to Erbil by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 29 were all crucial in helping overcome the lack of trust that had existed between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, as well as between Iraqi Turkmens and Iraqi Kurds.
Other fundamental steps that helped the atmosphere were the KDP inviting the ITC to its congress, the ITC approaching Iraqi Kurds more positively, the KYB being one of the first political parties to congratulate Salihi on his new role and the ITC preparing to re-open its bureau in Erbil, which has been closed since 2003. But in fact, these new balances also cleared the path to new polarizations in the region. Forces in these regions were becoming uncomfortable over the changing balances and over the compromising policies being adopted by both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. To wit, three Turkish workers who were kidnapped on Feb. 15 in Kirkuk were held for 70 days in the largely Arab village of Dogmat near the Kirkuk-Reshad area. For the last seven days of their captivity, they were buried in a ditch and covered with soil, only able to breathe plastic pipes inserted in the ground. It is a clear reality that no proposals for solutions that ignore the Arabs in the region will bring any peace to Kirkuk or other disputed regions. In the same way, Turkmens and Kurds cannot be discounted by any possible solutions either. For this reason, dialogue between the various sides needs to occur with careful observation and attention to the delicate balances in the area. Only this will help bring down the tension.
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Today's Zaman
Why violence against Turkmens in Iraq is increasing
According to a decision made in the first week of May in the Iraqi Turkmen parliament, the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) is to be re-structured. The new head ITC member of parliament and ITC Kirkuk City president is Erşat Salihi.
One week after the new political restructuring of the ITC, on the morning of May 12, Erşat Salihi's Kirkuk home was attacked. Despite the fact that his house was guarded, the attacker succeeded in tossing explosives into his house and planting mines around the outside of the home. And thus, the first large-scale attack on a Turkmen leader in Iraq took place. Luckily, no one was hurt during these events, even though Salihi and his family were at home during the attack. But the fact that the convoy of Kirkuk Police Chief Cemal Tahir was attacked as Tahir and his team returned from inspecting the evidence at Salihi's home shows that whoever carried out these attacks was very organized and resolute in their actions.
These days, low-intensity violence is simply a part of daily life throughout Iraq. And this violence, which kills anywhere between 10-100 people a day, does not actually affect daily life anymore. In fact, the Iraqi people have begun to view this sort of non-mass violence as normal. At the same time, one must not compare the attack against Salihi to other violence occurring in Iraq these days. In response to the significance of this particular attack, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs even issued a special declaration (on May 12) condemning it.
As for Erşat Salihi, he said that while he had been expecting an attack, he was not able to blame any particular faction for it. If this event was carried out with the intent of relaying a political message, who was behind it and what were the contents of the message? The Turkmens, despite being one of the three founding groups of Iraq, were not really present in Iraqi politics until the March 7, 2010 general elections, when they were suddenly for the first time represented by three ministers, as well as the Kirkuk provincial presidency. So have some factions been made uncomfortable by the presence of Turkmens on the Iraqi political stage? Does it bother some that the Turkmens are learning the art of politics? Was the message actually intended for Turkey via the Turkmens? Or is it Turkey's, as well as the Iraqi Turkmen's, changing Kurdish policies that were at play in this attack? We need to look at the recent past to find some answers here.
The ITC was formed in 1995 in Erbil. At the time, the Turkmen slogan was “Erbil is Turkish and will remain Turkish!” But the fact that the PKK was being sheltered in Northern Iraq and slipping over the border into Turkey and that the Iraqi Kurds were allowing the PKK to be active, wound up causing rifts between the Iraqi Kurds and both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. After the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk from Erbil. Influential in this move were the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Authority and the ITC's acceptance of the name “Kurdistan,” as well as the fact that Kirkuk was shown as lying within the borders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) maps of regional leadership. When the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk, the new slogan for Iraqi Turkmen became “Kirkuk is Turkish, and will remain Turkish!”
Over recent years, as Turkey's Kurdish policies have softened and their relations with Iraqi Kurds have improved, relations between the Iraqi Turkmen and the Iraqi Kurds also began to soften and improve. In fact, it was precisely this improved atmosphere that helped the Iraqi Turkmens successfully win over the Kirkuk provincial presidency. Events such as Turkey's opening a consulate in Erbil, visits to the region by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Industry Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Affairs Minister Beşir Atalay, and then a visit to Erbil by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 29 were all crucial in helping overcome the lack of trust that had existed between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, as well as between Iraqi Turkmens and Iraqi Kurds.
Other fundamental steps that helped the atmosphere were the KDP inviting the ITC to its congress, the ITC approaching Iraqi Kurds more positively, the KYB being one of the first political parties to congratulate Salihi on his new role and the ITC preparing to re-open its bureau in Erbil, which has been closed since 2003. But in fact, these new balances also cleared the path to new polarizations in the region. Forces in these regions were becoming uncomfortable over the changing balances and over the compromising policies being adopted by both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. To wit, three Turkish workers who were kidnapped on Feb. 15 in Kirkuk were held for 70 days in the largely Arab village of Dogmat near the Kirkuk-Reshad area. For the last seven days of their captivity, they were buried in a ditch and covered with soil, only able to breathe plastic pipes inserted in the ground. It is a clear reality that no proposals for solutions that ignore the Arabs in the region will bring any peace to Kirkuk or other disputed regions. In the same way, Turkmens and Kurds cannot be discounted by any possible solutions either. For this reason, dialogue between the various sides needs to occur with careful observation and attention to the delicate balances in the area. Only this will help bring down the tension.
dimanche 15 mai 2011
The Iraqi Turkmen Front, remade. By Hasan Kanbolat
The Iraqi Turkmen Front, remade
13 May 2011, Friday
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Ever since the Ottoman state lostIraq, Iraqi Turkmens have been viewed as an extension of Turkey. For this reason, they have always been subject to great pressure within Iraq.
There have been many attempts to eliminate both their cultural as well as their political identities. Their political leaders and intellectuals have been executed. They have been forced to struggle hard against policies of forced Arabization and Kurdification. These pressures placed on Iraqi Turkmen have paved the way for Turkmens to turn inwards and not be represented adequately in Iraqi politics. In the wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the exclusion of Turkmens from Iraqi politics has continued. But as democratic initiatives began to take root in Iraq, the Turkmens, as one of the three founding groups in the nation, finally began to claim their rightful place in Iraqi politics.Within this framework, Turkmens successfully brought forward 10 MPs in the March 7, 2010 general elections in Iraq, and for the first time were represented by three government ministers. Hasan Turan, an Iraqi Turkmen, was elected parliamentary head of Kirkuk province.
An increased representation by Turkmens in Iraqi politics has also been reflected in the inner politics among the Turkmens themselves. The most influential Turkmen organization from the perspective of electoral representation inIraqis the Iraq Turkmen Front (ITC). And the inner ranks of the ITC have undergone a transformation. Following a decision made in the first week of May in the Iraqi Turkmen Parliament, the ITC will be reorganized. ITC President Saddettin Ergeç has turned over his duties to MP and ITC Kirkuk City President Erşat Salihi, while it has also been announced that Ergeç is now the honorary president of the ITC. When one looks at the new names within the ITC, one sees they fully represent Turkmen-inhabited regions ofIraq. It is significant that names like Ali Mehdi and Hasan Turan, who both help head up influential Turkmen parties such as the Turkmen Party and the Turkmen Justice Party, are part of the ITC.
In addition to a change in ITC heads, there is also a new governing board of the ITC in place, which will oversee operations until the new congress. With the new seven-person government board and the new system, the governing board and the central decision board will have regular monthly meetings as the “Central Decision Governing Board.” All important political decisions are to emerge from these meetings. Another important decision with regards to the ITC’s inner workings was made with regards to the Turkmen parliament. Although this parliament previously worked within the ranks of the ITC, it has now been separated out from the ITC, and has been made into an autonomous institution encompassing all of the various Turkmen political organizations. It could be then said that the full and complete formation of the new ITC will take place only after the law, still in rough form, concerning political parties inIraqhas been completed and passed.
Taking a brief look at the recent history of the ITC, we see it was formed in 1995 in Arbil to prevent chaos and disorganization in the Turkmen political movements in the region; in other words, its aim was to provide a roof for varying Turkmen political movements. In 1995, the first ITC president, Turhan Ketene, was replaced by Sinan Çelebi, the current industry and trade minister for the Kurdistan Regional Authority. In 1997 the First Turkmen General Assembly took place, and Vedat Arslan, who was also previously a minister for the Kurdish Regional Authority, was elected as ITC president. At the Second General Assembly in 2000, Sanan Ahmet Ağa was elected as ITC president. After the US invasion of Iraq, the Third General Assembly took place in Kirkuk, between Sept. 12-15, and at this Faruk Abdullah Abdurrahman was elected president.
There was also a decision made to transfer the ITC headquarters toKirkukat that point. Influential in this decision was the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Authority, and the acceptance by the ITC of the name “Kurdistan,” as well as the fact that Kirkuk was shown by both the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as lying within the borders of their regional leadership. But the movement of the ITC general headquarters from Arbil to Kirkuk caused a vacuum within the Turkmen political movement in Northern Iraq. With support extended from various Kurdish groups there were separations that took place from the ITC.
At the fourth and fifth General Assemblies of the ITC, which took place in 2005 and 2008, Ergeç was once again elected as president of the organization. After the 2008 ITC General Assembly a regional election law forIraqwas passed. With the aim of participating in approaching elections, the ITC declared itself a proper political party, and thus stopped being a “roof-providing organization” for other political parties. And so, political parties that were still in the ranks of the ITC were suddenly excluded. This decision can be seen as the real start of a period of transformation for the ITC, which picked up a government ministry position for the first time ever in the wake of the 2010 elections.
13 May 2011, Friday
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Ever since the Ottoman state lostIraq, Iraqi Turkmens have been viewed as an extension of Turkey. For this reason, they have always been subject to great pressure within Iraq.
There have been many attempts to eliminate both their cultural as well as their political identities. Their political leaders and intellectuals have been executed. They have been forced to struggle hard against policies of forced Arabization and Kurdification. These pressures placed on Iraqi Turkmen have paved the way for Turkmens to turn inwards and not be represented adequately in Iraqi politics. In the wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the exclusion of Turkmens from Iraqi politics has continued. But as democratic initiatives began to take root in Iraq, the Turkmens, as one of the three founding groups in the nation, finally began to claim their rightful place in Iraqi politics.Within this framework, Turkmens successfully brought forward 10 MPs in the March 7, 2010 general elections in Iraq, and for the first time were represented by three government ministers. Hasan Turan, an Iraqi Turkmen, was elected parliamentary head of Kirkuk province.
An increased representation by Turkmens in Iraqi politics has also been reflected in the inner politics among the Turkmens themselves. The most influential Turkmen organization from the perspective of electoral representation inIraqis the Iraq Turkmen Front (ITC). And the inner ranks of the ITC have undergone a transformation. Following a decision made in the first week of May in the Iraqi Turkmen Parliament, the ITC will be reorganized. ITC President Saddettin Ergeç has turned over his duties to MP and ITC Kirkuk City President Erşat Salihi, while it has also been announced that Ergeç is now the honorary president of the ITC. When one looks at the new names within the ITC, one sees they fully represent Turkmen-inhabited regions ofIraq. It is significant that names like Ali Mehdi and Hasan Turan, who both help head up influential Turkmen parties such as the Turkmen Party and the Turkmen Justice Party, are part of the ITC.
In addition to a change in ITC heads, there is also a new governing board of the ITC in place, which will oversee operations until the new congress. With the new seven-person government board and the new system, the governing board and the central decision board will have regular monthly meetings as the “Central Decision Governing Board.” All important political decisions are to emerge from these meetings. Another important decision with regards to the ITC’s inner workings was made with regards to the Turkmen parliament. Although this parliament previously worked within the ranks of the ITC, it has now been separated out from the ITC, and has been made into an autonomous institution encompassing all of the various Turkmen political organizations. It could be then said that the full and complete formation of the new ITC will take place only after the law, still in rough form, concerning political parties inIraqhas been completed and passed.
Taking a brief look at the recent history of the ITC, we see it was formed in 1995 in Arbil to prevent chaos and disorganization in the Turkmen political movements in the region; in other words, its aim was to provide a roof for varying Turkmen political movements. In 1995, the first ITC president, Turhan Ketene, was replaced by Sinan Çelebi, the current industry and trade minister for the Kurdistan Regional Authority. In 1997 the First Turkmen General Assembly took place, and Vedat Arslan, who was also previously a minister for the Kurdish Regional Authority, was elected as ITC president. At the Second General Assembly in 2000, Sanan Ahmet Ağa was elected as ITC president. After the US invasion of Iraq, the Third General Assembly took place in Kirkuk, between Sept. 12-15, and at this Faruk Abdullah Abdurrahman was elected president.
There was also a decision made to transfer the ITC headquarters toKirkukat that point. Influential in this decision was the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Authority, and the acceptance by the ITC of the name “Kurdistan,” as well as the fact that Kirkuk was shown by both the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as lying within the borders of their regional leadership. But the movement of the ITC general headquarters from Arbil to Kirkuk caused a vacuum within the Turkmen political movement in Northern Iraq. With support extended from various Kurdish groups there were separations that took place from the ITC.
At the fourth and fifth General Assemblies of the ITC, which took place in 2005 and 2008, Ergeç was once again elected as president of the organization. After the 2008 ITC General Assembly a regional election law forIraqwas passed. With the aim of participating in approaching elections, the ITC declared itself a proper political party, and thus stopped being a “roof-providing organization” for other political parties. And so, political parties that were still in the ranks of the ITC were suddenly excluded. This decision can be seen as the real start of a period of transformation for the ITC, which picked up a government ministry position for the first time ever in the wake of the 2010 elections.
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)
