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

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.
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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.

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.

Still on the edge, by Nermeen Al-Mufti

Diplomacy appears to be faltering as the Turkish-Kurd crisis continues to broil, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti from Baghdad

Just as the Iraq-Turkey talks in Ankara failed to defuse the current crisis, Iran expressed sympathy with the Turkish position. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to have phoned both President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and urged them to close the camps of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) and hand over its leaders to Turkey, according to the local Iraqi press.

The phone calls took place while Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan was in Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki. On his way to Tehran, Babacan stopped over in Baghdad for talks. Aydin Aksu, a key member of the Iraqi Turkomen Front, told Al-Ahram Weekly that during his talks in Baghdad, Babacan said that his country was committed to the safety and integrity of Iraqi territory.

Masoud Barzani, president of the Regional Government of Kurdistan, called on the Turkish government to settle the crisis through negotiations. "The federal government should consult with us about any negotiations with Ankara," Barzani said in an apparent reference to the failure of Iraqi diplomacy. Still, Ankara threatened to attack PKK facilities in northern Iraq.

A Kurdish official speaking on condition of anonymity said that one of the stumbling blocks facing the Iraqi-Turkish talks held in Ankara last Friday was the Turkish refusal to allow the peshmerga (Kurdish militia loyal to the northern government) to take charge of border security. The Iraqi delegation to Ankara included two Kurdish officials, but they were both excluded form the talks.

Barzani said Ankara refused to receive a Kurdish delegation that was due in Turkey Monday. One of the reasons, reportedly, is that Barzani and other Kurdish leaders, men who once travelled on Turkish diplomatic passports, wouldn't call the PKK a terror group. News reports in Ankara indicate that Turkey suspects Kurdish officials of aiding and abetting PKK fighters. Ankara is particularly incensed by the refusal of Kurdish officials to hand over PKK leaders. The Kurds are also refusing to coordinate with Turkey in any military operation against the PKK.

The Turkish government is actually thinking of imposing economic sanctions on northern Iraq, according to the Turkish newspaper Sabah. Turkey can reduce electricity supplies to Iraqi Kurdistan, tighten border crossings, and obstruct Barzani's business deals in Turkey. According to the paper, the Khabur border crossing, through which 2,500 trucks pass everyday, might be subjected to "administrative measures". Should Turkey send its trucks through Syria instead of northern Iraq, the Kurdish administration would lose the $100 fee it imposes on each truck.

Barzani and his aides operate about 118 companies in Turkey, all of which may fall under punitive measures from Turkish authorities. Turkey sells electricity the Kurds at 4-6 cents a kilowatt, a much lower rate than what Turkish companies have to pay.

Kurdish officials maintain that PKK facilities have all been closed in keeping with the Iraqi constitution that doesn't allow terrorist groups to operate in Iraq. However, a Kirkuk-based Turkomen network, Turkmeneli TV, last week showed pictures of PKK flags on office buildings close to the US and British consulates. The network also aired footage of another building allegedly housing PKK radio stations. Transmission towers were clearly visible atop the building. The PKK is said to be operating these facilities in the name of the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (KDSP).

Ruzgar Ali, chairman of the Kirkuk Governorate Council, said that the KDSP is a recognised Iraqi party and has taken part in Iraqi general elections, denying any knowledge of the PKK radio station. "This crisis cannot be resolved through military action. The only way forward is through negotiated settlement," he added.

The Iraqis are divided over Turkish threats. Some want Turkey to teach the Kurds a lesson, while others take sides with the Kurds in the hope of bringing them back into the national fold. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani told reporters that US forces should protect Iraqi borders against any incursion by Turkey. America is after Iraq's oil and wealth and must therefore defend the country, he said.

Turkomen writer Aziz Samanci said that the PKK wants to provoke a Turkish incursion in order to drag the peshmerga into the confrontation. The PKK is hoping to push the crisis to the point where the US would have to take sides with Iraq against Iran. Interestingly, the recent attacks happened soon after a US Congress decision on Armenian massacres alienated the Turks. The PKK may also be trying to drive a wedge between Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party and the Kurdish Democratic Society Party, which has representatives in the Turkish parliament.

US Secretary Condoleezza Rice is expected in Turkey 2 November for a conference of Iraq's neighbouring states. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due in Washington 5 November for talks with President George Bush. The Kurdish crisis is likely to top the agenda of talks on both occasions.

Al-Ahram Weekly. Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/869/re91.htm
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For photo of PKK flags on office buildings near the US and British consulates see:
http://turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2007/10/photos-of-pkk-terrorist-groups.html

Türk-Amerikan ilişkileri' konferansı

http://www.stargazete.com/index.asp?haberid=34889
Star Gazetesi
Türk-Amerikan ilişkileri' konferansı 01/11/2007


ABD'nin New Jersey eyaletinin önemli üniversitelerinden Stevens Teknoloji Enstitüsü'nde, ''Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri ve Orta Doğu'' konulu bir konferans düzenlendi.

New Jersey'de bulunan Stevens Teknoloji Enstitüsü'nün ''Cinsiyet ve Kültürel Çalışmalar Programı'' tarafından düzenlenen konferansta, New York Türkmen Enstitüsü Kurucusu Dr. Ali Koçak ve üniversitenin siyaset bilimi ve tarih bölümü öğretim üyelerinden Dr. Akif Kireçci konuştu.

Irak, İran, İsrail ve Ermeni politikaları bağlamında Türkiye-ABD ilişkilerinin ele alındığı konfersansta yaptığı konuşmada, Türkmenlerin Irak'taki tarihi rolünü anlatan Koçak, bin yıldan beri bölgede yaşayan Türkmenlerin, ülkedeki ikinci en büyük etnik grup olmalarına rağmen dikkate alınmadıklarını; Şiiler, Sünniler ve Kürtler arasındaki güç denkleminde en çok ezilen grubun Türkmenler olduğunu belirtti. Koçak, Kürtlerin Türkmen şehirlerini, özellikle de Kerkük'ü demografik olarak değiştirmek istediklerini, bu amaçla nüfus kayıtlarının yakıldığını vurguladı.

Türkmenlerin, ABD'nin bölgeye gelmesi ile özgürlük ve bağımsızlık için büyük bir ümide kapıldığını ancak bunun kısa sürdüğüne işaret eden Koçak, ''Saddam diktatörlüğü Kürt kabilelerinin diktatörlüğü ile yer değiştirdi'' diye konuştu. Koçak, bölgede, bütün askeri grupların silahlarından arındırılıp merkezi otoritenin güçlendirilmesi gerektiği üzerinde durdu.

Konferansta, Türk-Amerikan ilişkilerinin tarihini anlatan Kireççi ise 11Eylül'den sonra Türkiye'nin terörle mücadele konusunda Batı'nın ve ABD'ninkendisini daha iyi anlayacağı beklentisine girdiğini, ancak ABD'nin 2003'te Irak'ı işgali ile olayların değiştiğini belirtti.

Türk kamuoyunun Amerikalıların terör örgütü PKK'ya gizlice destek olduğunu düşündüğünü ifade eden Kireçci, ABD'nin ilişkilerde bu tür sorunları çözmek için daha aktif olması gerektiğine işaret etti. Kireçci, Orta Asya, Kafkaslar, Akdeniz ve Balkanlar'da etkin bir ülke konumundaki Türkiye'nin, bir grup aşirete tercih edilmemesi gerektiğini vurguladı.

Analysis: U.S. OK's Saddam law oil deals

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/10/31/analysis_us_oks_saddam_law_oil_deals/5653

Published: Oct. 31, 2007

By BEN LANDO - UPI Energy Editor
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department says an oil law implemented under Saddam Hussein is good enough for Iraq’s national government to sign oil deals, though it would prefer a new national law -- mired in controversy and far from approved -- to be used instead. The new position is a shift for the U.S. government, or at least a nuance in its stance, which has pressed hard for a new hydrocarbons legal regime and condemned deals signed between a regional government and private firms -- especially when it’s an American company.

“We would prefer these laws to be passed before any deals are signed,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Lawrence Butler told United Press International. “However, in the absence of passage of the hydrocarbon law, Iraq as a sovereign state can continue to use the Saddam-era laws to manage the sector in the meantime.”

It’s not clear what effect the U.S. stance will have on the international oil industry, salivating at the prospect of entering the third-largest oil reserves in the world, as Iraq’s Oil Ministry says it will not wait forever for a new law before signing deals. Iraq is under explored and experts predict the country's reserve totals could be twice as much as the 115 billion barrels that have already been found.

Iraq’s Kurds, who control territory covering less than 1 percent of Iraq’s proven reserves, are signing oil deals to explore and develop an oil sector of their own, which Washington sees as exacerbating the already weighty wedge in Iraqi national politics.“We have many opportunities to excite you,” KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami told UPI recently when asked what the "sales pitch" is to international oil firms. “And if you don’t come forward now, you will lose.”

India’s Reliance Industries will apparently be the latest to sign a production-sharing contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government. A company official confirmed the two are in end-stage talks for two exploration blocks, the global energy information firm Platts reports. The KRG has signed nine deals since the fall of Saddam, most of which have been called “illegal” by Baghdad, which considers the Kurds’ unilateral moves unconstitutional.

Security is a major factor, but top officials from international oil companies told UPI on condition of anonymity they’re waiting for a law detailing their rights as investors before entering the Iraqi oil scene.The sector is nationalized now and many Iraqis -- including the stronger workers’ unions -- fear opening it up to international investors will squander their resources. The most recent draft of the hydrocarbons framework law, which is stuck in Parliament’s Energy Committee, would ease some restrictions. The production-sharing contracts, however, are controversial.

The darling deals of the international oil industry, PSCs allow companies to recover their total cost for exploration and development, and then split oil proceeds after that; the percentage of that split is what drives Iraqi concerns.

The company can include the reserves on its books, bolstering its value. The law is also held up by disagreements between the KRG and Baghdad over how decentralized control over the oil fields and exploration blocks will be. Separate laws governing revenue sharing, the Ministry of Oil and the Iraqi National Oil Co. round out the hydrocarbons package but are further behind than the oil law.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told potential investors at an Iraq oil conference held in Dubai nearly two months ago there is no “legislative vacuum” in Iraq. He said if there is no national oil law, the ministry would begin implementing its strategic plan for Iraq’s oil and gas reserves using the Saddam law. The KRG passed its own oil law in August, which the region says the 2005 Constitution allows for, another dig at the slow pace of the national oil law. Since passing the regional oil law it signed three production-sharing contracts: Heritage Energy Middle East Ltd., a subsidiary of the Canadian company Heritage Oil and Gas, and Perenco Kurdistan Ltd., a subsidiary of Perenco S.A. of France, earlier this month; Dallas-based Hunt Oil Corp. on Sept. 8.

The Hunt deal row spread to Washington, as the State Department became vocal and members of Congress raised red flags. Prominent congressional committee chairmen have sent letters of query to the State Department, White House and Hunt Oil, asking what the government knew about the deal and what it told Hunt before it signed. President Bush said he “knew nothing” but is concerned if it “undermines” national law efforts. The State Department said it tells companies that approach it that such deals widen the gap between the federal government and the KRG, delaying resolution on a national package of laws governing the hydrocarbons sector.

Hunt Chief Executive Officer Ray Hunt told The Wall Street Journal there were no conversations with the U.S. government prior to signing the deal. The company admitted to the meeting after being confronted with internal State Department documents obtained by UPI that revealed a meeting in Irbil, the KRG capital. According to the document, the department gave Hunt its “do not sign” talking points. Aside from monkey-wrenching U.S. plans to prop up a strong and stable central government, the department says companies signing deals with the region without a national law will be on shaky legal grounds.“We continue to advise companies from outside of Iraq that they incur significant political and legal risk in signing any contracts with any party inside of Iraq before a national law package is passed by the Iraq Parliament,” the State Department’s Butler, who oversees Iraq policy, told a U.S.-Arab policymakers conference last week.

It appears most of the international oil community is listening to the State Department, especially the majors, fearing a deal with the KRG will blacklist them from the rest of Iraq’s black-gold bounty. “We continue to encourage Iraq’s political leaders to agree on the passage of a national hydrocarbon law and companion legislation,” Butler told UPI. Washington says such a law will ease tensions and lead to reconciliation, and has been pushing the law and Iraqi legislators behind the scenes for years. But if Baghdad joins the KRG in signing oil deals without a nationally approved strategy for the oil sector -- regardless of each government’s claim the Constitution allows it -- and international oil companies rush in, it could cause chaos in the Iraqi oil sector, exacerbating an already tense political standoff.

--(e-mail: blando@upi.com)

Drive-by shootings in Kerkuk

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8SKAKKO1

U.S. forces hunting for a senior al-Qaida militant leader accused in assassinations and car bomb attacks killed three suspected militants after surrounding a building in the northern city of Kirkuk, the military said.

The clash came around the same time as a failed assassination attempt on an investigative judge in the violence-plagued northern city. Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said gunmen in a vehicle attacked Judge Zaher al-Bayati around 8:30 a.m. in the city's southern al-Wasiti neighborhood. Two bodyguards were killed, Qadir said, but al-Bayati, a Turkoman, was unharmed.

About 20 minutes later, there was a drive-by shooting attack on an intelligence officer as he was driving with his wife and daughter, the police chief said. The intelligence officer escaped injury, but his wife and 5-year-old daughter were both hurt.

Tensions are rising in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, in advance of a proposed referendum on whether the oil-rich city will join the self-governing Kurdish region.