The battle for Kurdistan

Poh Ah Pak SG

Roots of the Kurdish struggle run deep
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - "In view of its strong determination to eradicate terrorism, Turkey is willing and ready to cooperate with any actor in the fight against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]." Those were the words of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an interview with Forward Magazine, Syria's leading English monthly.

Last week, speaking in the northwestern town of Golcuk, Erdogan added: "We will launch an operation [against the PKK in northern Iraq] when it will be necessary, without asking for anybody's opinion." He was clearly referring to the United States, which is strongly opposed to a military attack on Iraqi Kurdistan.

These two points, along with Erdogan's determination to work with the devil - if need be - to root out PKK rebels based in northern Iraq, explain why the Iranians are suddenly very interested in what is happening on the Turkish-Iraqi border. It is an interest based on history, future, national security and Iranian identity.

The PKK is as much of a threat to Iran as it is to Turkey. In February, the London Sunday Telegraph wrote that the US was funding ethnic separatist groups (non-Persian, which make up nearly 40% of Iran's 70 million) inside Iran to create trouble for the Iranian regime. This was backed by several editorials written by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, claiming that the US plans to weaken the Islamic Republic through separatist movements operating from within Iranian territory against the Tehran government. These include Kurds, Azeris and Ahwaz Arabs.

This won't break the Tehran regime, they believe, but might exert enough pressure on Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to abandon his nuclear program. One of the many factions receiving external support to apply pressure on the mullahs of Tehran is the PKK. Last year, Iran launched operations into Iraqi territory to track down members of the PKK operating on the Iranian-Iraqi border, arresting 40 Kurdish rebels.

At the time, Ali Larijani, the then-secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and chief negotiator on Iran's nuclear portfolio, visited Turkey to coordinate counter-PKK activity. For six hours, he met with Yigit Alpogan, the secretary general of the National Security Council, then-foreign minister Abdullah Gul and Erdogan.

Larijani warned that he had documents implicating US officials in meeting with the PKK, although Washington considers the Kurdish group a terrorist organization. The meetings, at the level of military commanders, had taken place, he claimed, in Mosul and Kirkuk. Larijani asked, "If the US is fighting terrorism, why then is it meeting with the PKK?"

This might explain why last week Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad spoke on the telephone with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, expressing his country's support for an operation against the PKK. This gave an "Iranian angle" to the Turkish-Kurdish problem, to the displeasure of the United States. Ahmadinejad showed solidarity and stressed that Iran "had faced similar terrorism from the PKK".

The Iranian angle

The Kurdish problem in Iran has been a headache for Persian rulers since World War I. The Iranian part of the dreamed-of Kurdish state is called Eastern Kurdistan. It borders Iraq and Turkey and includes parts of Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, Ilam and Lorestan. These districts house most of the Iran's 4 million Kurds.

During World War I, as a result of the central government's weakness in Tehran, a Kurdish tribal chief named Simko established a Kurdish authority in an area west of Lake Urmia. This lasted from 1918 to 1922. Another tribal leader, Jaafar Sultan, took control of territory between Marivan and north of Halabja. This remained under Kurdish control until it was restored to the central government in 1925. Army commander and war minister Reza Khan, (who later became shah of Iran) responded with force, crushing Simko's "Kurdistan" in 1922, and sending him off into eight years in hiding. He was tracked down and killed in 1930. Ambitious Kurds were taught a lesson the hard way - forcing them to abandon their separatist tactics and move into the underground. Hundreds were arrested, uprooted and persecuted for their separatist views.

This led to low-profile activity for a Kurdish movement that was crushed in the 1920s. They re-emerged with a separatist agenda during World War II. A tribal chief named Hama Rashid took control of three districts in western Iran, Sardasht, Baneh and Mariwan. Again, the Iranian government responded with force, crushing the movement in 1944, restoring Persian authority to them.

By 1946, a third attempt was underway - this time supported by the Soviet Union. The Russians created a Kurdish state in the city of Mahabad (northwestern Iran) in December 1945 under the leadership of Qazi Mohammad. This was the cornerstone from which Iraqi Kurds demanded similar rights in northern Iraq after the Gulf War of 1991. The area, known as the Republic of Mahabad, was created in the cities of Mahabad, Bukan, Naqada and Oshnaviyeh. It started with a Kurdish rebellion in 1941 in which middle-class Kurds and tribal leaders assembled authority of the province, forming the Society for the Revival of Kurdistan. Qazi Mohammad was named chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Mullah Mustapha Barzani became commander-in-chief of the Kurdish army.

Mullah Mustapha's son Maasoud (the president of modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan, was born in Mahabad). The Russians provided the new entity with financial and technical assistance, often buying the entire tobacco crop of Iranian Kurds to provide regular revenue to the coffers of Mahabad. Among the republic's objectives - which remain ripe in the minds of ambitious Iranian Kurds until today - were, according to the republic's founding declaration, "autonomy for the Iranian Kurds" and "the use of Kurdish as the medium of education and administration".

Once again, the experiment did not last and was torpedoed by the Iranian government when the war ended, lasting for slightly less than one year. A decline in Soviet support, along with isolation and economic woes dislocated the young republic. Before collapse, several senior officials united around Barzani and promised Qazi Mohammad to fight until curtain-fall if the Iranian army invaded Kurdistan.

When the troops stormed in the artificial republic, they shut down the Kurdish printing press, banned the teaching of Kurdish at schools and burned all Kurdish books in sight. Qazi Mohammad, regarded as a traitor by the central government in Tehran...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IK03Ak01.html

AndrewPKYap SG

I doubt that there are people in sgforums that are interested in the Kurdish conflict other then it might affect the price of crude.

Poh Ah Pak SG

Just to broaden their scope of how the game of politics is really played.

Singapore mainstream media doesn't touch this type of thing, which is why the level of knowledge is low...

My own view is that this Turkish conflict with PKK can be used to open up a wedge between Turkey and USA. This way, USA's influence and cooperation with Turkey can be weakened.

Iran must exploit this golden opportunity.

Spartans SG

Interesting.

Significant number of ethnic groups with their own unique culture, language, history etc are forced to live under the rule of others.

Classic example is Tibet.

Poh Ah Pak SG

The Tunder of Turkish War Drums
by Eric Margolis

The current crisis between Turkey and the Kurds has been building up for decades. In recent weeks, Turkish-Kurdish tensions burst into flames. Marxist-nationalist PKK guerillas fighting for an independent nation for Turkeys 20 million or so Kurds killed a score of Turkish soldiers and captured eight.

Hundreds more Turkish soldiers have been killed in eastern Anatolia by increasingly effective Kurdish fighters known as `pesh-merga, who have been receiving more and better weapons from fellow Iraqi Kurds.

Fiercely nationalist Turks demand their armed forces invade Iraqs autonomous Kurdish mini-state to destroy PKK bases. The Turks have massed 100,000 troops and armor on their mountainous border with Iraq. Limited Turkish air attacks and ground probes inside Iraq began last week.

A decade ago, I covered the brutal guerilla war in the hills of bleak, windswept Eastern Anatolia between Kurdish PKK guerillas (Turks brand them `terrorists) and the Turkish Army. At the time, the world ignored this ugly conflict in which 35,000 people had by then died. I came away torn by sympathy for both sides in this tragic conflict.

No one should be surprised by this crisis. Critics long warned the US invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, US-backed Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke a violent reaction by Turkey.

Ankara has warned for a decade it would never tolerate creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq which it fears would quickly spark demands by Turkeys restive Kurds for their own state.

Washington has been piously urging `restraint on Turkey, a key US-ally. By contrast, after two Israeli soldiers were captured last year in a routine border clash with Hezbullah guerillas, the White House gave Israel a green light to bomb and invade Lebanon, killing over 1,100 civilians and caused $4 billion of damage.

This crisis is a huge mess for all concerned. Turkey provides 70% of air-delivered supplies to US forces in Iraq and allows US military aircraft to use its airspace. Turkey also quietly allows Israel certain overflight rights, which may eventually include the right to launch an air blitz against Iran through Turkish air space. Israels recent air attack on a mysterious Syrian building was flown over Turkish territory. Turkeys military approved the Israeli overflight; its civilian government knew nothing about the attack until afterwards.

Meanwhile, anti-Americanism is peaking in Turkey. Turkeys powerful army and civilian government make conflicting policies. Turkeys popular democratic government wants no part of Americas war in Iraq and is loathe to attack Iraq, fearing getting embroiled in the US-created debacle. But Turkeys powerful military establishment, a state within the state with very close links to the Pentagon and Israel, is pressing for an invasion of Iraq.

Iraqs Kurds, Americas only ally in that strife-torn nation, discreetly back the PKK, and are working for fully independent Kurdish state. The Kurdish mini-state in northern Iraq is already de facto independent, with its own government, finances, army, and flag. The feeble US-installed regime in Baghdad has almost no influence over the Kurds, even though its president, Jalal Talabani, is also one of the two senior Kurdish leaders.

Turkeys government must respond to surging public outrage, but fears major military action in Iraq will foreclose its hopes of getting into the European Union, and put it on a collision course with the US in Iraq. Interestingly, US forces in Iraq have turned a blind eye to the PKKs operations there and to its cross-border attacks into Turkey.

Israel, which has its eye on Mesopotamias oil, is secretly backing Iraqs Kurdish mini-state and hopes one day to build an oil pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan to Haifa, either via Jordan or through a splintered Syria which is also high on Israels hit list. But Israel is also a close ally of Turkeys right-wing generals who hate Kurds as much as their own democratic government led by able PM Recep Erdogan. The Israelis are thus caught in the middle of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, just as they were recently during the bitter dispute between Turkey and the Armenians.

A new danger looms. The US invasion devastated Iraq and effectively split into three pieces - fulfilling the first step in Israels grand strategy of fragmenting Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Iraqs Mosul oil region, which formerly belonged to the Ottoman Empire, is a mere 119 kms from Turkeys border. Kirkuk is only a bit further. After World War I, the British Empire grabbed this oil-rich region, cobbling together the unnatural state of Iraq to safeguard the oil.

If Iraq slides further into the abyss, Turkey and Iran may partition Iraq. Today, Turkey has no oil. Its fragile economy is hammered by having to earn US dollars to buy oil. But if Turkey repossessed Iraqs northern oil fields, this nation of 70 million with 515,000 men at arms would become an important power that would reassert traditional Turkish influence in the Mideast, Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia.

`Pan-Turanism, the idea of spreading Turkish influence from its eastern border across the Turkic lands of Central Asia to the Great Wall of China remains dear to the hearts of many Turkish nationalists and far rightists. Iraqs huge oil reserves are a big temptation Ankara cannot ignore. After all, if the US can invade Iraq for oil, why not neighboring, ex-owner Turkey?

Meanwhile, Washington mutters about launching attacks on PKK, which it also brands `terrorists. But with the glaring double standards typical of US Mideast policy, Washington closes its eyes and may be secretly arming- Iraqi Kurds who are attacking Iran. Turkey insists it is fighting `terrorism and has every right to strike into Iraq to protect its national security one of President George Bushs justifications for invading Iraq.

This Kurdish fracas comes just as Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush are fanning hysteria over Iran and threatening war. Their latest claim: Iran `might have nuclear knowledge, so is a world danger.

Welcome to Washingtons new bogeyman: `thoughts of mass destruction(tmds).

Throw in the growing crisis in key US ally Pakistan, and we face one unholy mess.

http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives/2007/10/the_thunder_of.php

AndrewPKYap SG

Cannot fault your motives...