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| Iraq |
| Turkey sending military observers to Kirkuk |
| 2003-04-10 |
| Turkey is sending military observers to Kirkuk following an Iraqi Kurdish move into the city, Turkey's foreign minister said Thursday. Turkey has repeatedly said that it will not accept Iraqi Kurdish control of Kirkuk. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he spoke with US Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday and Powell offered to let Turkey send military observers to Kirkuk to make sure that Iraqi Kurdish fighters withdraw from the city. "We've Turkey has had several thousand troops in northern Iraq for the past few years fighting Turkish Kurdish rebels who have bases in northern Iraq not far from the Turkish border. Gul said Powell assured Turkey that Iraqi Kurds would not keep control of Kirkuk. Turkey has in the past threatened to send its own forces into northern Iraq to prevent Kurdish control of Kirkuk. Washington has told Turkish officials that the capture of Kirkuk would be coordinated with coalition forces. "We have reminded them of their guarantee," Gul told reporters. "We have told them that we are willing to "There is no reason for any concerns with these assurances," Gul said, adding that the head of Turkey's military, Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, would speak later in the day with Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Turkey fears Iraqi Kurdish control of the resource rich area could encourage the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Turkey says an Iraqi Kurdish state could serve as an inspiration for Turkish Kurdish rebels who fought for 15 years in southeastern Turkey. Turkey's leaders have in the past indicated Turkey would deploy troops in northern Iraq if there were signs of a refugee crisis or if there were signs Iraqi Kurds were moving toward statehood. If there were any signs, portents or indications of any kind that the Iraqi Kurds were behaving like independent adults instead of chastened, humbled peons "We are following events very closely and they are aware of that," Gul said. The United States fears any Turkish incursion could lead to clashes between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey and even friendly fire incidents between the United States and Turkey. 
Hmph. Afraid your own Kurdish population will get ideas? |
| Posted by:Tadderly |
| #13 Dan, you're making a false analogy... The US policy of "English Only" is an effort to force immigrants to adopt English so that they can fully participate in our democracy (and NOT extinguish their language and culture - the fact that it does occur is a natural part of the linguistic phenomenon : language death) The US govt makes NO claim to the right of denying any person of their culture and/or language. The Turks, on the other hand, actively sought to extinguish Kurdish identity, with one measure being the banning of Kurdish language... A more accurate analogy to US policy would be its treatment of Native Americans in the late 17 - early 1900's. The US govt DID, in that case try to (and, unfortunately, to a large extent was successful) squeeze out the Native cultures. We have learned from our mistakes, and now realize that all cultures are valuable and have something to contribute to our society - as ours has things of value to theirs... Mark, you're a genius... Pass that idea on to the state department please, and while you're at it, let them put out a general announcement throughout the world, allowing any properly certified group to petition for statehood... We'd have 100 stars in a week.... on second thought, maybe that isn't such a great idea... :-( Steve W. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-10 20:13:51 |
| #12 [What's in a Name? For a Turkish Youth, Maybe Jail] BISMIL, Turkey, April 7 — It was not drugs, brawls or the usual teenage recklessness that landed Bayram A. in trouble, confronting him with the prospect of as many as five years in prison. It was a word. But by uttering it, when and where he did, Bayram tapped directly into some of Turkey's darkest anxieties. On a school day last November, his teachers in this remote, poor, densely Kurdish area of southeastern Turkey asked him to lead his classmates in the customary Turkish pledge of allegiance, which includes the line, "Happy is the one who calls himself a Turk." Bayram, then 15, balked. "I have a stomachache," he recalls telling the teachers. "I don't feel good." They insisted that he press ahead. So he did, and what they heard him say was this: "Happy is the one who calls himself a Kurd." The teachers not only sent him home from school for the day, but also summoned the police. Bayram now stands accused of "inciting hatred and enmity on the basis of religion, race, language or regional differences," according to the indictment filed against him in State Security Court in Diyarbakir, about 30 miles west of here. ... |
| Posted by: rg117 2003-04-10 18:20:37 |
| #11 they did lose over 30,000 people during the last time the Kurds Perverse use of data. 29,000 Kurds, almost all civilians were killed and Turky lost 12,000 soldiers. Might as well say the Nazis were sensative about the millions of Germans gassed in World War two...which the germans gassed. (in this case, the Marxist PKK) tried to try for statehood. The Marxist PKK was a tiny part of the fighting. And the Kurds whol lived there for 2000 years before th Turks were told that spaeking Kurdis in their homes was casue for arrest. You are being an aoplogist for one of the biggest ethnic cleanisngs in hisotry. You can subsitute Serbs for Turks only the Serbs never killed any where near as many people. given what they had to suffer through during the 1990s The Kurds were the ones suffering suicide bombings, just as the Israelis have every Please give a sitation of a suicde bombing against a civilian target, or a suicide bombing at all. You are denying one of the biggest episodes of ethnic cleansing in this century |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-10 15:45:47 |
| #10 Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said on Thursday he had ordered his "peshmerga" fighters to pull out of the city of Kirkuk by Friday, easing Turkish concerns about the oil hub's future. "I have ordered all the peshmerga to leave the city by tomorrow morning," Talabani, head of one of two main Iraqi Kurdish factions, told the CNN Turk television channel by telephone.Talabani said his forces were cooperating with the United States and would hand over control of Kirkuk to U.S. forces that the Pentagon said began arriving on Thursday evening. Sounds like the Kurdish fighters will be replaced by US troops and Kurdish residents will stay. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-10 15:17:10 |
| #9 The problem with Kurdish statehood is this "independent" business. What if we: Accept their application for statehood, Sew another star on Old Glory, Establish an Army base as their first token taste of Federal pork (probably needs a new slang term, come to think of it)? Join OPEC and push for a price increase? The Kurds have always been tough but reasonable people and might compare favorably to some folks under the Stars and Stripes today... I know, I know... this would really piss off the Arab world AND our Turkish allies and make them hateful and uncooperative. What on earth was I thinking? |
| Posted by: Mark IV 2003-04-10 14:46:54 |
| #8 DID the Kurds use suicide bombers? My understanding is that they engaged in terrorism, but didn't go that far. If they did use suicide bombers, then kudos to them for having enough sense to stop doing it and accept reasonable compromise. I wonder if the Paleostinians will learn the lesson? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-10 14:06:03 |
| #7 The Kurds have gained significant rights in Turkey ever since the PKK insurgency in an effort to stave off a resurrection of the group. That doesn't excuse any of what the PKK did, anymore than the US treatment of blacks excuses any actions past or present of Farrakhan and his outfit. As far as claims of cultural genocide go, one might consider that this could also be made against the US in our insistence that Hispanic immigrants learn to speak proper English. The bottom line is that it wouldn't excuse those Aztlan folks from launching a violent insurgency here in the US. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-04-10 12:32:16 |
| #6 How many Turks died in the last big quake along the Istanbul fault? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-10 12:11:56 |
| #5 One trusts that these "observers" will be few in number and carefully escorted. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-04-10 11:12:30 |
| #4 Dan, yes the The Turks did lose over 30,000 dead but the did it to them selves. When you denie the rights of a people you set youself up. The Turks denied these people the basic right of humnaity, they even tried to destroy their language. |
| Posted by: Dan 2003-04-10 10:58:34 |
| #3 As much as I'm hardly a fan of the Turks right now (and Murat's repeated idiocy certainly makes it difficult to defend them), they did lose over 30,000 people during the last time the Kurds (in this case, the Marxist PKK) tried to try for statehood. They have every right to be concerned about Kurdish ambitions for statehood given what they had to suffer through during the 1990s in terms of suicide bombings, just as the Israelis have every right to be concerned about Palestinian ambitions towards statehood. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-04-10 10:48:22 |
| #2 Pretty presumptuous of Turkey to think they have that big of say in what's transpiring after they spent all that time screwing |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-10 10:44:48 |
| #1 "even friendly fire incidents between the United States and Turkey." You only have friendly fire incidents with allies. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-10 10:42:02 |