A visit to northern Iraq and extensive interviews and discussions with its leaders show that the situation in northern Iraq has dramatically changed in favor of the Kurds while the red lines which Turkey established and threatened to go to war if they were violated have simply vanished after the war and the occupation of the country by the Americans. The Americans faced with serious resistance in central Iraq and unable to introduce stability in most of the country seem to have decided that their best bet to start reorganizing and reconstructing Iraq could start from the Kurdish dominated areas in the north.
| It's the Sunni-Baathist central region that's giving us the trouble... |
The area is swarming with U.S. experts and officials working in diverse areas like health, education and social programs.
| That's because there was more to work with there. And I think we frankly like the Kurds better than we like the Shiites and much more than we like the Sunni-Baathists and their jihadi allies... |
Turkey had established some red lines and had warned the Iraqi Kurds and the Americans prior to the toppling of Saddam Hussein that if these were violated Ankara would see this as a reason for military intervention. The first red line was the establishment of an independent Kurdish state. The second was the safety of the Turkmens living in Iraq and the third was the status of Kirkuk and Mosul. Last but not least Ankara said it would not tolerate giving its separatist Kurdish terrorists who are holed up in northern Iraq a free hand to resurrect their campaign against Turkey.
| The independent Kurdish state isn't going to happen, unless the rest of the country falls to hell, which it probably won't. The Turkmen are being treated just like everyone else. There's no magic solution to the PKK. We're not going to let them operate with impunity from territory we control, but Turkey's working on her own amnesty program as well, so it's a problem that's controlled for now. And keeping the Kurds out of Kirkuk and Mosul was a pipe dream... |
After the war the Kurds emerged as the most valuable and trusted ally of the Americans and there were even suggestions that the U.S., which always slanted towards Turkey in Turkish-Kurdish disputes, may change this attitude in favor of the Kurds. The Americans gave Kurds five seats in the newly formed Iraqi Governing Council and asked Kurdistan Democracy Party leading official Hoshyar Zebari to play a key role in the formation and opening session of the Council. The Kurds will also have a representative in the Governing Council mission to be sent to the U.N. This all means that while Turkey feared the Kurds will set up an independent state in the northern part of the country they are in fact a major player in Baghdad as a part of the newly shaping Iraqi administration which increases their future say in the way the country is being run. So instead of the emergence of a Kurdish state it became clear that the Kurds consolidated the Talabani and Barzani administrations in the north while obtaining a dominant position in the Baghdad administration.
| The entire article is worth reading, especially since it was picked up by Kurdistan Observer from Turkish Daily News... |
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