 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives here at the weekend facing the tough task of allaying Turkish fears that an independent Kurdish state — Ankara's long-standing bete noire — is taking shape in Iraq as Washington turns a blind eye.
| Yep. That eye's blind. Hain't been able to see out of it since, oh... 'bout March, 2003. |
Ties between the two NATO allies have failed to fully recover since hitting an all-time low prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, when Turkey stunned Washington by denying it access to its territory to mount an attack on Iraq from the north. Analysts fear new tensions may be now looming, with Ankara increasingly frustrated over what it sees as US reluctance to rein in Kurdish moves to take control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq as part of a suspected plot to break away from Baghdad. "The issue of northern Iraq is of vital importance for Turkey. The Americans say they understand Turkey but when it comes to action on the ground there is no reason for trust," said Bahadir Koc from the Ankara-based ASAM think tank.
| Lemme see, here. The Kurds stood by us, did what they promised to do, and they've been friends to us. The Turks... ummm... make good coffee. |
Independence-minded moves in northern Iraq, Ankara fears, will embolden separatism across the border in southeastern Turkey, where a Kurdish rebellion has already claimed some 37,000 lives. Turkish suspicions were reinforced when large numbers of Kurds said to have been expelled from Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein were allowed to settle and vote in the city in last week's elections, despite protests by rival ethnic groups that many of them have no bonds with Kirkuk. As the Kurds braced for large political gains, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the United States this week, charging that "forces who say they came to the region to bring democracy have preferred to remain indifferent to anti-democratic ambitions." |