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Iraq
Turkey's AKP Spokesman: Iraq's Kurds Have Right to Decide Their Future
2014-06-18
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- The Kurds of Iraq have the right to decide the future of their land, said Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Friday.

"The Kurds of Iraq can decide for themselves the name and type of the entity they are living in," Celik told Rudaw in an interview to be published soon.
This is an interesting comment to say the least, but you can bet it doesn't extend to the Kurdish region in Turkey.
The AKP is the party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan under whom Ankara and Erbil have built strong economic and diplomatic relations.

In case Iraq gets partitioned, said Celik, "the Kurds, like any other nation, will have the right to decide their fate."

Celik believes that Iraq is already headed towards partition thanks to "Maliki's sectarian policies."
Maliki hasn't done a united Iraq any favors. He's a Shi'a semi-Saddam...
In the past several days fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have occupied most of Iraq's Sunni areas in the center of the country. They have declared war on Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite government whom they accuse of persecuting the Sunni population.

"Turkey has been supporting the Kurdistan Region till now and will continue this support," said Celik.

Turkey and Kurdistan have signed a 50-year energy deal and Kurdish oil is exported via a pipeline that connects the autonomous region to the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.
Posted by:Steve White

#9  Looks increasingly like Turkey = now officially? "Rising Turkey" thanks to ISIS in Iraq, + whose gonads are finally starting to shake.

["ROCKY HORROR'S" SWEET TRANSVESTITE DR. FRANKENFURTER here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-06-18 20:43  

#8  This may mean a couple of things. The optimistic part says the Turks have finally come around and realized they can't continue to alienate and repress the majority of the population of 1/3 of territory. Yeah, and next they'll be shaving off their mustaches as unfashionable.

This is a power play of some sort. First off, Kurdistan is a reality in all but the fficial law. The Kurds have established and maintain autonomous regional government, and now a military to go with it. The turks for now may just be buying time until the ISIS stuff lays out and they have whatever angle they are after.

There are some benefits: if they do recognize the small Kurdistan, that Kurdistan will probably be shipping its oil out via Turkish pipelines rather than giving in to the ISIS dominated Sunni or the Shia in the south. Thats a very nice money stream, and adds to Turkish de-facto control over more oil/gas that's going to the EU.

Secondly, an indépendant Kurdistan in Iraq gives the Turks a nice magnet to siphon off those pesky kurds from inside Turkey - Tell them its their "Israel" and even help them move there. And move ethnic turks in to take their place. Its a generational shift, but if they are playing the long game, then its a possible strategy.

Third, this is a small, land-locked nation which will be at the mercy of hostile powers on all sides. This particular version of Kurdistan is no real threat to Turkey in the short run, and if they start supporting the PKK and other things inside Turkey, the Turks can then feel free to take military action against Kurdistan - which is a rather large threat.

The one thing they would worry about prior to this would be US support for Kurdistan, both economic and military - like basing and overflight rights. Under Bush that might have been a problem. But under Obama, its not going to happen since Obama seems to be all about appeasing Iran, and supporting Kurdistan would be seen by Iran as a threatening move. So the Turks get to "play" being the good guys, even as they tighten a noose around Kurdistan.

Obama being such a douchebag incompetent coward iranian-ass-kisser is having massive negative repercussions throughout the region, and this is one of them.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-06-18 20:17  

#7  Mountain Turks? Do tell, how is the Queen's writ enforced there? Are they perhaps simple, albeit well armed, law enforcement types? Have they a sign of their official capacity?
Posted by: Shipman   2014-06-18 16:26  

#6  In Turkey they aren't Kurds, they're Mountain Turks. So whatever happens to those people across the border has nothing to do with the MTs.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-06-18 14:26  

#5  The other thing is Tel Afar (which fell 2 days ago) is a Turkish town. Having that many Turks under the rule of ISIS is a concern.

Al
Posted by: frozen al   2014-06-18 11:32  

#4  Never mind rights, have they the muscle?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-06-18 08:23  

#3  Turkey's Kurds, on the other hand, are a simple people who don't understand what's best for them, and frequently must be jerked into line disciplined.
Posted by: ed in texas   2014-06-18 08:16  

#2  The Turk beak is being wetted. A piece of the pie sliced.

Seriously tho, this is kinda a big deal, no?
Posted by: Shipman   2014-06-18 03:50  

#1  The Kurds are exporting oil via Turkey. Perhaps the Turks appreciate the business and see the current Iraq festivities as likely to result in increased future flows.
Posted by: Squinty   2014-06-18 00:40  

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