Nervous Turks regard Kurds with suspicion

Can or should anyone prevent liberated Iraqi Kurds from exercising their newfound freedom?

by Doug Vogt in Istanbul : 14 April 2003

Recently returned from his second trip to the Iraq/Turkey border in the past month, Inquisitor reporter Doug Vogt wonders if anyone can or should prevent liberated Iraqi Kurds from exercising their newfound freedom.

When Kurds in the northern Iraqi oil town of Kirkuk pulled down the garish statue of Saddam Hussein and danced in the streets for joy, many Turks and international observers did not share their euphoria. The sudden and unpredicted move by thousands of Kurdish Peshmurga fighters into both Kirkuk and Mosul in the final days of Saddam Hussein's regime aroused fury in Ankara, Turkey's capital. For the Turkish military and government had made it repeatedly clear these forces must not cross the agreed 'red line' north of these oil rich cities. Immediately, phone lines clogged with frantic traffic trying to calm generals, politicians and diplomats throughout the region.

The fact that the Kurds moved so quickly should have surprised no one, however. After decades of oppression at the hands of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime it was only natural that the Kurds would seek to liberate these areas. Kurdish fighters believe hey have earned this right through their resistance and the thousands that died fighting Saddam. Theirs is also the first and only example of any Iraqis liberating their own lands.

Given Turkey's own long-term conflict with Turkish Kurds seeking autonomy, many in the Turkish government and military are highly nervous that the Iraqi example of self-liberation may spread beyond Iraq's borders. Though not widely reported in the West, Turkish officials have been busy in recent days communicating with the Syrians and Iranians. Their common interests lie less with shared religion or politics than with their worries about Kurdish independence.

Military Suppression of the Kurds Would be Disastrous

While the US and Britain agree, for once, with Turkey, Iran and Syria, that no Kurdish state should be created as the result of Saddam's fall, they may in reality find they cannot continue to suppress the deep-rooted dream of Iraq's Kurds to enjoy freedom and autonomy. Military suppression of Kurdish nationalism by US soldiers would likely draw very negative press and public opinion in the West.

Of more immediate concern is the prospect of Turkish troops moving into Kurdish Iraq. This could prove both disastrous and futile, leading to years of chaos, guerilla war and further conflict not only between the Turks and Kurds, but between Turks, their Arab neighbors and the US.

The Americans have scrambled to calm frayed Turkish nerves by insisting that the Kurds will not remain in control of Mosul, Kirkuk or any lands to the south of them. The Kurds, however, insist that the region's wealth of oil now belongs to all Iraqis. To deny them a role in these areas would be difficult to justify as they have lived here for centuries and were suppressed by a brutal dictator for the past 24 years.

In recent days, Kurdish fighters have pulled thousands of their fighters out of Kirkuk and Mosul. Others remain however and the future looks uncertain. Hopefully, the cooler heads will prevail and Iraq's Kurds will not declare a fully independent state, knowing the opposition they will face from their neighbors. But that may well depend on their allies sharing in the oil wealth, rebuilding their towns and villages and providing fairer governance and real representation in a future Iraqi parliament.