The un-Iraqi Turkoman Front

By: Adil Al-Baghdadi

Brussels 9 February 2005

It is always worrying when Turkish military invoke figures of the number of Kurds who were driven en-mass from Kirkuk and its environs, as the haughty deputy chief of Turkish staff, Ilkur Basbug, did when he addressed the media recently.

There he said: “More Kurds than those left Kirkuk have returned to the city”. The immediate question that comes to mind in the run-up to Kirkuk’s municipal council elections in which deported Kirkuki Kurds will have the right to vote is “From where do Turkey gets its information and figures about who is from Kirkuk and who isn’t?” 

The answer is closer at home.

Every single day since the liberation of Iraq the so called Iraqi Turkoman Front has been putting out malicious reports aimed at stirring Turkish and Arab nationalist sentiments against Kurds. On its part, Turkey also kept up its attack on South Kurdistan in a striking synchronized timing.

One of the problems with this un-Iraqi Turkoman Front is that it tends to have a selective view of the history of Turkomans in Kirkuk and, to compound this, only a limited interest in Iraqi issues and more with Turkey’s regional desires.

Before the liberation two years ago, Turkey and its Trojan Horse, the un-Iraqi Turkoman Front, were predicting that Kurds would seek to divide Iraq and overrun Kirkuk by importing Kurds from elsewhere and that South Kurdistan would become a trouble spot.

Then, Turkey and its lackey began spreading lies about Turkomans being ill-treated and that Kurdish control of Kirkuk would lead to instability for the whole region, civil war and mayhem.

Naturally some chauvinist Arab writers joined in this cacophonous chorus and began repeating these Turkish lies and continued stirring hate against Kurds.

At the same time, high ranking Turkish official in the person of a foreign minister began whispering lies about an alleged presence of Israeli agents in South Kurdistan to journalists, including the renowned Seymour Hersh, who took the bait and published an article filled with inaccuracies made and packaged in Turkey.

These two pronged malicious attacks were aimed at ill-informed Arab audience and to entice anti-democratic forces as well as anti-Kurdish elements within Iraq and the Arab world.

Needless to say that none of these lies are true and the world has witnessed the orderly manner in which Kurdish political leadership has dealt with the newly liberated areas of Kurdistan such as Kirkuk and others.

The spiteful anti-Kurdish campaigns by Turkey is on the one side aimed at deflecting the world attention on its own despicable history in dealing with Kurds in North Kurdistan and the belligerent polices it has been pursuing for the past 80 years.

On the other, Turkey also aims to thwart any move by Kurds in South Kurdistan to reclaim areas and regions, which since the creation of Iraq have come under varying degrees of Arabization policy, which was intensified and aggressively pursued in the past four decades of Ba’thist rule.

All these ill-thought out foreign policies have proven counter-productive for Turkey as it is now looks very hopeless and bewildered seeing that all of her red lines are fast crumbling down.

Indeed, citing figures obtained from the un-Iraqi Turkoman Front is more an act of weakness than a menacing posture by a regional power.

Because the un-Iraqi Turkoman Front is not known for truthfulness and integrity especially when reciting historical facts let alone counting the number of its supporters or the total population of Turkomans and their presence in Kurdistan.

Relying on its spy ring, in the shape of the un-Iraqi Turkoman Front, Turkey has seriously dented its standing and sadly further marginalized the Turkomans and made her look more vulnerable.

This lack of vision and understanding by Turkey of the new dynamics, which are shaping the world in a better way this century - thanks to Bush’ freedom crusade - has also left her isolated and unsure of what foreign policy to pursue in face of rightful Kurdish gains.

Turkey and its lackey have completely misread the momentum generated from toppling Iraqi Ba’thist regime and the strength of Kurdish position in Kurdistan and within Iraqi politics.

This is why the clichéd anti-Kurdish tirades, which are frequently spewed out from many strands of Turkish government are no longer listened to by anyone, accept its creation, the un-Iraqi Turkoman Front.

This is the era of the Kurds that’s why Turkey has to wake up to this reality and change its ways.

Because without lifting a finger South Kurdistan with its historic and soon-to-be capital Kirkuk can cause a tsunami not only for Turkey but also for other remaining Kurd-hating states, namely Syria and Iran.