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KurdistanObserver.com
So …. Just what does Turkey
want from Kurdistan?
By:
Mufid Abdulla
Jan 30, 2007
This
article was prompted by the reported information that there are plans afoot for
Turkey to invade Northern Iraq. Why? This is an enormous question. After all
Turkey has a long history of association and relations with Kurdistan. Turkey
has a massive 20%+ proportion of Kurds in their population census and yet Turkey
is reported to be building up their forces along the borders of Kurdistan.
Discourse
thus far has been the condemnation of Turkish threads to invade Southern
Kurdistan. Kurdistan, particularly the Kirkuk region, is oil-rich but so is
Turkey.
Dr Zaki
Fattah (KRG advisor) spoke recently about present and future perspectives of
trade and investment relations between Iraq and Turkey.
As I made
clear in my article: Turkish threats will not undermine the hopes of the Kurdish
People (12 January 2007): Turkey is suffering internal turmoil and political
unrest. The soon to be held elections are looming ever nearer. Perhaps this, an
attack to impose a supremacy over another state, is thought to be vote catching?
Their steps into becoming a member state of the European Union are dogged with
disagreements. Far from enhancing their reputation or standing in the global
theatre, they are rapidly moving down a road of alienation and not a new
regional leadership.
Their
attitude and disregard for the Kurdish nation has been well documented since
Ottoman times. It continues today although little press coverage is given to
it. Women and children are murdered in border skirmishes. Even as far back in
recent news items (Turkish Weekly), Evren Geger admitted that ‘The
Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is worried about the possibility of clashes between
Turkish and Kurdish nationalists that could result in bloodshed’: that was in
May 2005.
February 2005, saw an article in the Turkish Daily News by DOĞU
ERGİL, entitled
Rising Nationalism, in which he discussed the fact ‘that the
Turks had to learn
what it was to fight for the nation with the intention of establishing a
national state rather than fighting for the sultan, who owned the land, the
soldiers and intellectuals of the late Ottoman period conceived nationalism in
an imperial context.’
Nationalism was a latecomer to Ottoman
Turkish history. The empire could only keep itself intact if it adopted a
multi-national policy that allowed self-rule to dependent peoples, hence
nationalism had to be avoided.
He made
clear that though there were ‘very few joint projects between Turkey and Iraq’
the potential was certainly available. He outlined briefly the current
situation and defined the Kurdistan region in Iraq as occupying a small part of
this future with Turkey being involved in projects, including those of water,
agriculture, road building, housing, university building, schools, hospitals,
airports, telecommunications and oil and gas. However it is unclear in exactly
what way Turkey is involved in these projects. Furthermore I would question how
one face can be so fair and the other so dark? The trade continues and yet at
the same time the threats are made and preparations are being made to carry them
out!
What is
clear however is that the imports from Turkey are large and constant with the
observation that this was evident by the ‘long lines of (of trucks), on any day
of the week …stretching up to 25 Km. He further stated that it is the
government’s belief that this aspect of trade can still be further developed.
He also suggested that Turkey might be advised to be even more creative in their
proposed shared projects, investments and relationships: he further suggested
that the areas of student exchange, medical staff, and business staff was an
area as yet untapped.
So why,
when there is such an obvious and acknowledged traffic of trade and therefore,
presumably, a public face of goodwill between the two nations: is this to be put
at risk and extend the horrific problems presently being experienced in the rest
of Iraq?
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